World Series 2023: Corey Seager joins Reggie Jackson as only MLB position players to win World Series MVP twice

Corey Seager mashed his way into MLB history.

The Texas Rangers shortstop became the second position player ever to win World Series MVP on Wednesday, as he helped the Rangers finish off the Arizona Diamondbacks with a 2-for-4 performance that included the single to break up ace Zac Gallen's no-hitter and score what was eventually the winning run in Texas' 5-0 victory.

Seager joins "Mr. October" Reggie Jackson, in the club of two. The only other players to win World Series MVP multiple times are pitchers Sandy Koufax and Bob Gibson. Seager and Jackson are also the only ones to do so with multiple teams: Seager received his first trophy in 2020 with the Los Angeles Dodgers, while Jackson won it in 1973 with the Oakland Athletics and 1977 with the New York Yankees.

There really wasn't any other choice for the honor on the Rangers' roster, at least not after ALCS MVP Adolis García was knocked out for the series due to an oblique injury suffered in Game 3. In the five games, Seager went 6-for-21 with three homers, five runs and six RBI.

Seager's biggest hit came in Game 1, the most dramatic night of the series. With the Rangers down 5-3 in the top of the ninth, Seager faced D-backs closer Paul Sewald with a runner on base and one out. To that point, Sewald had not allowed a run in the postseason, and he had allowed only four baserunners total in eight appearances.

Seager hit the ball 416 feet.

That homer tied the game, and then García hit another homer in the 11th to give the Rangers the first victory of the series.

Seager scored runs in all four of the Rangers' wins this series without committing an error at shortstop. He finished the postseason hitting .318 with a 1.133 OPS, an uncanny imitation of his run in 2020 that ended with his first World Series MVP.

The Rangers signed Corey Seager for exactly this

Less than two years ago, the Rangers signed Seager to a 10-year, $325 million contract, the largest deal in franchise history and one of the 10 largest in MLB history by total value.

The deal rewarded Seager for a standout career with the Dodgers but was also seen as a downgrade in franchise situation. At the time, the Rangers were coming off a 60-102 season and hadn't reached the playoffs since 2016, a span of time in which the Dodgers won 100 games or reached the World Series in every season.

Seager was joined by other big signings such as Marcus Semien and Jon Gray, but initially, all that seemed to do was turn the Rangers from a last-place club into a fourth-place club (they won 68 games in 2022).

This season was the transformative one. With a new manager in Bruce Bochy, rising young players such as García, Josh Jung and Jonah Heim and even more free-agent signings with Nathan Eovaldi, Andrey Heaney and Jacob deGrom, the Rangers jumped to 90 wins.

They remained inconsistent, though, and lost the AL West title on the last day of the regular season to the Houston Astros. Of course, the postseason was a different animal.

Seager might not have singlehandedly transformed the Rangers into World Series champions, but the club signed him when they could, well before they expected to make the jump, and the organization was rewarded with one of the most clutch hitters in baseball. It's a lesson many other teams could learn from and one that is already set to go down as one of the best moves in franchise history.