14. Only 30 MLB hitters had a lower rate of soft contact than Jimenez -- Fernando Tatis Jr., Corey Seager, Anthony Rendon and Freddie Freeman were among those ranked ahead of him. In his first 303 games in the big leagues, he has a .380 OBP and an .859 OPS. A catch made high against the right field wall to take extra bases away from Ozuna. As in: This is the type of hitter I want to be; get out of my way.". Statcast Outfielder Jump Leaderboard | baseballsavant.com Guerrero currently ranks fifth on the active list for outfield assists. He played more games in the outfield (93) than he did at his natural position of third base (55), and he posted a 124 OPS+ with 32 doubles, 25 home runs and 73 RBI in a 3.3 WAR season. Hitting with discipline is something you elect to do. All told, he hit .333 with 17 homers and a 1.158 OPS over 43 games in 2020. Edmonds had phenomenal range while he was younger, and there are many instances in which he scaled the outfield wall to retrieve would-be home runs. Youth. PART - Positioning, Balls hit in air, Range, and Throwing for Infielders; Range & Positioning on balls hit in air for Outfielders. MLB: The 40 Best Outfield Arms in Baseball History Mining the News (3/1/23) | RotoGraphs Fantasy Baseball Ranking the best outfield arms in the majors right now For Springer, that box is checked indelibly. Jesse Barfield had an incredibly strong and an incredibly accurate throwing arm. To qualify for inclusion, a player had to have at least 200 plate appearances. He struggling terribly against off-speed pitches -- in 2018, Yelich batted .302 against breaking balls; last year, .191. 9. MLB Player Rankings for the Top 25 Outfielders of 2021 Season Managers who dont grab an outfielder in the first two rounds will still have an ample supply of impact players to choose from after that. Utley's UZR/150 has been at least 8.0 in nine of his 10 seasons as a regular in the big leagues. Now the #20 prospect in the Yankees' organization, Hardman posted a 109 wRC+ across High-A and Double-A last season with 22 HRs in 111 games, but his over 30% K% is alarming for his projectability long-term. MLB The Show 21: 10 Best Outfielders - TheGamer You need to do it all to be an MVP these days. Just like the regular-season rankings, players are ranked solely on the 2021 season. This is not unusual: Cal Ripken Jr. spent his whole career fighting for feel, winning two MVP awards but also posting seven seasons in which he batted in the .250s or lower. But for now, it's not wholly clear whether the universal DH will be adopted for the 2021 season, despite the fact that both MLB and the Players Association want it. Of the 60 games Ozuna played last season, only 21 were in the outfield, so if you wanted to make the argument that he should be ranked among designated hitters, well, you'd have a good case. Joey Votto travels with Ted Williams' book "The Science of Hitting" and has built a Hall of Fame rsum based on a lot of the principles that Williams espoused -- like not doing the pitcher a favor by chasing pitches out of the strike zone. Bobby Abreu has had one of the strongest and most accurate arms in baseball in recent years. He could seemingly throw out any runner trying to pick up an extra base. Carl Furillo's right arm earned him the nickname, "The Reading Rifle". His arm was so powerful, that while pitching for his mill league, Jackson once broke a catchers arm and was subsequently moved to the outfield because no one wanted to catch for him. He's clearly taken pride in his plate discipline from an early age and been rewarded with performance and -- I would also guess -- supportive coaching. The Tampa Bay Rays bullpen has chewed through an MLB-leading 533.1 innings this season. He made more consistent contact while maintaining his usual elite average exit velocity and hard-hit rate metrics. He's already ranked pitchers and infielders, and he will follow these with the top 10 teams on Friday. The greatest player of this era turns 30 in 2021. Ozuna, meanwhile, is back with the Braves after signing a four-year contract. Honorable Mention:Los Angeles Dodgers, Oakland Athletics, San Diego Padres, Tampa Bay Rays, Washington Nationals. The club also traded away Diego Castillo at the deadline in exchange for JT Chargois and Austin Shenton. He entered spring training far from assured of a spot on the Baltimore Orioles' Opening Day roster, but he won the starting center field job and went on to have the biggest breakout season of 2021. Best Outfield Arm. What follows is a ranking of the Top 10 left fielders in baseball. Here are this years top fantasy outfielders, broken down into tiers. Davis looking to get back on track this spring. Even though Meusel played just 11 seasons, he still recorded 157 outfield assists. Cobb's 392 outfield assists are second all-time. One evaluator said that Bellinger's swing is so unusual that he'll probably