Kyle Seager

Kyle Duerr Seager (born November 3, 1987) is an American professional baseball third baseman with the Seattle Mariners of Major League Baseball (MLB). He was selected by the Mariners in the third round of the 2009 Major League Baseball draft. In 2014, he was an All Star and won a Gold Glove Award.

Kyle Seager
Seager with the Seattle Mariners
Seattle Mariners – No. 15
Third baseman
Born: (1987-11-03) November 3, 1987
Charlotte, North Carolina[1]
Bats: Left Throws: Right
MLB debut
July 7, 2011, for the Seattle Mariners
MLB statistics
(through 2020 season)
Batting average.256
Home runs207
Runs batted in706
Teams
Career highlights and awards

High school and college career

Seager is the eldest of three sons born to Jeff and Jody Seager.[2] His brother Corey was selected by the Los Angeles Dodgers in the first round of the 2012 Draft, while brother Justin was selected by the Mariners in 2013.[3]

Seager attended Northwest Cabarrus High School in Concord, North Carolina where he earned Co-North Carolina Player of the Year honors.[4]

Seager elected to stay in-state, playing college baseball at the University of North Carolina, where he had a career .353 batting average with 17 home runs, 66 doubles and 167 RBI. In 2008, he set a school record for doubles in a season (30),[5] was a semifinalist for the Golden Spikes Award, and was named to the watch list for both the Dick Howser Trophy and the Brooks Wallace Award.

During the summers of 2007 and 2008, Seager played for the Chatham A's in the Cape Cod Baseball League.[6]

Professional career

Minor leagues

Seager spent the majority of the 2009 season with the Class-A Clinton LumberKings. He hit .275 with a home run and 22 RBI. He also played one game with the AZL Mariners and two with the Class-A Advanced High Desert Mavericks. Seager spent the entire 2010 season with the High Desert Mavericks, batting .345 with 14 home runs and 74 RBI.

He was ranked by Baseball America as the ninth best prospect in the Mariners organization for 2011.[7] He split the season between the Double-A Jackson Generals, batting .312 with 4 home runs and 37 RBI in 66 games, and the Triple-A Tacoma Rainiers, where he hit .387 with 3 home runs and 17 RBI in 24 games.

Seattle Mariners

On July 6, 2011, Seager had his contract purchased by the Mariners.[8] He hit his first Major League home run on August 19, 2011, against the Tampa Bay Rays at Tropicana Field, and finished the year with a .258 batting average, 3 home runs and 13 RBI in 53 games.

In 2012, his first full MLB season, Seager hit .259 with 20 home runs and 86 RBI in 155 games.

On June 4, 2013, he hit a grand slam against the Chicago White Sox in the 14th inning. It was the first time in MLB history that a player hit a game-tying grand slam in extra innings.[9] He finished 2013 with a .260 batting average, 22 home runs and 69 RBI in 160 games.

On April 23, 2014, he drove in five runs to avoid a sweep against the Houston Astros. He hit a two-run home run in the seventh inning to cut the Astros lead to 3–2, and hit a walk-off three-run shot in the bottom of the ninth, allowing the Mariners to win 5–3. The first walk-off hit of his career, his performance earned him an April Co-Player of the Week Award, shared with José Abreu of the White Sox.[10] On June 2, Seager went 4–4 with a double, two triples and a three-run home run against the New York Yankees. The first Mariner to accomplish the feat, he became the first MLB player with two triples and at least one double and homer in a game since Hal Breeden for the Montreal Expos in 1973.[11] On June 15, he went 4–4 with two singles and two doubles and three RBI. On July 7, he was named to his first All-Star team as an injury replacement for Toronto Blue Jays player Edwin Encarnación.[12] He finished 2014 with a .268 batting average, 25 home runs and 96 RBI in 159 games.

On November 4, 2014, he was awarded a Gold Glove.[13]

On December 2, 2014, the Mariners finalized a 7-year, $100 million contract extension with Seager.[14] In 2015, he hit .266 with 26 home runs and 74 RBI in 161 games.

On April 25, 2016, he hit his 100th career home run in a game against Houston.[15] He finished 2016 with a.278 batting average, 30 home runs and 99 RBI in 158 games and he and his brother, Corey, made history by becoming the first pair of brothers in major league history to each hit 25 or more homers in the same season.[16] On defense, he led the major leagues in fielding errors, with 18.[17]

In 2017, he hit .249 with 27 home runs and 88 RBI in 154 games, his sixth consecutive season with at least 20 home runs and at least 154 games played.

On April 7, 2018, he reached 1,000 career hits against the Minnesota Twins.[18] Seager continued his streak of seasons with 20 or more home runs and at least 154 games played, hitting 22 home runs with 78 RBIs in 155 games but hit a career low .221 in the process.

