Blue Jays: Five big reasons to love Marcus Semien’s signing

The Blue Jays likely completed their starting lineup on Tuesday by signing Marcus Semien, and there are a lot of reasons to love this deal.

Despite the fact that the Blue Jays landed their “big fish” by signing George Springer to a six-year, 150 million dollar contract last week, the work wasn’t done. They’re one step closer to finishing off the checklist now though.

On Tuesday the Blue Jays filled their vacant infield spot with an All-Star calibre option in Marcus Semien, who agreed to a one-year, 18 million dollar contract. In some ways it’s surprising that Semien signed just a one-year deal, but it’s also understandable that he might benefit by giving free agency another try a year from now when the state of finances in baseball is a little more secure. Also, 18 million is a pretty decent get.

As for the Blue Jays, there were other options on the free agent and trade markets, but Semien is an exciting player to be able to land and there’s no doubt that the team just got a lot better. Granted, he’s coming off of a bit of a down season last year in a smaller sample size, but that shouldn’t and obviously didn’t scare off Ross Atkins and the front office.

I would have been pleased with the news of acquiring Semien under different terms, but I’m ecstatic that they were able to sign him this way, and maintain a ton of flexibility in the process. In fact, there are so many reasons to like this deal that I decided to make a list, and I could have gone on for a while longer too.

For now, I present the top five reasons why Blue Jays fans should love this deal.