A’s Semien executing ‘amazing’ turnaround
On a day when the A’s handed out Marcus Semien Tshirts, Semien stood in front of the thirdbase dugout Sunday fielding questions about his durability, defensive reliability and permanent residency in the leadoff spot. This isn’t 2015 anymore, clearly. Four years after a tumultuous first season as Oakland’s everyday shortstop, when he committed a franchiserecord 35 errors, Semien looks like a completely different player. He has started 176 consecutive games, ranks among the American League leaders in hits (106), is on pace to hit 24 homers and has committed only six errors.
“It’s amazing, where he’s come from and where he is now,” manager Bob Melvin
said. “I’ve never been around a big leaguer who’s come this far.”
Semien has blossomed into the A’s best allaround shortstop since Miguel Tejada, who won the AL Most Valuable Player award in 2002. You could make the case, as A’s stats guru David Feldman did, that Semien has become the thirdbest shortstop in Oakland history behind Tejada and Bert Campaneris.
Tejada is the only Oakland A’s player to collect 200 hits in a season (all with the A’s), with 204 in ’02. Semien has an outside chance to reach the milestone, if he picks up the pace a bit in the season’s final 67 games (he’s on track for 181 hits).
More telling is Semien’s evolution since 2015, when he was a wideeyed, confused 24yearold suddenly playing for his hometown team. Semien grew up in El Cerrito, taking grounders first at San Pablo Park in Berkeley and later at St. Mary’s High School and Cal.
His grandma, Carol Phillips, often talked about how much she hoped Semien would play for the A’s one day, so family and friends could watch him regularly. Phillips died in 2013, the same year her grandson reached the majors with the White Sox.
Six years later, through diligence tracing to those East Bay fields, Semien is a fixture atop Oakland’s lineup and one of the prime reasons for the A’s rise into playoff contention. He’s no longer wideeyed or confused, gobbling up grounders with the poise and grace of an accomplished major leaguer.
“Making the routine play, that’s what I wanted to do every time — it just wasn’t happening for me,” Semien said, referring to his first season with the A’s. “I didn’t necessarily know what to do on each ball. I feel like with all the reps I’ve gotten, and all the playing time they’ve allowed me to have, I’ve learned what to do.
“You’re still going to make errors, but now you know why you made them and what you need to do on the routine play. It’s also a lot easier to hit when you’re more confident on defense. You’re not thinking and your wheels aren’t spinning as much.”
Semien’s work with former A’s infield coach Ron Washington is well documented. They convened for daily 2:30 p.m. sessions at the ballpark, nearly five hours before game time, so Washington could teach and reinforce defensive details to Semien — ranging from prepitch positioning, to fielding grounders with his hands at the proper angle, to making the correct stride on his throw to first.
Washington no longer works for the A’s, but Semien still takes grounders with unmistakable zeal.
“I think what sets him apart is his love for the game and his work ethic,” outfielder Stephen Piscotty said. “He works harder than anybody here, and he’s taken on a leadership role in the clubhouse, so there’s a lot on his plate. … He’s been unbelievable for this team.”
The equation begins with Semien’s relentless availability. Not only has he started every A’s game dating to June 28 of last season (the fourthlongest streak in franchise history), he has played all but 13 innings in that span.
Semien played 159 games in 2016, dropped to 85 the next season because of a broken wrist and played in 159 again last season. This year, he is tied for the majorleague lead in games (95) and plate appearances (437).
Melvin and the team’s training staff monitor Semien, like any player, for signs of fatigue. They keep coming up empty.
“The way he’s playing right now, there’s no reason to give him a day off,” Melvin said.
This durability matters to Semien. He mostly came off the bench in his two seasons with the White Sox, an education in the difficulty of producing amid sporadic atbats. Chicago ultimately sent him to Oakland as part of the Jeff Samardzija trade in December 2014.
“I want to play every day, because I feel like I play better the more I play,” Semien said.
He has numerical evidence on his side. Beyond his steadiness on defense, Semien is putting up careerbest numbers in batting average (.272) and OPS (.799). He’s also on pace for career highs in runs (107) and RBIs (84).
Melvin, who flatly called Semien “the hardest worker” he’s ever managed, knows the A’s could have given up on Semien in 2015 or ’16. That would have been a mistake, as it turned out.
“A lot of times in this organization, we don’t give guys that kind of a chance,” Melvin said. “If they struggle for a couple of months, we try to get somebody else who’s playing better. It wasn’t the case with him. Give the front office some credit for sticking with him.
“I’m not sure we had anybody we felt was better, so maybe the timing was good for him. But once you get to know Marcus and what he’s all about — and once he got with Wash and learned how to fundamentally play the position — then you knew he was going to improve.
“I don’t know that we ever thought he’d get to this point, where I think he should have been an AllStar. It’s the biggest transition I’ve ever seen at the bigleague level.”