March 14: Seager will miss 10 to 12 weeks following the procedure, general manager Jerry Dipoto told reporters (link via Johns). He won’t swing a bat for the next eight weeks and isn’t likely to return to the field before June.
March 11: Mariners third baseman Kyle Seager is slated to undergo surgery to repair an injured tendon in his left hand, MLB.com’s Greg Johns was among those to report (Twitter links). He’s expected to be sidelined for all of April, at least, with a precise timeline as yet unknown.
Seager had been preparing for what he hoped to be a bounceback season at the plate. Now, the 31-year-old will need to overcome a physical obstacle before he has a chance to show that his forgettable 2018 season was just a down year.
Durability has never been an issue for Seager, who has never been placed on the disabled list during his eight-year MLB career. He will be among the first players to go on the newly-dubbed injured list, however, and will therefore fall shy of 154 games played for the first time since his first full season in the majors back in 2012.
Seager had also always been an above-average big league hitter until running into trouble last year. He ended the season with an ugly .221/.273/.400 slash and 22 home runs in 630 plate appearances — a far cry from the .263/.332/.447 line he carried entering the season.
There were some indications that poor fortune played a role in that decline. Seager carried a career-low .251 BABIP despite what Statcast categorized as a 39.6% hard contact rate. His .288 wOBA lagged his .306 xwOBA, though that still fell well shy of his prior levels.
Worryingly, Seager also saw changes in his plate discipline. He struck out at a career-high 21.9% rate while walking at a career-low 6.0% clip. On the bright side, Seager’s power was down from his prior four seasons, though his .178 isolated power mark wasn’t too far off of his .183 career rate.
There were also mixed signals defensively. Seager continued to receive quality grades from Ultimate Zone Rating for his glovework. The opposite was true of the Defensive Runs Saved system, which has swung wildly and not seen eye to eye with UZR on Seager over the years.
Ryon Healy will step in at the hot corner for the meantime, per skipper Scott Servais (also via Johns, on Twitter). Missing out on a month or more of Seager’s contributions represents less-than-promising news for the M’s, though the club has already made clear it doesn’t expect to push for a postseason spot this year. With $56MM committed to Seager over the next three seasons, the Seattle organization will be concerned mostly with his ability to regain his form with the bat once he is back at full health.
Well, he misses April every season, but his injury is indeed unfortunate.
…….even though he plays every game.
And you haven’t watched Mariner baseball the last 6 years…
Being nice to a divisional rival twice in an evening is a stretch but Kyle Seager is a proper professional. His dislike of April is well noted but the fact that he averaged a mere 157 games a season at 3B suggests his approach has merit.
According to his twitter feed his days off last season involved gator wrestling, shark baiting, sky diving, base jumping and knit one pearl one (each activity taken twice daily) in order to say in tip-top shape.
I have. He has missed no games in April. Hes averaged 157 games a season the last 6 years. Watch some baseball man.
You don’t at all understand the joke, which in turn is funnier than the joke itself.
I’ll step in and solve this equation. Yes he plays every game but he might as well not because he puts up horrible numbers in April (the beginning) of each season.
To sum it up, physically he plays every game, but based on results, he doesn’t.
I am here all week folks.
Winner winner chicken dinner.
Your “joke” wasn’t funny. Don’t you get that? Maybe please stop trying so hard.
Just because you didn’t like the joke, it does not mean nobody else did lol.
scrapyourcomments
Scrap’s comment is the only real reason I miss downvotes.
I liked it.
I thought it was funny
This is a waste of time
He’s missed 32 games since opening day, 2012.
Have the Mariners only played 32 games in April over the last 7 seasons? Talk about an imbalanced schedule…
it’s why they keep missing the playoffs, they only play 4 or 5 games in April
Only Mariner fans will understand.
Exactly
And sometimes people are too close to the Mariners and see things that are not there.
OPSs in April for Seagar 742
OPS in Aug 721
OPS in Sept 735
Lifetime OPS 765.
Seagar is who Seagar is.
It’s just a joke, you all don’t have to take it so literally.
Seagar? Who’s that? Is that the nickname for Edgar Martinez and Kyle Seager?
Zinger!
If you were a Mariners fan you’d know Seager performs horribly in April. Usually always catches fire July-September. But yes throw all the stats of how many games he missed. That was not the point
I honestly lold
Underrated haha
dammit Kyle, stop playing so hard… and stop running with your hands!!!
Good work.
wonder if this opens a spot for D. Vogelbach to start at 1B or DH now. Him and Edwin are horrible with the glove but V has nothing left to prove in the PCL
Vogelbach would have to make the team or be DFA’d no matter what happened to Seager. He’s out of options. Probably saved Healy from being sent down since he does have options.
No, it doesn’t open a spot for Vogelbach…Dipoto already stated he was making the team. This injury keeps Healy from being optioned to Tacoma, at least initially.
Can we please stop with the Vogelbach experiment? Jerry you lost in the deal he sucks time to move on.
Let hope not time to move on from Dan
cut him
****Injured List
The Seager boys are having a rough go of it lately.
Especially Justin. Poor guy was just never quite the ballplayer his brothers were. I don’t know where he is at this stage in his life, but I can figure he’s finished off college and entering the next stage in his life.
Oooh boy, the M’s are in for a rare treat seeing Ryon Healy play 3B.
Ryon Healy’s range at 3B…..lol
Cue image of Healy flipping pancakes near 3B
Seattle was playing the Cubs on MLB NETWORK. At first the announcers mention a jammed finger. Guess not.
Healy at 3B makes Edgar Martinez looks like Brooks Robinson in comparison.
Edgar Martinez was a decent defensive third baseman:
link to youtube.com
That’s why he was primarily a designated hitter.
He was primarily a DH because he was a glass cannon. Even while DHing, he’d frequently get banged up. His last ever start at 3B (1996) resulted in him and catcher, John Marzano, colliding on a pop up and both going on the DL.
I’m thinking Seager probably won’t be back until the All Star break
TFW when you get rid of Ryon Healy cause he no longer had 3B eligibility entering the 2019 season….
JayZwhoops.gif
Only 3 more years until he’s gone. Can’t believe he makes close to $20MM. Sorry to hear about the injury.
Steamer600, which assumes 600 plate appearances for each hitter, projected Kyle Seager with a 2019 WAR of 2.6, which last year was valued at just under $21 million. Seager has averaged 663 plate appearances per year over the past seven seasons.
The injury is likely to prevent Seager from earning his $19.5 million salary this year.
The Mariners really don’t matter anyway.