Free Agent Poll: Marcus Semien

We used this idea last year. The idea is to go through some of the top free agents, use the contract FanGraphs suggests they will get and have a poll asking if we would like to sign him for that amount.

Both Keith Law and Ben Clemens have Marcus Semien number 3 in their lists of top free agents.

I don’t have to tell you anything about Marcus. We watched him play 162 games this year. He was great with the bat and maybe even better with the glove.

Keith Law said:

Semien has been one of the most valuable players in baseball in the last two full regular seasons: 15.5 WAR, playing all 324 games in those two years while playing in the middle infield in nearly all of them. Semien became an elite defensive shortstop while working with Ron Washington in Oakland, moved to second base this year with Toronto, and was an elite defender there too. His value may have held, but the way he got there changed — his walk rate dropped by about 20 percent, but he hit a career-high 45 home runs, 12 more than he had in 2019.

Ben:

While the shortstop market this winter is deep, Semien’s 2021 means that he won’t have to go hat-in-hand on a one-year deal, though a true blockbuster contract is unlikely as he’s on the wrong side of 30. In a flip of the usual dynamic, Semien playing second might make him even more valuable than he would be otherwise, as he’s already shown himself amenable to playing there instead of at short, which might not be the case with the other top free agents at the position.

Ben figures Marcus will get a four-year contract at $30 million a year. I’d think he would look for a couple more years since hitting the free-agent market again at age 35 might be tricky. If he could get six years, that might take him to retirement.

But then who knows.