SEATTLE — Corey Seager’s season is officially done.
He will spend a second consecutive offseason recovering from a sports hernia. The difference: This time he will not wait for the injury to heal on his own. Seager will undergo surgery to repair a hernia on the right side of his groin, the side opposite the one on which he had surgery in January. It should give Seager plenty of time to rehab post-op and be fully ready to go when the Rangers report to spring training in February.
Seager dealt with a sports hernia over the latter stages of the 2023 season, then played through the postseason with it. He tried to rest the injury last offseason, but it did not sufficiently progress and he underwent surgery on Jan. 30 in Arizona to repair the injury on the left side of the groin. He then spent most of spring training rehabbing it and did not take an at-bat in a game until the second-to-last day in Surprise. Dr. Venkata Evani, who performed that surgery in January, saw Seager this week in Phoenix. Dr. Evani is expected to perform the procedure again this time.
Seager, 30, has been on the IL since Sept. 4. He hit his 30th homer of the season on Aug. 29 at Chicago, giving him three consecutive 30-homer seasons since joining the Rangers. For the year, he played in 123 games, 113 at shortstop. Seager has been limited to fewer than 125 games in each of the last two seasons. In 2023, he dealt with a hamstring strain that cost him a month and a thumb sprain that cost him 10 days.
In Seager’s absence, the Rangers have primarily used infielder Josh Smith at short, though both Jonathan Ornelas and Ezequiel Duran have each received starts. Smith, however, may be running on fumes. He’s already taken 525 plate appearances, more than the total from his first two seasons in the majors combined and there has been a significant drop in his offensive production late in the season. He began the Seattle series slashing just .224/.274/.304/.578 since Aug. 1.
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