Are the Dodgers ready for the Corey Seager era? Is Seager? - Los Angeles Times
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Are the Dodgers ready for the Corey Seager era? Is Seager?

Corey Seager fields a ball against the New York Mets during an Oct. 13 playoff game at Citi Field in New York.

Corey Seager fields a ball against the New York Mets during an Oct. 13 playoff game at Citi Field in New York.

(Elsa Garrison / Getty Images)
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The can’t-miss kid.

No pressure there. No lofty, next-to-impossible expectations. Just go be a superstar.

But that’s pretty much where the Dodgers are with phenom Corey Seager, who did little to discourage the hyperbole when he was called up last September and unexpectedly beat out veteran shortstop Jimmy Rollins.

Seager, all of 21, has been the Dodgers’ No. 1 prospect for the last two seasons. The Dodgers’ first-round pick in 2012, he was having a very good, if unspectacular, season at triple-A (.278, .332, .451) when called up.

And then he got off to an absolutely monster start that had everybody feeling really good about all those expectations.

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Rollins, 37, is now a free agent and is not expected back. Shortstop is now the possession of Seager, a 6-foot-4 North Carolina native with a smooth swing who is now the new leader of a coming youth movement.

There is risk with this undertaking, but the Dodgers have to be feeling very comfortable with the decision. Certainly Seager’s first 17 games did nothing to belie the budding enthusiasm. His youth hardly appeared to leave him overwhelmed in his first trip to the majors. In his first 17 games, he put up a stunning .377/.479/.607 slash line.

But the young tend to have their ups-and-downs, and Seager did not exactly finish with the same flurry. In his last 10 games, he had a .270/.325/.486 line. In the playoffs, he went three for 16 (.188/.235/.250) with a bloop double.

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Pitchers, naturally, will try to find flaws in his swing and attack them. Seager will, also naturally, have to make adjustments. Nothing is guaranteed but Seager is bright and has a calmness about him that bodes well for his future.

The Dodgers have said they need to get younger, and it begins with Seager and the reclamation project of returning Joc Pederson to his first-half success.

But the kids are coming, which team President Stan Kasten said was the long-term plan. If Seager is as successful as expected, he should prove a centerpiece for the Dodgers for many years to come.

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