Corey Seager is better than ever. Here’s why

As a 29-year-old, Corey Seager has one of the most impressive résumés of any player in the Majors.

Among Seager's many accolades: a three-time All-Star, two-time Silver Slugger, World Series MVP and NL Rookie of the Year. He's a shortstop who's hit a collective .290/.360/.502 across nine seasons in the Majors. During that time, he's never produced the way he has to start the 2023 season.

Through his first 43 games (entering Friday), Seager hit a scorching .358/.418/.642 with a 189 wRC+ that was tied with Aaron Judge for the MLB lead (min. 150 plate appearances). Seager has approached lofty heights for many stretches in his career but he's never quite gotten to this level. Despite spending over a month on the injured list earlier this year, he's on pace for his best season yet. Seager, who is an AL All-Star finalist at shortstop, is a key reason why the Rangers are still in first place as we approach the halfway point of the season.

Here's more on Seager's most dominant stretch of games in his career and what's sparked his ascension to an even higher level.

The following stats are through Thursday's games.

The best stretch of Seager's career

It's not hyperbole to say that Seager has enjoyed the best stretch of his career to start the season. From a pure results standpoint, Seager has never been better than he is right now.

Seager posted a 1.076 OPS in his first 40 games of the season, his best such stretch of any 40-game span of his career when looking at a single season.

Seager's best OPS for a 40-game stretch, within a single regular season
1.076 OPS from 3/30/23 - 6/18/23
1.066 OPS from 6/10/17 - 8/4/17
1.061 OPS from 6/5/17 - 7/30/17
1.060 OPS from 6/11/17 - 8/5/17
1.055 OPS from 8/20/21 - 10/3/21

There's always some level of luck to maintain that production over a long stretch but Seager has all but earned his production. During that 40-game stretch to kick off his season, Seager led all hitters with a .447 wOBA (min. 150 plate appearances). His expected wOBA -- based on the quality of contact (exit velo/launch angle), strikeouts and walks -- during that time was an even match at .447.

Much like his actual results during this stretch, the underlying numbers show that he's pretty much been as good as ever this year. If you look at any stretch of 200 plate appearances in Seager's career -- including multi-year stretches and postseason play -- it's apparent that his run to begin 2023 is more or less the peak version of Seager. (And remember, Seager had that prolific 2020 postseason run, when he posted a .328/.425/.746 line in 80 plate appearances and took home both NLCS and World Series MVP honors).

Seager's quality of contact has skyrocketed

Seager's baseline was already one of baseball's best hitters entering the 2023 season. Among hitters with at least 1,000 plate appearances from 2015-22, Seager's .377 xwOBA was tied for 15th-best, just behind names like Shohei Ohtani and Paul Goldschmidt.

What's led to that xwOBA jumping all the way to .446, a number that trails only Judge and Ronald Acuña Jr.? For all the talk about the shift restrictions benefitting Seager, that's pretty much been a non-factor. To put it simply, Seager has improved in practically every possible way. It all starts with Seager's quality of contact approaching Judge-ian levels.

Seager's ranks, 2015-22 vs. '23
Avg. exit velocity: 90.9 mph vs. 95.0 mph
Barrel rate: 9.7% vs. 19.7%
Hard-hit rate: 44.5% vs. 55.6%
Sweet-spot rate: 38.7% vs. 46.5%
Groundball rate: 43.2% vs. 37.3%

Seager's average exit velocity and barrel rate trail only Judge. His 9.2% increase in barrel rate this year is the largest among all qualifying hitters. His quality of contact has been better than names like Acuña, Ohtani, and Pete Alonso. The only time Seager ever approached this level of contact authority was in the condensed '20 season, which still falls short of where he is currently.

No pitch or location to beat Seager

Another astounding aspect of Seager's success is the damage he's doing against all pitch types. His .461 xwOBA against fastballs trails only four hitters (min. 30 PA ending on fastballs) -- Judge, Bryce Harper, Freddie Freeman and Ohtani. Against offspeed pitches, Seager's .485 xwOBA is better than all but two hitters -- Goldschmidt and Alec Bohm. On plate appearances ending with breaking balls, his .403 xwOBA is behind only nine hitters.

You can break this down even further against specific pitch types and see that opposing pitchers basically have no pitch they can throw against Seager. Against the six pitch types Seager has seen at least 50 pitches against, he's been downright awesome.

Seager's xwOBA against individual pitch types, 2023
Min. 50 pitches seen
.567 against cutters (52 pitches)
.499 against sinkers (77 pitches)
.480 against curveballs (74 pitches)
.467 against changeups (99 pitches)
.428 against four-seamers (202 pitches)
.335 against sliders (136 pitches)

In addition to not being able to throw any specific pitch to Seager, there's also no place to throw them past Seager. Against pitches in the zone, Seager has a .497 xwOBA that trails only Judge's .541 mark (min. 100 PA). On pitches out of the zone, Seager has a .319 xwOBA that's above the .302 league average mark. If you break it down into specific zones, you can see where Seager really shines.

Against pitches in the heart of the zone, he's tied with Judge for the MLB lead with a +18 run value -- the run impact of an event based on the runners on base, outs, ball and strike count. Seager has a .483 batting average and has a .605 xwOBA against those pitches in the heart of the plate. Even against "shadow" pitches, essentially pitches near the edge of the zone, Seager's .280 xwOBA is above the .272 league average mark.

It doesn't matter what pitch type it is, where it's being located or even whether he's facing lefties -- he has a .404 xwOBA against them. Seager is finding ways to do damage in every possible scenario thrown against him.

Put everything together and Seager has been a drastically better version of his former self and one of the most complete hitters in the Majors. Given his résumé and the high marks he's hit in his career, this type of production always felt like it was in the realm of possibility. Even with his IL stint this year, Seager is on pace for a career-best 7.4 WAR and a second straight 30-plus home run season.

Seager was already one of the best players in baseball. Now, in his ninth big league season, he might be making a jump into superstardom.