Corey Seager, who was just activated off the injured list ten days ago after spending a few weeks on the injured list with back spasms, has not played since Thursday’s series finale in Kansas City. He has been listed as day-to-day since then due to being generally sore and banged up after a collision at home plate with Royals catcher Carter Jensen on Thursday, though, per the beats, the team is now saying he is dealing with “concussion-like” symptoms as a result of the collision.
Here’s the collision
between Seager and Jensen, for those of you who are curious:
The magic phrase “concussion-like symptoms” could be an indicator that the Rangers are consider the seven day concussion injured list as an option for Seager. That would mean that Seager would miss the three games against Minnesota this week, but would be eligible to be activated on Friday, when the Rangers start a series against the Padres. If he went on the 10 day injured list, on the other hand, the soonest that he could be activated would be on Monday, when the Rangers start a series in Miami. Under either scenario, he’d have to be played on the injured list today to be eligible to return on those dates, since i.l. moves can only be retroactive for up to three days.
If the Rangers were to place Seager on the injured list, he’d have to be replaced by a position player, since the Rangers are already carrying the maximum 13 pitchers allowed on the 26 man active roster. The only healthy position player on the 40 man roster who is not in the majors currently is Blaine Crim, though Crim, as a righthanded hitting 1B/DH, doesn’t necessarily make for the greatest of fits with the current needs on the active roster.
The more likely option would seem to be Josh Smith, who was placed on the injured list in early May due to a glute strain, then was hospitalized with a case of viral meningitis. Smith started a rehab assignment with Frisco on June 7, playing in both games of a doubleheader for the Roughriders, and continued that assignment by playing in all six of the Round Rock games this past week. Skip Schumaker on Friday said that Smith would need a little more time than usual on his rehab stint due to the fact that he was coming back from a hospitalization for an illness rather than your usual injury, but after three more rehab games, one would think that Smith would be ready to be activated, particularly if Seager needs a trip to the i.l.
Smith may end up activated today even if Seager doesn’t go on the injured list, and at some point, the Rangers will have to decide who will go down, whether upon Smith being activated if Seager doesn’t head to the i.l., or once Seager is activated if there is an injured list trip. The Rangers only have three true outfielders on their active roster currently, in Wyatt Langford, Brandon Nimmo and Alejandro Osuna, though Duran, Cody Freeman and Josh Smith are all infielders who can also play the outfield. Osuna came up with Michael Helman landed on the injured list with a broken hand, and would seem to be the odd man out when Evan Carter returns (hopefully next week), so Osuna could get sent down now, with some combo of Freeman, Duran and Smith handling left field in the meantime.
Alternatively, either Freeman or Nicky Lopez could be squeezed out. Lopez would seem to be superfluous once Smith returns, as a lefthanded hitting utility infielder, but then, Cody Freeman would seem to be superfluous with Duran here. Freeman can be optioned, while Lopez would have to be put on waivers, so sending Freeman down would correspond with the rule of maximizing your roster flexibility and capacity, but on the other hand, Nicky Lopez is Nicky Lopez, so I’m not sure how much that would matter.
