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By Victor Barbosa
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The 2026 World Series between the Milwaukee Brewers and Tampa Bay Rays is in the rearview mirror and now the MLB offseason is underway.
One of the biggest storylines of the winter is the looming potential of a work stoppage.
MLB's Collective Bargaining Agreement (CBA) is set to expire on Dec. 1, and a lockout is widely expected to follow.
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Texas Rangers shortstop Corey Seager knows plenty about playing on baseball's biggest stage as a two-time World Series champion and two-time World Series MVP.
The 32-year-old, who's one of only four players in MLB history to win multiple World Series MVP awards, talked with Newsweek about this year's Fall Classic, the possible lockout and more topics on Thursday.
Seager just finished his 12th MLB season and fifth with Texas after playing the first seven years of his career with the Los Angeles Dodgers.
He said he watched "a little bit" of the Brewers-Rays World Series, which Milwaukee won in five games, and enjoyed seeing two teams compete for their first championship.
"I thought it was a really cool World Series just with the fact that neither one of them had won before. That’s something that can be really special for an organization. I experienced that with the Rangers with just the outpouring of excitement from fans. You kind of had a little glimpse of what they were going through, so it was a pretty exciting time to watch them be able to experience that for sure," Seager said. "It’s a crazy game. It’s baseball at the end of the day, so once you get in the playoffs anything can happen. Those two teams played extremely well. They leaned on their bullpen, they scored runs when they needed to and you know, crazy things happen. It was a fun ride I’m sure for both of them and it was an exciting postseason."
The five-time All-Star underwent surgery on his right elbow in early October but said Thursday that thus far, his rehab has been "going pretty smooth."
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Seager is hopeful that the 2027 MLB season can begin on time amid a potential lockout.
"(Starting the season on time) is always the goal. That’s what we train for," he said. "We’re expecting to report to spring training like normal and hopefully these economics can get worked out and keep baseball growing and just progressing. That’s always the goal, to try and plan to be there at the start of spring and go from there."
Seager was the 2016 NL Rookie of the Year, won his first World Series during the 2020 pandemic-shortened campaign with the Dodgers and helped the Rangers capture their first championship in franchise history in 2023.
The former first-round pick joined Hall of Famers Bob Gibson, Reggie Jackson and Sandy Koufax as the only players in baseball history to earn two World Series MVPs when he captured the hardware with Texas three years ago. Jackson and Seager are the only ones to win the award with two different teams, and the latter is the only player to win the honor in both the American and National Leagues.
"I’ve been really fortunate to play on a lot of really good teams and without those teams you don’t make those situations. So I’m extremely grateful, to start," the 2023 AL MVP runner-up said. "You just go out there and you try and win. At the end of the day, when it comes to the last series it’s about winning strikes, winning pitches and scoring runs and preventing runs. Really, you lean on your teammates and fortunately I’ve just been able to be in some big spots and come through, which has been awesome. I’m really just grateful for the teams I’ve played for."
Seager's offseason will include recovering from his elbow surgery and continuing his partnership with Nutrafol, which is the official hair growth partner of MLB.
He called the venture a "great partnership" and cited his family's "struggles with hair thinning" as a reason for joining.
Regardless of how a possible lockout may impact the 2027 campaign, Seager said Thursday that he's a fan of the direction the game is going, with changes like the pitch clock and automated ball-strike (ABS) challenge system coming to MLB.
"I think the pitch clock was great. It killed all the dead time and really just brought the excitement and the joy that people come to watch," the infielder said. "Then with the ABS, the fan interaction for that was actually bigger than I expected. I thought it would be more of a competitive thing for us, but really the experience for the fans to kind of get to see that, it was pretty cool to see. It definitely was different, but it was fun to watch that fan interaction."
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