Texas Rangers shortstop Corey Seager, last year’s World Series Most Valuable Player for the reigning Major League Baseball champions, underwent surgery on Tuesday to repair a left sports hernia.
The reigning champion Rangers still think there’s a chance Seager could be ready to play by the Texas season-opener on March 28 at home against the Chicago Cubs, Rangers general manager Chris Young said.
Seager, who had the operation in Phoenix and will recuperate in Arizona, suffered the injury late last season and tried to heal with rest before selecting surgery.
“The original thought was that with rest, it would hopefully subside over the course of the off-season,” Young said.
“But in the winter, it became clear that there were going to be two options — continue to manage it and hope it doesn’t get worse or to just proceed and fix it now. And he decided along with our medical staff that the most prudent course of action was to fix it now.”
Seager battled through the injury in last year’s playoffs, batting .318 with six home runs, six doubles and 12 runs batted in over 17 games as the Rangers captured their first MLB crown.
Seager, who also was the 2020 World Series Most Valuable Player when he sparked the Los Angeles Dodgers to the MLB title, was second behind Japanese star Shohei Ohtani in last year’s American League MVP voting.
The 29-year-old American slugger batted .327 with 33 homers and 96 runs batted in for Texas last year.
