Second baseman Marcus Semien, traded to the Mets by the Rangers in November, fields some Spring Training Q&A from Post columnist Steve Serby.
Q: What is the ceiling for you and Francisco Lindor as a second base-shortstop double-play combination?
A: I would say our goal is to be known as the best middle infield in the league … taking away as many base hits and runs as we possibly can to help our team win every single game we can.
Q: Over the years, what impressed you most about Lindor?
A: Just how smooth he is at shortstop. He makes the game look easy over there. You look at him as a hitter, how clutch he is and how he posts every day. I know playing the shortstop position producing on offense like he does and playing platinum glove defense is not an easy thing.
Q: Having been teammates in Toronto in 2021, what is your favorite Bo Bichette memory?
A: I think just watching him as a young kid, having a career year, playing in the All-Star game with Bo — we got to play a couple of times, the coolest one was being to play up the middle with him in the All-Star Game in 2023, although I was a Ranger, he was a Blue Jay. It felt like old times for us.
Q: How is he going to handle third base?
A: He’s looking great over there. He’s a really good athlete who can adjust, he’s got a strong arm, and he’s just working on different angles and different things that he’s gonna see over there that at shortstop he may have a little more time to see the ball come to you, so just reaction time and different things like that are gonna be something he’s working on right now.
Q: What have you observed about Carson Benge?
A: I got to hit in the cage with him. He’s got a powerful bat. He gets everything he has into his swing, but his hand-eye coordination looks really good. So it’s a scary combination.
Q: Nolan McLean?
A: I got to face Nolan my first live at-bats this spring. He’s a guy who’s coming right at you with six different pitches and high velocity and really good stuff, and he’s a competitor on the mound. He’s definitely gonna be a superstar in this league, he’s showing that already.
Q: What makes Freddy Peralta an ace?
A: He’s got that deceptive windup with a very, very, very good fastball. It looks like it’s right down the middle and it just rises right above your barrel. That makes it tough. Then you feel like you have to cheat to his fastball and he’s got a great changeup and great slider off of that.
Q: Would you consider one day being a manager?
A: I don’t know. … I definitely want to give back to the game any way I can. I know I owe it to my family and my kids to at least manage their baseball team first (laugh). If the opportunity ever came, that would be something I would consider for sure, but I haven’t thought too much about it yet.
Q: Describe your new manager, Carlos Mendoza.
A: Seems like a great person, a leader, the way he talks to the group, he really believes that we are going to be a great team and he has us all believe that. That’s a great mentality to have.
Q: Does winning a World Series with the 2023 Rangers whet your appetite to win another one?
A: Every single day. I think when you make it at the top of this game, and that is the top of this game, winning a World Series, every year you show up after that you expect to do that. It’s definitely not that easy and you know how hard it is. I think the biggest thing is understanding that it’s a long season, and it’s about getting hot at the right time and making sure that you’re firing on all cylinders once you get to the postseason.
Q: How critical is clubhouse chemistry?
A: It is critical. I think clubhouse chemistry is a general term, but in terms of knowing your teammates, knowing how they react in certain situations, knowing their background and their family, it makes you care about them even more when you’re out there competing. … Get a runner over so your teammate after you can get a base hit to score a run or a sac fly to get him an RBI, those things matter for everybody.
Q: Juan Soto as your teammate.
A: Juan is as hard a worker as I’ve seen in a superstar. I see dedication to his craft, I see discipline, I see a guy who has fun, and just a guy that is preparing to be a Hall of Famer, what it looks like to me.
Q: Do you miss batting leadoff?
A: Yeah, batting leadoff was fun. You get into the routine of it. You get a lot of plate appearances. I was hitting leadoff for a good offensive team, getting five plate appearances a night. All of a sudden I had 835 total plate appearances in 2023, so that was definitely a fun year.
Q: Any idea where you’ll be batting in the lineup this year?
A: No, I don’t know yet. My goal is to put myself in a position where I’m swinging the bat very well to contribute to this team in a good way offensively.
Q: How dynamic can this Mets lineup be?
A: Very dynamic. We have guys who can run, and we have guys who can hit for power and put the ball in play and make it tough on a defense. We have to do our best to be relentless night in, night out, and any given day there’s somebody in our lineup who can beat you. It’s gonna be fun to be a part of a deep group of talented hitters.
Q: David Stearns talked about your impact will primarily be defensively, but do you have something to prove offensively?
A: I do. I just want to be the best version of myself as a player. Over the years, there’s been some offensive production there that I want to replicate, and I’m working extremely hard to do those things and continue to improve on defense and get as complete a player as I can possibly be.
Q: You hit 45 home runs with Toronto in 2021.
A: I was on time for the fastball. I was able to handle high velocity up in the zone and connect with it over and over. That’s something we always focus on because high-velocity pitching is everywhere in the game now.
