Texas Rangers Not Using Injuries as Excuse

The Texas Rangers currently have All-Stars Corey Seager and Jonah Heim on the injured list.

While there’s never a good time for injuries, the Texas Rangers have to feel somewhat snakebit lately. All-Stars have been in and out of the lineup with the club in the midst of a pennant race.

The AL West-leading Rangers (60-44) are currently without shortstop Corey Seager and catcher Jonah Heim – two of the club’s offensive catalysts – who are on the injured list. Texas was listless at the plate in Friday night’s 7-1 loss at the San Diego Padres.

Seager and Heim have combined for 29 home runs and 128 RBI. That’s a lot of missing production.

“We’re not going to focus on injuries,” Rangers manager Bruce Bochy said. “There’s no point in it. We’ve got to keep pushing, next man up, that’s how we look at it. We’ve done a nice job all year dealing with the injuries and things like that, so that’s not the issue.”

Texas is 2-5 since a six-game winning streak coming out of the All-Star break.

The Rangers did weather the storm earlier this season with Seager out with an injured hamstring, going 19-12 during that absence. He is on the IL with a right thumb sprain and is eligible to be activated as soon as Tuesday. Texas is 2-4 without Seager this time around.

The situation with Heim is more serious. The backstop is likely to be out at least 2-3 weeks after feeling a “pop” in his left wrist Wednesday in the win over the Houston Astros. There’s a possibility that season-ending surgery is needed if Heim doesn’t show enough progress during rehab.

Ezequiel Duran is currently filling in at shortstop, with Mitch Garver and Sam Huff taking over the catching duties.

The Rangers were also without Adolis García for a couple games in the last week after the All-Star outfielder was hit by a pitch on the hand. Staff ace Nathan Eovaldi is experiencing elbow soreness and missing his second straight start Sunday at San Diego.

Before the possibility of losing Heim, the big blow for the Rangers was losing ace Jacob deGrom for the season and likely most of next year. Dane Dunning has stepped up admirably in deGrom’s place, but the club remains committed to adding pitching before Tuesday’s trade deadline.

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