“Frustrating,” Seager said Thursday evening when asked to characterize his last six weeks, “is the right word.”
He was activated from the concussion injured list before Thursday’s 6-5 win against the Toronto Blue Jays at the Rogers Centre and played his first game after a tedious ramp up that included a bevy of daily tests, consultations from league doctors and “vision problems and motion sickness” while he navigated a category of concussion that he said called for “stimulation.”
“I learned honestly way too much about concussions unfortunately,” Seager said. “In the beginning, I was trying to avoid symptoms, because that’s the stock thing, right? Once we kind of figured out that this was the category I was in, you almost look for them, and you basically try and get through them. You retrain your eyes and inner ear to work together. It’s literally where I was at. It was something.”
The Rangers are expected to manage Seager’s workload for the foreseeable future. Seager didn’t start Friday’s game against the Blue Jays, but per Rangers manager Skip Schumaker, is scheduled to start the final two games of the series. He could be given a day off for every two that he plays — or potentially an even one-to-one split — until the team’s July 3 off day before further evaluation.
“He feels good,” Schumaker said before Friday’s game. “He checked out last night, checked out this morning, which is good news. We fully anticipate him being ready to go the rest of the series.”
The goal — as it was when the team discussed how to fit off days into his schedule before both injuries — is to ensure that the 32-year-old is available for the remainder of the year. The Rangers are 138-135 when Seager plays in the last two-plus seasons. That equates to a .505% win percentage which, in the muddled down American League West, would lead their division this season. They are 60-72 when he doesn’t, equal to a .455 win percentage, and their offense dips without him. The Rangers averaged more runs (4.25 to 4.03) and were generally more productive (a .697 OPS to a .674 OPS) in that span when the five-time All-Star suited up.
Seager walked twice and scored once in Thursday’s win, and despite the fact that his .654 OPS sticks out compared to career averages, he was thrown few hittable pitches. He batted third in the order behind center fielder Wyatt Langford (who hit a three-run home run) and ahead of right fielder Brandon Nimmo (who has a .916 OPS in the last two-plus weeks) in his first game back.
“Corey in the lineup lengthened the lineup,” Schumaker said. “It just makes the lineup so different because there’s a couple guys that you can circle now, and try not to [let] beat you, but the other guys can still beat you.”
That’s a welcome change for Seager, the one who’s taken the lion’s share of beatings lately, and the lineup that needs him.
“Yeah, not great, it’s something you would definitely like to avoid,” Seager said. “It is what it is, I’m just glad to be back and, hopefully, just kind of move on.”