Kyle Seager

Despite posting a career-low .240 BABIP last season, Seager recorded the third-highest wRC+ (118) of his decade-long MLB career, the product of a .241/.355/.433 slash line. Seager has run very low BABIPs for quite some time now due to his flyball-heavy batted-ball profile, though Statcast still suggests he deserved at least slightly better than he got, giving him a .473 xSLG. While his barrel rate finished at a personal Statcast-era high of 10.2%, his most encouraging improvements came in his plate discipline. His 13.3% strikeout rate and 12.9% walk rate both represented the best marks of his career. Just how much of those gains stick over a full 162-game season remains to be seen, but he should be a useful option in the final year of his seven-year deal, with added upside possible if he gets flipped to a contender with a more hitter-friendly park at the deadline.

Much like his younger brother Corey, Kyle missed time due to injury in 2019. The elder Seager injured his hand in spring training, and did not begin the regular season until May 25. There is always a worry about power returning with hand-area injuries, and Seager's .203/.288/.371 slash line heading into the break did nothing to alleviate those concerns. The .260/.339/.524 line with 17 homers after the break was the type of production most owners had hoped they would get out of the slugger last season with the new baseball in play. His overall skills have been rather consistent the past few years, although the increase in walks this past season seemed to be more about opponents pitching around him to face a weaker option in the lineup than any newfound zone discipline skills. Last season marked the first time Seager missed major time with injury, and was his eighth consecutive season with 20 or more homers.

We'll start with the good: for the seventh consecutive season, Seager reached 154 games played, 630 plate appearances and 20 homers. Now the bad: he graded out as below league average (84 wRC+) for the first time during that seven-year stretch, as his strikeout rate jumped five percentage points to 21.9%, his walk rate fell to a career-low 6.0% and his line against righties fell to .208/.257/.401. That was down from .249/.328/.448 in 2017 and .307/.394/.538 in 2016 -- a sharp, sudden decline against opposite-handed pitching. Statcast says he deserved better (.249 xBA, .420 xSLG), and just by staying on the field and accumulating, he ensured that fantasy owners didn't take too big of a hit on a top-150 draft-day price. That volume should be there again in 2019, theoretically, as he's signed with the Mariners through at least 2021, but as the saying goes, "players are durable until they're not."

After displaying incremental growth as a hitter in each of his first six big-league seasons, culminating in a career-best .858 OPS in 2016, Seager finally noticed a backslide last season. While his slugging percentage slipped a bit, it was the third baseman's batting average and OBP that took more significant hits, due largely to a 51.6% flyball rate that suppressed his BABIP. Though Seager excels at generating hard contact, he has put the ball in the air at a high rate throughout his career, making it difficult to rely on him as anything more than a neutral asset in batting average. As a result, Seager's power numbers will continue to drive his value, which doesn't make him an overly unique commodity in an era of heightened home-run production. That being said, Seager probably offers a little more reliability than many of the other 25-to-30-homer bats out there, given that he hasn't missed more than eight games in any of his six full seasons in the majors.

Little brother Corey took most of the headlines, but after 2016, Kyle has increased his home run total in each major-league season, backed up with flyball rates of over 40 percent each year. He ranked in the top 25 with a 38.7 percent hard-contact rate, though because he hits so many balls in the air, it hasn't translated to anything close to a .300 batting average. A career-best 10.2 percent walk rate from last year enabled him to emerge as surprising OBP asset in those formats. Even though he is not a batting average anchor, he is incredibly safe in that department, as his contact rate hasn't fallen below 82.4 percent in any year. He's an increasingly stable player (155-plus games played in the last five years), sitting near the top shelf of a suddenly deep position, himself in position to drive in plenty of runs for the surprisingly tasty Seattle lineup. Last year might've marked his peak, and his ceiling falls a bit short of other top-10 third basemen. Still, even if he's plateaued, he's achieved a profile worth a strong investment.

Seager quietly had a career year in 2015. He finished in the top five among AL third basemen in most batting categories (top 3 in runs, hits, XBH, LD%, etc.), swatting at least 20 homers for the fourth consecutive season with a career-high 26. He cut his strikeout rate to a career-low 14.3% and posted career highs in line-drive (26.5%) and contact rates (84%). His batting average was only two points off 2014's career high despite a BABIP nearly 20 points lower. The one area he struggled in was batting with was runners in scoring position, as in nearly the same number of at-bats as 2014, he drove in 22 fewer runners due to a .179/.289/.317 RISP line (.301/.356/.479 in 2014). Perhaps he saw fewer pitches to hit because of a lack of protection behind him. A better lineup this season could solve that and give him more opportunities to collect counting stats.

Seager hit a career-high 25 homers, drove in nearly 100 runs, made the All-Star team and won a Gold Glove last season. The Mariners promptly extended him for seven years and $100 million. Seager's big year started rather inauspiciously as he was hitting .156 with zero homers and zero RBI on April 22. He quickly put the early slump behind him, though, batting .281/.341/.483 the rest of the way. Among third basemen, his .186 ISO was second only to Josh Donaldson, as was his RBI total. And only Donaldson and Todd Frazier hit more home runs. Seager appears to have solved pitcher-friendly Safeco Field, batting .300/.370/.523 at the park last season. Even if there's some regression at home, he has room to grow on the road where his OPS dropped nearly 150 points from 2013. The Mariners overpaid to buy out Seager's arbitration years, but when the 27-year-old hits the back half of his contract, it likely will be a bargain.

Seager continues to be one of the few positives on the roster and the lone Mariners youngster without major questions dogging him. He proved that 2012 was no fluke by posting remarkably similar stats last year across the board. What's more, he improved his walk rate while his strikeout and contact rates remained strong. Seager played 106 consecutive games at one point, which might have tired him down the stretch, as he slumped in the last six weeks of the season with a .181 average and a .558 OPS. He still finished among the better AL third basemen –- first in steals, fourth in doubles, fifth in homers, fifth in OPS, fifth in ISO. The only place he took a step back was in RBI, with a near 20-run drop thanks to the impotent bats surrounding him in the lineup. After two solid years, it wouldn't surprise if Seager took another step this season.

Seager's emergence as a legitimate everyday player was one of the few positives among Seattle's youngsters last year. Seager played a dependable third base and became the first Mariner since 2009 to hit 20 homers in a season. He quietly ranked second among AL third basemen in doubles, third in RBI and stolen bases, fourth in hits and home runs and fifth in walks. He also ranked third in baseball with 44 two-out RBI. His OPS was 200 points higher on the road last season, but moving the fences in at Safeco Field should help. The only flaw in his game seems to be his ability to handle left-handing pitching, against which he struggled (.237/.281/.377) for the second year in row. He has time to figure that out, though, because third base is a wasteland for the organization. Barring an offseason move, Seager is entrenched at the position.

Seager flew up the charts last season, and entering spring training he's the closest thing the Mariners have to a third baseman. After hitting .312 at Double-A Jackson and then .387 at Triple-A Tacoma (with a 1.029 OPS), Seager took over the hot corner from a struggling Chone Figgins. Seager hit only .258 but showed good plate discipline, as he had in the minors, and his bat heated up down the stretch too. Unless the Mariners bring in a free agent, it appears the third-base job is Seager's to lose. Figgins is unlikely to get the job back (if he even stays with the team) and the only other competition is the inferior Alex Liddi. Seager had trouble with left-handed pitching last year, though – his OPS vs. southpaws was .570 with no extra-base hits. Acquiring a platoon partner might be in store for Seager.