Corey Seager Declines Qualifying Offer From Dodgers as Expected

The million dollar question (or $25 million question) is where Corey Seager will end up in the 2022 season.

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Besides Carlos Correa, he is looking like the most sought after position player. The two-time all-star is coming off one of his best hitting seasons. The past 2 seasons (2020 was a shortened season) Corey Seager has been able to hit over .300.

Even though he has suffered 2 major injuries in the last 3 full seasons, teams are still very interested. Last season, Seager was paid $13.75 million and he is expecting at least double and very long-term. The other potential downside is his defense. He is a good defender throughout the year but has streaks where it’s rather difficult for him.

He is not to blame for the Dodgers being eliminated from the 2021 playoffs but he did have a couple blunders that were very costly. None more costly than the NLCS game 2 blunder that led to the Rosario walk-off. Although that specific incident was not ruled as an error.

There are reports that Seager is willing to come back to Los Angeles but it is very hard to gauge how much the Dodgers can afford to give him. The Dodgers have offered Chris Taylor a one-year $18.4 million contract and they signed Andrew Heaney for one-year at $8 million.

So they are showing some flexibility in terms of spending but that can start escalating rather quickly. The Dodgers are looking to have about $20 – $30 million more to spend this offseason which won’t leave much room to sign 2 starting pitchers and a couple position players.

All of that is contingent on the Bauer situation of course. If he is suspended then the Dodgers are looking at about $34 million extra to spend. Either way, the qualifying offer extended to Seager was declined as expected since Seager is looking for a much longer contract and more per year. However, if Seager signs with another team, the Dodgers will be compensated with a draft pick.

At this point, it seems rather unlikely that the Dodgers will be serious competitors to sign Seager given that they have Trea Turner, Gavin Lux, Justin Turner, Max Muncy, Cody Bellinger and Chris Taylor (if he re-signs) to help out in the infield.