Rangers' Seager played second half with elbow bone spur; surgery possible

Chris Young says the shortstop dealt with a bone spur for a couple of months, and Texas is still weighing whether minor surgery is needed.

Texas Rangers shortstop Corey Seager played the second half of the season with a bone spur in his elbow, president of baseball operations Chris Young said Monday. Young said the condition had bothered Seager for a couple of months, and the club has not yet settled on a course of treatment. Surgery is one possibility, though Young indicated any operation would be minor and followed by a full recovery.

Seager, 32, has reached the midpoint of the 10-year, $325 million contract he signed with Texas, having just completed his fifth season under the deal. Limited to 102 games, he batted .227, the lowest average of his career. The two-time World Series MVP missed 54 games across three injured-list stints: two for lower back inflammation and a 12-game absence in June after a concussion suffered in a collision with Kansas City catcher Carter Jensen at the plate. The elbow ailment had not been mentioned publicly before Young's comments Monday.

Seager closed the year on a positive note, connecting for a two-run homer in the ninth inning Sunday in his final at-bat. The blast gave him a fifth consecutive 20-homer season, the seventh of his career, to go with 51 RBIs. It marked the second straight season of exactly 102 games for Seager, who has averaged slightly more than 111 games a year over the past four seasons after playing 151 in his 2022 debut with the Rangers.

Turning to Jacob deGrom, Young said the 38-year-old right-hander requires nothing beyond rest after dealing with groin tightness over the final weeks of the season as well as left hip soreness. The two-time Cy Young Award winner finished 11-11 with a 4.20 ERA, the worst of his career. In his final start Friday night at Minnesota, he equaled a career high by surrendering eight earned runs — the same total he gave up exactly a month earlier at the Chicago White Sox.

Young said that final line did not reflect how deGrom was throwing, noting the right-hander's last pitch Friday registered 98 mph. He conceded fatigue had set in by deGrom's 31st start of the season but stressed that the pitcher "gave us everything he had" and that several of his outings were central to Texas staying in the race.

One of those outings came Sept. 10 at Seattle, where groin tightness forced deGrom from the game after six scoreless innings. Texas was ahead 3-0 when he departed and lost 4-3.

The Rangers finished 80-82, a third straight season without a winning record and a third straight year out of the playoffs since capturing the only World Series championship in franchise history in 2023. Texas entered the final day still alive in the AL West but fell 6-4 at Minnesota on Sunday. Even a victory would not have extended the season: it would have left the Rangers at 81-81 for a second consecutive year, while Houston (81-81) beat the Athletics in its finale and held the head-to-head tiebreaker.

Young also addressed two other injuries. Third baseman Josh Jung is being evaluated for a broken right hand suffered when he was hit by a pitch Friday night in Minnesota, with both surgical and non-surgical paths under consideration. Catcher Danny Jansen may undergo what Young called a "small hand procedure," though he characterized it as far from a major concern.

Jung produced a .299 average, 12 home runs, 42 RBIs and an .827 OPS over 104 games. A left calf strain sidelined him for all of August, and he hit .341 (15 for 44) in the 12 games after he came back.