KANSAS CITY, Mo. – No player in the Rangers clubhouse is more qualified to speak on championship mettle than Corey Seager. For the resumé, he brings seven postseason berths, three World Series appearances and a pair of trophies. Was the World Series MVP twice.
As the Rangers’ best (and highest-paid) position player, he probably should speak first on the subject anyhow. Whether you want to deem him the team leader or not is up to you. Of what goes on behind closed doors, Seager is determined not to divulge secrets.
But, he said Wednesday, while there’s been some personnel changes over the two years since the Rangers won the World Series and he dropped the microphone at the celebratory parade, nothing has changed regarding the collective personality or the atmosphere around the team. The Rangers haven’t performed. No excuses. But no need to look any deeper.
“There are some different people, obviously and everybody has their own personality,” Seager told the Dallas Morning News. “But in a sense of how we get along and how we interact, nothing has changed [from 2023].
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“There is no [lack of urgency]. I think this team comes to the field every day expecting and wanting to win, and doing everything we can to win. We haven’t. There’s no way around the fact that we haven’t performed. In the sense of being ready and wanting to get out there and wanting to compete, we have that.”
It’s a comment that’s been echoed by veterans and younger players alike. No the Rangers haven’t won. Nor has the clubhouse dynamic changed significantly.
Terms like “chemistry,” “energy” or the lack of either is mostly perception. When the Rangers were successful in 2023, the narrative was mostly that they were “all business.” Didn’t show too much emotion one way or another. Mostly stoic. Like Seager. Whether a player acknowledges his leadership role or not is mostly moot; when all eyes in the clubhouse are on the best player and when the team takes on a personality not dissimilar to his own, he’s the leader.
Seager leads mostly with his bat. And the Rangers mostly follow. Over his four seasons with the Rangers, they win at 54.7% clip when he gets a hit. That’s an 88-win pace. When he doesn’t get a hit or doesn’t play, they win about 30% of the time. The Rangers may follow Seager’s lead, but they can’t replicate his performance.
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That’s been even more painfully clear this year. The Rangers were 37-23 when Seager gets a hit and a disaster when he doesn’t. Didn’t get many hits early in August which coincided with the team’s biggest skid of the season. He began Wednesday with a slash line of .264/.365/.470/.835. The rest of the team: .230/.295/.369/.664.
Seager’s style is different. How much time he spends alone working on his swing with a private hitting instructor is well-documented. It takes him out of the clubhouse for long periods, particularly when it is open to the media. He doesn’t do much pre-game on-field work. It is easy to draw a conclusion that Seager is an absentee in the leadership department. It would also likely be false. While Seager’s not a big believer in team meetings and the performative aspects of the role, he performs at game time.
“Obviously, I want to come out here and be the best I can,” he said. “And obviously when we’re in down times like this, you want to try and be even better, try to find a big moment. But it’s just not realistic. It’s not baseball. What we have to do is come together and keep the good at-bats together. I feel like we’ve done that at times and I feel like everybody wants to be in that situation and they are prepared.”
But it’s just not happening.
For Seager, it means sticking to the routine and the process. Would a post-game players only meeting draw headlines and attention? Sure. But is that the purpose? Or is the purpose to get the most out of players? And if, so, would a mass airing of grievances essentially to challenge a couple of underperformers in front of their peers be the means to success.
“You have conversations with people and you talk to people about certain things and how in a nutshell, this team’s been here before,” Seager said, speaking completely hypothetically (sarcasm intended). “Most of the players have been here before and they know how to win and what it takes to win and they are doing everything they can to replicate what they’ve done in the past. Unfortunately at the moment, it’s not happening.
“I think what every teammate wants is to get the best out of everybody. And my personal take on that is you have to let people be themselves. I need you to be who you are, to be the best version of that. Keep it within your realm, your box. I think that’s the only way you are going to be ready to be the best version at 7 o’clock.”
And, also, if he says it to somebody – or some bodies – nobody outside the conversation is ever going to know.
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