White Sox dodged Marcus Semien drama by not signing him
The Chicago White Sox are starving for the offense to be better. They have a few players hitting well but the team as a whole needs to be better. They needed to upgrade at second base over the offseason and they really didn’t do that.
One of the biggest pieces that made sense for the White Sox was Marcus Semien. He was once a part of the White Sox organization but was traded away in a very bad deal. He became a superstar with the Oakland A’s before moving on t the Toronto Blue Jays in 2021.
After 2021, he was a free agent again and looking for a very lucrative contract. He made a lot of sense for the White Sox but ultimately chose to land with the Texas Rangers. They spent a lot of money and it really hasn’t been working out well for them.
Semien has been brutal so far to start the 2022 season. He hasn’t been even slightly worthy of the money that he is getting. In fact, he barely has deserved to be on a Major League roster with some of these numbers.
The Chicago White Sox avoided overpaying for Marcus Semien this offseason.
So far this season, the Texas Rangers are 21-23 which is good for third place in the American League West Division. They are only one game behind the White Sox in the Wild Card race. However, they would be much better than that if Semien was playing well.
He doesn’t have a home run on the season yet and June is a couple of days away. His slash line is sitting at an abysmal .193/.246/.251 for an OPS of .497. He has 11 RBIs and 16 runs scored so far.
Those numbers aren’t close to good enough, especially for a guy who was top three in AL MVP voting in two of the last three years before this one. He needs to pick it up and fast otherwise people in Texas are really going to be upset.
As of right now, Leury Garcia and Josh Harrison (if you can believe it) are more productive than Semien. That isn’t to say that he won’t turn it around and become elite again but that is a lot of money and term promised to a guy that is 31 years old. The White Sox avoided a disaster.