Marcus Semien

BIOGRAPHY

Marcus Semien was born on September 17, 1990, in San Francisco, California. He is a shortstop in the MLB.

Semien grew up pitching and playing infield in El Cerrito Youth Baseball, across the bay from San Francisco, and was a member of the area's All-Star teams. He went on to attend St. Mary's College High School in Berkeley, California. At St. Mary's, he hit .471 as a junior, .371 as a senior, and was named all-league three times where he was drafted by the Chicago White Sox in the 34th round of the 2008 MLB draft.

Semien chose not to sign and instead enrolled at the University of California, Berkeley, where he played college baseball for the California Golden Bears. After struggling as a freshman, Semien improved as a sophomore, hitting .328. As a junior, Semien was the starting shortstop for the team, but hit .275, hurting his stock for the MLB Draft.

The White Sox selected Semien the sixth round of the 2011 MLB draft. He started his career in 2011 with the Class A Kannapolis Intimidators.

After the 2014 season, the White Sox traded Semien, Chris Bassitt, Rangel Ravelo, and Josh Phegley to the Oakland Athletics in exchange for Jeff Samardzija and Michael Ynoa.

In 2019, he batted .285/.369/.522 with 33 home runs, and led the major leagues with 747 plate appearances. His performance improvements garnered him even more attention from postseason awards voters as he was named to the inaugural All-MLB second team at shortstop, finished 3rd in voting for the American League MVP, and was again named one of three finalists for the Gold Glove.

On January 30, 2021, Semien signed a one-year, $18 million contract with the Toronto Blue Jays. Semien finished the 2021 season hitting .265/.334/.538 with 45 home runs, 102 RBIs and an MLB-leading 86 extra-base hits. He finished third in American League MVP voting, was awarded a Gold Glove for his defense and the Silver Slugger on offense.

On December 1, 2021, Semien agreed to a seven-year, $175 million contract with the Texas Rangers.

In 2022, Semien led the major leagues in plate appearances (724) for the second straight year and at bats (657) and sacrifice flies (10; tied with Alex Bregman and Alec Bohm), and hit .248/.304/.429 with 26 home runs and 83 RBIs. He reached on an error 12 times, tops in the majors.

In 2023, Semien again led the league in plate appearances (753), while batting .276/.348/.478 with a league-leading 122 runs. On November 1, 2023, he won the 2023 World Series with the Texas Rangers.