The 2025 season was an anomaly for Marcus Semien.
The veteran second baseman, who had not played fewer than 159 games in a full MLB season since 2017, was limited to just 127 with the Texas Rangers after fouling a ball off his foot, which, as he described, “cracked a bone and sprained a ligament.”
But even when healthy, his offensive game lagged. He hit .230 with a career-worst .669 OPS. Having averaged 31 home runs across his previous five seasons (not counting the COVID-shortened 2020), he settled for just 16 this year.
“I’m disappointed in the way that I performed offensively last year,” Semien said on Tuesday.
Despite still being an elite defender, the Rangers shipped him to the New York Mets on Sunday, where the work to rediscover his All-Star-caliber bat is already underway. The 35-year-old veteran has already had conversations with Mets director of MLB hitting Jeff Albert and new hitting coach Troy Snitker, where “a lot of information has been coming my way so far.”
Semien’s goal is not just to see an upswing in his offensive numbers in the Mets’ lineup alongside Francisco Lindor and Juan Soto; it’s to be the kind of offensive threat that has finished third in the American League MVP voting three times, including a 2021 season with the Oakland Athletics in which he mashed 45 home runs and 102 RBI.
“I want to play until they tell me to go home,” Semien said. “At this point in my career, it feels extremely good to have a team that believes in me, sees what I do well, and wants to help me. Offensively, I think that I still have a lot to offer… I think that just having conversations with Jeff Albert, I’m looking forward to talking to Troy Snitker about what I need to do to be that MVP-caliber bat in this lineup. That’s my goal.”
Mets president of baseball operations David Stearns made it clear that trading Brandon Nimmo for Semien was predicated on improving the team’s defense. He is a two-time Gold Glove Award winner, including this past season.
“The bat might not lead the way at this point in his career,” Stearns said on Monday. “We think there’s likely some bounceback in his offensive profile, but we’re counting on at the top of his skill set is the contributions he can make defensively and how he can perform on the bases.”
But offensive production is still very much there, regardless of Stearns’ sentiments. Semien overcame a miserable start to his season by slashing .270/.338/.464 (.801 OPS) with 12 home runs and 44 RBI in his final 71 games before suffering that foot injury. That’s a full-season pace of 27 home runs and 100 RBI.
“May and June were definitely the hottest I had been last year,” Semien said. “That’s definitely some things that Jeff Albert, Troy Snitker, and the rest of the hitting crew will look at; what I do when I’m at my best and better understand those things. Sometimes, as hitters, we go off feel, and maybe we don’t know exactly why it’s working, but we go with it.”
Then there is the leadership dimension in all of this.
The Mets jettisoned their longest-tenured player, a fan-favorite, and what appeared to be a glue guy in the clubhouse to usher in a significant tweak of the roster. Like it or not, and despite playing different positions, Semien is going to be compared to Nimmo unless Stearns swings a big move to bring in an elite corner outfielder in free agency, whether that be Cody Bellinger or Kyle Tucker.
“I understand how good of a clubhouse presence Brandon was. I understand how much of a fan favorite Brandon was,” Semien said. “I feel for the Mets fans when you lose a player who’s been present and such a fixture in the lineup and in the community, and he has such a great personality and is such a nice guy. I feel for the fans. For me, I want to get to know the fans, get to know the community, let my game do the talking, and I think I’ll be a presence in that locker room that guys can lean on. That’s always a goal of mine; to be that… With Brandon, the things he did, hopefully I can fill in and do as well.”
The organization likely is not doubting that. Semien was thought of just as highly in Texas: a sage veteran who carried a strong influence in the clubhouse.
“It is something that has evolved,” Semien said. “The one thing that has remained constant for me is leading by example with how I work, leading by example with how I respect each member of the organization, and treating everybody like a man or a woman. Respect them, help them through tough times, get to know them as a person, get to know their families. So when we go out to battle, we know how each other is going to react.
“That’s part of being a leader. You don’t just go out there and play baseball and go home, and you don’t talk to anybody. You build relationships with your guys. That may mean more time off the field spent together. That’s something I’m very passionate about.”
