The Texas Rangers last fielded an American League MVP in 2010, with Josh Hamilton taking home the award.
The franchise has a solid history of producing MVPs. Five different Rangers have won the honor six total times: Jeff Burroughs (1974), Juan Gonzalez (1996, ’98), Ivan Rodriguez (1999), Alex Rodriguez (2003) and Hamilton.
Could the defending World Series champions add to the list in 2024? There’s a good chance.
Corey Seager finished second in MVP voting last season to Shohei Ohtani despite missing a good chunk of the season to injuries. Ohtani has moved crosstown from the Los Angeles Angels to the Los Angeles Dodgers, which theoretically opens the MVP door for Seager and more candidates in the AL.
MLB.com recently compiled a list of MVP favorites and dark horse candidates in 2024. The Rangers are well represented. Seager obviously made the cut as the No. 3 candidate in the AL behind Julio Rodriguez (Seattle Mariners) and Juan Soto (New York Yankees). Per MLB.com:
The only question with Seager is health. Injuries have taken a significant chunk of his career so far, but despite only playing in 119 games in 2023, he led the AL with 42 doubles while smashing a career-high-tying 33 home runs (equaling his ’22 total in 116 fewer at-bats) and posting a .327/.390/.623 slash line. He was nearly a 7-bWAR player despite missing a quarter of the season. Seager underwent surgery for a sports hernia, but he hopes to be ready to go by Opening Day. If he can somehow stay on the field for 150 games, Seager could put up some incredible numbers at the plate, numbers that could take him from AL MVP runner-up in '23, to winner in '24.
That wasn’t it for the Rangers. Adolis García was mentioned under dark horses, with his 47 combined home runs during the 2023 regular season and playoffs pointed out. Per MLB.com:
If there’s anyone on the upswing toward superstardom, it’s García, who set career highs in home runs (39), RBIs (107), runs scored (108), slugging percentage (.508) and several other categories in 2023. He also won his first career Gold Glove Award, was named MVP of the AL Championship Series against the Astros and helped the Rangers win the first World Series title in franchise history with eight postseason homers. The underlying metrics support the big season – García ranked in the top 10% among qualified batters in hard-hit rate (49.7%), expected slugging percentage (.526) and expected weighted on-base average (.366). It seems only a matter of time until he vaults himself into the MVP conversation.
Should the Rangers continue to contend as expected, Seager and García will be big reasons why. Maybe enough to be the sixth MVP winner in franchise history.
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