Former White Sox infielder Marcus Semien was an MVP nominee
The Chicago White Sox had Marcus Semien in the organization for a while before he went to the Oakland A’s and became an MVP candidate.
The Chicago White Sox traded Marcus Semien to the Oakland Athletics on December 9th, 2014. He was sent there with Josh Phegley, Chris Bassitt, and Rangel Ravelo for Jeff Samardzija and Michael Ynoa. It was a trade that the White Sox did to add Samardzija to a rotation that had Chris Sale in it so it makes sense as they were trying to win. It isn’t a good look now but they thought they would be a good team when they made the trade.
He wasn’t even an everyday player with the White Sox as he spent two seasons with them in 2013 and 2014. He started to become a good everyday player when he went over to Oakland but he really broke out during his age 28 season in 2019. He slashed .285/.369/.522 and had 33 home runs, 92 RBIs, and 123 runs scored. It was certainly a breakout season for the Oakland infielder and he hopes he can continue to be that good going forward.
His season was so good that he was nominated for the American League MVP with Mike Trout of the Los Angeles Angels and Alex Bregman of the Houston Astros. He finished in third out of those three and Mike Trout was the winner. Semien edged out guys like Xander Bogaerts, DJ LeMahieu, and his own teammate Matt Chapman for that final spot as an AL nominee. Those are some huge names to be mentioned with so Marcus Semien should really be proud.
There were 21 players who received vote points for the 2019 season. Jose Abreu and Yoan Moncada were the two players from the White Sox organization who had some votes. There is a chance that they become a team that has lots of guys receive vote points over the next few years. Yoan Moncada has the skills to win the thing if all goes right for him.
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It was good to see a former White Sox player have that much success and we wish him nothing but the best going forward. The A’s are a really good team and due to the fact that they play in the same division as the Houston Astros and Los Angeles Angels, they are a team the White Sox could be competing with for the Wild Card berths in the American League.