ARLINGTON, Texas (AP) — Texas shortstop Corey Seager is feeling better after having an appendectomy and still hopeful of playing again this season for the playoff-chasing Rangers, though the two-time World Series MVP is unsure if that will happen.
“I mean, I have to think it's possible ... or it won't be,” Seager said Friday in his first public comments since the procedure Aug. 28 in Texas, the same day the Rangers left for a six-day road trip.
While Seager is eligible to come off the 10-day injured list Sunday, he said there's no chance of that.
A little while later, the Rangers placed slugger Adolis García on the 10-day IL with a right quadriceps strain — prior to the opener of a three-game series against AL West-leading Houston. That move was retroactive to Tuesday.
Outfielder Dustin Harris was brought up from Triple-A Round Rock and right-hander Jon Gray (right shoulder nerve irritation) was transferred to the 60-day IL.
Seager has researched athletes who have come back to play after an appendectomy.
“I feel like I got very opposite ends of the spectrum,” he said. “It was either really fast or kind of wasn’t.”
Matt Holliday was with the St. Louis Cardinals in 2011 when he had an appendectomy on April 1, and returned to their lineup as the designated hitter nine days later. Seager said he had also been told of some basketball players returning in three weeks.
“But it's not rotating and stuff, so I don't know if that changes it just because of where the incisions are,” Seager said. “So I really don't know.”
Seager’s appendectomy came a day after he experienced abdominal pain during the Rangers’ previous home game, a 20-3 win in the finale of a three-game series against the Los Angeles Angels on Aug. 27. He hit his 21st homer of the season in that game, after also going deep the previous night.
Seager said he started feeling pain after the series opener against the Angels.
“Then it just kind of progressively got worse,” said Seager, adding doctors told him he was within 48 hours of his appendix rupturing.
"Which is a very different story,” he said.
Texas went into the series against the Astros five games behind the division leaders, and 1 1/2 games out of the final American League wild-card spot. Second baseman Marcus Semien (left foot) and right-hander Nathan Eovaldi (right rotator cuff strain) are among other injured Rangers.
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Texas Rangers' Corey Seager rounds the bases after hitting a solo home run in the seventh inning of a baseball game against the Los Angeles Angels, Tuesday, Aug. 26, 2025, in Arlington, Texas. (AP Photo/Tony Gutierrez)
WASHINGTON (AP) — U.S. forces in the Caribbean Sea have seized another sanctioned oil tanker that the Trump administration says has ties to Venezuela, part of a broader U.S. effort to take control of the South American country’s oil.
Homeland Security Secretary Kristi Noem wrote on social media that the U.S. Coast Guard had boarded the Motor Tanker Veronica early Thursday. She said the ship had previously passed through Venezuelan waters and was operating in defiance of President Donald Trump’s "established quarantine of sanctioned vessels in the Caribbean.”
U.S. Southern Command said Marines and sailors launched from the aircraft carrier USS Gerald R. Ford to take part in the operation alongside a Coast Guard tactical team, which Noem said conducted the boarding as in previous raids. The military said the ship was seized “without incident.”
Noem posted a brief video that appeared to show part of the ship’s capture. The black-and-white footage showed helicopters hovering over the deck of a merchant vessel while armed troops dropped down on the deck by rope.
The Veronica is the sixth sanctioned tanker seized by U.S. forces as part of the effort by Trump’s administration to control the production, refining and global distribution of Venezuela’s oil products and the fourth since the U.S. ouster of Venezuela President Nicolás Maduro in a surprise nighttime raid almost two weeks ago.
The Veronica last transmitted its location on Jan. 3 as being at anchor off the coast of Aruba, just north of Venezuela’s main oil terminal. According to the data it transmitted at the time, it was partially filled with crude.
The ship is currently listed as flying the flag of Guyana and is considered part of the shadow fleet that moves cargoes of oil in violation of U.S. sanctions.
According to its registration data, the ship also has been known as the Galileo, owned and managed by a company in Russia. In addition, a tanker with the same registration number previously sailed under the name Pegas and was sanctioned by the U.S. Treasury Department for moving cargoes of illicit Russian oil.
As with prior posts about such raids, Noem and the military framed the seizure as part of an effort to enforce the law. Noem argued that the multiple captures show that “there is no outrunning or escaping American justice.”
However, other officials in Trump's Republican administration have made clear that they see the actions as a way to generate cash as they seek to rebuild Venezuela’s battered oil industry and restore its economy.
Trump met with executives from oil companies last week to discuss his goal of investing $100 billion in Venezuela to repair and upgrade its oil production and distribution. His administration has said it expects to sell at least 30 million to 50 million barrels of sanctioned Venezuelan oil.
This story has been corrected to show the Veronica is the fourth, not the third, tanker seized by U.S. forces since Maduro's capture.
Homeland Security Secretary Kristi Noem speaks with reporters at the White House, Thursday, Jan. 15, 2026, in Washington. (AP Photo/Alex Brandon)
Homeland Security Secretary Kristi Noem speaks with reporters at the White House, Thursday, Jan. 15, 2026, in Washington. (AP Photo/Evan Vucci)
Homeland Security Secretary Kristi Noem speaks with reporters at the White House, Thursday, Jan. 15, 2026, in Washington. (AP Photo/Evan Vucci)
Homeland Security Secretary Kristi Noem speaks with reporters at the White House, Thursday, Jan. 15, 2026, in Washington. (AP Photo/Evan Vucci)
Homeland Security Secretary Kristi Noem speaks with reporters at the White House, Thursday, Jan. 15, 2026, in Washington. (AP Photo/Evan Vucci)
U.S. Homeland Security Secretary Kristi Noem speaks during a press conference, Thursday, Jan. 8, 2026, in New York. (AP Photo/Yuki Iwamura)
U.S. Homeland Security Secretary Kristi Noem speaks at a news conference at Harry Reid International Airport, Nov. 22, 2025, in Las Vegas. (AP Photo/Ronda Churchill, File)
