Seattle Mariners: Kyle Seager to undergo surgery on left hand

Already missing their starting center fielder, the Mariners will head into Tokyo without their starting third baseman as well.

After awkwardly landing on his glove hand while diving for a ball in Friday night’s Cactus League bout with the Cubs, Kyle Seager is set to undergo surgery to repair an injured tendon in the hand. X-rays returned negative Saturday morning, but a meeting with a hand specialist confirmed the injury and the need for surgery.

Seager is expected to miss at least the month of April. It will be the first time the 31-year-old Gold Glove award winner has landed on the disabled list in his Major League career, easily eclipsing his past career-high of eight games missed in 2017.

Mariners manager Scott Servais confirmed Monday afternoon that Ryon Healy will assume the majority of playing time at third base in Seager’s absence. Healy primarily played third in his time with the Oakland Athletics, though he is a severe downgrade from Seager, accumulating a -5.1 and -5.8 UZR in 2016 and 2017 respectively.

The winner of the ongoing utility battle between Kristopher Negrón and Dylan Moore will also get some opportunity at third. Negrón is out of options and appears to be outperforming Moore thus far, so he likely has the inside edge.

If Seager misses an extended period of time past April, Shed Long would likely be called up. Long occasionally filled at third base in his impressive Spring, but has never played past the Double-A level and was optioned to Triple-A Tacoma earlier today.

It’s an unfortunate situation for Seager, who made drastic changes both mechanically and physically following a poor 2018 season. There were high hopes for a bounce-back year from him, but things are off to a rough start.