Marcus Semien’s Remarkable Rise From Defensive Doubts to Gold Glove Greatness

The Texas Rangers second baseman has turned into an elite defender.

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On Sunday evening, Rawlings announced the 2025 Gold Glove winners. The Texas Rangers had five finalists including Adolis Garcia, Wyatt Langford, Jacob deGrom, Corey Seager, and Marcus Semien. Semien was the lone winner of the group, defeating Andres Gimenez of the Toronto Blue Jays, and Luis Rengifo of the Los Angeles Angels.

While the Rangers struggled offensively in 2025, their defense never wavered. They set a single-season MLB record for team fielding percentage (.991), surpassing the 2013 Baltimore Orioles. The results showed as Texas had the second most Gold Glove finalists.

Marcus Semien Makes Franchise History

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This marks Semien's second Gold Glove win of his career and first with the Rangers. He previously won with Toronto in 2021. He becomes the first second baseman in franchise history to win the award. However, defense hadn't always been the 35-year-old's biggest strength.

When Semien was getting started with the Chicago White Sox and Oakland Athletics, his defense was below average. He led the American League in errors three different times in 2015, 2016, and 2018. In that 2015 year, he posted 35 errors total. That all changed when he met former Rangers manager Ron Washington.

Washington spent a couple years with the A's and Semien says they were the most important of his career. In an article written by Kennedi Landry of MLB.com, Semien said about Washington, "Ron Washington is the most influential baseball man in my life. It was mostly defense and defensive shifts. I think the point in time when I met Wash, I wasn't in a competent mindset defensively. When I left that season and got into the next season, I was closer to the middle infielder I am today."

The one-year prove-it deal in 2021 with the Blue Jays changed the trajectory of his career. He turned in a monster season where he mashed 45 home runs and 102 RBIs. He cashed that into a 7-year, $175 million deal with the Rangers. The pairing of him and Seager helped lead Texas to its first World Series title in 2023.

In 2025, he finished with a .996 fielding percentage and committed two errors in 493 total chances. He also led all qualified A.L. second baseman with five defensive runs saved. His entire reputation as a defender changed with Ron Washington.

In a separate article from Landry, president of baseball operations Chris Young said, "In spite of our offensive struggles, I commend our position players for the way they defended this year. They never took their at-bats out into the field. They gave us a chance. In fact, we were a record-setting defensive teams in terms of plays converted to outs.

It's a tremendous and inspiring story on how Semien has become one of the game's top defenders. Now, he'll look to carry that over into 2026 and bring Texas back to the postseason.

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