Dodgers News: Corey Seager Shines Spotlight On Scott Schebler

The Los Angeles Dodgers didn’t necessarily intend for matters to play out the way they did. Yes, top prospect Corey Seager was essentially a lock to make his Major League debut in September, but Sept. 3 in San Diego wasn’t exactly the targeted date.

An injury to Jimmy Rollins, once a swollen knuckle as a result of jamming his finger that’s now a sprained right index finger, accelerated Seager’s path to the Majors. Although the plan was thrown off course a bit, the Dodgers certainly aren’t complaining.

Through his first 13 career games (11 starts) with the Dodgers, Seager is hitting a blistering .426/.526/.617 with one home run, six doubles, eight RBIs and more walks (nine) than strikeouts (six) in 57 plate appearances. “He deserves all the attention he gets,” said Scott Schebler, Seager’s Triple-A Oklahoma City and now Dodgers teammate.

“Look at everything that he’s doing. I don’t mind being an under-the-radar guy. He deserves everything he gets.” The less heralded Schebler made his Major-League debut prior to Seager — in June when the Dodgers were running short on outfielders.

Schebler was also recalled from Triple-A one day prior to Seager getting his call. With the two friends contributing to the Dodgers’ push toward a third consecutive National League West division title, the headline-grabbing Seager couldn’t help but sing Schebler’s praises, via Ken Gurnick of MLB.com:

He doesn’t get the credit; he’s not on the magazine covers and stuff, but every year, he puts up the numbers and now he’s here and I’m really pumped for him,” said Seager, ranked by MLBPipeline.com as the Dodgers’ top prospect and the No. 2 prospect in baseball. “He’s everything you’d want in a teammate.”

The night Schebler clobbered an eighth-inning two-run homer that gave the Dodgers some breathing room, there was genuine excitement exuding from Seager. “He hit that ball pretty good, huh?,” the 21-year-old shortstop said.

“That’s about as good as you’re going to hit a ball. It was cool to see.” Schebler, taken by the Dodgers’ in the 26th round of the 2010 draft and Seager, the Dodgers’ first-round pick in 2012, first became teammates with High-A Rancho Cucamonga in 2013.

They reunited in 2014 when Seager was promoted to Chattanooga, the Dodgers’ Double-A affiliate at the time. Schebler began this season with Oklahoma City, where he was joined by Seager after he first played 20 games with Double-A Tulsa.