ARLINGTON, Texas (AP) — Corey Seager was placed on the 10-day injured list again Tuesday by the Texas Rangers after the two-time World Series MVP shortstop had already missed four of their previous five games because of right hamstring soreness.
Seager is on the IL for the second time this season, with the latest move retroactive to Sunday. He had played in only five games since being activated May 3 after missing 10 games with a right hamstring strain. He homered twice Saturday at Detroit.
“Obviously it’s frustrating, but at the same time we know he’ll be back,” manager Bruce Bochy said, then acknowledging it could be longer than just a 10-day IL stint this time. “We’re going to make sure this thing is healed up. We don’t want him playing at 75, 80%.”
There was no immediate move for right-handed closer Luke Jackson, who was struck on his pitching hand by a 111-mph comebacker liner on the only pitch he threw after coming into the ninth inning of their 2-1 win over Colorado on Monday night.
Jackson still had some swelling Tuesday, but X-rays and a CT scan showed no broken bones. He was in the clubhouse squeezing a squishy stress ball in his right hand in an effort to help relieve what swelling remained on the top of his hand and the wrist area where the ball struck him.
Bochy said Jackson would be evaluated Wednesday.
“He could be ready four or five days, we think,” Bochy said. “If it doesn’t look like that’s happening, then we’ll make a move.”
The Rangers activated catcher Kyle Higashioka from the 10-day IL after he missed 12 games because of a mild left intercostal strain.
Seager, in the fourth season of his $325 million, 10-year contract with the Rangers, is hitting .300 with six homers and 12 RBIs in 26 games this season.
The five-time All-Star missed the end of last season after his second hernia surgery in less than eight months. That operation in September was a right sports hernia repair, on the opposite side of his abdomen from a procedure the previous January.
He dealt with the left hernia issue at the end of 2023, when he still hit .318 with six homers, 12 RBIs and 15 walks in 17 postseason games as the Rangers won their first World Series title. He was on the IL twice that season (left hamstring issue and right thumb sprain).
Ryan McMahon was leading off the ninth for Colorado in the series opener when his sharp liner struck Jackson's hand and popped up in the air before falling to the ground for an infield single.
Jackson, 0-3 with eight saves and a 5.54 ERA since signing with the Rangers as a free agent in February, said that had “to be the hardest ball” to ever hit him.
“The second it hit my hand. I didn’t know, like, how bad it was. You know, adrenaline,” he said. “Then my hand swelled up so fast I couldn’t even, like, think about holding the ball ... It wasn’t comfortable last night. But this morning I woke up, felt pretty good.”
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