Chicago White Sox: 3 free agent targets to replace Nick Madrigal

Marcus Semien is a former Chicago White Sox player to consider bringing back.

Another first-time all-star and former Chicago White Sox shortstop that has adapted and has been playing second base this season is Marcus Semien. Set to hit free agency while earning a cool 18 million this year, Semien might be one of the more sought-after free agent bats this winter, especially if he is on board with continuing play at second base.

Currently, be bats .267/.334/.524 while currently experiencing a career power surge, blasting 32 HR in process. That is only one home run shy of his career record and it’s only the end of August. His 5.8 WAR on the year is currently best among all second basemen and is tied for 3rd in the league with Carlos Correa.

Dipping deeper into his advanced sabermetrics courtesy of fangraphs.com, his ISO of .259 is currently a career-high, as noted above with the power spike he is experiencing this year. His wRC+ of 130 is 30 points above league average.

The only red flag before throwing money at Semien would be upon looking at his career slash of .219/.296/.360 at Guaranteed Rate Field. Though, to be fair, most of those 228 ABs came when he was in a Sox jersey in 2013 and 2014 before he really established himself as the player he is today.

He is generally an above-average fielder but he has given up 6 errors in 114 games started at second base this season. Important to note, most of those errors are probably due to not really playing 2B the majority of his career as he is primarily a shortstop and is still adjusting to a new position this season. He would be a solid addition to any team that looks to sign him. Hopefully, when he signs somewhere, it’s in black and white.