Rangers Notes: Marcus Semien Reflects on Labor Dispute, Four Signings Made Official

SURPRISE, Ariz. — It's not the introduction Marcus Semien envisioned for his teammates after signing a seven-year, $175 million contract. Just hours after a press conference that celebrated the Texas Rangers' splurge of $500 million on Semien and Corey Seager, the owners unanimously locked out the players at the expiration of the old collective bargaining agreement.

No workouts at Globe Life Field. No conversation with his new manager. No gameplanning with new coaches Donnie Ecker and Tim Hyers. All Major League business froze in an instant, leaving Semien in an awkward position. As one of eight members on the executive subcommittee of the Major League Baseball Players Association, Semien felt compelled to keep his new teammates updated on CBA negotiations—before he even met them.

Thankfully, Semien began working out with Bay Area-native and current Rangers teammate Willie Calhoun one offseason prior, so he had a way to get his foot in the door.

"I asked him to put me in the group text with the Rangers guys," Semien said. "I know it's not the best introduction, to meet in a group text, but I just shared what we were going through with this union stuff. This is a group that's still learning all the different nuances of the CBA."

Semien actually kept in contact with players in three different organizations. On top of his new teammates in Texas, Semien also updated players in Oakland and Toronto—his two former teams. What made the Rangers situation so different is the youth of the club.

A very large portion of the players on the 40-man roster are pre-arbitration players. They have yet to go through the salary arbitration process or free agency. Semien took the time to not only keep them informed of the potential changes that could affect them now, but also ones later in their careers.

As a leader in the union, Semien is dedicated to take it upon himself to learn from how this recent round of bargaining went and how he can become a better communicator in the future.

"The communication that we had—not just in the last couple months but the entire year and years before—guys were understanding what was ahead of us," Semien said of the union's solidarity. "That's going to be key for us, getting better at that. It's going to take guys like me talking to my clubhouse and guys around the league about what's important to us, what we want to accomplish and what we should fight for. Just paying attention to the new revenues that are coming into the league."

While players were galvanized in their fight for change during these CBA negotiations, there was a clear divide between the subcommittee where Semien serves and the 30 players reps. The subcommittee voted unanimously against the CBA while the players reps voted 26-4 in favor of accepting the deal.

From Semien's account, it was about getting back to the game the players love.

"We were in a labor fight at this point," Semien said. "This far along in the process and you're cutting into spring training, it starts to become a pretty big dispute on some key issues. You look at the subcommittee, all of us went through the reserve system and free agency (Francisco Lindor signed before free agency). We've seen the ups and downs of the system. There are things that we wanted to change, but we are all happy to be playing baseball. That's the bottom line."

Semien confirmed that Charlie Culberson cast the vote as the player rep for the Rangers, even though he is currently a free agent. Since he was the most recent rep for the club, and was willing to keep Rangers players informed of negotiations, Culberson kept that honor. Culberson's vote was one of the 26 in favor of the agreement.

A new Rangers player rep will be voted on in the near future.

Rangers Officially Add Four Players to Spring Training Roster

The Rangers officially announced four signings Monday, bringing the total number of players in camp to 63.

The lone addition to the 40-man roster was the official signing of Martín Pérez, who agreed to a one-year, $4 million Saturday. The Rangers also added three players on minor-league contracts with invites to spring training: OF Jake Marisnick, LHP Matt Moore and RHP Brandon Workman.

If Marisnick makes the big league club out of camp, he'll earn a $1.5 million base salary. Moore would earn $2.5 million and Workman would earn $1 million.

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