![]() The physical talent is undeniable - now he just has to hone in on the little things. Still, we’re talking about the youngest shortstop ever to hit 20 homers and steal 30 bags in a season, eclipsing a 22-year-old Álex Rodríguez in 1998. Witt Jr.’s otherworldly power/speed combo was on display as a rookie, but his low on-base percentage and shockingly poor defensive metrics at shortstop severely diminished his overall value. The sky is the limit for these two - we’re talking upside worthy of a top-10 spot on this list if it all clicks - but each comes with enough red flags that we were hesitant to jump all the way in just yet. Honorable mention: Infielder Nico Hoerner, who just agreed to a three-year extension, was another plus-glove player with a promising bat who was considered for the list for similar reasons. Still, the standards they’ve already set have made both of these players important pillars for their respective franchises, even if you wouldn’t call them full-blown stars right now. The same could be said for the switch-hitting Raleigh, if he can cut down on the strikeouts or become more consistent from the right side of the plate. He’s always hit the ball hard, so there’s still untapped offensive potential here if he can find a way to elevate the ball more consistently. Hayes is on the very short list of best third-base defenders in the world, securing an impressive WAR baseline that he just demonstrated with a 3.0 fWAR/4.3 bWAR season despite the lackluster. Raleigh makes the cut for the rare power he offers for a backstop combined with a sterling defensive reputation at the game’s most demanding position. It was awfully difficult to decide who to squeeze into these final two spots, but we ultimately went with two players who combine stable high-end defensive value with still-undetermined offensive upside. Without further ado, here are our top-26 position players ages 26 and under ( pitcher rankings are here): ![]() It wasn’t easy, but we wanted to narrow it down to the best of the best. Gavin Lux, Eloy Jiménez, Gleyber Torres, Tyler Stephenson, Alec Bohm, Luis Urías, Lars Nootbaar, William Contreras, Ozzie Albies … these are just a few of the many players (along with several others mentioned below) who we strongly considered for inclusion but came up short. We compiled roughly 50 candidates and did our best to cut it in half, leaving us with a ton of honorable mentions. ![]() This was even more challenging than lining up the teams, as there is so much overwhelming young talent that feels worthy of inclusion on a list like this. Just as we considered how strong the depth of each organization’s U-27 talent looks to be for the next half-decade, these rankings are based on which individual position players we’d want the most for the next five seasons. ![]() Before we put a bow on this project completely, we wanted to shift the focus from the teams as a collective to the individual players who comprise these groups of young talent and thus informed our rankings by extension. Our ranking of all 30 MLB teams based on their 26-and-under talent concluded this week with the top spot going to the defending world champion Houston Astros. ![]()
0 Comments
Leave a Reply. |