Rangers Injury Update: Concerning Corey Seager news, Josh Smith returns

Well, it didn't take too long to figure out what the plan would be for the Texas Rangers once the news broke that Corey Seager had been dealing with mild concussion symptoms. The Rangers have just placed Seager on the seven-day concussion IL, with Josh Smith being activated from his own IL stint as the corresponding move.

Smith had been red-hot during his rehab assignment that saw him split time between Frisco and Round Rock, though, while he has met the team back in Arlington, he's not in tonight's starting lineup.

As for Seager, the Rangers are able to backdate his placement on the IL based on the last time he appeared in a game, meaning that the earliest he can return would be Friday, June 19. That could mean that this could be a relatively short setback, though he cannot be activated until he's cleared neurologically, and there's no guarantee that will happen by Friday.

Rangers fans are frustrated as Seager suffers yet another injury, this time due to a lack of hustle

Injuries have always been a big part of Seager's MLB story, and since signing his 10-year, $325 deal with Texas, he's averaged just 123.75 games played per season through 2025. If you exclude his first year with the Rangers, 2022, in which he played 151 games, that number dips to 114.67.

Basically, Seager is good for missing about two months per year, and this season has already missed 22 games due to his prior IL stint, which cost him 19 games, and the three games he missed as he sat out last weekend's series against the Boston Red Sox.

It's hard to fault players for getting hurt, except when their injury is the result of sloppy play. That's the case here as Seager's lackadaisical effort on the bases on June 11 against the Kansas City Royals caused the collision that led to his concussion.

Not hustling is a baseball cardinal sin, especially for a highly paid supposed superstar who is hitting just .186/.284/.373 on the season and had only been back for five games before going down again.

The totality of the situation has left some fans frustrated. On the one hand, the lack of availability, the poor performance, and the egregious lack of hustle are all worthy of criticism. On the other hand, getting upset that Seager hasn't been playing through the concussion (as some have suggested) is way off base. Still, it's more than fair to be upset about the 2026 Seager experience.

At the end of the day, this is just the latest in what has been a flurry of injury-related roster moves, and the Rangers quickly went from looking like they were about to return to full strength to missing key pieces once again as Seager joins Evan Carter and Michael Helman as players who didn't survive the weekend without winding up on the IL. It will be interesting to see how Skip Schumaker mixes and matches, and when and if the club can ever reach full strength.

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