When a 12-year MLB veteran who is a five-time All Star, has four Gold Gloves, two Silver Sluggers and is the 2014 MLB RBI leader said a year ago that a then 20-year-old Dodgers prospect is a potential Hall of Famer, you better take note.

The MLB veteran is 33-year-old Dodgers first baseman Adrian Gonzalez and the (now) 21-year-old Dodgers prospect is shortstop Corey Seager who, on Friday, was named MLB’s number one overall prospect.

After saying that prospect rankings are basically meaningless, Dodgers first baseman Adrian Gonzalez gave MLB’s number one-ranked prospect Corey Seager the ultimate endorsement.
(Photo credit – Ron Cervenka)

During Saturday’s annual FanFest event, I asked Gonzalez what he thought about Seager’s prestigious accomplishment, to which AGon gave a somewhat dismissive answer that you might expect from a seasoned MLB veteran about a young prospect.

“I could care less about who number one or who number 100 is. It’s about how you perform when you get to the big leagues,” Gonzalez answered. “What someone projects is all just a personal opinion. It’s about how they do when they get there. I’ve seen plenty of numbers ones bust and plenty of number ones do great. The number they put behind a person is irrelevant once they get here”

Fair enough. But it was AGon’s answer to my follow-up question that immediately grabbed the attention of everyone present and within minutes had Twitter buzzing. Having played with Seager for a solid month what do you think of him?

“Oh yeah. I told this to Eric Young when I was playing against the Rockies last year when [Seager] was still in the minors,” Gonzalez said with much more enthusiasm. “We were talking about prospects that they had and prospects that we had and I told him that he’s a special kid, that he’s a kid that I could see being a Hall of Famer in the future. And this is before anybody put him as a number one prospect. This was early in the year last year. He’s got the talent, he’s got the make up, the potential. I think he’s going to be a great major leaguer for a long time.”

Now that’s an endorsement.

With spring training only three weeks away and with the Dodgers not having acquired a true shortstop during the off-season, there is every reason to believe that Seager will be the Dodgers everyday shortstop in 2016 and, as AGon put it, “for a long time.” And while there was some talk late last season about continuing to work Seager out at third base, this is something that is no longer practical or needed. Granted, even though Justin Turner is still technically a utility infielder, he has certainly earned the right to get most of the starts at third base. Add to this the fact that the Dodgers plan to utilize Chase Utley and possibly even Howie Kendrick at third base and also have the option of having super-sub Kiké Hernandez occasionally fill in at the hot corner, there is no reason whatsoever to move Seager out of his natural shortstop position – not now and possibly not ever.

After his September call-up to the Dodgers last season, Seager only hit .337 (33 for 98) with eight doubles, one triple and four home runs while driving in 17 runs. And even though he booted five balls in his brief 21 games in the majors for a .949 fielding percentage, he more than earned the starting shortstop job ahead of 16-year MLB veteran Jimmy Rollins in the Dodgers short-lived postseason. Ironically, Rollins also made his MLB debut at age 21 but Seager did so 166 days sooner. And in case you were wondering, Seager was five years old when Rollins made his MLB debut as a September call-up for the Phillies in 2000.

It’s now entirely up to Corey Seager to fulfill AGon’s prophecy.
(Photo credit – Ron Cervenka)

If Adrian Gonzalez’s lofty endorsement of Corey Seager and Vin Scully’s and Tommy Lasorda’s rallying of the near 25,000 in attendance at Saturday’s FanFest event aren’t enough to get you pumped up for Opening Day 2016, you better check your pulse to make sure you’re still alive.

This.
(Photo credit – Jon SooHoo)