Blue Jays: Four feasible ways to make up for the loss of Semien

The Blue Jays lineup will feel the loss of Marcus Semien in 2022, but there are ways that they can make up for the production he provided last season.

That won’t be easy after the Blue Jays hit the jackpot by signing the then 31 year old infielder to a one year, 18 million dollar pact. All they got back for that roll of the dice was the 3rd place finishing the AL MVP race, and a performance so good it also earned him Silver Slugger and Gold Glove award, and a spot on the All-MLB team. The California native ended up slashing .265/.334/.538 with most home runs ever hit in a single season by a second baseman with 45, adding 39 doubles, 102 RBI, and 15 stolen bases for a 7.3 bWAR season. It couldn’t have gone a lot better in a single season showing.

Now that Semien has signed a fresh seven-year contract with the Texas Rangers, the Blue Jays have to find a way to replace that kind of production, and that’s all but impossible to do. That said, I think Ross Atkins and the front office team have the Jays well set up to navigate life after their star second baseman, and there are a number of ways they can make up for his loss.

How do the Jays even begin to go about something like that? It’s not the easiest thing to address at the moment with baseball being frozen in a lockout situation, but at some point things will get going again when a CBA gets hammered out.

When that happens, let’s have a look at how the Blue Jays can try to make up for Semien’s production.

Bringing in a new face

I know we’ve talked about it a fair bit here at Jays Journal, and I wanted to get this out of the way right at the start. The Blue Jays have Vladimir Guerrero Jr. locked in at first base and the same for Bo Bichette at shortstop, but there are still question marks at second and third base. If the season were to begin today it’s likely that Cavan Biggio and Santiago Espinal would fill those roles, but that could be a gamble for the Blue Jays in light of the production and health of the former in 2021. More likely, I suspect those two will split one of the infield jobs, and another player will be brought into the fold at some point.

We’ve talked about ideal scenarios like the Jays acquiring Jose Ramirez from Cleveland, or tapping the Diamondbacks to see if they would be willing to trade Ketel Marte. The other day I covered the best remaining candidates that could be available through both free agency and trade outside of those two. That list included the likes of Oakland’s Matt Chapman, Jeff McNeil of the Mets, Isiah Kiner-Falefa of the Rangers, and more, who are all potential replacements to varying degrees.

With the Blue Jays having some strong trade pieces in their minor league system, and some reports that they’d be willing to trade from their big league roster, it’s possible that I’m nowhere close to the ultimate solution. Whomever the Blue Jays bring in, that player is going to have some big shoes to fill, and hopefully the fan base won’t expect the second-coming of what Semien brought to the table.

Without knowing who that player could be it’s really tough to guess just how much of Semien’s production they’ll make up for, but fortunately they shouldn’t have to do it all alone.

Speaking of getting more out of a player

Just as the Blue Jays hope to get more from a healthier George Springer in 2022, the same could be said for Cavan Biggio, although to a lesser degree than for the established star.

Prior to last season Biggio was viewed as one of the centrepieces of the Blue Jays’ new core, and with fairly good reason. He slashed .234/.364/.421 with 16 home runs, 17 doubles, 48 RBI, and 14 stolen bases (without being caught) over his first 100 games during his rookie season, earning 3.0 bWAR. He followed that up during the pandemic-shortened season with a slash line of .250/.375/.432 over 59 games and 220 at-bats, and showed ability near the top of the lineup, especially as an on-base threat.

Unfortunately 2021 was a totally different story. It started with the 26 year old being asked to shift from his most familiar spot at second base over to a new position at third. He struggled a bit on defence as he adjusted, and that certainly didn’t help his cause at the plate either. On top of that, Biggio dealt with recurring issues, especially with a nagging neck problem, and I believe that it really impacted his performance.

There are some folks that would tell you that the league has simply figured Biggio out, and there could be some truth to that statement. However, I’m looking forward to seeing what a fully healthy Biggio can do in 2022, and if he bounces back to even being the player he was as a rookie then the Blue Jays are going to be in good shape. If he can progress even further then they’ll be laughing.

Don’t get me wrong, Biggio is never going to equal the kind of performance we saw from Semien in 2022, but that doesn’t mean he can’t be a well above-average player. Even if he can provide half of that value while a healthy season from Springer makes up for a lot more, that could go a long way to keeping this Blue Jays lineup as long and dangerous as it could and should be. The same could be said for Santiago Espinal, who had a surprisingly productive 2021 campaign, and most definitely brings a lot of value with his defence. Our own Amy Sarkany talked about Biggio’s potential for next season just last week.

As I said before, I very much think the Blue Jays will still add to their infield picture. However, I still believe in Cavan Biggio’s ability to bounce back and be an important contributor to this team in the future, and I hope he’s fully healthy and gets a chance to do just that.

A breakout candidate waiting to happen

A friend asked me the other day if I thought there were any breakout candidates for the Blue Jays heading into the 2022 season. That’s not a description that works for Vladimir Guerrero Jr. anymore, as he was an All-Star and finished second in AL MVP voting this year. Bo Bichette and Teoscar Hernandez were also All-Stars, and the latter was a Silver Slugger award winner as well.

The more I thought about the candidates in the lineup, the more I kept coming back to Lourdes Gurriel Jr., even if it’s a bit of a stretch to consider the 27 year old as a potential breakout candidate. In a lot of ways, that breakthrough happened in the second half of the 2021 campaign when he hit .296/.360/.529 with 11 home runs, 11 doubles, and 48 RBI over just 208 at-bats after the All-Star break. There were times that Gurriel Jr. legitimately carried the lineup and was arguably the hottest hitter in baseball.

In a lineup that features all of the other names I’ve already mentioned, Gurriel Jr. doesn’t have to be that mega-star with this group, but the Blue Jays will hope to receive more consistent production from him next season. He slashed just .262/.288/.422 prior to the All-Star break, and really struggled to find his footing in the batter’s box in the early going. Every hitter is going to have ebbs and flows in their production over the course of a 162 game season, but Gurriel Jr. has shown himself to be a pretty streaky hitter.

That said, he changed his approach at the plate in the second half and the adjustment really seems to have worked for him. If that’s an improvement that can be applied in a sustainable way, his bat really lengthens the lineup. The Cuban-born slugger spent the majority of last season hitting either sixth or seventh, and that kind of production in the bottom half is a nightmare for opposing pitchers.

We’ll see if Gurriel Jr. can keep up the elite production that he provided in the second half of last season, but if he can get even close that will make a massive difference for Charlie Montoyo’s lineup card. As far as progression as hitters go, the same thing could still happen for players like Vlad Jr., Bichette, and Hernandez, even if they’ve all arrived in a sense already.

The reality is, even without Marcus Semien the Blue Jays should still have a very deep and dangerous lineup. If they can find an above-average infield replacement, and can get the most out of players like Springer, Biggio, and Gurriel Jr., they should be more than fine.