Seager's struggles raising no alarms: 'It's just a matter of time'

ARLINGTON -- Corey Seager is notably robotic and attentive about his hitting.

So when the Rangers’ superstar gets off to a slow start in 2026 -- including an 0-for-4 day in a 4-2 loss to the Yankees on Monday night at Globe Life Field -- one obviously wonders when they should begin to worry.

The answer? Not yet, according to his manager.

“Guys are human,” Skip Schumaker said. “He's human. He's human. There's going to be funks throughout the course of the season.

“I think Corey is about to get really hot. He's probably hit pull side a little bit too much as of late. When Corey is really good, it's up the middle, the other way, and then he'll hit a pull-side home run. He's just such a good hitter. Nobody works as hard as Corey at his craft. It's just a matter of time before he gets going.”

Seager is now slashing .186/.268/.372 in 86 April at-bats. Seager is well aware of what his output has been like lately.

“I'm struggling to get hits and be productive,” Seager said simply.

Seager is not traditionally a slow starter, but he has had times early in seasons when he hasn’t quite hit the way he’s used to. Each year, regardless of how he starts, the stats always look how you expect them to by September.

Seager’s Aprils with the Rangers:

• 2022: .256/.295/.415
• 2023: .361/.455/.556
• 2024: .208/.303/.292
• 2025: .302/.362/.524

Under the hood, Seager’s slow start maybe comes down to just one pitch. He has seen 97 total sliders in 2026, and he is slugging .048 against them, compared to .730 (against 259 sliders) in ‘25. He’s whiffing at sliders at a 53.1% clip, compared to 36.7% last season.

“I've obviously been better,” Seager said. “You'd like to be more productive, but obviously you're working on it, and hopefully it turns around soon. … I’ve just got to be more productive and just have to have better at-bats. That's about it.”

Texas has lost six of its past nine games since April 18, averaging 3.1 runs per game over that span. While Seager’s slow start doesn’t help, the team-wide offense has been going through a bit of a lull as well.

Schumaker said it’s not fair to put all the offense’s shortcomings on one or two guys, but it goes without saying that the Rangers could use some run production. He also acknowledged that everything works better when the superstars are performing like superstars.

“You want your middle-of-the-order bats, your superstars, to carry a lot of the weight, for sure,” Schumaker said. “I'm very confident that they're going to perform like they're used to doing. Up and down the lineup, we have enough offense that if they're in a cold streak, that we have enough to help carry the load until they get hot again. We just haven’t broke through.”

At the end of the day, it goes without saying that Seager is the engine that keeps the offense moving. And if it’s one guy the Rangers aren’t worried about getting back on track, it’s Seager.

“Corey, you can tell that he's grinding for some stuff, for sure,” Schumaker said. “It feels like he's just about to get hot. He's just one of those guys where at any moment, it's going to break through. That is how I would describe it.

“I think he's probably a little little frustrated with it, but I think Corey Seager is still one of the better hitters in the game. I'm confident that he's going to break through and win a lot of games for us.”