GLENDALE, Ariz. — The question catches Corey Seager off guard, like a ground ball taking an unexpected hop.

Do you think people have forgotten how good you are?

“I don’t know how to answer that question,” Seager says with a laugh. “Um, I don’t really know. I mean, I don’t think about that. I don’t know that I’ve ever thought about that. My place is just to go out, compete and perform. Do what you can.”

What Seager can do is pretty impressive. In his first two full big-league seasons (including his unanimous NL Rookie of the Year season in 2016), Seager won back-to-back Silver Slugger awards as the top offensive shortstop in the National League. He hit a combined .302 with an .867 OPS, 48 home runs and 73 doubles. In 2017, he was a Gold Glove finalist.

But then he disappeared for most of a season, undergoing surgery on his hip and his throwing elbow. Other heroes emerged in Los Angeles while he was rehabbing and last year’s return to action came with tempered expectations.

During his first two seasons, Seager was entrenched as the Dodgers’ No. 2 hitter, the modern era’s home to a team’s best hitter. Last season, he found himself dropped to the bottom half of the lineup, as low as seventh in some games.

It’s enough to put a chip on a player’s shoulder.

“I think every athlete has that in some way,” Seager said. “How are you competitive if you don’t have that?”

If Seager were so inclined, he has other reasons to feel slighted this spring. Once considered a foundational piece of the franchise’s present and future, Seager’s name was bandied about in trade rumors this offseason. The Dodgers’ pursuit of Cleveland Indians shortstop Francisco Lindor seemed to make Seager expendable and there were reports of potential trade scenarios that would have sent Seager out of Los Angeles.

Seager admits he was “not bothered, maybe surprised is a better word” by those rumors.

“You understand the business side of it. You understand that,” Seager said. “I didn’t let it bother me. Everybody has their business point, the point where you realize it’s a business and that was probably mine, you know? You understand that is part of the job you do.

“I try to stay out of it. I don’t really read too much of that stuff. … You never know which one is real and which one is fake so why read it?”

It would have taken an awful lot to get Seager upset this winter. He was just happy to be out of the rehab world he inhabited following his surgeries. After going all-in on a dairy-free diet last year, his weight dipped into the 210s for the first time since high school. Now able to do a strengthening workout, not just a rehab plan (and wiser about his dietary options), the 6-foot-4 Seager is a lean 220 pounds again.

“It was nice,” Seager said. “It was weird not waiting for something to heal to get started (working out). You just go, no restrictions. I didn’t have to do any of that (physical therapy). It was like your brain had a load taken off.

“It’s been more the mental part of it. To just not worry about it, having the confidence to know you can just go.”

PITCHING PLANS

Roberts said right-hander Tony Gonsolin will start Saturday’s Cactus League opener in Scottsdale against the San Francisco Giants. Left-hander Alex Wood will start Sunday’s initial home game against the Chicago Cubs.

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Alexander: Dodgers clinch a playoff berth, but hold the champagne Right-hander Jimmy Nelson has been sidelined by a groin muscle injury but was on a mound throwing Thursday. Right-hander Dustin May felt tightness in his left side a day after throwing his first bullpen session last week. But May began playing catch again Thursday and said he’s feeling better.

OPENING DAY

Roberts said the team has already decided on the Opening Day starter but won’t divulge it publicly.

“To say who it is, there’s really no benefits – right?” Roberts said. “I mean, what’s the cost of waiting a little bit is pretty much where we’re at right now.”

Three-time Cy Young Award winner Clayton Kershaw made a franchise-record eight consecutive Opening Day starts before missing the opener last season while recovering from a spring shoulder problem. Hyun-Jin Ryu, who signed with Toronto as a free agent this winter, started the 2019 opener.