With the Athletics’ season having ended in disappointing fashion in an ALDS loss to the Astros, they’re turning their focus to important winter matters. The A’s have multiple notable pending free agents, including Marcus Semien, and they hope to retain the shortstop, general manager David Forst informed Martin Gallegos of MLB.com and other reporters on Friday.
“I told him we would love to have him back here,” Forst said to Semien in a text message. “We’ve had an open line of communication with him and his agent. That will certainly be one of the topics for this offseason.”
A year ago at this time, Semien looked like one of the premier players in baseball. He was then coming off an MVP-caliber effort that saw him slash .285/.369/.522 with 33 home runs, 10 stolen bases and 7.6 fWAR in a 162-game, 747-plate appearance season. Prior to that, Semien was closer to a league-average hitter, and he returned to that form in 2020. The 30-year-old concluded with a .223/.305/.374 mark and seven homers over 236 PA, which won’t serve him well as he nears his first trip to free agency.
If the A’s aren’t able to extend Semien in the next few weeks, they’ll have to decide whether to hand him a qualifying offer worth $18.9MM. But they’ll have to make the same choice with elite reliever Liam Hendriks, and it’s hard to believe the small-budget A’s would risk committing so much money to both players. Regardless, if Semien does become a free agent, he’ll join Didi Gregorius, Andrelton Simmons and soon-to-be posted KBO star Ha-Seong Kim as one of the top shortstops on the market.
If the A’s are unable to retain Semien, would Nick Allen be next up? I know he is good defensively, but is he ready with the bat? Between Semien and Hendriks, I’d say keep Marcus. Not that I don’t like Hendriks but I feel closers are easier to replace.
Allen started to hit at AA last year before the ankle injury…he probably could use another year in the minors
Pinder who came up as a SS could fall in there and so could Machin. I highly doubt that Allen would make the team because his bat needs more work.
my guess too is Pinder would slot in at SS if the season started today.
No.
2019 was a fluke and most of us knew he was not one of the primer players in baseball. His career numbers are the epitome of a one year wonder.
Eh, still a guy who doesn’t hurt you in the field and has always been a lock for roughly league-average production at a not-great offensive position, with good power.
I believe 2019 was definitely a career year, but I also think it is short-sighted to put much stock in this season’s numbers as well. And it is way too early to write him off completely as a one year wonder. Especially since he has already had 2 very good seasons to go along with his elite season.
In a normal season, you can struggle through the first 60 games and be very good over the next 100 and nobody would even think about the slump. It’s going to be a lot more guesswork than usual to decide whether you believe any player’s stats from 2020 are to be believed.
I think Semien would clearly accept a QO, which is why I don’t think it will be offered. I expect him to get a 1 year $15 million or so make good deal and if he does well in 2021, then he will probably get a multi year deal next off season.
Agreed on all points
Well this is interesting. Semien last year was a sure fire QO
Now he probably accepts it. If he repeats 2019, it’s a steal. If that’s a fluke, well Oakland isn’t a team to throw millions around
Maybe 2/30M, if no QO?
If he had repeated 19, he would have been in line for close to 30M/ year lol. He will be an interesting case study, especially in this market
Here’s a dumb-ish question:
Who would you rather bid on? Semian coming off a bad year, with his track record and the one huge season?
Or Didi Gregorius coming off a good year after the injury, with a similar, but slightly better track record?
I’d go Semian all day, and I’m a Yankee fan who likes Didi a lot.
Ahead of next year’s big SS class, this one has a limited number of needy teams. Phils, Angels, A’s plus Cincinnati. It’ll be like musical chairs: 4 teams, 3 shortstops. This might be an opportunity for the Mets to trade Rosario if they’re sure Gimenez is their guy. I’m not a fan of Rosario’s defense, but the front-office professionals might feel differently. Coming off a disappointing season, due $575K in 2021, not a FA until after the 2023 season. Someone fills their SS hole, Mets get decent value in return.
and even most of those teams have internal options they could theoretically plug in. personally i think it’s not a good year to be a FA SS, especially with the parity among the top few in the group.
Darkside, I agree and wrote much the same just above you, although my typing finger is a lot more tired than yours.
Actually just below. Weird how my other comment was originally higher up.
