A’S SEMIEN IS AL MVL FINALIST
Oakland Athletics shortstop Marcus Semien was sitting on the couch with his family when MLB Network began announcing the game’s major award finalists on Monday afternoon.
He’d need to wait until the show’s last segment to hear the news, and there it was: sandwiched between Houston’s Alex Bregman and Los Angeles’ Mike Trout, Semien was named an American League Most Valuable Player finalist.
His first thought: Pretty cool. Second thought: What a trio to be included in.
“I was just sitting there with my family on the couch and just hoping,” Semien said on a conference call. “It’s going to be tough to win it, but just to be top three and see your name in between those guys. It’s really cool.”
Semien, 29, is the A’s first MVP finalist since Miguel Tejada was nominated and won the award in 2002.
The field, comprised entirely from players in the A.L. West, is strong. Trout, the Angels outfielder, is a perennial finalist and two-time winner. Bregman, the Astros’ third baseman, has the highest Wins Above Replacement (8.5 per Fangraphs) on a team that won 107 games and went to the World Series.
“We played some good baseball in the AL West,” Semien said.
But Trout fell to injury late in the season. And even though Bregman’s numbers, overall, edge Semien’s — such as Bregman’s .418 weighted on base average to Semien’s .373, or his 1.015 OPS over Semien’s .892 — Semien has some things in his favor.
Semien’s 343 total bases ranked second in the league. His 123 runs — tying Oakland’s record set by Reggie Jackson in 1969 — were third-most in the A.L. So were his 83 extra-base hits and 43 doubles. He hit 33 home runs and was a Gold Glove finalist at shortstop.
But perhaps his most valuable stat was the 162 games he played and 747 plate appearances he made. His everyday presence and steady production set a standard for the 97-win team.
“These are things that help us win, from leadoff spot just getting on base,” he said.
The little things go a bit deeper for Semien. His consistency was a product of his complete control of the strike zone throughout. While in 2018 and before, Semien was prone to biting the chase pitch and expanding the zone, he honed his approach in order shrink the zone back to his advantage. He didn’t swing at the first pitch as much and had a .500 OBP in full counts.
Semien lowered his crouch and altered his pre-game routine. Hitting coach Darren Bush would feed him underhand pitches to simulate two-seamers, overhand to simulate the four-seam. Simply changing his bat, even, made Semien all the more confident at the plate.
Despite the competition, the little things made Semien an indisputable MVP candidate — in theory and now officially.
Semien’s 7.6 WAR ranks third in baseball behind Bregman and Dodgers outfielder Cody Bellinger (7.6), per Fangraphs. Semien finished the season with 92 RBI, batting .285 with a .892 OPS.