This story was excerpted from Kennedi Landry's Rangers Beat newsletter. To read the full newsletter, click here. And subscribe to get it regularly in your inbox.

ARLINGTON -- There are not many guys in the Major Leagues who can play 159 games and everybody is shocked that they didn’t play more. There’s a very short list of players who fit into that category.

Rangers second baseman Marcus Semien is one of them. Semien is an iron man. He wants to play every day, and most of the time, he gets his way. In his 12-year big league career, Semien has played a full 162 games three times and played at least 155 games an additional five times.

Semien most recently played all 162 games in 2023, and he played in 159 contests this season, which -- again -- would be nothing to worry about with any other player in baseball. The last time he played fewer than 159 games in a full season was with the A's in 2017, when he appeared in just 85 contests due to a right wrist contusion.

Semien has typically only missed games for IL stints and the births of his children. But time stops for no one. For the first time in forever, questions about Semien’s workload arose in his age-33 season.

“With any of our players, as they get into their mid-30s, we want to be cognizant of the workload and make sure that we put these guys in positions to perform at their highest level,” president of baseball operations Chris Young said at the end of the season. “We need to find the balance of how to manage his workload and make sure that he stays fresh. Marcus is not the one that we're worried about. He's going to have a tremendous offseason.”

In 2024, the second baseman had a .237/.308/.391 slash line just a year after finishing third in AL MVP voting. It was his worst offensive season since the COVID-shortened 2020 campaign.

Manager Bruce Bochy said he talked to Semien about the possibility of taking more days off next year, but everything is about keeping the team leader fresh and ready to go throughout a full regular season and a potential postseason run.

Bochy added that they’ve discussed both giving Semien some off-days and also moving him around in the batting order once it becomes more clear what the lineup will look like come Opening Day.

“He'll tell you, he didn't have the offensive season that he normally has,” Bochy said. “With that, you look at his numbers up there, he scored over 100 runs. He had over 20 home runs and [74] RBIs. That's pretty good for a leadoff guy. I know we've set the bar pretty high, and Marcus has for himself, but it's not a bad season. … But yes, I would like to rest him more. I think it would benefit him.”

Semien, for what it’s worth, doesn’t exactly see the need for off-days if he’s doing what needs to be done on the field. His three off-days this year weren’t exactly welcomed and came at times when he wasn’t firing on all cylinders.

The first came during a brutal stretch at the end of May, when he was on the bench for the first time in 349 games. The second came on the Fourth of July, when Bochy felt Semien just needed to recalibrate his timing. The third day off came in early September, when the Rangers’ chances of sneaking into the postseason had all but slipped away.

During his three years with the Rangers, Semien has played in all but four regular-season games, including all 17 postseason games en route to the 2023 World Series title.

If everything is clicking the way it should be, Semien believes the discussion won’t even need to be had.

“I mean, in my mind, I want to be on fire the whole year,” Semien said. “I know I can play every day. If I'm on fire, then I should be in there every day. Especially if I'm playing well. The days off this year came when I was not playing well. That's when they come. My body feels great. Everybody talks about if I need days off, this and that and the other, but it's really just when I'm not playing well. The years I've played every single game, I've been swinging the bat a lot better. That's what I want to do this year.”