That’s a fair point I hadn’t thought of
A lotta teams may be weary committing big dollars to a SS who’s been great but also not, just a year before Seager/Lindor/Correa/Story AND Javy Báez.. all hit the market in unison
And with that same thought, maybe Seimien looks to get at least a 2 year deal, more than just a 1 year pillow deal, so he doesn’t have to compete with all of that
The fact it’s Oakland adds a wrinkle(lack of dollars on FA angle), but I’m real curious how this plays out
Detroit can’t be ruled.out of the SS market. Willie Castro was good with the bat but below average in the field. Niko was good defensively but took a step back with the bat. Schoop is a FA. I could see Castro moving to 2B, Niko to 3B and a SS being added for veteran experience. Tork and Perades available if Niko doesn’t rebound.
Zero chance Angels sign Semien.
Who but agents on those who did well in 2020 really takes stats from this year seriously? He’s not getting the QO but what is his true value? Is he really an upgrade over DIdi? Teams will not be overpaying this off season other than maybe for pitchers. Oakland should be able to afford him, but what is the cost? My guess is teams will be slow and methodical, waiting for prices to be set and to see how the country’s health unfolds. Most in my view will still be looking for deals on 01/01/21 unless they accept what teams are willing to offer. This will not be pretty and while it won’t smell of collusion, the MLBPA will be screaming and the upcoming negotiations will only be worse than the negotiations regarding the pandemic if that’s possible. Let’s all hope for a miracle in the form of a vaccine that works. If one is developed and it proves to be successful, baseball salaries could quickly recover. If not, a short term extension or interim CBA will be needed.
Let me be the unlikely voice of reason here. For Oakland situation, this was a best-case scenario, because if they can get him to take a fairly steep discount based on some kind of league-wide idea that he was a one-hit wonder, then they can keep what’s assured to be a solid-to-good player with the potential for a huge year in the fold for less than market-rate for that sort of upside.
And more importantly, they can avoid going for stupid years. If they could hold an offer in the 3-4 year range at dollars that fit their budget, that would be a major coup for a league-average shortstop with 2019 upside.
How does 4 years, $40 million sound?
Didi Gregorius got 1/$14M last year and he was coming off an injury and a MUCH worse platform season than Semien. I highly doubt $10M a year gets it done.
I would imagine his market would be, at the barest minimum, 3/$45ish, up to 4/$55M. Which still isn’t massive.
The wild card is the COVID factor. If dollars are rare this off-season, 4/40 could end up being a great offer. I can’t really adjust for that.
I think with the covid situation simian might have to settle for a 1-2 year deal When you consider that teams don’t want to spend money this year, plus the fact that next year has an awesome shortstop/3rd base class, I just don’t see anyone giving big time money to Siemien given the season he just had.
A 1 year deal with a player option 2/$24 would be fair. He takes the $12 this year and still has a back up of $12 million next year in case of injury or another bad hitting year. If he rebounds into a great year he can opt out and be a FA to get that great contract.
Does it matter? The A’s could go undefeated In The regular season and would still S the bed in the playoffs. If you take away 1989 they have disappointed for almost 50 years in a row.
72, 73, 74 is less than 50 years ago. You want disappointing talk about mariners, Pirates, rangers, Padres, brewers, Orioles, Reds, and ect…. think about the fans with no world series in the last 30 years.
Yes genius it’s 46 years, which is why I said “almost 50 years”. Sorry you’re right it’s only 46 years or disappointment in the post season, not 50. What am I complaining about?
Free agency has hurt the A’s as much or more than any team. Going back to the seventies, Imagine if they were able to keep that team together a little longer. They lost one of the best starters in Catfish, perhaps the best slugger then in Reggie (never mind him and Holtzman being sent to the O’s) and the at the time best closer in Fingers. Plus all stars in Rudi, Brando, Blue and Holtzman. I probably forgot one or two but that was an amazing team. The 88 – 90 era team clearly underachieved but that A’s team of the 70’s I’d love to have seen go against the late 90’s Yankees, the two most dominant teams I’ve seen (the Reds from 73 – 76 is the alternate third team to consider).
That fire sale was disgusting. Finley could have easily kept them together with a little imagination, but he was more interested in proposing yellow baseballs than properly managing his championship team’s payroll. He wrote the book on tanking, then complained when fans stayed away from the ballpark.
