Blue Jays: Potential replacements for Marcus Semien

The Toronto Blue Jays will have a hard time finding someone to replace Marcus Semien, but that doesn’t mean there aren’t some interesting options out there

A single-season record 45 home runs by a second baseman. More than 100 RBI, an .873 OPS, the highest WAR in the American League among position players, and Gold Glove defense. All for $18 million.

That’s what Marcus Semien gave the Toronto Blue Jays in 2021. Semien bet on himself, signing a one-year deal with the club in hopes a stellar season would allow him to cash in during free agency. It worked, and Semien’s time in Toronto is already over after he signed a seven-year, $175 million deal with the Texas Rangers on Sunday.

It was brief, but Semien’s contributions to the Blue Jays will long be remembered. There was his walkoff grand slam in the miraculous comeback against Oakland in front of a raucous Rogers Centre crowd. There was the home run jacket, his mentoring of double play partner Bo Bichette, the way he moved over to second after a career spent playing shortstop without complaint.

“Marcus, man. What an incredible year. What an incredible career, really, he’s had,” General Manager Ross Atkins said on MLB Network earlier this month. “Also just fit in so well. I wish he could’ve spent more time in the city and the country. The fans across the country did fall in love with him. He didn’t get to spend as much time in Canada as we would like.”

The Blue Jays, who fell an agonizing one game short of a playoff berth in 2021, will have to try to replace Semien’s production in their lineup in order to take the next step as an organization. Atkins and the Blue Jays front office haven’t been afraid to spend money this offseason; they’ve already handed out $131 million to Jose Berrios and $110 million to Kevin Gausman. And they’re not done, as plenty of tantalizing options remain on the market for the Blue Jays to add and fill the gaping hole left by Semien’s departure.

“There’s some other interesting infielders available through trade and free agency that we’re having a lot of dialogue with,” Atkins said.

So who are there players? Here are a few who may find they way into a Blue Jays uniform in 2022 and, if not fully replicate Semien’s numbers, at least soften the blow of him leaving.

Javier Baez

Javier Baez didn’t endear himself to New York Mets fans in his brief stint with the team in 2021. Now he’s gone, and the Blue Jays could be the club that next has to rein in the talented but erratic star.

Baez was part of the Chicago Cubs fire sale at the trade deadline last July. He was batting just .210 in a Mets uniform when he hit a home run against the Washington Nationals on Aug. 29. Tired of fans booing him, Baez gave a ‘thumbs down’ gesture as he crossed home plate. It was a gesture that received instant condemnation from the Mets front office, but it also seemed to spark a sort of resurgence.

Baez finished the season batting .346 over his last 29 games. From Aug. 1, he trailed only Trea Turner in on-base percentage among second basemen and was top-five in OPS. His numbers with the Mets improved dramatically: .299 batting average (50 points higher than with the Cubs), .371 OBP (80 points higher), and .886 OPS (110 points higher). His strikeout rate, notoriously high for the free-swinger, declined by eight points following the trade.

A few days shy of his 29th birthday and with two All-Star selections, a Gold Glove, and World Series ring in his collection, Baez is now seeking his third team in the last 12 months. Imagine Baez, with the quickest tag in the league and a flair all his own, turning double plays alongside Bo Bichette for the next several years.

Baez has power; he hit 31 home runs last season and 34 in 2018. His personality is a lot to deal with, but the talent? It’s captivating for any team making a run at signing him, the Blue Jays included.

Chris Taylor

Lack of postseason experience isn’t a problem with Chris Taylor. The versatile free agent, who spent the last five seasons with the Los Angeles Dodgers, has appeared in 62 postseason games over that span; only former teammates Joc Pederson, Justin Turner, and Cody Bellinger, plus four members of the Houston Astros, have played more.

Taylor is the type of player the Blue Jays would be able to plug in anywhere in the lineup. Just in 2021, he played 61 games in centre field, 46 at second, 30 in left, 23 at short, and even added 11 at third base. He appeared in at least 10 games at five different positions.

It would be as a second baseman, replacing Semien, that the Blue Jays would likely utilize Taylor the most. If he played there on a full-time basis, Taylor would rank eighth in the Majors with a .804 OPS since 2017. Just nine other second basemen last year matched Taylor’s 20 home runs, 73 RBI, and .782 OPS. None of them displayed the same versatility and possess the same playoff experience that he does.

Taylor is coming from an organization that made deep playoff runs a yearly ritual. He’s played in three World Series over the last five years, winning a championship in 2020. It’s something the current Blue Jays regime is trying to build. Among players to appear in at least 70 games for the Blue Jays in 2021, only Randal Grichuk and George Springer have played a postseason game further than the Wild Card Round.

Jose Ramirez

The Cleveland Guardians may have a new name, but they likely still have the same tight-fisted spending habits that have already seen star players like Francisco Lindor, Trevor Bauer, and Mike Clevinger dealt away in recent years.

The Blue Jays have to hope Jose Ramirez is the next player the Guardians would rather exchange for a package of prospects than hand a big long-term deal. The All-Star third baseman was the subject of incessant trade rumours throughout 2021, and those haven’t subsided as he enters the final two years of Cleveland’s club control.

Ramirez is due to earn $12 million next season. The Guardians have a $14 million club option for 2023. Then he’s a free agent, where he will command one of the top salaries in the game. The Guardians likely won’t pay him what he’ll want, and that’s where a club like the Blue Jays will happily step in and take Ramirez off Cleveland’s hands.

Since 2017, Ramirez is fourth among third basemen in home runs (144), third in RBI (420), and second with a .911 OPS. He’s finished in the top six of MVP voting four times in the last five seasons. Still just 29, he’s coming off a season where he hit 36 homers and drove in 103 for a Cleveland lineup in which he was often the only serious offensive threat; Ramirez ranked third in the AL last season in intentional walks.

Ramirez’s strength is crushing fastballs. He had a .663 slugging percentage off fastballs in 2021, fourth in the Majors (Vladimir Guerrero Jr. was first at .794). Ramirez had the second-lowest swing-and-miss rate on fastballs, behind only the Padres’ Jake Cronenworth.

So what will the Blue Jays need to surrender to get him from the Guardians? Looking at recent history, they probably won’t have to dig deep into the organization. When the then-Indians traded Francisco Lindor to the Mets last offseason, they received Amed Rosario, Andres Gimenez, and two prospects, Josh Wolf and Isaiah Greene, neither of whom is in their top-25 prospects. Of the four prospects the Cardinals traded to Colorado for another All Star-caliber third baseman, Nolan Arenado, only one is even a top-30 club prospect.