Texas Rangers Confident Half-Billion Dollar Middle Infield Will Eventually Pay Big Dividends

The Philadelphia Athletics of the early 1910s had the $100,000 Infield.

First baseman Stuffy McInnis, second baseman Eddie Collins, third baseman Frank “Home Run” Baker and shortstop Jack Barry purportedly earned a combined $100,000 a year. It was a princely sum at that time for baseball players and valued at close to $3 million in today’s dollars.

The Texas Rangers have the $500 Million Middle Infield, which consists of second baseman Marcus Semien and shortstop Corey Seager.

Both players signed with the Rangers as free agents on Dec. 1 – Seager agreeing to a 10-year, $325-million deal and Semien inking a seven-year, $175-million pact.

Talk about a jump in salaries over 11 decades.

Those signings were designed to help return the Rangers back to respectability this season and eventually become building blocks of a championship team.

The Rangers seemingly hit bottom last season when they finished 60-102 for their worst record since the franchise moved to Arlington from Washington in 1972. It also marked Texas’ sixth consecutive losing season since its last postseason appearance in 2016.

A little more than a third of the way through the Rangers’ first season with Seager and Semien in the lineup, the results have been mixed.

The Rangers are certainly more respectable with a 26-30 mark. However, Seager and Semien have not produced to their level their contracts would suggest.

Seager leads the Rangers with 11 home runs but is hitting .223/.291/.405 in 54 games. A recent spurt has lifted Semien’s line to .222/.280/.353 through 55 games with six homers and 10 stolen bases.

However, Rangers manager Chris Woodward makes it clear Texas is not experiencing buyers’ remorse and is confidence it will get plenty of bang for its half-billion bucks.

“I know both of them would like to be performing at a higher level, which they will,” Woodward said. “I have full confidence in them, what they bring every day, the attitude, the way they work, the way they prepare, the way they are inside the clubhouse.

“They are unique in their own way. They have different processes in preparing but they both set great examples to anyone in this clubhouse with their work ethic.”

Adding players with big talent was the Rangers’ primary motivation for pursuing Seager and Semien.

The 28-year-old Seager is a two-time All-Star and two-time Silver Slugger winner. He was the MVP of the National League Championship Series and World Series in 2020 – both played at the Rangers’ Globe Life Field during the pandemic— when the Los Angeles Dodgers won their first championship since 1988.

Semien, 31, was both the American League Silver Slugger and Gold Glove winner last season. His 45 home runs for the Toronto Blue Jays set the MLB record for a second baseman in a single season.

However, the Rangers also signed the duo with the long game in mind, to be what Woodward calls “pillars of the franchise.” Seager’s contract runs through 2031 and Semien’s deal doesn’t expire until 2028.

Both Seager and Semien were part of a strong free agent class of shortstops last winter that included Javier Baez, Carlos Correa and Trevor Story. Though Semien moved to second base in his lone season with the Blue Jays in 2021, he spent his first eight big league seasons at shortstop and was pursued by other teams on the open market to play the position.

The Rangers surprised many around baseball by signing two of those five players and Woodward knows many teams had to be envious of Texas pulling off such a feat.

“It’s a big part of your team in general,” Woodward said of the middle infield. “You’re always talking about middle-of-the-field players – the catcher, the shortstop, the second baseman, the center fielder. That’s where your premier guys are, especially on both sides of the ball.

“Everyone looks up to them because they are your hardest-working players and there is a lot of value to that long-term. Shortstop, especially, is a premier position nowadays, where you need your guy to be your best hitter as well as your best defender. That’s why Corey and Marcus mean so much to what we’re doing here. They are both special players and special people.”