NY Mets lineup has a familiar question with Marcus Semien

Fans care way too much about lineup construction. Can you blame us? It’s the best in-season management we can do. When the New York Mets put a slumping bat in the middle of the order for the fifth straight day or ignore an obvious split, we get enraged!

Marcus Semien is a player who might have Mets fans feeling some emotions in 2026 based on where he bats. FanGraphs has him projected to bat second in the Mets lineup next season. It doesn’t seem so perfect for a player coming off of two straight years of an OBP barely over .300 and three times in the last four years.

The Mets lineup still requires at least one more addition and that’s scraping the bottom of the barrel of acceptability. It’s nothing new for lineup critics. We saw it plenty with two of the longest tenured Mets who are no longer around.

Marcus Semien is going to have a lot of those same Brandon Nimmo, Jeff McNeil lineup questions

Nimmo worked his way into becoming an elite leadoff hitter with the only shortcoming being he didn’t really steal bases. No matter. In the early part of his career, Nimmo walked a ton. McNeil was also a pretty good match for the top of the Mets lineup. Less of a top OBP guy but more of a high average player who could put the ball in play, the only reason they weren’t regularly paired in the number one and two spot during their time as Mets teammates was their shared handedness from the left side.

Both players developed differently in recent years. Let’s call it post-2022. Nimmo lost his OBP skills and began to turn into more of a power hitter. McNeil was less impressive, losing the ability to hit .300 in his sleep.

The Mets finally made the switch in 2024 with Nimmo batting beneath Francisco Lindor, the team’s new leadoff hitter almost in exclusivity. Nimmo slotted in regularly into the middle of the order. It took some adjusting for fans. Hitting beyond Pete Alonso felt like a big drop in power. Nimmo didn’t feel quite like a prototypical number four or five hitter where he regularly slotted in.

McNeil, meanwhile, performed like a guy with even less of a place. Far shorter on power and with no truly impressive ability other than a continued ability to avoid strikeouts pretty well, he kind of just got clogged into spots 5-8 based on the side the starting pitcher was throwing from and who else was starting that day.

Are we headed toward something similar with Marcus Semien?

Hitting right-handed adds balance in the number two spot. He bounced around regularly in last year’s Texas Rangers lineup, most commonly getting used in the third and fifth spots. The latter might work depending on the performances of others.

Semien is unpredictable because of how quickly he has fallen from a third-place MVP finish in 2023 to what he has been over the last two years. Is there gas in the tank or will this year be another season of running on fumes?

Depending on who the Mets add next will determine what their projected lineup looks like. There are players who could conceivably bump Juan Soto back to the number two spot. There are probably targets who could fit in as number two hitters. Semien seems destined to bounce around the lineup until the Mets get it right. There’s no ideal spot for him and we should fully prepare to debate our favorite fan as to where Semien fits best.