Dodgers’ Shortstop Corey Seager MVP Worthy in 2017?

After an incredible 2016 rookie season, Dodger fans everywhere can’t wait to see what Corey Seager does in 2017. After setting multiple Dodger franchise rookie and regular season records, Seager set himself up for pretty high standards this season. But will those standards lead to an MVP award in 2017?

Anyone who watched the Dodgers play last season knows they wouldn’t have gotten as far as they did without the 2016 NL Rookie of the Year, Corey Seager. Sure the sport doesn’t rely on soley one player, but when this one player is single-handedly helping to win games, breaking records, while doing it all with ease, it’s hard not to say he was a huge part of their success.

Seager finished third in the NL MVP voting and some believe he deserved to win it. Well, after last season, even if he improves just a little bit, he could be your 2017 NL MVP.

It’s always hard to compare players because every league is different. Technology is different every season and so is the talent playing for all of the MLB clubs. But the comparisons do give us a good idea of what we can “expect” from a player to win NL MVP. So let us start with 2015’s NL MVP, Bryce Harper.

Bryce Harper came into the league at the age of 19, and after all the attention he received, you’d think baseball had never seen a Harper-like player before. Except there was, he was just in the American League playing for the Angels. His name was Mike Trout, and he put up an even more impressive rookie season than Harper did, by far.

Because Seager is in the NL, we are going to compare him to Harper rather than Trout. Seager didn’t receive the attention Harper or Trout did as rookies, but easily put up better numbers than Harper in every offensive category, while also almost matching Trout’s rookie season.

Seager put up an impressive .308 average while Harper put up a .270 average his rookie season. He also had 72 RBI’s, 26 home runs, 193 hits, and 105 runs, compared to Harper’s 59 RBI’s 22 home runs, 144 hits, and 98 runs. These numbers show that Seager blew Harper’s rookie season out of the water.

Harper did win his first NL MVP during his fourth season in 2015, as a 23-year-old, which made him the youngest unanimous NL MVP to ever win the award. Seager will be 23 at the end of the 2017 season. Harper is good, but now let’s compare Seager to an even better player than Harper, a certain Hall-of-Famer.

Anyone who has watched baseball in their life has heard of Cal Ripken Jr. He holds the record for playing in the most consecutive games in a career at 2,632, earning himself the nickname “Iron Man”. A lot of people from the beginning of Seager’s big league career compared him to Ripken. Even Ripken has commented on the similarities between himself and Seager. Just like Seager, Ripken was told he was too big to play shortstop and proved everyone wrong. In Seager’s case, he has started to silence his doubters on defense.

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Their rookie season comparison is where it gets fun. In Ripken’s rookie season, he had an impressive 32 doubles, 28 home runs, and 93 RBI’s. As mentioned above, Seager’s numbers were almost identical to Ripken’s, with Seager adding eight more doubles to his rookie season. Ripken also won Rookie of the Year and followed that season up by winning AL MVP in his next season.

The comparisons to two very well known MVP’s is just the start of what we could see Seager do in his career. He’s already looking like a better player than Harper, who is heading into his sixth season. I can’t really compare Seager to Ripken, as he no longer plays and is a Hall of Fame player, but to even come close to someone’s rookie year like Ripken’s is an honor in itself.

As Seager’s 2016 season started to come to an end, we saw him only get better. The power may have dropped off slowly, but the contact and offensive production as a whole continued to improve. At only 22-years-old, he has plenty of time to earn himself an MVP award. But, if Seager starts off 2017 the way he finished off 2016, there’s no reason this year can’t be the year it happens.

As of now, the only other player in baseball who looks like he could take that from Seager would be the Cubs’ reigning NL MVP Kris Bryant. Bryant also won Rookie of the Year in 2015 and followed it up with an MVP last season.

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Seager’s MVP status solely rides on his shoulders and production. However, if the Dodger players batting behind and ahead of him can also hit and get on-base, it would give Seager that many more opportunities for runs and RBI’s. 2017 is going to be a crazy season, but I think it will be the year everyone learns who Corey Seager is.