Corey Seager entered the 2016 season as the consensus top prospect in baseball, and the 22-year-old is certainly living up to the hype.
The Los Angeles Dodgers shortstop had a brief stint in the majors last season, putting together a terrific slash line of .337/.425/.561 in 27 games. He’s followed that up with a slash line of .286/.341/.533 so far in 2016, and really took things to another level this weekend.
Seager hit three home runs on Friday night against the Atlanta Braves, with two of those coming against rock-solid Atlanta right-hander Julio Teheran, and another one coming against left-handed specialist Hunter Cervenka (left-handed hitters are batting just .111 vs Cervenka on the season).
Here’s video of Seager’s three home runs from Friday night:
Seager became the first Dodgers rookie since 1959 (Dom Demeter) to hit three homers in a game.
Corey Seager is the first Dodger rookie to hit 3 HRs in a game since Don Demeter on April 21, 1959.
— Dodger Insider (@DodgerInsider) June 4, 2016
And Seager wasn’t done cranking bombs over the weekend. On Sunday, he went deep off the Braves’ Matt Wisler and Alexi Ogando for his fourth and fifth homers of the three-game series.
The five homers in a series from Seager made for lots of neat nuggets on Twitter:
Corey Seager tied the Dodgers record in May for HR by a shortstop, with 7. He now has 5 HR in June. It is June 5 — Eric Stephen (@truebluela) June 5, 2016
Corey Seager has 5 HR this weekend, now 5 HR away from tying Dodgers record for HR by a SS in a season (19, by Hanley Ramirez in 2013)
— Eric Stephen (@truebluela) June 5, 2016
A two-run Seager bomb. For real. Dude is 39-for-120 (.325) with 12 HR and 22 RBI since May 7. 5 homers in this series. 14 HR now in 2016
— Ryan Walton (@RyanWaltonSBN) June 5, 2016
Braves last 15 games: 5 HR Corey Seager in series vs Braves: 5 HR — ESPN Stats & Info (@ESPNStatsInfo) June 6, 2016
Corey Seager on a pace for 76 extra-base hits, 39 homers, 106 runs, 98 RBI. https://t.co/8JPdMygOLl — Buster Olney (@Buster_ESPN) June 5, 2016
Corey Seager becomes the first player since Barry Bonds (2001) to hit as many as five homers in a series against the Braves. — Mark Bowman (@mlbbowman) June 5, 2016
“Seager has hit another one! …and the Dodgers lead 12-3. …for Seager, a one-man band. …have you ever seen a one-man band?” — Vin Scully (@VinScullyTweet) June 5, 2016
That’s now 14 homers on the season for Seager, good for fifth in the National League. Per Fangraphs, he currently leads all National League shortstops in WAR at 2.6, and that WAR doubles any other Dodgers position player (Chase Utley is next at 1.3). He leads the Dodgers in batting average, homers, runs, runs batted in, and has graded out better than any Dodgers player on defense.
And again, he’s just 22.
