Marcus Semien rewarded the A’s for their faith.
In a tough 2016 season for the team, Semien’s individual year would rank as Oakland’s second-biggest bright spot after the monster season posted by cleanup man Khris Davis.
The Bay Area native mashed a career-high 27 home runs, tied for most among major league shortstops, and showed vast improvement defensively. In the process, Semien has gone from being a question mark at the outset of 2016 to looking like an important piece of the A’s future puzzle moving forward.
He’s got youth on his side, having just turned 26 in September, and Semien is still a bargain as he doesn’t hit his first year of salary arbitration until next winter.