Inside The Rangers

What Will It Take for Texas Rangers Superstar To Bring Home First Career MVP?

Texas Rangers shortstop Corey Seager is the best player on one of baseball's contending teams, but can he win his first regular-season MVP?

Ryan Reynolds

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The Texas Rangers are a year removed from winning their first World Series title in franchise history. That also happened to be star shortstop Corey Seager's best year, posting a 6.9 bWAR.

Seager slashed .327/.390/.623 with 33 home runs, 96 RBI and a 1.013 OPS in 2023. He also led the league with 42 doubles. That's pretty impressive production at the plate for a shortstop.


What you wouldn't expect about Seager's career year is that he only appeared in 119 games, resulting in just 477 at bats. That's down from his career high of 687 in his first full season back in 2016. Seager battled a hamstring injury two different times.

Speaking of Seager's 2016 with the Los Angeles Dodgers, that was one of three campaigns in which the shortstop finished with at least a 5.0 bWAR. The other camein 2017, also with the Dodgers.

The Rangers centerpiece will turn 31 years old in April, so there is plenty of time for him to produce at an elite level. He's put together two of the most productive seasons of his career, including his best, over the last two years. Factor in that he plays for a contending team, and Seager has a great foundation to make a run at the AL MVP.

Focusing on just the American League, Aaron Judge and Shohei Ohtani have collectively won each of the last four AL MVPs. They've also led the AL in WAR in each of those campaigns, ranging from Ohtani's 8.9 bWAR in 2021 to Judge's 10.8 bWAR last season.

Not counting the Covid-shortened 2020 season, you have to go back to 2019 for an AL MVP to have not led the league in bWAR. Mike Trout won the AL MVP that year, just edging out former Houston Astros third baseman Alex Bregman, who led the AL with an 8.9 bWAR. Trout finished with a 7.9 bWAR, while playing for the 72-90 Los Angeles Angels. The Astros won the AL West that year, behind a Major League-best 107-55 record.

To figure out what Seager needs to do in order to win his first MVP, the 2019 race is more important to analyze than the last four. Judge and Ohtani were more or less slam dunks, though Seager finshed second to Ohtani in 2023.

Judge had two monster years for Yankees teams that won 94 and 99 games. Ohtani played for sub-.500 Angels squads, just like Trout. A full throttle Ohtani is also the most unique baseball player since at least World War II. When he's pitching and hitting, he can't really be compared to anyone short of Babe Ruth.

Going back to the 2019 MVP, it was a close vote that Trout won 355 to 335 over Bregman. Voters appeared to lean into Trout's mildly better offensive production and, potentially, positional value defensively. Trout also has the greater legacy, as he's one of the top players of this century. Voters submit their ballots before the postseason, which means that news of the Astros sign-stealing scandal broke after MVP ballots were placed in 2019.

Even if we use Trout's 7.9 bWAR as a recent baseline in the most important MVP stat, Seager has not gotten all that close to that mark. However, if he didn't miss over 40 games in 2023 and he maintained his overall pace, he would have pushed past 8.0 bWAR. He still wouldn't be in the Judge and Ohtani stratosphere, but Seager's 2023 could compete with Trout and a few other MVP seasons this century.

Ultimately, not only does Seager need to perform at the same rate he did in 2023, but he may need a down year from Judge for the Rangers shortstop to win his first MVP.

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Ryan Reynolds
RYAN REYNOLDS

Ryan Reynolds has worked in sports media since 2019, where he’s primarily covered the NFL. He got his start writing for Evan Silva and Adam Levitan’s Establish the Run where Ryan became an authority on NFL awards markets. Ryan recently served as an Associate Director and content headliner for former NFL executives Joe Banner and Mike Tannenbaum at The 33rd Team. Ryan has also made multiple guest appearances on Fantasy Sports Radio on SiriusXM and VSiN. Outside of sports Ryan has a bachelor’s degree in accounting, graduating with honors from the University of Minnesota. He now has nearly a decade’s worth of experience in management. You can find Ryan on X @RyanReynoldsNFL or email him at RyanReynoldsNFL@gmail.com.

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