SF Giants miss out on chance for perfect Bay Area native upgrade at 2B

The New York Mets and Texas Rangers pulled off a big trade that sent outfielder Brandon Nimmo to Texas in exchange for second baseman Marcus Semien. This means the SF Giants missed out on a chance for an upgrade at second base.

Semien has always seemed like a guy who would make sense on the Giants since he was born in San Francisco, went to college at Cal, and played for a long time with the Oakland A's so his ties to the Bay Area run deep. We even put together a potential mock trade for him last offseason.

SF Giants miss out on San Francisco native Marcus Semien

Last season, Semien slashed .230/.305/.364 with 15 home runs and 62 runs batted in. That was a decline from the numbers he put up in 2023 and 2024 which were both All-Star campaigns for Semien who has proven to be a great power-hitting second baseman.

Trading for Semien would have made a lot of sense last offseason given the fact that Bob Melvin was still the manager and he coached Semien while in Oakland, but perhaps this offseason with other needs taking precedence a trade like this would not have made as much sense.

The fact that the Mets had to give up a solid player like Nimmo likely means the Giants would have had to give up a player like Heliot Ramos and maybe even throw in someone like Casey Schmitt.

That would have been a fairly steep price to pay for a player like Semien who has been in decline and who is going to be 35 next season.

There are other potential upgrades at second base for next season. However, the Giants are probably not going to expend too much time or resources when there are bigger fish to fry.

San Francisco is going to have to add some starters to pad out their rotation after their pitching staff ran out of gas in 2025 and they are also going to have to add a number of bullpen arms to see if they can try to assemble a decent bullpen that will look very different from the superb bullpen they had in the first half of 2025.

The Giants may decide to just roll with Schmitt, who showed positive signs in 2025, at second base to begin next season. They have some decent depth options behind him like Christian Koss and Tyler Fitzgerald if Schmitt struggles.

While Semien would have been a nice upgrade at second base, the Giants are probably wise to focus their efforts elsewhere this offseason.