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After lockout-delayed intros, Rangers’ Marcus Semien and Corey Seager finally get to break the ice

Texas’ offseason mega-signings were first limited to meeting new teammates through group texts.

SURPRISE, Ariz. — On Monday, at his first official workout as one of the Rangers’ new leaders, Marcus Semien started re-introducing himself to his new teammates. It was all so natural and easy. Handshakes. High-fives. Maybe an occasional hug.

It sure beat the first attempt: group text.

How’s this for an ice-breaker? “Hey, guys, it’s me, Marcus. Just wanted to introduce myself. Look forward to playing with you. And let me fill you in on baseball’s labor situation.”

Or words to that effect.

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Awkward times, though, require being comfortable with being uncomfortable. Semien and Corey Seager signed their mega-deals with the Rangers to the tune of $500 million total on Dec. 1. Went out to dinner at Nick and Sam’s with their families and rep Scott Boras to celebrate. Somewhere around the time the 7-Layer Cake was arriving, baseball’s lockout went into effect.

It meant no contact with management. No workouts at team facilities. No get-to-know-you publicity events. Instead, Semien, who was brought in to lead, did what leaders do.

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He is a member of the MLB Players Association’s executive subcommittee and was intimately involved with negotiations. He reached out to Willie Calhoun, one of the few players on the team he knew since both had Bay Area connections and jumped right into the group text to bring a young roster up to speed. Nothing like labor talk to break the ice. Try that on Hinge, kids.

“I know it’s not the best introduction to meet on group texts, but I just kind of shared what we’ve been going through with this union stuff,” Semien said Monday afternoon. “The Rangers are still a group learning about all the different nuances of the [collective bargaining agreement]. Most of them had less than three years of service [and were not yet eligible for salary arbitration or free agency]. There are different issues in the CBA that you may focus more on and others that you haven’t learned about. So, just trying to inform guys of what was ahead was a big task for me.”

Ah, labor talk. Nothing like it. Nevertheless, Semien dove in. It was part of the gig. And besides, the Rangers didn’t really have a labor rep. Player rep Kyle Gibson was traded in July; Charlie Culberson, who replaced him, became a free agent in November. In fact, it was the unemployed Culberson who ended up casting the Rangers’ “yea” vote on the CBA last week after Semien and the executive subcommittee had voted 8-0 against it.

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That’s a whole different story, but one Semien could speak about with eloquence having been brought up in the notoriously cheap Oakland organization and being tagged with a qualifying offer after 2020 that perhaps impacted his free agent market.

“We’ve seen the ups and downs of the system,” he said. “And there are things that we want to change. But we are all happy to be playing baseball. And that’s the bottom line.”

Texas Rangers infielder Corey Seager (facing) laughs with teammate Marcus Semien during a...
Texas Rangers infielder Corey Seager (facing) laughs with teammate Marcus Semien during a spring training workout at the team's training facility on Monday, March 14, 2022, in Surprise, Ariz.(Smiley N. Pool / Staff Photographer)

He pivoted to spending the day with Seager, his new double-play partner, for the first time since that dinner. He said they would be “attached at the hip” all spring. Indeed, they did almost everything together on Monday. They will hit in succession in the batting order, manager Chris Woodward said, with Semien ahead of Seager at 1-2 or 2-3.

They will be charged with helping instill manager Chris Woodward’s desire to see a team that expects to win every day. For Seager, that’s understood. Los Angeles went to the playoffs every year of his career. Neither of them came purely for the paychecks. Though the paychecks are nice.

“We understand our roles, understand what they’re expecting and what we’re expecting,” Seager said. “And now it’s about going out there and just putting the work in.”

There is a lot of work to do. They signed on to do it three months ago. Even President of Baseball Operations Jon Daniels acknowledged that, at times, over the long lockout it seemed almost “like fantasy baseball,” that Semien and Seager were in the middle of his diamond. They were names on paper. Nothing more.

Monday breathed animation into the names.

“We’re at the point now where you’re down the ‘business’ side of it,” Seager said. “It’s all about the baseball. It’s all about going out there and competing and learning each other. And that’s the fun part.”

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On Monday, it wasn’t about the baseball business, but for Seager and Semien, the business of baseball.

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