The Texas Rangers paid a lot of money to lure in star free agent shortstop Marcus Semien during the offseason.
He signed a seven-year, $175 million pact to play in Texas for the foreseeable future, but he hasn’t produced the kind of numbers we have seen from him in recent seasons.
As of Wednesday afternoon, the shortstop is hitting .157/.223/.209, with no home runs and only two stolen bases.
The Rangers certainly expected more from their star signing.
The worst thing of all is that there aren’t any signs of him turning around his season.
“Stick a fork in Marcus Semien the dead ball killed him,” Jon Anderson tweeted, with a picture of his Statcast profile.
Stick a fork in Marcus Semien the dead ball killed him pic.twitter.com/czWQcblXrx
— Jon Anderson (@JonPgh) May 16, 2022
Semien’s Quality Of Contact Is Less Than Ideal
He isn’t hitting the ball hard, and the quality (and quantity) of his contact suggest he has been among the worst hitters in baseball so far.
Additionally, judging by his 34th percentile Outs Above Average (OAA), his defense has also taken a step back.
It has been a disastrous showing from a really talented player, who has been among the leaders in Wins Above Replacement (WAR) in the last three seasons before 2022.
He has the talent to eventually turn things around, but it really does seem like he has been affected by the dead ball: his batted balls just haven’t traveled long or hard enough.
There has to be at least some level of concern in the Rangers front office because of Semien’s performance so far.
It’s still really early, though, so he has time to work through his struggles.
But Semien has been among the worst MLB regulars in 2022, and that’s a fact.
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