Before the start of the now delayed MLB season MLB Network released their rankings for the top ten players at each position right now. I noticed that Xander Bogaerts was only fifth on this list and behind Marcus Semien. Marcus Semien is a great player but he has only had one really good offensive season the other have been dismal. But he is an great defensive shortstop, far superior to Bogaerts. Both Bogaerts and Semien have been in the majors for seven years. They both had a cup of coffee in 2013, although Bogaerts turned his cup of coffee into a playoff roster spot on a team that went to the World Series. They had their true breakout in 2019, Bogaerts was an All Star, got fifth in the MVP voting and won the American League Silver Slugger at Shortstop. He hit .309 with 33 home runs and 117 RBI. He also had 52 double, 0 triples and scored 110 runs. He walked 76 times, 2 of which were intentional for a .384 OBP. He also had a .555 slugging adding up to an OPS (on base plus slugging) of .939. Semien wasn’t an all star but was third in the MVP voting. He hit .285 with 33 home runs and 92 RBI. He also had 43 doubles, 7 triples, and scored 123 runs. He walked 87 times 2 of which were intentional for a .369 OBP. He also had a .522 slugging adding up to an OPS of .892. So Bogaerts has the edge in average, OBP, doubles+triples, slugging, ops and RBI. While Semien has the edge in walks, runs, and they are tied for homeruns. Obviously Bogaerts had the better offensive season, where it gets close is what we are going to talk about next, defense. Semien in 2019 had a WAR of 8.9 while Bogaerts had a WAR of 5.9. A clear difference due to their defense, Bogaerts had a very off year with the glove with a -0.4 dWAR. Semien was his usual great with a dWAR of 2.2. For these reasons it is very up in the air, but the reason I think that Bogaerts has the edge is that he has been doing it for longer. Bogaerts from 2014-2018 hit .289 with a .350 OBP and a .452 slugging. He averaged 38 doubles, 2 triples, and 18 home runs to go along with 83 RBI. He also won 2 silver sluggers during that time as well, in 2015 and 2016. He averaged 3.1 WAR per season, a respectable mark for a shortstop. Semien from 2014-2018 hit .248 with a .311 OBP and a .403 slugging. He averaged 23 doubles, 3 triples, and 15 home runs to go along with 52 RBI. He averaged 2.5 WAR per season, which is solid but was nearly all attributed to his defense. I am not taking away from the spectacular season that Marcus Semien had in 2019. I just think that Bogaerts was better with the bat and had been doing it longer in general. Thanks for reading, check back tomorrow for another post 🙂