Seattle Mariners: Kyle Seager’s accelerated free fall in 2018

Emerald City Swagger is in the middle of our 2018 Seattle Mariners player reviews. We start with the position players, then move on to the pitchers. Today is third baseman, Kyle Seager.

When Kyle Seager took over as the Seattle Mariners regular third baseman in 2012, he became one of my favorite players on the team. I am sure it was in part because he replaced Chone Figgins. For those of you forgot, Figgins had a miserable 2011 hitting only .188 and was reportedly terrible in the clubhouse as well.

Every season Kyle Seager has been a regular he has had at least 20 home runs. His best year was 2016 when he batted .278 with 30 home runs and 99 runs batted in. The last two seasons, however. his output has gone down considerably. Seager’s batting average dropped to .249 in 2017 and then to .221 in 2018. His home runs and RBI have gone down as well. He had 27 home runs with 88 RBI in 2017 and 22 home runs with 78 RBI.

His declining production wouldn’t be as of big deal if he were older like Robinson Cano, who is 35 years old or Nelson Cruz who is 38 years old. Seager is only 30 years old and should be in the prime of his career. The past few seasons, his numbers should have been increasing over instead of decreasing.