ARLINGTON, Texas (AP) — Texas Rangers shortstop Corey Seager played with a bone spur in his elbow during the second half of the season.
Chris Young, the team's president of baseball operations, said Monday that Seager had the issue for a couple of months. Young said the Rangers still need to determine the best course of action, and surgery is a possibility.
If Seager does have surgery, Young said "it'll be minor and he should make a full recovery.”
As for two-time Cy Young Award winner Jacob deGrom, who dealt with groin tightness over the last few weeks of the season and also had left hip soreness, Young said the 38-year-old right-hander just needs rest and recovery.
DeGrom (11-11) finished with a career-worst 4.20 ERA. He matched a career high by allowing eight earned runs in his final start Friday night in a loss at Minnesota, exactly a month after he did the same at the Chicago White Sox.
“Finished the season, his stuff was still really good. I think his last pitch Friday night was 98 miles an hour. The ball was coming out great,” Young said. “There’s no doubt he was fatigued. I mean, it was 31 starts into a season. He gave us everything he had. ... I know the (last) game didn’t go well, but we also wouldn’t have been there without some of the performances Jacob gave us over the course of the season.”
Such as when deGrom exited his start at Seattle on Sept. 10 after six scoreless innings because of groin tightness. The Rangers led 3-0 after his last pitch, and lost 4-3.
Seager, who is 32 and just finished the fifth season of his $325 million, 10-year deal with the Rangers, hit a career-low .227 while limited to 102 games.
The two-time World Series MVP missed 54 games while on the injured list three times, twice for lower back inflammation and 12 games in June because of a concussion after a home-plate collision with Kansas City catcher Carter Jensen. Before Monday, there had been no mention of an elbow issue.
The Rangers (80-82) have missed the playoffs in all three seasons since winning their only World Series title in 2023.
They went into the final day this year still with a chance to win the AL West, but lost 6-4 at Minnesota on Sunday. A win would have gotten Texas to 81-81 for the second year in a row, but that wouldn't have mattered in the playoff race because Houston (81-81) won its regular-season finale against the Athletics and held the head-to-head tiebreaker.
In other injury updates, Young said the Rangers are still sorting through whether third baseman Josh Jung (broken right hand) will have surgery while saying there is also a non-surgical route for his recovery. Young said catcher Danny Jansen could have a “small hand procedure,” but that it wouldn't be a major issue.
Jung batted .299 with 12 homers, 42 RBIs and an .827 OPS in 104 games this season. He also missed all of August with a left calf strain, but batted .341 (15 for 44) in 12 games after coming back from that until getting hit by a pitch Friday night in Minnesota.
Seager did get his fifth 20-homer season in a row, and seventh of his career, when he hit a two-run homer in the ninth inning Sunday in his final at-bat. He also had 51 RBIs.
It was the second year in a row that Seager played only 102 games. He has averaged just over 111 games per season the past four years since playing 151 in his debut with the Rangers in 2022.
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