2017 and beyond: An A’s shortstop preview
With the exception of certain roles in the bullpen, the A’s seem to have a lot of their positions locked up for the 2017 season.
There won’t be a ton of position battles between younger and older players. The Oakland Athletics have made certain decisions.
They’d like to keep some of their younger talent in the minors and not rush then to the big leagues, making many positions already settled.
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Shortstop is another one of those positions and it appears the team wants to keep their shortstop around for quite some time to come.
This may seem like a foreign to some of you out there.
Understandably, after the past two seasons that both featured 90-game losses, many of you may have written off Marcus Semien as the A’s shortstop of the future.
You see Franklin Barreto and Richie Martin on their way into the league, you remember Semien’s defense in 2015 and perhaps did not even notice that he nearly doubled his power numbers from 15 to 27 home runs between 2015 and 2016.
He also nearly cut his number of errors in half between his two seasons in Oakland.
Semien also has the ability to one day move to another position ala’ Ian Desmond, playing first base or perhaps even in the outfield. For now though, it appears it may be Barreto or Martin who changes positions as Semien’s become more of a true shortstop.
What a lot of people don’t realize is that when Semien made the move to Oakland, he had played just a total of 85 big league games with the Chicago White Sox over the course of two seasons. The majority of them were not at shortstop. He had to learn to play the position and he did.
He’s gotten praise from his teammates, coaches and even manager Bob Melvin on his insane work ethic.
Melvin had a ton of praise for Marcus Semien today, says there isn't anyone he's seen in all his years as a manager who works as hard.
— Susan Slusser (@susanslusser) March 2, 2016
The guy never wants a day off, according to former A’s infield/third base coach, Ron Washington. Last year MLB.com’s Jane Lee talked with Washington who also applauded the work Semien puts in.
“Nobody really knows this, but I tried to give Marcus a day off from time to time. He didn’t want it.”
Washington has now moved on but it doesn’t appear that Semien will be going anywhere. He’s actually a great candidate for a potential extension.
He’s under team control until he hits free agency in 2021 and the A’s brass has shown nothing but confidence in the 26-year-old.
Next: A 2017 Oakland A's bullpen preview
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