Texas Rangers second baseman Marcus Semien has been diagnosed with a broken bone and a sprained ligament in his left foot, an injury that is expected to sideline him for the rest of the regular season.
Manager Bruce Bochy said the recovery is estimated at four to six weeks. Semien suffered the injury after fouling a ball off the top of his foot in Kansas City.
“Just bad luck, bad news,” Bochy said. “Some injuries make you wonder if they could have been avoided, but this one was just unfortunate. Must have hit him in the worst possible spot.”
Texas placed Semien on the injured list for just the second time in his 13-year career. His only previous IL stint came in 2017 with Oakland, when he missed nearly three months due to a wrist injury.
Semien visited a foot specialist and told reporters he will be out for a while, though surgery doesn’t appear necessary. Initial X-rays in Kansas City were inconclusive, and follow-up MRI and CT scans in Texas confirmed the injury.
The Rangers wrap up the regular season in Cleveland on Sept. 28, about five weeks away. Entering Monday’s series opener against the Angels, they trailed the American League’s final wild card spot by 4½ games.
“Hopefully we can stay in the race and see where things stand when I’m closer to returning,” Semien told the Dallas Morning News and MLB.com. “The ligament is our biggest concern — I have to stay off it so it doesn’t tear. If that happens, I could be out a year. Right now, the goal is to protect that and let the fracture heal.”
Semien, 34, has been one of baseball’s most durable players, missing only six of Texas’ 615 games since signing a seven-year, $175 million deal in 2022. He has hit .230 with 15 home runs, 62 RBIs and a team-high 62 runs scored over 127 games this season.
