Corey Seager lands on the injured list with hip injury: Could the season be over for the Rangers shortstop?

With their hopes of winning the postseason fading, the Texas Rangers will place their star shortstop Corey Seager on the injured list on Wednesday, and his season could be over, GM Chris Young told reporters (via the Dallas Morning News). Seager has a hip problem and has started only three of the team's last seven games on the field.

“I can’t really predict when he’ll be back,” Young said (via Dallas Morning News).

The Rangers have 23 games remaining and enter Wednesday's game with a 66-73 record. They are 9 1/2 games behind the AL West and 8 1/2 games out of the third wild-card spot with six teams ahead of them. Texas is in danger of becoming the first defending World Series champions to finish with a loss since the Boston Red Sox went 71-91 in 2014.

Seager, 30, had to undergo surgery for a hernia in January and missed almost all of spring training despite being on the Opening Day roster. He started the season slowly before really taking off in May. If his season is indeed over, Seager finishes it with a .278/.353/.512 batting line and 30 home runs in just 123 games.

A year ago, Seager had the best season of his career, hitting .327/.390/.623 with 42 doubles and 33 home runs. He finished second to Shohei Ohtani in AL MVP voting. Seager then hit .318/.451/.682 with six home runs in 17 postseason games. He was named World Series MVP en route to the Rangers' first championship title in history.

With Seager out, the Rangers will likely use all-arounder Josh Smith at shortstop, although Jonathan Ornelas and Ezequiel Duran can also fill the position if needed.

This is the third year of Seager's 10-year, $325 million contract, and winning the 2023 World Series alone makes it money well spent for Texas.