After a very slow start, Marcus Semien of the Texas Rangers is really starting to swing the bat. … More
The 2025 season started off as a disaster for Marcus Semien. In his first 56 games, the former MVP finalist slashed .173/.260/.224, with twice as many strikeouts as walks. The Texas Rangers, as a whole, were not hitting, and Semien (along with the newly-acquired Joc Pederson) was a big part of the problem.
Semien, who has hit at the top of the order for nearly his entire career, was moved down to the nine hole for four games (that didn’t help). Manager Bruce Bochy has moved him around the lineup trying to find a place where he might feel more comfortable this season. His three games batting sixth helped (1.100 OPS), and he is currently batting clean-up.
In his last 14 games (eight of which have been batting fourth), he is slashing .404/.466/.731, with four home runs and 12 RBI. He may have found his groove.
2023 was an incredible year for the former shortstop turned second baseman. He led the league in games played and plate appearance (all for the fourth year in a row, not counting the Covid-shortened 2020 season). He led the league in runs scored (with 122) and total hits (185). He slugged 29 home runs and knocked in 100. He was an All-Star, won the Silver Slugger Award, and came in third in MVP voting.
That was the end of an awesome three-year stretch where he slashed .263/.329/.482, and averaged 33 home runs and 95 RBI per season. Over those three years he accumulated 20.5 bWAR.
But then came 2024. After having an .826 OPS in 2023, last season Semien slashed .237/.308/.391 (.699 OPS). He still managed 23 home runs, but that was his lowest total since 2018 (excluding 2020).
Semien is 34 years old, so it would not be unheard of for him to fall off precipitously. We have seen that with players in their mid-30s, time and again. But Semien has always seemed like a different type of player – a professional hitter who would find his way. Bochy, a Hall of Fame manager, seemed to agree, as he wrote Semien’s name into the lineup 159 times last season, despite his struggles; and he has done so in 70 of 71 games so far this year. When in doubt, it is always safe to trust the skipper who has seen and forgotten more about baseball than the fans will ever know.
It may be that Semien has righted the ship and is on his way to his typical 110 OPS+ season playing every day and providing steady offense and defense. It may be that he just got off to a slow start, and this was a case of small sample size. For his career, Semien has always started slowly, with March/April historically being his worst months. When the weather warms, so too does his bat. This year it just took a little longer. In May, when he typically hits .263/.330/.414, saw him hit .207/.302/.272. But his teammates and his team did not give up on him, and he is repaying their loyalty (it does not hurt that he is in just the fourth year of a seven-year deal that will ultimately pay him $175 million).
As of this writing, the Rangers look to be making a move, and now are only one game under .500, having won three in a row and six of their last seven. They are in third place, 5.5 games out of first. More importantly, they would need to jump four teams to make the Wild Card. But, there is still a lot of baseball to be played. If the Rangers plan to keep building on their current run, with the hope of playing baseball in the Metroplex in October, they will need for Semien’s last 14 games to not be an aberration, but a sign of things to come.