Reds have won a title more recently than the A’s. It’s only a year more recently, but if suffering is based on title droughts, Cincinnati has suffered slightly less.
The Dodgers haven’t won since ’88 but consistently put a quality product on the field. As a fan, I in no way suffer watching this team. It ain’t just about winning the World Series (though I’d like to see them win one). Suffering is being a Kansas City Royals or Pittsburgh Pirates fan. Consistently dumping salary and rebuilding while hoping to catch lightning every few decades. Pretty stadium + lousy team = bad fan experience.
Cey looks thru blue colored glasses. Doyers have Only put a quality product on the field about 7 or 8 of those 32 years since ‘88. And just about all in the past 8 years or so. And Chavez Ravine is a terrible ballpark. Old and looks like the 1960’s. Takes you like 2 hours to get in and out of that place. Not to mention the lousy surrounding neighborhood. Also, what’s up with the pastel-colored seats? When they remodeled a few years ago, why the heck didn’t they put blue seats in?
So.. you agree that saying the 32 year thing is kinda dumb, given the previous two owners didn’t really care?
And you’re the only person that thinks Dodger Stadium is ugly. That type of opinion makes the rest of your comment look suspect
The “disappointment” of not winning a World Series doesn’t detract from the joy of watching a team win 90-plus games. People can be successful in life without winning a championship.
You don’t get to exclude ’89 (or for that matter ’88 and ’90). And you don’t get to exclude the Giambi/Tejada/Hudson/Mulder/Zito squads or the current run of A’s teams. Those teams all did plenty of winning. Why would anyone view them negatively?
It seems this “suffering” Royals fan has been to a championship celebration since you have my friend…
Anyone know if Kim is legit? Numbers look good but is he legit? Think angels should take a look as they have nothing close in pipeline should they let Simba walk
I doubt the bat is as good as its been in the KBO but he’s a Gold Glove defender there. So, he could be a bargain compared to the other free agents if he hits like a league average SS.
Semien could goto the Mets if Rosario gets traded or moves to CF.
If the Mets moved Rosario, it would be to make Gimenez their fulltime shortstop. They would have no need to overpay for Semien, especially when they have other holes to fill at C, 3B, CF, and in the rotation.
So your hoping Springer for CF and JT for catcher? Unless you want Sanchez for Matz
Springer will be the most sought after free agent this off season. To many teams need a all star CF that is still young.
Springer turned 31 on September 19.
About the Golden Glove award for the KBO: en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/KBO_League_Golden_Glove_Aw… explains a lot. He’s definitely real on the bases and looks to be a good shortstop if his 6.52 WAR per Statiz has anything to say. That would be fourth in the KBO behind Aaron Brooks, Mel Rojas Jr and Raul Alcantara while just ahead of Dan Straily. He’s also 4.88 WAR by KBO fancy stats which is fifth in the KBO behind Rojas Jr, Straily, Brooks and Fernandez.
defense is key given KBO numbers dont always translate. his numbers dont look too far off from Tsutsugo’s at a quick glance (little less power, little more AVG) and he’s only slightly younger. maybe he doesnt hit in a middling manner like Yoshi did this year but it could be a cautionary tale. that he plays more premium positions and plays them well – that’s where the value would really come in.
The headline was the first part of a unfinished statement.
“The A’s hope to retain Marcus Semien, But we just got the bill from Roto Rooter and due to the high cost of fixing our sewer pipes in our dugout, There’s just isn’t any money left in our piggy bank to sign him. Call it “Responsible fecal/fiscal management..”.
Between his age and the fact that he only had one great year, I don’t think there is any team that will be willing to give this guy more than a three year deal, if that.
The bad timing award goes to Marcus. Having a bad season going into your FA year and being it in 2020. No one knows how this will play out.
3 years/$35 Million but Semien would have to shift to 2B after 2021 when Nick Allen and/or Logan Davidson are ready. Semien is from Berkeley and went to Cal. The A’s have a huge hometown discount in their favor. Semien’s defense only improved when Matt Chapman and Matt Olson showed up – Semien is smart enough to realize if he leaves he will go back to being a below average defender and whatever contract he signs for 2021 might be his last.