Q: Where is your swing and approach now?
A: I’ve been overall happy with how I’ve been competing in the box, and as we get further along and get to, let’s say, 100 plate appearances total, I think we should have a better idea of what we’re doing up here.
Q: What would you tell young players about what it takes to win a Gold Glove?
A: I’ve been fortunate enough to be out there and play a lot of games and play good defense at a high level. I take ground balls every single day, that’s something that’s important to me no matter if it’s a day game or a night game. It’s something I feel like is part of the routine to get you going, get your body in shape and work on your skills, so never stop working on your skills.
Q: Do you miss shortstop, or no?
A: I do, but I found a home at second base. It’s almost even now how many years I’ve played shortstop and second.
Q: What’s your comfort level at second?
A: I’m still learning something new every day, but in terms of the angles, the baseball coming off the bat and turning double plays, and just certain plays you see on the right side of the infield, I’ve gotten a lot more comfortable, for sure.
Q: Were there second basemen you studied when you moved from shortstop?
A: I really just put my head down and tried to work as hard as I could every single day. Guys that I would say I admire now at the position, Ketel Marte, Andrés Giménez, I think he might be playing shortstop again now, but those are some of the smoothest guys I’ve seen over there.
Q: Describe your on-field mentality.
A: I guess grinder. I want to play every single day, I want to give it all I have no matter how I feel. I run the bases hard and I play the game hard.
Q: You can’t be an Iron Man unless you play hurt. What’s the most hurt you ever played?
A: I probably have to say through a fractured wrist for about a month that I didn’t know at the time. That was in Oakland, 2017, just trying to grind through that one. Eventually I had to get a surgery, but I tried my best.
Q: What does it take to be an Iron Man, and how proud are you of being one?
A: It definitely takes a lot of work behind the scenes in the weight room, in the training room, staying consistent with your work so you stay in shape, you want to get in good baseball shape. While we’re here in spring training, you want to maintain that and get even stronger throughout the year. And it takes a lot of mental strength as well. I’d say that just being able to handle the ups and downs of the game, and the pressures of playing at this level, you need to find a release or something that keeps you calm off the field so you can show up with the most positive attitude every day.
Q: What keeps you calm off the field?
A: For me, it’s my family. I get to come home to five kids and my wife, Tarah. It’s definitely been a great journey for my wife and I through baseball and raising kids. They allow me to just get away from the game when I get home and just enjoy them growing up.
Q: Tell me about Tarah.
A: We’ve been together since high school [St. Mary’s in Albany, Calif.], we went to the same high school, the same college [Cal] and we both played sports. Tarah was one of the top volleyball players in the world, she played professionally while I was in the minor leagues. And then she had a knee injury that ended her volleyball career, and we ended up having our first child and getting married while I was in Oakland. And now we have five children, and time flies.
Q: The oldest is Isaiah.
A: Isaiah’s 9, Joshua’s 7, Eli’s 5, Amelie is 2 and Capri is 3 months old.
Q: What is it like being a father of five?
A: It’s fun. Something new every day. There’s a lot of teaching moments, there’s a lot of just helping these little ones grow up to be respectful people. That’s always my wife and I’s goal.
Q: What is the biggest adversity you’ve overcome?
A: I’d probably say my first full season in the major leagues [2015 with the A’s], just having some defensive struggles, trying to play the shortstop position for a new team in my hometown and going through some struggles. It really just took hard work on taking extra ground balls and finding a new routine that made me confident in the game to get me out of that rut.
Q: What is the emotional low point in your major league career?
A: Definitely those early years. … I had some tough games in a White Sox uniform my first September or the next year. You work so hard to get to the major leagues and then you get there and you get punched in the mouth a couple of times, and you face the best of the best and you say, “OK, am I really good enough to stay here?” And the longer you think about it and play, you realize that every young guy goes through that. Now I get to watch a lot of young guys come up, and I know that there could be success early on, but there’s gonna be a lot of ups and downs, and you have to figure out how to adjust from there.
Q: Was there someone you turned to for support?
A: In the baseball world, I think it was Ron Washington in Oakland as my infield coach; Bob Melvin, manager; Darren Bush, hitting coach in Oakland. I grew up in the major leagues with those coaches. In terms of players, Jed Lowrie was a guy who really helped me a lot on defense, and then when those young guys came up behind me, seeing how good they were and how much fun they had really kind of put some life into me to keep it going.
Q: What was it about Derek Jeter you admired so much?
A: Right-handed hitter … I just kind of watched the way he moved, I feel like it reminded me of what I could be one day. He comes from a similar, I guess, ethnic background — his mom being white, his dad Black, similar to me — and he played shortstop. So I kinda looked for somebody who was kinda similar to me background-wise, and he was “the guy” for a while, so he was fun to watch.
