Marcus Semien

Marcus Andrew Semien

Bats Right, Throws Right
Height 6' 1", Weight 190 lb.
School University of California, Berkeley
High School St. Mary's High School (Berkeley)
Debut September 4, 2013

Born September 17, 1990 in San Francisco, CA USA

Biographical Information[edit]

Marcus Semien was the Southern League Player of the Year with the Birmingham Barons in 2013, when he hit .290 with 21 doubles, 5 triples and 5 homers, scored 90 runs and drove in 49 in 105 games. He earned a promotion to the AAA Charlotte Knights late in the season and hit .264 in 32 games, then got to make his major league debut with the Chicago White Sox in September, hitting .261 in 21 games.

On September 11, 2014, playing for the Chicago White Sox, Semien hit a solo homer off Scott Kazmir of the Oakland Athletics in the 6th inning to account for the only run in a 1-0 victory. His long ball backed up an outstanding performance by Chris Sale and Jake Petricka, who combined on a three-hit shutout. He hit .234 in 64 games, with 6 homers and 28 RBI. He split his time between third base, his natural position, and second base, where the White Sox had a void following the departure of Gordon Beckham in mid-season. He had started the season in Chicago but was hitting only .218 on June 1st, when he was sent down to Charlotte for a spell. He hit .267 in 83 games, with 20 doubles and 15 homers,and was back in Chicago and playing regularly in September.

On December 8, 2014, Semien was rumored to be one of three prospects traded to the Oakland Athletics for Jeff Samardzija. It was a good situation for him, as the A's had traded 3B Josh Donaldson earlier that off-season and also had a hole at second base where incumbents Eric Sogard and Alberto Callaspo had both struggled with the bat in 2014. It was the fielding side of the job that gave Marcus trouble in 2015 however. On May 21st, he had committed 16 errors, easily the most in the majors, putting him on a pace to make over 60 in a full season. His defensive woes received plenty of notice as the A's as a team were playing very poorly, and were leading the majors in errors. On the plus side, he was one of the team's few players to be hitting well, as his average was .302, with 9 doubles, 2 triples and 6 homers; but for one additional double, that was the total number of extra-base hits he had hit in 2014, in some 60 additional at-bats. He ended the year at .257 in 155 games, with 23 doubles, 7 triples and 15 homers.

From 2016 to 2018 he settled into being a solid but unheralded player with the A's, playing 159 games the first and last of these seasons, but being limited to 85 games by an injury in 2017. His OPS+ figures were very consistent, with 99, 97 and 95, after being at 98 in 2015, but they were achieved in different ways. In 2016, he had an outburst of power with 27 homers, compensating for a batting average falling to .238. He increased that to .249 and .255 the next two years even if his power went down, and his walk rate also improved. The A's made it to the postseason as the second Wild Card team in 2018 and he made his postseason debut in the Wild Card Game against the New York Yankees that year, going 1 for 3 with a walk.

Marcus had his best season in 2019 when he finished third in the MVP voting. He hit .285 while played all 162 games, led the American League in plate appearances with 747 and contributed plenty of power with 43 doubles, 7 triples and 33 homers. He scored 123 runs as Oakland's lead-off hitter and also drove in 92, and drew 87 walks for an OPS+ of 139. The A's were back in the Wild Card Game, but he made another early exit as they were defeated by the Tampa Bay Rays. He was 1 for 5 with a run scored in the game. He fell back to his previous level of production in 2020 when he played 53 of his team's 60 games during a season shortened by the Coronavirus pandemic. His batting average fell to .223, but he maintained decent power with 9 doubles and 7 homers and also drew 25 walks for an OPS+ of 91. This time, the Athletics managed to make it a bit further in the postseason: he was 3 for 12 with a double and a homer in their defeat of the Chicago White Sox in the Wild Card Series, and 8 for 15 with 4 runs in their loss to the Houston Astros in the Division Series. Following the season, he became a free agent and on January 26, 2021 signed a one-year deal with the Toronto Blue Jays for $18 million. He was expected to move to second base for the Jays, with young Bo Bichette at shortstop and Cavan Biggio becoming a super utility player.

