Marcus Semien is a Bay Area resident who attended the University of California at Berkeley. He then flourished as a major league after trading from the White Sox to the Oakland A’s. If he were to sign a one-year deal as a free agent, it would be obvious he would prefer Oakland.
But when Semien reached a $ 18 million one-year deal on Tuesday, it was not with the A’s, but with the Toronto Blue Jays. The A’s did not want to make a formal offer to him, but rather a concept that did not have the chance to attract Semien, sources said – a $ 12.5 million one-year deal with $ 10 million which was deferred in ten one-time installments of $ 1 million each.
The A’s indicated that they were not prepared to spend at the Jays level when they did not want to make a qualifying offer of $ 18.9 million from Semien at the start of the off-season. But their failure to …