2016 was a magical year for the Los Angeles Dodgers, but not for the reasons you’d expect in winning a championship. Their 2016 roster set the all-time record for players put on the disabled list, a whopping 28, and still won their division by four games, holding off the San Francisco Giants.

Even though the season ended on a sour note with their exit in the National League Championship series, the Dodgers will do what they have had to do the past four seasons that ended without a ring, and that’s to look forward to the next year.

I could go on about the team as a whole for three pages and not skip a beat, but instead I want to talk about be the man who is fast becoming the cornerstone of the Dodger franchise. And his name isn’t Clayton Kershaw.

Standing at 6’4, weighing 215 pounds, and at just 22 years old, Corey Seager commands the shortstop position and has become the brightest star on the field for Los Angeles.

Seager stormed onto the scene in 2015 after being called up late in the season to get a taste of the next level. He didn’t disappoint, hitting .337 with an on-base percentage of .425 in 27 games. On the defensive side he’s about league average, but with a bat like that, an average glove will suffice when he’s hitting 25 dingers a year.

Now to make the connection to Hall of Fame players after someone’s rookie season could be a stretch, but the similarities between Seager and say Cal Ripken Jr. are striking. Thought of to be too big to play shortstop in the Major Leagues, Seager is an anomaly. Ripken stood at 6’4 as well and was nicknamed the “Ironman,” because of his ability to trot onto the field day after day and eventually set a consecutive streak of games that has never been broken. Well, Seager, also 6’4, played in 157 games during his rookie season, the most by any player on the Dodger’s roster.

Fast forward to the 2016 season, and the still rookie-eligible Seager was now fully entrenched in his starting role. With his family pedigree of MLB players (older brother Kyle Seager plays for the Mariners), and riding his 2015 numbers into this new season, expectations for Seager were off the charts.

Now I’m just going to throw out statistics here because if you didn’t know, that’s all baseball is, a collection of numbers that can even tell how well a player will hit a slider during a night game in the month of August when there’s a 2-2 count and a lefty on the mound.

Over the course of the season, he batted .308, while having an OBP (On Base Percentage) of .365, while putting 26 balls in the bleachers, a Dodger shortstop record. Let us not forget, Seager had 193 hits, scored 105 runs, slapped 40 doubles, and amassed 321 total bases, all Dodger rookie records.

Dodgers Manager Dave Roberts spoke with MLB.com reporter, Ken Gurnick on what it’s like having a player of Seager’s talent level at the shortstop position.

“Obviously, I have a biased perspective, but I think he’s the best shortstop in the National League,” Roberts said of Seager. “Corey Seager is what the game is about now and going forward. The numbers speak for themselves.”

At the age of 22, Corey Seager was voted into his first All-Star Game, where he also took part in the Homerun Derby, and by year’s end, he was crowned National League Rookie of the Year by a unanimous vote. Seager is the 17th Dodger to win this award.

Captivating a fan base with his unbelievable play on the field, Seager remains one of the softest spoken players you will ever encounter as he displayed when he spoke with Los Angeles Times reporter Bill Shaikin.

“It’s obviously an honor just to win it,” he said. “It’s not to shove in anybody else’s face. It’s a hard game. You don’t take it for granted.”

He was taken under the wing of second basemen Chase Utley, and having that model big league player to guide him, Seager soaked it all in on how to remain focused.

For the Dodgers they no longer have to worry about who will carry them in the future (not named Kershaw), and they should do whatever it takes to keep Corey Seager in Dodger blue for as long as they possibly can.