Q: A quote from your former manager Bob Melvin: “There’s certain guys you don’t want to see in a different uniform.”
A: When I got traded to Oakland, I got to play for Bob Melvin for six straight years. I felt like Bob was another father figure for me, somebody who believed in me and let me work through my ups and downs. I tried to be the best teammate I could be when I played for him, and I think that’s probably a little bit of what he meant. But he shaped a lot of where I am today.
Q: A quote from Blue Jays GM Ross Atkins: “Marcus is so good for baseball.”
A: He brought me in on a one-year deal after I had a tough 2020 season. They believed in me, they showed a lot of confidence in me. They made me feel welcome when I got there, and I had a lot of fun playing for the Toronto Blue Jays. We had a crazy [COVID] year because Canada was not open and we went through a lot as a team. That’s a really good organization over there, and I’m happy he felt that way about me.
Q: What was it like riding BART to Giants games with your grandmother?
A: My grandma, Carol Phillips, my mom’s mom, I was her first grandson. She had three [grand]daughters, and I was born, and she loved sports. We made that connection very early when I was a young kid, and growing up in the Bay Area, we had San Francisco Giants games, we had Golden State Warriors games, and my grandma loved baseball and basketball. As I got older and continued to play sports, my grandma would be at every single game that I had, she’d also take me to the pro games, and that’s how I learned to love sports.
Q: What was it like watching Barry Bonds’ 700th home run in person?
A: That was great. I think we were in the third deck. I’m pretty sure he hit that ball to like left center, and just the power that he showed in that ballpark, which is a pitcher’s ballpark, he made that park look small. All of us young kids and fans at those games, every Barry Bonds at-bat we were locked in to, and even when they were on TV we were just locked in to his at-bats.
Q: Did you grow up wanting to be a San Francisco Giant?
A: Of course. It’s cool to see young kids now that I’m at this level, the teams that I’ve played for, the young kids in the area just aspiring to be a major league player for their favorite team. That was definitely me.
Q: Who was your favorite Warrior, Curry?
A: [Steph] Curry’s been a fixture for a long, long time. Klay Thompson, Steph Curry, when Kevin Durant was there, like that was a lethal combination. But just watching how that Steve Kerr system has been so good for a long time, and watching Steph Curry shoot the ball with such precision and excellence, you get spoiled as a Warrior fan.
Q: You were a Jason Kidd fan, too.
A: I actually got a chance to connect with Jason this offseason in Texas. He’s a University of California-Berkeley guy, and Dallas Mavericks head coach.
Q: What was it like meeting Rickey Henderson?
A: While I was playing for Oakland, he was the special assistant with the organization. Basically, he came into the clubhouse and he was just one of the guys, he’s playing cards with the guys, he’s talking baseball, talking baserunning, of course, hitting. I got to take ground balls during batting practice, and Rickey Henderson would catch my throws at first base, so every time my dad would come to batting practice he thought that was the craziest thing because that was his favorite player (chuckle). It’s so sad to see him go at such a young age. I think about him all the time.
Q: Alexei Ramirez, tell me about him.
A: He was a shortstop when I got called up to the major leagues, and just watching him play 161, 162 games year after year and grind through a season … whether I was not playing that day, or playing up the middle with him, he was always a guy I looked up to, and he gave it everything he had on the field.
Q: What will it be like playing on the New York stage?
A: It’s something I’ve always wondered about and wanted to do. I think just coming into New York as a road player, you feel that energy immediately, so now I get to do it for 81-plus games. The energy in the ballpark brings the best out of most of us players, and something I’m looking forward to.
Q: Three dinner guests?
A: Martin Luther King [Jr.], Jackie Robinson, Barack Obama.
Q: Favorite movie?
A: “Remember the Titans.”
Q: Favorite actor?
A: Denzel [Washington].
Q: Favorite singer/rapper/entertainer?
A: Lil Wayne.
Q: Favorite meal?
A: Steak.
Q: Your goals for this season?
A: My goal is to be on a World Series championship team. My goal is to stay healthy, play 162 games of good baseball, offensive and defense, score 100 runs, and maybe win another [third] Gold Glove.
Q: What are you most proud of about your career?
A: Getting the 10 years of service time was definitely something I was proud of. Winning a World Series, and just making an impact on my teammates that have been around me.
Q: What is your message to Mets fans about Marcus Semien?
A: I’m a hard-working baseball player, a family man, and somebody who just really loves the game of baseball, and I’m blessed to be able to play in front of these fans.
Q: Your message to fans about this Mets team?
A: This Mets team is a group of hungry players who are ready to do whatever it takes to make it to the World Series and win a ring. That’s everybody’s goal, and that will remain the same throughout the season.
