SEATTLE — Amid a collection of content creators bearing gifts like a baseball card of his brother and questions about his go-to karaoke song, Corey Seager is, to borrow the geographically correct sports-ism, just here so he won’t get fined.
Here is at a table, front and center of the AL All-Star media availability Monday. Somehow, of the 34 tables set up for AL All-Stars, the one assigned to Seager was on a platform raised above most of the others at a bottleneck in foot traffic that all but forced everybody to stop and linger at his station.
Listen, there is nowhere that Seager would rather be less than front and center. He’s not here to talk about his 1.026 OPS. He’s not here to joke about being dropped from second to fourth for the All-Star Game lineup in the lineup for Shohei Ohtani, who is only in the middle of maybe the greatest season ever.
He’s polite. But clearly uncomfortable.
What’s it like to be in Seattle, where your brother Kyle spent his entire career?
“An honor,” he said. “Familiar with the city, but very nice.”
What’s his brother doing now?
“Hay farming.”
Really? Like he goes out and does the manual labor?
“Well, it’s on a tractor, but yes, he does it himself.”
Here’s a baseball card gift for you; what do you think of him as a player?
“Well, he’s a brother first.”
Go to karaoke song?
“There definitely isn’t one.”
The crowd gets the hint. Pretty quickly, it’s thinning. This isn’t going anywhere. Maybe Ohtani will talk about possibly being traded. Or Julio Rodriguez will discuss the Home Run Derby. Or, hey, somebody can ask something about Elly de la Cruz. Seager doesn’t have much to say about himself or time for fun and games. Time to move on.
Then writer Andy McCullough of The Athletic, working on a biography of Clayton Kershaw, inquires if it would be OK to ask Seager about his former Dodger teammate.
“Please do,” Seager all but pleads.
Suddenly, out pours a different side of Corey Seager. It’s the teammate in him. He may be stoic on the field. He may never be the “face” of MLB, or even of the Rangers. But don’t mistake that stone-face demeanor for not being observant or invested.
“I just remember watching him throw up his hands at the end of the [2020] World Series,” Seager said. “That was pretty cool. That was kind of a realization of how hard it is to do, what he’s put into that team, what that team means to him and what he means to the team. He symbolizes that team. He was not just the ‘leader’ or ‘the face,’ but the actual leader. To watch him relish that was special.”
He launches into a story about being a rookie and watching Kershaw chase 300 strikeouts in his final start of the year in 2015 despite being on a limited pitch count. He remembers Kershaw being upset he’d only have four innings to work with to get nine strikeouts. Then he watched in amazement as he piled up 10.
“It’s like he said, ‘Fine, I’ll just do it anyway,’ ” Seager said.
He sounds almost reverential. And, after all, if you can’t be reverential about Kershaw, what’s the point, really?
But it raised another thought: Maybe the way to Corey Seager isn’t through him, but through his eyes for his teammates. He lives for baseball. So, we asked, would Seager be game to give us his scouting reports on his five Ranger All-Star teammates? For this, there was far more enthusiasm.
And for the next 10 minutes, right up until Seager was pulled off for some other All-Star appearance, he eloquently opened up on what he’s observed.
On Marcus Semien: “You have to go work ethic. The way he can show up to the field every day and go through his routine, make sure his body’s ready and when the day is over get right to recover, rinse and repeat. He’s around. He’s willing to help. He’s there to help you where he can. That’s a hard thing to do, to play every day, be so focused on being prepared and still extend that offer to help.”
On Josh Jung: “He’s never overwhelmed. He’s present. He’s learning. He doesn’t feel like he has it figured out. It’s almost like he’s too worried about not being present in the moment. It’s a hard dynamic to describe. To see where he’s grown in just a short time has been impressive.”
On Jonah Heim: “He’s a gigantic catcher to start with and that’s a very hard thing to do in general. And then to be able to do it almost every day and be good at it on both sides. It’s a lot of information to take in. A lot to worry about. The way he frames [pitches], calls a game and throws and still has time to do things well [offensively] all at a high level just speaks to the level of player he is.”
On Adolis García: “Adolis might be my favorite person in there. That’s a hard thing to admit. But I just love the human, the way he interacts with everybody. He will 100% lead a team. … I love emotion. I love when people show emotion. It’s just not who I am and how I am. My brothers pretty much beat that out of me, unfortunately. But the joy he plays with, that’s pretty cool.”
On Nathan Eovaldi: “I’ve only been around him a little, but more of what I’ve seen as a competitor on the other side stands out. I’ll never forget what he did in that extra-inning game [for Boston] in the World Series against us [LA Dodgers] in 2018. Just extra impressive. And when he came over here, it’s exactly what you expected on the teammate level. The effort, the work ethic, the dedication.”
And with that Seager was off. A photo. Something. Didn’t matter what. It was something where he could blend into the background.
Unless, that is, you want to talk about his teammates.
On Twitter: @Evan_P_Grant
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