Rangers might be forced to move veteran out of typical role in favor of rising star

Since Marcus Semien joined the Texas Rangers in 2022, the leadoff spot in the batting rotation has more or less been occupied by the savvy second baseman.

In the 487 games he's played with Texas, Semien has lead the Rangers' offense for 434 of those games, not including the 17 postseason games in during the 2023 season. For the first two seasons, Semien fit that role as an on-base, run scoring, RBI merchant. However, in 2024, his production faltered, resulting in arguably his least successful season in six years.

The Gold Glove second baseman has gotten off to a rough start in 2025, albeit only six games, but he enters Wednesday afternoon's series finale against the Reds 2-for-23 (.087) and six strikeouts. There is still plenty of time to turn it around but maybe it shouldn't be in a leadoff capacity.

How would taking Semien out of the leadoff spot wake up the Rangers' offense?

The Rangers have been outscored 25-17 in their first six games of the season. While some of that is inflated due to a whopping 14-3 beatdown by the Reds on Monday evening we still haven't seen the powerful offense we hoped to see this season.

Outside a handful of hitters, the Rangers haven't been able to get going. As a team, Texas is .207/.272/.359 with a .631 OPS. The Rangers have hit seven home runs this season but four of them coming from Wyatt Langford and Adolis Garcia.

Langford is the likely solution to the Rangers' getting the offensive production going. If anyone can kick start the offense it's a young, slugging, speedy weapon to lead off every game for your team.

Back in the early 2000s, the prototypical leadoff hitter was a high-contact, get on base, high-octane speed threat with the occasional ability to hit for power. Langford has all those characteristics but with more than just an occasional home run threat. What we've seen from the 24-year-old since his MLB Debut last March was a ball of energy, hustling every play and laying it out on the line to get the Rangers' whatever advantage he could get.

If Bochy ever felt the need to make a change in the order, Langford would slot into that No. 1 spot with ease.

What would the revised lineup look like?

The only major change would be where you slot Semien in the lineup. The 34-year-old second baseman still has a lot of value, finishing last season with a 4.1 WAR, recorded 154 hits and scored 101 runs. He also has some of the best defense in baseball, among the best in outs above average (19) and 97th percentile in fielding run value (14) last year.

There is still a spot for Semien and the one that makes the most sense is to just move him down one spot to No. 2 in the order. It still allows for him to maintain his confidence yet puts less stress on him to produce right from the first pitch. Also, with Semien's tendency to be aggressive, it might help Texas get off to an early lead in cases where Langford is on the base paths.

Another version exists where Semien is moved all the way to the bottom of the lineup in the No. 9 spot acting as a "non-traditional" leadoff hitter. This would have a similar effect of putting less pressure on Marcus while giving the top of the order ducks on the pond to drive in.

However, Bruce Bochy is super loyal to his guys and Semien will still consistently hit leadoff for the time being. That doesn't mean Bochy will force something that isn't there because while he is loyal, he's not dumb.