Marcus Semien Is the Only Bright Spot For 2016 Oakland Athletics Infield

If you only used the eye test on Marcus Semien, you may or may not come away impressed. As the starting shortstop for the Oakland Athletics in 2015, Semien had an amazing 35 errors, and not in a good way.  It’s amazing how many balls he got to, but then misplayed.

He was a bright spot, though, because he was second on the infield to Danny Valencia in OPS. This was while Valencia was playing primarily left field, but in 2016 he will be playing third. The rest of the infield was so bad that it has been replaced. Ben Zobrist and Brett Lowrie have been traded away, Ike Davis was non-tendered and Erik Sogard has been benched for the second time in as many seasons. That leaves Semien as the young, improving holdover from 2015.

Semien was sixth in all of MLB in OPS among shortstops and tied for seventh in home runs with Asdrubal Cabrera. His 143 hits ranked tenth among shortstops. These are impressive numbers for a starter in his first full season in the big leagues. Sadly, his 35 errors were the worst in baseball in 2015, with only Ian Desmond and Elvis Andrus having more than 20 among the rest of the shortstops. Semien’s range factor ranked 16th of 23 qualifying shortstops. Only Brandon Crawford was in the top five of both OPS and range factor among MLB shortstops in 2015.

For the rest of the 2016 Athletics infield, things aren’t as bright. Yonder Alonso was traded for Drew Pomeranz this offseason. Alonso has a plus glove, but is really a master of OBP. There is already talk of platooning Alonso with Mark Canha, who will be bumped out of a starting role if Coco Crisp comes back healthy to start 2016. Jed Lowrie replaces brother Brett on the infield. Jed will play second ahead of Sogard and back up Semien and Valencia.

Valencia could be a bright spot. He has had trouble holding down a full-time position in his career, bouncing around from team to team always playing good, not great. This may finally change, as it appears the Athletics are finally going to give him full rein at third. Of course, they always have Lowrie in reserve if he falters.

2015 was a huge disappointment for the Athletics. Looking for health in the outfield and rotation, they had to rebuild their infield. The talent of Semien will shine bright through the changes in 2016.