Guys, I don't know how to say this, but there is a chance we could be seriously underrating Marcus Semien as one of the great players of this generation.
No, no, hear me out.
In the mid-to-late-2010s with the A's, Marcus Semien was one of the game's best defensive infielders, and was a crucial element of both the better A's teams as well as the worse ones. After coming over in a trade for Jeff Samardzija, Semien was an everyday guy that was there as the team built another Moneyball squad with people like Matt Chapman, Matt Olson and, well, Chris Bassitt, who also came over in the Samardzija deal. In 2016, as the team was listless, he was their best performer with a 3.5 WAR while hitting 27 home runs. In 2018, as the team made the playoffs, he became one of the best defensive shortstops in baseball. In 2019 he played in all 162 games, hit 33 home runs, 92 RBIs and came third in MVP voting. In 2021, during his year in Toronto, he hit 45 home runs, 102 RBIs, had a 7.1 WAR and finally made an All-Star team, got a gold glove and a silver slugger.
And then he got to Texas on a big contract, initially struggled, to the point where, during a multi-hit night in Philly last year I could hear a guy go 'YOU SUCK MARCUS' and immediately regret it, and ended up with a 5.7 WAR, 26 homers and a league-leading 161 games.
Marcus Semien is consistent, lethal at the plate, excellent defensively and extremely versatile. He has a career 37 WAR, which is 32nd on the active leaderboard, above people like Salvador Perez, Stephen Strasburg, Corey Kluber, Gerrit Cole and Christian Yelich. And even at 32, he is not only still in his prime but on an excellent, league-leading Rangers team. Right now he has 32 RBIs and 7 home runs and is heading towards what is likely to be another career year. Are we really just watching some incredible stats build before our eyes and not seeing it?
That's honestly a good summation of the Rangers right now. We've really been watching this team build for the last few years and underestimating it because it hasn't taken off immediately. Right now a lot of the little moves the team made before, like trading for Jonah Heim, Dane Dunning, Nate Lowe and Adolis Garcia, are complementing the big moves they've made since 2022, like signing deGrom, Eovaldi, Semien and Seager. Nate Eovaldi has absolutely come alive in his last few starts, and has completely stopped allowing runs, which is pretty impressive. Heim's hitting .319 with 6 homers and 29 RBIs, and is making a case for AL catching superiority. Even people who had slow starts, like Ezequiel Duran, are coming into their own and helping to keep this team in charge in the West, and it's pretty awesome to see.
Anyone who's been sleeping on Semien's career will wake up if he does, in fact, lead this team to October with another 5+ WAR performance. This guy might be one of the most valuable pieces in the game, and it's time y'all knew.
Coming Tonight: Adversely, one of the biggest stars in the game.
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