Los Angeles Dodgers: Three Dodgers who will vastly improve in 2020
By Jason Reed
1. Corey Seager
I am a massive Corey Seager fan, so I am openly biased, but it was extremely disheartening to see so many Dodger fans wish for the team to trade Seager after his poor performance in the NLDS. Don’t get me wrong, Seager was terrible in the NLDS, but the overreactions on his “lack of talent” was staggering.
That directly led to Francisco Lindor trade rumors. And while I will admit that Lindor is the better player, it is a lot closer than you think. Seager is still a top-five shortstop in MLB and even ranks fourth in WAR since his rookie season despite missing almost an entire season.
2019 was considered a down year for Seager and for most other shortstops in the league it would be a fantastic year. Seager hit .272 with 19 home runs, 87 RBIs and a .817 OPS. He was tied with Anthony Rendon for the league-lead in doubles while also scoring 82 runs.
Imagine that being your down year. People undervalued the impact of not playing for an entire season as well. For an entire year, Seager could not even get in there and see MLB pitching. In a game where the difference of a hundredth of a second is massive, you can only imagine the kind of impact that could have.
The fact of the matter is that Seager is still an MVP-caliber player and he was even an MVP finalist in his rookie season. I expect Seager to hit .300 this season with 25 home runs, 100 RBIs and for the first time in his career, an OPS over .900.