Prior to taking the stage at last week’s FanFest event at Dodger Stadium, 26-year-old Dodgers shortstop Corey Seager spoke with reporters about the state of Corey Seager – i.e., where he is at in his recovery from his May 4, 2018 Tommy John surgery on his right elbow (by Neal ElAttrache) and from his August 7, 2018 arthroscopic surgery on his left hip (by Dr. Bryan Kelly).

Here is most of that interview in transcript form:

Q: Where are you at in your recovery?

Seager: The only thing I haven’t really done is take ground balls and throw them across the infield. I’m still trying to get through like the last part of my throwing program before I do that, but other than that, I’m hit and flips and all that stuff and it’s all good.

Q: Are the problems fixed?

Seager: Yeah, absolutely. The further I get into the progressions, I guess is the right word, the better everything feels. The pain’s going away, so that’s kind of what I was looking for.

Q: What do you expect as far as a timetable?

Seager: I don’t have much expectations. I don’t really know their plan on when we’re going to start playing and all that other stuff. There’s still a few things that I have to finish, I still have to hit live, like off a BP thrower, I still have to throw across the infield like I said. There’s a few more steps that I gotta finish and I don’t really know when those will happen.

Q: Will you be ready for Opening Day?

Seager: Right now, everything’s on-line to kind of be able to make a decision on whether I’ll be ready to go or not, but for the most part I feel great, everything is on-time right now and I haven’t had any setbacks yet, so I’m looking forward to it, I’m positive about it.

Q: Whatever you are doing, do you find yourself trying to hold back or are you trying to do everything you need to do at full speed?

Seager: Not anymore. In the beginning, you know, every time you do something the first time you’re a little worried, you’re a little … you’re guarding without realizing it, and I’ve kind of gotten through that phase, kind of past where I can kind of guard. So that’s nice to kind of be free, be loose with it and actually do it. You know obviously there’s still a few more steps and you’ve got to get through those, but right now there’s no hesitation, there’s no guarding, there’s no anything.

Q: When the Tommy John thing came first, when did you decided to get the hip thing done too?

Seager: It was kind of one of those things where we had the time, it kind of fit a schedule where we could do them both. The last thing I wanted to do was recover for 12 months and two months later have to have another surgery, so it was one of the things that may or may not been a little premature but go ahead and kind of get it out of the way before it does become a serious problem.

Q: Did you have anxiety after the surgeries wondering if you can get back to this point?

Seager: Not anxiety about it, just kind of wanted it to happen. You get a little stir crazy, you wonder if you’re ever going to kind of move again, but you know it all happens, it all kind of was a process and you just gotta go through it.

Q: Is your swing feeling normal for this time of year?

Seager: I have no pain with it. I’m not exactly ready to go out and feel comfortable with where I am in my swing, but I have no pain with it and I have no hesitation with it, so right now I guess, yeah, I guess I’d say it’s pretty normal.

Q: Which of the two surgeries are you further along with in your recovery?

Seager: Oh man, that’s a good question. There’s really only one more step, I guess, with both of them, so I don’t really know, I really don’t know. They kind of both feel pretty good.

Q: Do you think they’ll come together about the same time?

Seager: Yeah, yeah, kind of.

Q: How much throwing are you doing?

Seager: I threw out to 120 [feet] for the first time yesterday.

Q: Are you throwing every day?

Seager: Monday, Wednesday, Friday I throw.

Q: Are you making cuts running?

Seager: Yeah, I’ve done everything running wise, the running progression’s completely over. It’s still trying to get through this with the hitting and I still have to take the ground ball part. But I’ve done like rolling ground balls to me, I’ve taken fungos straight at me, so I’ve taken ground balls. I just haven’t put it together with throwing.

Q: What was it like for you watching the World Series?

Seager: Difficult … not that you feel in the way, but you want to help, you remember what it was like last year, you remember the mindset and knowing the mindset, you kind of tried to stay away unless somebody asks for help or there was somewhere that you saw where you could help. It was difficult. It’s hard watching and not being able to have any impact, and that was probably the toughest thing for me.

Q: Was moving from shortstop to third base or second base ever discussed?

Seager: No, no, never discussed.

Q: How appreciative were you that the clubhouse had the confidence in you and the opportunity to return even after all this?

Seager: Yeah, it was actually very confident. It was always kind of one of those things that, coming up, that you never know if it’s going to happen. And then after having surgeries they were confident to know that you still can play there and that’s a respectful thing, it’s nice to hear. It’s just one of those things that makes you feel comfortable and confident about coming back.

Q: Is there any concern about you going too hard or ahead of schedule and dialing it back?

Seager: I battled back pretty hard. You want to go, you feel good, you want to keep trying, but you don’t want to go too far to where you have a setback and that was a battle for me. Kind of learned some patience and then just listen to them. I tried basically not to get ahead, I didn’t want to know what came next week because I didn’t want to try to do it, basically.

Q: How far away are you from hitting from the mound?

Seager: Probably a week maybe, a week or two away maybe. I should have it done [by spring training] as long as I don’t have anything come up. I should have hit live off a BP guy by then.

Q: Are you going to miss Puig?

Seager: Yeah, you always miss Puig. I spent four years with him. You get to know the people. We’re going to miss Woody [former Dodgers third base coach and now Texas Rangers manager Chris Woodward], we’re going to miss [Matt] Kemp, we’re going to miss [Kyle] Farmer, we’re going to miss all those guys. But it’s a point now where it’s done and you gotta move on and you gotta look forward to next year and learn some new teammates and get ready for the year.

Play Ball!

    *    *    *    *    *