always struggle for consistency, for finding the feel he needs to be successful, and because of that, he'll probably have a lot of ups and downs. Play Ball Youth Baseball & Softball. Fantasy Baseball Rankings 2022: Best sleepers, breakouts, busts from 4. His 5.7 WAR was second on the AL West champions roster, behind only Carlos Correa. His 26 home runs trail only Salvador Perez among all backstops. That success has come despite myriad injuries and significant roster turnover. Breaking Down the Best MLB Units in 2021: Cs, INFs, OFs, Bench, SPs and . And I'm talking about strong arms, not merely accurate ones. He hit .328/.376/.624 with 31 doubles, 11 triples, 32 homers, 92 RBI, 108 runs and 36 steals across three . There was a lot of debate during the truncated season why Yelich struggled so much -- and there's no disputing that his troubles were acute, something more than a slump. Let's keep our 2021 MLB Player Rankings series rolling with a look at the top 25 outfielders. Buxton debuted for the Twins in 2015, and since then has become one of the best defensive outfielders in baseball. The 10 greatest outfield arms in Texas Rangers' history - Nolan Writin' In addition to his impressive offensive numbers, Cobb also thrilled fans with his arm. Kyle Schwarber, Washington Nationals/Boston Red Sox. No other infielder came close to matching his average arm strength on Statcast-measured throws. Translation: Realmuto dominates the catcher throwing department. Fantasy Baseball Cheat Sheet: Outfield Rankings for 2021 And yes, by the end of the World Series, he did find his best swing, enough to put a punctuation mark on the Dodgers' championship with an eighth-inning home run in Game 6. Kimbrel still has explosive stuff with a fastball that sits comfortably in the high-90s and a wipeout curveball that generated a staggering 59.3 percent whiff rate in 2021. Red Sox. His throwing abilities were recognized by Bill James, as Guerrero was noted to have the best arm of the 1990s. C Aside from having a ton of playable depth, the Giants have also slugged an MLB-leading 14 pinch-hit home runs. Sign up to receive our daily Morning Lineup to stay in the know about the latest trending topics around Major League Baseball. Barfield would consistently throw strikes from right field to home plate. The question that resonated at the end of October is about the best position player on the planet -- Betts, or Mike Trout? The Milwaukee Brewers aren't far behind with a 3.11 ERA, and they have a trio of bona fide aces atop the staff that have helped lead them to the top of the NL Central standings. 10. Bez was responsible for five of the 31 tracked assists of at least 90 mph by infielders last season, the second most in MLB, and his average arm strength on max-effort throws (88.3 mph) was the third best among infielders. While Bo Jackson's greatest accomplishment might be the fact that he is the greatest video game character ever, it is not the only thing that Bo is known for. 2021 Best MLB Outfielders - Audacy Buxton, Taylor and Gallo are such great, award-winning fielders that it's easy to forget about Kepler, who would be the best defensive outfielder on many teams. One important stipulation: Each player could only be selected for one of the five tools. With the Astros first pick the 2021 draft, they took a prospect who fell right in their laps. Throughout the history of baseball, there have been some outfielders that have had cannons for arms. but if he regresses to 2017 or 2021 levels no one should complain. Mantle earned one Gold Glove in his career and threw out 117 base runners from the outfield. He might just be entering his throwing prime, making this the perfect time to claim his golden arm for my superplayer. So how do you rank a player who didn't have his first 2020 plate appearance until Aug. 30, but may have been the first- or second-best player in October, depending where you want to stack Corey Seager? Free shipping for many products! His production bottomed out during the abridged 2020 campaign, but he bounced back in a big way this year. 6. 2023 Fantasy Baseball: Outfielders Rankings, Consensus Preseason Didi Gregorius (free agent): 94.7 mph 7. Soto, in my opinion, has that. Jeff, one of the authors of the fantasy baseball guide, The Process, writes for RotoGraphs, The Hardball Times, Rotowire, Baseball America, and BaseballHQ. . He hit .281 with an .800 OPS after the All-Star break, and he capped off the season by winning his first Gold Glove. I texted Votto that I thought Williams would've loved to watch the Nationals' Juan Soto, who might be the closest replica to Williams, with his remarkable plate discipline and power. But that represents the bulk of the 26-year-olds big league experience. It's possible that Merrifield will move back to the infield if Nicky Lopez struggles in his effort to establish himself as the Royals' second baseman.