Numbers Literally Prove Marcus Semien Was More Valuable Than DJ LeMahieu
By Chris Russo
The Baseball Writers' Association of America may be getting flack for naming Marcus Semien an AL MVP finalist as opposed to DJ LeMahieu, but the numbers indicate they made the right call.
The Oakland A's shortstop does not edge, but rather destroys, the New York Yankees infielder in terms of WAR, no matter which organization's version of the metric you analyze.
LeMahieu vs Semien in 2019
— George (@GMLBStats) November 5, 2019
rWAR: 6.0 vs 8.1
fWAR: 5.4 vs 7.6
WARP: 4.8 vs 7.5
gWAR: 5.9 vs 7.5
When every WAR has one player leading by a sizable margin, there's a pretty damn good chance that player was better.
Semien's wins above replacement is at least one and a half higher than LeMahieu's according to at least four different baseball analytic organizations: FanGraphs, Baseball-Reference, Baseball Prospectus, and Baseball Gauge. All of their formulas vary in at least some way, but the numbers are undoubtedly on Semien's side.
Marcus Semien is the just the second @Athletics SS since 1908 to have 7+ RBIs in a game pic.twitter.com/XuttMesYKl
— Baseball Reference (@baseball_ref) August 27, 2019
Semien's career year saw him slash .285/.369/.522 with 33 home runs, 92 RBI, 10 steals and 343 total bases. As for LeMahieu, he slashed .327/.375/.518 with 26 homers and 102 RBI.
Semien proved himself by playing in every game this season, 17 more than LeMahieu did, and also leading the MLB in plate appearances with 747.
So while Yankee fans were hoping to see LeMahieu among the finalists for the AL MVP, a deeper dive reveals that the league got it right, and Semien is fully worthy of his spot on the shortlist.