MLBbro Marcus Semien Gets 7-Year/$175M Bag From Aggressive Texas Rangers | Goodbye Canada Hello Cactus

MLBbro Marcus Semien Gets 7-Year/$175M Bag From Aggressive Texas Rangers | Goodbye Canada Hello Cactus

by | Nov 29, 2021 | THE LEAD OFF

The taste inside Marcus Semien‘s mouth must be sweeter than a bee hive.

A season after being left for dead by the Oakland A’s and accepting a position change and a one-year “show me” deal from the Toronto Blue Jays, Semien is cashing in on a seven-year/$175M deal with the Texas Rangers.

Semien is a middle infielder who flashes a Gold Glove caliber web at the second base or shortstop position.

His booming bat speaks for itself as the 31-year-old broke Davey Johnson’s single-season home run record for second baseman with 45 jacks this season for Canada’s MLB team.

The versatile, five-tool baller also hit .265, drove in 102 runs and slugged ,538. He dipped out of Toronto with a Silver Slugger, Gold Glove and a third-place finish in the AL MVP voting.

Looming Lockout Rushed Semien To Get A Deal Done

Who knows if Texas was Semien’s first choice. The ink isn’t even dry on his new contract and the MLBbro is already catching flack on social media for choosing to join a losing club.

Reports say Semien, one of the coveted middle infielders on the free agent market, wanted to get his next contract finalized prior to the expiration of the Collective Bargaining Agreement on December 1, as a lockout and transactions freeze are widely expected to follow.

The Rangers organization entered free agency with the intention of being agressive in acquiring talent that could help lift the franchise out of its current rut. Texas finished in last place in the AL West the last two seasons, including a disasterous 102-loss season in 2021.

MLBTR projected Semien for six years and $138MM. But who gives a damn about their projections. Semien is a beast of a player, a quiet leader and positive clubhouse influence. More importantly, he seems to be a player in his prime, not on the decline.

Semien Raising The Bar For FA Shortstops? 

There’s a belief that Semien’s deal raises the potential contract value for younger shortstops such as Carlos Correa (age 27), Corey Seager (28 in April), Trevor Story (who just turned 29) and Javier Baez (29).

That’s not neccessarily true as Baez is coming off a terribel season with the Mets, Seager is injury prone and Correa’s offensive inconsistency raises some question marks.

However, don’t expect Semien to be clocking the next man’s pockets. He has his work cut out helping to create a winning culture in Texas.

There’s not a more deserving player than Semien, who earned every penny with a record-breaking  2021 season that we won’t soon forget.

As predicted, Semien gets the bag and the Texas Rangers can now say they have one of the league’s Best 10 players — and go from there.