Corey Seager will be a Ranger in 2026, despite Yankee and Dodger fans' trade dreams

It's been a wild 24 hours for Texas Rangers fan on social media after finding a nearly month old report from Dallas based reporter Evan Grant, got twisted and spun across the baseball world and prompted floods of responses regarding which jersey Corey Seager will wear next season.

Now, by simply Googling Corey Segaer, dozens of articles pop up ranging from "Corey Seager linked to Yankees", "Corey Seager's top landing spots..." and 'Mets should make strong push to trade for Corey Seager."

None of that matters though because Seager isn't leaving Arlington anytime soon.

Seager's conflated trade rumors hold no ground

While I can see why a rumor like this could gain ground. The Rangers front office and ownership have been on record countless times the last few offseasons, including this year, mentioning the constant lowering of payroll.

It's no different in 2025 as the Rangers are reportedly looking to go near the $200 million mark, a number they haven't been below since prior Seager joined the organization in 2022. With that news sparks rumors and questions to how they are planning to do so. Naturally, a player that is owed $32 million over the next six seasons make that list.

The issue is that social media and several media outlets have latched on to a column written on November 3 by the Grant, the Rangers Dallas Morning News reporter, about his projections and hypotheticals of roster cuts this offseason. At no point did Grant ever mention the Rangers being open to shopping the 31-year-old multi-World Series MVP winner.

Grant even had to clarify on X this week that he didn't say that. Instead Grant "suggested they could have to explore possibility of moving a big contract if cuts take payroll below $200 million". Those big contracts include the likes of Jacob deGrom, Nathan Eovaldi, Marcus Semien and Seager.

The Rangers have started to cut that payroll by getting tens of million dollars off and most recently non-tendered Adolis Garcia, Jonah Heim, Josh Sborz and Jacob Webb. All of whom were projected to make a total of nearly $20 million in 2026.

It still hasn't stopped the parade of rumors and of course they are coming mostly from fans of the Los Angeles Dodgers and New York Yankees. Yankee fans are still upset their franchise passed over Seager five years ago in favor of Anthony Volpe and the Dodgers are nostalgic about bringing their former NL Rookie of the Year back to Chavez Ravine.

Seager means more to the Rangers, even in the middle of lowering payroll

With five years remaining on Seager's massive 10-year, $325 million deal, and for what the shortstop has accomplished thus far in his tenure with Texas, it's hard to see why they would ever get rid of him.

In four seasons with the Rangers, Seager is slashing .278/.355/.517 with a .872 OPS, 117 home runs, 303 RBIs, 106 doubles and a 22.1 WAR. He's also been an All-Star in three of those seasons, finished second place in the 2023 AL MVP voting, won a Silver Slugger and was a recent AL SS Gold Glove finalists.

His legendary 2023 season is synonymous with one of the most impactful individual seasons in Rangers' franchise history and his Game One World Series game-tying home run was the shot heard around the world.

I can't imagine a world where Seager is traded from Texas. Even Rangers General Manager Ross Fenstermaker went on record during Major League Baseball's Winter Meetings and confirmed as much as that.

Let's address a hypothetical though. Say Texas is looking to shed payroll, it would be centered around getting rid of either deGrom, Eovalid or Semien. Not the shortstop with a pedigree of clutch performances and whose value is skyrocketed when he's on the field playing for your team.