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Marcus Semien Trying to Kick-Start His 2025 MLB Season

Originally posted on Cal Bears on SI | By Jeff Faraudo | Last updated May 19, 2025 5:21 PM ET

Cal alum Marcus Semien, three times the third-place finisher in the American League MVP voting since 2019, has not been himself this season.

The Texas Rangers’ second baseman isn’t happy about it.

“I’m not getting on base,” Semien told the Dallas Morning News. “I’m not scoring runs. I’m not doing anything in most offensive categories. It hasn’t been fun. It hasn’t been fun on the mental side.

“I’m glad we’ve been playing well despite it. I’m trying to focus on the good things and the good things to come.”

The Rangers have won seven of their past nine games and, at 25-23, they’re just 2.5 games out of the AL West lead.

They’ve stayed above water despite a largely unproductive season so far from Semien.

The three-time All-Star is batting .174 with just three home runs, four extra-base hits, 17 RBIs, 13 runs scored, a .267 on-base percentage and a .234 slugging mark. His batting average hasn’t been above .200 since going 1 for 4 on opening day, he has just three multiple-hit games and he has one double all season.

This from a player who batted .276 with league-leading totals of 122 runs and 185 hits in 2023, when he helped lead Texas to it first World Series title. Semien cracked 40 doubles that season, hit 29 home runs and delivered a career-best 100 RBIs.

Rangers manager Bruce Bochy dropped Semien from his customary leadoff spot in the lineup to the No. 5 spot, but so far is willing to let Semien work his way out of this stretch.

“I know how important he is to this club,” Bochy said. “We need Marcus. I’m not going to show any doubt to the guy who has had the kind of steady career he’s had. He’s in great shape. He’s moving well. He’s a contributor, and we need him.”

The question is whether that rally is coming or is this season the beginning of a natural decline for a player who turns 35 in September?

Time will tell, but this slow start comes on the heels of a subpar second half to last season, which finished with Semien hitting just .237.

Combine the final 115 games he played last season with his first 47 this year — totaling 162 — and the numbers aren’t great: a .208 batting average, 19 home runs and 62 RBIs.

Bochy brought former major leaguer Bret Boone on as a new hitting coach two weeks ago hopes his influence will benefit Semien.

“I’m looking at Marcus and I still see that fast twitch. I don’t see that age is beating him,” Boone told the Dallas Morning News. “I see a more fundamental battle. Guys go through that even when their body is perfect.

”It’s just that he’s a little in-between on things. He’s too far out in front on the breaking ball, so now, you are fouling off fastballs because you are a little late. He’s not getting that load when the ball is in the hitting zone. You end up chasing more because you’re not seeing it. You are just stuck in the middle.”

Boone is encouraging Semien to stick with it, not give up, and believes he will come through this.

Semien said he continues to work at fixing it.

“It's more about tinkering with different things and making sure I can see the ball better and swing better,” he told MLB.com. “The actual work in the cage does change from time to time. Of course, there's been a ton of changing and tinkering and trying to see the ball better.”

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This article first appeared on Cal Bears on SI and was syndicated with permission.

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