In 2019, during a spring training game, Seager sustained an injury to his left hand while attempting a diving play on a ball. He was later diagnosed with a hand injury and would require hand surgery that would sideline him for 8 to 10 weeks.[19] He missed 53 games before returning to the lineup in late May 2019.[20] On August 13, 2019, in an 11-6 victory over the Detroit Tigers, Seager became the 11th Mariner to hit 3 home runs in a game, and the first since 2010; the third home run was a ricochet off the glove of Goodrum when a teammate collided with him near the wall.[21][22] In 106 games, Seager hit .239 with 23 home runs and 63 RBI, extending his streak of consecutive seasons of 20 or more home runs to eight.

On August 5, 2020, in a game against the Los Angeles Angels of Anaheim, Seager hit his career 200th home run. On August 17, Kyle faced his brother, the Dodgers Corey Seager, for the first time in an MLB game and both homered in the game, becoming the first pair of brothers to homer in the same game since César and Felipe Crespo did it on June 7, 2001.[23]

In 2020 he batted .241/.355/.433 with 9 home runs and 40 RBIs, and led the AL with 6 sacrifice flies.[24]

Personal life

Seager and his wife, Julie, married in 2011. They have two daughters and a son.[25]

Seager grew up a New York Yankees fan and idolized Derek Jeter.[26]

References
  1. "ESPN Player Bio". ESPN.co.uk. Retrieved November 5, 2020.
  2. Crasnick, Jerry (April 12, 2016). "Bros to pros: Seager brothers finding major league success". ESPN.com. Retrieved April 13, 2016.
  3. Thorpe, Jacob (June 8, 2013). "Seager's brother, Justin, drafted by Mariners". Seattle Mariners. Retrieved June 8, 2013.
  4. "Player Bio: Kyle Seager". GoHeels.com. Retrieved September 19, 2015.
  5. http://www.goheels.com/fls/3350/Baseball/2013_BaseballYearbook.pdf
  6. "Major League Baseball Players From the Cape Cod League" (PDF). capecodbaseball.org. Retrieved January 9, 2020.
  7. Glassey, Conor (December 6, 2010). "BaseballAmerica.com: Prospects: Rankings: Organization Top 10 Prospects: Seattle Mariners Top 10 Prospects". baseballamerica.com. Retrieved May 22, 2015.
  8. Axisa, Mike. "Mariners Designate Jose Yepez For Assignment". MLBTradeRumors.com. Retrieved July 6, 2011.
  9. "Wild and wacky game in Seattle". ESPN – Elias Says. Retrieved June 9, 2013.
  10. Divish, Ryan (April 28, 2014). "Kyle Seagers named American League co-player of the week". The Seattle Times. Archived from the original on May 21, 2017. Retrieved May 22, 2015.
  11. "Kyle Seager has 4 extra-base hits as Mariners rout Yanks". ESPN.com. June 2, 2014. Retrieved May 22, 2015.
  12. Snyder, Matt (July 7, 2014). "Kyle Seager named to AL All-Star team as Encarnacion's replacement". CBSSports.com. Retrieved May 22, 2015.
  13. Johns, Greg. "Seager wins Gold Glove for AL third basemen". Seattle Mariners. Retrieved May 22, 2015.
  14. "Kyle Seager finalizes seven-year, $100 million contract with Seattle Mariners". ESPN.com. December 2, 2014. Retrieved May 22, 2015.
  15. "Seager hits 100th career home run". The News Tribune. April 25, 2016. Retrieved April 25, 2015.
  16. Stephen, Eric (September 10, 2016). "Corey Seager, Kyle Seager set brother home run record". SB Nation. Retrieved September 10, 2016.
  17. Major League Leaderboards » 2016 » All Positions » Fielding Statistics | FanGraphs Baseball
  18. "Kyle Seager gets 1000th career hit, 1st homer". MLB.com. Retrieved July 16, 2018.
  19. http://www.sportingnews.com/us/mlb/news/kyle-seager-injury-update-mariners-third-baseman-missing-8-10-weeks-hand-surgery/1txwxoue068b61nl0ffbmncnas
  20. http://sports.mynorthwest.com/649393/a-lot-to-like-mariners-kyle-seager-return/?
  21. https://www.mlb.com/news/kyle-seager-hits-three-homers-vs-tigers
  22. https://www.mlb.com/video/kyle-seager-homers-14-on-a-fly-ball-to-left-center-field-domingo-santana-scores
  23. Gurnick, Ken (August 18, 2020). "With two 5-run rallies, LA wins 6th straight". MLB.com. Retrieved August 19, 2020.
  25. https://www.thenewstribune.com/sports/mlb/seattle-mariners/article216023565.html
  26. https://www.newsday.com/sports/baseball/mariners-kyle-seager-grew-up-idolizing-derek-jeter-1.13621336
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