ARLINGTON, Texas (AP) — Corey Seager and Marcus Semien won't try to return to play this week for the Texas Rangers, ending the fourth season together for middle infielders who have been sidelined since late August.
“They’re done. They’re pretty much shut down,” manager Bruce Bochy said Tuesday before the Rangers' 4-1 loss against Minnesota to open their final home series.
Semien has been out since Aug. 22, after the second baseman sustained a broken bone and sprained ligament when fouling a pitch off his left foot. That was a week before shortstop Seager had an appendectomy.
While Seager and Semien are done and the Rangers are out of playoff contention, Bochy said Jacob deGrom (12-8, 3.01 ERA) will make his last scheduled start Wednesday against the Twins. It will be the two-time Cy Young Award winner's 30th start this year after missing most of the past two seasons recovering from Tommy John surgery.
DeGrom already has thrown 167 2/3 innings this season, after only 35 starts and 197 1/3 innings combined the past four seasons. That included his final two injury-plagued years with the New York Mets before leaving in free agency and then having surgery after only six starts in his Rangers debut in 2023, the season of their only World Series title.
“He wants to pitch,” Bochy said.
Seager and Semien were a half-billion dollar addition for the Rangers in free agency after the 2021 season, when Seager got a $325 million, 10-year contract, and Semien signed for $175 million over seven seasons. The following offseason, deGrom arrived with a $185 million, five-year deal that included a conditional sixth-year club option worth at least $20 million for 2028 that has been triggered because of the time missed injured.
Both Seager and Semien had indicated that they hoped to get back to play this season, especially when the Rangers made a late push for a playoff spot with a 13-3 run that included a pair of six-game winning streaks. But the eight-game losing streak, their longest of the season, dropped them 5 1/2 games behind Houston for the American League's final playoff spot with five games left in the regular season.
When asked about the possibility of two-time World Series MVP Seager coming back this week, Bochy responded, “It's not worth the risk. He's not quite ready. Same with Marcus.”
Bochy said they possibly could have played had the Rangers made the postseason.
“Yeah, it was a chance,” he said. “Marcus is making a lot of improvement. Corey not quite as fast as we were hoping.”
Seager hit .271 with 21 home runs and 50 RBIs in 102 games this season. He also missed 16 games in May while on the injured list with a right hamstring strain.
Semien will finish at 127 games, his fewest in a full season since 85 with the Athletics in 2017, the only other time in his 13 big league seasons he went on the injured list. He had played at least 159 games every year since, except for the pandemic-shortened 2020 season. He hit .230 with 15 homers and 62 RBIs this year.
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Texas Rangers starting pitcher Jacob deGrom throws against the Houston Astros during the first inning of a baseball game Wednesday, Sept. 17, 2025, in Houston. (AP Photo/Michael Wyke)
The main Kremlin party retained its majority in Russia’s parliament, election officials said Monday, after a carefully orchestrated balloting that excluded most opposition candidates and helped the government maintain its tight grip on power.
Results from over 95% of the polling stations gave the Kremlin’s United Russia party just under 58% of the vote for the 225 seats apportioned by parties, according to the Central Election Commission. Another 225 lawmakers were chosen in single-ballot races, and the results showed United Russia candidates leading in 208 of those races.
Central Election Commission chair Ella Pamfilova said the preliminary results indicated that United Russia would get 355 seats out of 450, a record high for the party, if confirmed.
It was the first parliamentary election since President Vladimir Putin launched the full-scale invasion of Ukraine in 2022, and the first to include residents of four regions of that country that were seized and illegally annexed by Moscow later that year. Voting also was held in Crimea, which was illegally annexed by Russia in 2014. Kyiv denounced the voting in those regions as illegal.
The Kremlin tightened its crackdown on opposition ahead of the election, including barring Russia’s only liberal, anti-war party from the ballot and allowing it to compete only in single-ballot races.
Along with United Russia, several other parties that almost always vote for Kremlin initiatives also won seats in the State Duma, the lower house of parliament. A handful of seats will go to several candidates who ran without a party affiliation in single-ballot races, according to preliminary results.
The Kremlin has sought the parliamentary election to showcase popular support for the war, and strove to avoid political risks by stamping out any dissent.
A massive state media campaign and tight control over the election in the absence of genuine opposition left little doubt that Kremlin will keep tight control of Russian politics as economic costs rise and Ukrainian drone attacks increase deep inside the country.
Voters cast two separate ballots over three days, from Friday to Sunday, filling half of the Duma’s 450 seats by selecting political parties listed on the ballot. The rest were contested in single-seat constituencies, with voters choosing individual candidates.
Electronic balloting was available in many regions and encouraged by authorities. Critics said it made it easier for the government to control the outcome of the vote.
Pamfilova said turnout was just over 59% — the highest in a parliamentary election in over a decade. The final results will be announced Friday. she said.
The liberal Yabloko party, the only registered political entity that dared to publicly criticize the war, was removed from the ballot last month by Russia’s Supreme Court, and only has a few dozen candidates in the single-constituency races. Additionally, some anti-war politicians were imprisoned or forced to flee abroad ahead of the campaign.
Yabloko and the Communist Party, which has criticized some aspects of government policy but carefully avoided any criticism of Putin, said many of their observers were turned away from polling stations.
Russia didn’t invite observers from the Organization for Security and Cooperation in Europe, with the Russian Foreign Ministry accusing the body of “double standards” for its criticism of Russia. OSCE Parliamentary Assembly President Pere Joan Pons said that the decision was a breach of Russia’s commitments as a member state of the organization.
At one polling station in the Russian-held part of the Donetsk region, voters dropped their ballots in a box as an armed Russian soldier stood nearby and watched.
Vladimir Yakushev, a secretary of the General Council of the United Russia party, speaks during a news conference following parliamentary elections, in Moscow, Russia, Monday, Sept. 21, 2026. (AP Photo/Alexander Zemlianichenko)
Vladimir Yakushev, a secretary of the General Council of the United Russia party, speaks during a news conference following parliamentary elections, in Moscow, Russia, Monday, Sept. 21, 2026. (AP Photo/Alexander Zemlianichenko)
A voter fills-in a ballot during Russia's parliamentary election in Donetsk, in the Russian-controlled part of the Donetsk region, Ukraine, Friday, Sept. 18, 2026. (AP Photo)