Semien was the first batter of the 2021 season as the Jays' leadoff hitter in their game against the New York Yankees at New Yankee Stadium on April 1st. The game had the earliest starting time among the full slate of games scheduled that day. After a so-so first month, he had a great May, batting .368 with an OPS of 1.130, 8 homers and 22 RBIs in 28 games and was named the American League Player of the Month. Two of his main rivals for the honor were teammates, namely Vladimir Guerrero Jr. and Teoscar Hernandez. He was voted as the starting second baseman for the 2021 All-Star Game. On August 7th, he hit his first career walk-off homer connecting off Matt Barnes of the Boston Red Sox on the first pitch of the bottom of the 7th inning to give the Blue Jays a 1-0 win in the first game of a doubleheader at the Rogers Centre. By then, he had been moved to the third spot of the batting order, as a healthy George Springer had reclaimed his customary leadoff spot, but that had not slowed down Marcus in any way, as he continued to pound the ball with the best hitters on the AL. He was voted a starter in the All-Star Game, his first participation in the mid-summer classic, and continued to pound the ball in the second half. On September 18th, he hit home run #40 in a win over the Minnesota Twins at the Rogers Centre. He was only the fourth second baseman in major league history to hit that many in a season, the record of 43 having been set by Davey Johnson in 1973 - a record which he tied on September 25th. That 43rd homer also brought him within one RBI of his first 100-RBI season. He ended the year at .265 with 45 homers and 102 RBIs, being one of two players to appear in all 162 games (Whit Merrifield was the other) and leading the league with 724 plate appearances. He also scored 115 runs and was successful on 15 of 16 stolen base attempts. He was named the winner of both a Gold Glove and a Silver Slugger Award at second base, and finished third in the voting for the MVP Award, behind Shohei Ohtani and teammate Guerrero.

Following the expiration of his one-year deal and his outstanding season, Semien was a hot commodity on the free agent market in the offseason. On November 28th, news stories announced that he had come to an agreement with the Texas Rangers on a seven-year deal worth $175 million. The main question was whether he or Isiah Kiner-Falefa, another excellent fielder, would play shortstop in 2022, with the other likely to take over at second base. That was answered the following day when the Rangers signed SS Corey Seager to a ten-year deal: unless there was some huge surprise, Semien would remain at second, and Kiner-Falefa would have to move to third base. In fact, Kiner-Falefa was traded before the season started, but Semien got off to a terrible start with his new team. On May 1st, he was hitting .149/.224/.207 in 22 games, which was below replacement level, and was on a 1 for 23 skein. Not coincidentally, the Rangers were in last place in the AL West at 8-14. He finally hit his first homer of the year on May 28th, and it was a grand slam against Jake Lemoine of the Oakland Athletics in an 11-4 win. It was the Semien of old who showed up for a doubleheader against the Cleveland Guardians on June 7th, as he collected 7 hits including 3 long balls in the two games as the two teams split the twinbill. Hall of Famer Joe Morgan, back in 1973 had been the last major league player to collect 7 hits and 3 homers in one day. Marcus had started to climb out of his early hole, as he was now batting .221 with 6 homers, 30 runs and 22 RBIs in 54 games. He ended up playing 161 games, most in the American League, as were his 724 plate appearances and 657 at-bats. He hit .248 with 31 doubles and 25 homers, scored 101 runs and drove in 83 while also stealing 25 bases and ledthe league with 10 sacrifice flies. His OPS+ was 108 and he was one of only four players in the league - all in the AL West - to both hit 25 homers and steal 25 bases (the others were Julio Rodríguez, Kyle Tucker and teammate Adolis García).

The Rangers improved dramatically at the start of the 2023 season and in fact had the best run differential in the majors at the end of May. Semien was one of the team's leaders, both at the plate and in the clubhouse, as he was putting together a great hitting streak at that time. it reached 25 games on June 6th thanks to a bases-clearing double in a 6-4 win over the St. Louis Cardinals - Texas's fifth straight win. This tied him with Michael Young and Ian Kinsler for the second longest hitting streak in Rangers history, trailing only Gabe Kapler who had gone 28 consecutive games with a hit in 2000.he was named to his second career All-Star Game. He hit .276 while again playing all 162 games that season, leading the American League in plate appearances (753), at-bats (670), runs (122) and hits (185). He also hit 40 doubles and 29 homers and drove in 100 from the lead-off spot. He finished third in the MVP vote and won a Silver Slugger Award. The Rangers then caught fire in the postseason, barreling through the first couple of rounds even if he wasn't contributing much. He started to hit in the win over the Astros in the ALCS, where he went 6 for 29 with 4 runs, then added another 7 hits, 4 runs, 1 triple, 2 homers and 8 RBIs as the Rangers won their first-ever championship, defeating the Arizona Diamondbacks in the World Series. He was widely lauded for his leadership role on the team.

Notable Achievements[edit]

2013 Player of the Year Southern League Birmingham Barons
2-time AL All-Star (2021 & 2023)
AL Gold Glove Winner (2021/2B)
2-time AL Silver Slugger Award Winner (2021 & 2023/2B)
2-time AL At-Bats Leader (2022 & 2023)
AL Runs Scored Leader (2023)
AL Hits Leader (2023)
20-Home Run Seasons: 5 (2016, 2019 & 2021-2023)
30-Home Run Seasons: 2 (2019 & 2021)
40-Home Run Seasons: 1 (2021)
100 RBI Seasons: 2 (2021 & 2023)
100 Runs Scored Seasons: 4 (2019 & 2021-2023)
Won one World Series with the Texas Rangers in 2023

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Marcus Semien

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