Seattle Mariners Season Preview: Kyle Seager

Mariners look for Kyle Seager to be Kyle Seager in 2016

Over the past several years, the Mariners have struggled to both win games and get consistent production out of position players. There has been one constant in the lineup since 2012, and that constant is Kyle Seager. He has become a fan favorite in the Emerald City, and hopes to remain the most successful Seager brother this year with younger brother Corey lurking down in Los Angeles.

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Seager is going into his age 28 season, and is set to enter the prime of his career healthy and confident. He came up with the Mariners in 2011 and since then has been a staple in the middle of the lineup. Seager has a career slash of .263/.328/.434, having his best year in 2014 when he was an American League All-Star and a Gold Glove third basemen while hitting .268 with 25 home runs and 96 RBI.

The Good

The good here is pretty obvious: Kyle Seager will be in the lineup for the Mariners every day, doing Kyle Seager things. By now, we all know what Seager brings to the team. Last season, he slashed .266/.328/.451 and hit 26 home runs while driving in 74 over 686 plate appearances. Seager has been very durable so far in his career, playing in 161 games last year. He has only missed 13 games in the past 4 seasons.

Jul 10, 2015; Seattle, WA, USA; Seattle Mariners third baseman Kyle Seager (15) reacts to the bench after hitting double in the first inning as Los Angeles Angels shortstop Erick Aybar (2) walks to the mound at Safeco Field. Mandatory Credit: Jennifer Buchanan-USA TODAY Sports /

Seager will also provide solid defense to the team. He has a career fielding percentage of .969 which doesn’t blow anyone away by any means. But it is above average and certainly won’t do any harm to a team that has been very good defensively in recent years. Seager will most likely do what is expected of him again this year, and that’s making the routine plays and then some.

The Bad

There isn’t a whole lot of “bad” when it comes to Kyle Seager. Being overshadowed his whole minor league career by Dustin Ackley, the 6-foot third baseman has been a pleasant surprise in a sense. While Ackley failed to live up to everyone’s expectations, Seager took advantage of his opportunities. And this guy that most people didn’t give any second thought to became the mainstay in the lineup he is today.

As I look for anything to jump out as a potential red flag going into 2016, I guess his defense hasn’t been as consistent as his offense. In his 2014 Gold Glove season, Seager only committed 8 errors in 157 games played defensively. But last year his errors doubled from the year prior to 16 in 160 games played defensively. It is entirely possible that his defensive numbers drop again this season and that he isn’t quite the defensive player we all thought. But then again, this is all mere speculation.

A final negative here is that Lloyd McClendon is no longer with the team. With this being the case, the next time Seager hits a homerun, who will do the delivery… to the truck… to the airport? I suppose Scott Servais could fill that role, but who knows. Dave Sims, I doubt you’re reading this, but you have been a great sport about that infamous call and I thank you and wish you a speedy recovery after your surgery.

The Future

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The University of North Carolina product projects to play a key role in the Mariners lineup yet again in 2016. Baseball Reference predicts Seager to put up a slash line of .265/.331/.446 and hit 22 homeruns while driving in 72 in 608 plate appearances. Fangraphs projects very similar numbers, surprisingly enough. They predict a slash of .265/.332/.443 while hitting 22 homeruns and driving in 80 over 630 plate appearances.

So I guess it’s settled, Kyle Seager will hit .265 and hit 22 homeruns this year, right? Maybe not exactly, but those numbers sound entirely reasonable for Seager. And if he can produce those kind of numbers while hitting in the 5-hole between Nelson Cruz and Adam Lind (According to this lineup projection from Mariner’s beat writer Greg Johns), then that should be a very productive lineup in 2016.

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I think that as long as he stays healthy and is in the lineup every day, Kyle Seager could get a taste of playoff baseball come October. And to take this one step further just for fun, Kyle could potentially face his younger brother Corey in the World Series if everything goes very very very well this season. But to keep things grounded, this should be an enjoyable season for Mariners’ fans everywhere. I myself am a ‘Seager Believer,’ and I know many other Seattle fans are as well. So it goes without saying that I am very excited to see what he can contribute to the team in 2016.

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