Unless you’ve been roving the surface of Mars with Perseverance, you are very well aware that 26-year-old Dodgers shortstop Corey Seager is the hottest player on this planet right now.

All the Charlotte, North Carolina native and Dodgers first-round draft pick in 2012 out of Northwest Cabarrus High School in Concord, NC has done in the eight (of 12) Cactus League games in which he has appeared thus far is go 7-for-16 for a .438 batting average, has a .550 on-base percentage, and a 1.000 slugging percentage, for an alien-like 1.550 OPS. He also has a team-leading three home runs and a team-leading eight RBI. On the other side of the ball, Seager has not committed an error in 16 total chances, with 11 assists this Spring.

After hitting a two-run home run on Wednesday night against the Arizona Diamondbacks, Seager launched an opposite-field two-run moonshot on Thursday night against the Seattle Mariners, both at Camelback Ranch.

“For him to take a change-up the other way like that, you know he’s locked in,” Dodgers manager Dave Roberts said after Thursday night’s rain-shortened 4-4 tie with the Mariners. “But Corey, like most players, it just comes back to health. He’s in a good place physically.”

As Dodger fans know, Seager becomes a free agent at the end of the 2021 season – and make no mistake about it, he will get paid. And though there is certainly no need to tell Dodgers President of Baseball Operations Andrew Friedman how to do his job, with several other of the game’s best shortstops hitting the free-agent market in 2022, it would behoove the Dodger executive to lock Seager down with a lengthy (and lofty) contract extension as soon as possible. That being said, Seager is represented by super-agent Scott Boras, who has a well-documented history of not having his clients sign contract extensions before having them first test the free-agent market … so there’s that.

When asked about his contract status during a February 25th Zoom media conference, Seager made it abundantly clear that his focus is not on his contract status.

“That’s not the focus at all; the focus is right now,” Seager answered. “We’ve preached it for a long time now about it’s day-to-day. We’re showing up and doing everything we can to be ready today, and once the games start, try to win a game that day. It’s no other thinking other than that.”

Play Ball!

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