Marcus Semien is a native of the Bay Area who studied at the University of California at Berkeley, so he flourished as an important player after being traded from the White Sox back to Oakland A’s. If he were to sign a one-year contract as a free agent, it was logical that his preference would be Oakland.
But when Semien came to terms with a one-year, $ 18 million contract on Tuesday, it was not with A’s, but with Toronto Blue Jays. The A’s refused to make him a formal offer, instead of launching a concept that was unlikely to attract Semien, the sources said – a one-year deal, $ 12.5 million with $ 10 million deferred in 10 installments of a year of $ 1 million each.
The A’s signaled their unwillingness to spend at the Jays level when they refused to make a $ 18.9 million qualifying offer to Semien at the start of the off-season, losing the right to receive draft pick compensation if he signed. with another club. But his failure to …