ARLINGTON, Texas — Watch enough Corey Seager at-bats and you might notice something before all the towering homers and blistering doubles.
Specifically, your eye could be drawn to his bat. Scuffed and well-worn, its handle is coated in pine tar and the fat of its barrel etched with the white ring where a weighted donut sometimes sits.
It's certainly possible the Rangers' star shortstop hasn't used the same exact bat all season. But, seeing it on his shoulder as he takes the plate each game, it sure looks like he has.
The team broadcast on Bally Sports Southwest has caught onto this thinking in recent weeks, noting Seager's weathered bat with regularity. On Sunday, some national baseball-focused social media accounts began taking notice, too.
"Corey Seager's bat has been through some things," the popular Codify account posted to X, formerly known as Twitter.
Turns out, the bat's story actually begins more than 1,400 miles from Globe Life Field.
Reached by phone on Friday inside the Fullerton, California, shop where Seager's bats get carved, Steve McKee can't help but marvel at all of his product's recent successes.
It's his family-owned business, Trinity Bat Company, that made Seager's bat. He describes the product as a 34-inch, 32-ounce piece of birch wood that's been crafted to Seager's specifications -- down to its coat of black paint.
McKee, who called Seager a "super guy" and a "real gentleman" to work with, said Seager has always been straightforward in what he likes about swinging a Trinity.
"His comments to my rep was that every bat we give him is a gamer," McKee said. "He doesn't give any of our bats away. His bats last, too."
Ask McKee if it's possible that Seager has really used the exact same bat all season and he becomes a tad skeptical. While no baseball bat is made to break, suffering such a fate is an inevitable end they all face. Use any bat long enough, and it'll crack and splinter and shatter into pieces. It's just what happens: A wooden bat is fine one swing, then dead the next -- the victim, perhaps, of an inside fastball that jams a hitter and stings his hands.
On the other hand, this doesn't happen often to Seager. He's among the best hitters in baseball this year: He's hitting .346 with a .411 on-base percentage, 23 homers, 33 doubles and 74 runs batted in at the time of this writing. Presuming he manages to get enough plate appearances by the end of the year, he's on track to win the American League batting title by a mile.
All of which is to say this: The guy makes pretty good contact.
He's clearly in a bit of zone, too. That's how former big leaguer Will Middlebrooks put it, anyway, after seeing the picture of Seager's bat making the rounds on social media.
"If you ever see a player who's bat looks like this, it means they're allll the way locked in," Middlebrooks explained.
As for the Rangers, they seem hesitant to publicly confirm if Seager has indeed used the same bat all season -- even if then-and-now pictures, as well close-ups the bat's current state, seem to suggest it's the case.
Of course, it's also entirely likely that Seager has a rotation of Trinity bats with similar scuffs along their shafts, and indistinguishable treatments applied along their lengths. Seager, a known obsessive when it comes to his in-game routines, is also well-known for coating his bat handles in pine tar.
Recently, McKee said, his office got an order from Seager for six more bats to go with the 18 they already sent him in the spring.
But is that necessarily a sign that Seager's been using more than one of them?
If photos from throughout the season are any indication, Seager's bat has only gotten progressively dirtier, and more coated in pine tar, throughout the season.
Take a look for yourself -- because, yes, this is important investigative journalism:
Here's what we know for certain: Seager doesn't break bats often. This durability comes down to three things: the quality of his swing, the quality of his bat and a little bit of luck.
The luck will come and go. And there's no questioning his swing -- it's rare he doesn't make solid contact, especially this year.
In terms of the bat, which, in Seager's case, began as a birch tree and ended up in a California lumber yard where McKee's team picked it from the lot, there's some science at play. Birch is one of three wood types used to make bats for the majors; maple and ash are the others. McKee described birch as the best blend of the other two -- almost as hard as maple but with a "little bit of flex to it."
The bats made by Trinity and the other manufacturers that are approved by Major League Baseball have to follow a set of regulations. The basics are that the barrel can't be thicker than 2.61 inches in diameter, and the bat can't be longer than 42 inches. There are other rules to follow, too, including specifications on density with maple wood and restrictions on where and how a logo can be placed on the bat.
But a lot of what goes into the construction of a bat comes down to what the player likes, and how it feels when he hits it.
Seager's Trinity bat -- their Pro Model CS271 -- has what's known as a "slight end-loaded feel" as well as a medium-sized barrel and handle. Some players, McKee said, prefer a barrel smaller as opposed to the maximum allowed because it helps with swing speed.
Seager also prefers what McKee called a "flare" on the knob of the bat. As with anything, some players prefer more there, some prefer less.
McKee added, too, that Trinity sends its bats through a "bone rubbing" process to make them harder.
And in its own words -- and in terms that might best sum up Seager's use of the bat in 2023 -- Trinity's website listing bills the CS271 model as "extremely durable with tremendous pop."
At the moment, Seager is Trinity's most notable pro. He began using a Trinity bat when he was a younger player with the Los Angeles Dodgers. He later switched brands for a bit, but ultimately came back to Trinity, which operates out of an office park in Fullerton, California.
McKee founded his company in 2005 and got soon got its products approved for use in Major League Baseball -- a vital step in getting access to player to use their bats. Trinity then started with a bang: Angels star Vladimir Guerrero, who also later played for the Rangers, was the first big leaguer to swing a Trinity bat in a game.
Sluggers including Adrian Gonzalez, Ben Zobrist, Mark Trumbo, Howie Kendrick and Gavin Lux (Seager's teammate with the Dodgers) have hit with a Trinity at points in their careers, too.
For the most part, though, Trinity has in recent years focused its market more on the levels below the big leagues. McKee said the bat industry typically has three different qualities of wood -- major league, minor league and sporting goods store. But, at Trinity, the bats they sell in their showroom and online are the same wood quality as the one Seager swings when he hits a homer.
No, the company might not be a household name like Louisville Slugger. But McKee said he's pleased with how Trinity has carved its place in the game just the same, on performance alone.
And he only needs to check out Seager's impressive stat line for proof of that much.
"It's very humbling, just to think that we can compete in that market," McKee said. "We don't contract players. They're swinging the bat because they're doing the job."
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