Thursday newsletter time: Corey Seager comes off IL, makes immediate impact

Jeff Wilson August 3, 2023

(AP photo/Tony Gutierrez)

Corey Seager was never particularly concerned about his sprained right thumb, saying he wasn’t going to miss any more than two weeks after injuring it last month against his former team.

He didn’t even miss that much time.

The Rangers activated Seager before Wednesday’s game, and he picked up where he left off. Seager connected for a two-run homer in his first at-bat. He then delivered an RBI single in his next at-bat as the floodgates opened against White Sox ace Dylan Cease.

“At this point, it’s kind of a pain-tolerance thing,” Seager said. “You never want to be on the IL. As soon as I was able and they were willing to let me go, I wanted to be out there.”

For the second time this season he came off the injured list with very little ramp up and delivered as if he hadn’t missed any time at all.

“Luck,” he said.

Seager had help as Marcus Semien and Josh Jung each homered and drove in three runs and as Sam Huff collected three hits. Things went pretty well on the mound, too. More on that below.

Manager Bruce Bochy said on Tuesday that Seager was doing better than expected and doing some baseball activities but gave no indication that he was a day away from coming off the injured list.

“I don’t know what to say about Corey,” Bochy said. “He’s just amazing.”

Dunning shines

Bochy suggested Tuesday night that the addition of Max Scherzer and Jordan Montgomery to the rotation would create some competition among the other starters, particularly those who are candidates to lose their rotation spots.

Andrew Heaney responded Tuesday with six scoreless innings. Dane Dunning was an out away from eight scoreless innings Wednesday, and he struck out a career-high 11.

“He had everything working,” Bochy said. “He just really pitched a beautiful game.”

Of the three apparent candidates for the bullpen, Dunning (9-4, 3.14 ERA) has been better than Heaney and Martin Perez. A potential problem for Dunning is that he pitched very well out of the bullpen to start the season and the Rangers might be more comfortable putting him out there than Heaney and Perez, who have been starters most of their careers.

“You acquire two starters, competition is a good thing,” Bochy said. “I’m sure that might have been a motivation.”

Rangers on the Grid

It’s always a good day when the Rangers are on the Immaculate Grid, as they were Tuesday.

Remember: The goal here is to guess the most obscure player for each grid. Who I went with is pictured.

Through the magic of having multiple devices, I was able to play the game a second time so that I could find out if good guy Jason Frasor was more obscure than general manager Chris Young. The answer is yes.

Young, at the time I played, was guessed by 3 percent of players. He made his MLB debut with the Rangers in 2004 and won a World Series with the Royals in 2015.

I was also surprised that Hank Blalock, while still an obscure answer at 2 percent, was guessed by more folks than Vladimir Guerrero, who is in the Hall of Fame and was part of the Rangers’ first World Series team.

Tomas Telis was involved in the Sam Dyson trade in 2015. Dyson, in my second go-round, was only slightly less obscure at 0.9 percent.

Carlos Santana and Nelson Cruz, by the way, are usually a safe guess. Players from the 1950s and ’60s usually aren’t heavily guessed.

ICYMI …

This has been pretty good stuff the past few days between the Rangers and the Astros. The Rangers get Max Scherzer, the Astros get Justin Verlander. Andrew Heaney and Dane Dunning strike out 11 in back-to-back starts, Framber Valdez throws a no-hitter. Yordan Alvarez and Jose Altuve return, Seager returns. Rangers Today has covered the Rangers’ side of things. Here’s our latest news content, in case you missed it.

Max wants to win

The trade details

The St. Louis haul