Opening Day is almost here, which means it’s time to ask the question that’s on everyone’s mind: Who will be the best player of the 2024 MLB season?
To create our annual MLB Rank list of the top 100 players in the sport, we presented a panel of ESPN baseball experts with pairings upon pairings of the biggest names in the game and asked them which player will be better in 2024.
However, that raises the question of how to compare players who have vastly different but still important roles across the sport. How do you compare the top starting pitchers to the best sluggers in the game? What about players who don’t have much major league experience? And where do baseball’s best relievers land? It seems impossible to pit these stars against one another, but we did it — and one player came out on top.
Our list features Cy Young Award winners, MVPs, veterans building Hall of Fame résumés and young megastars who could dominate MLB for years to come. But who’s No. 1? And where does the best player on your team rank?
ESPN MLB experts Jeff Passan, Buster Olney, Alden Gonzalez, Dave Schoenfield, Jesse Rogers and Brad Doolittle broke down why each player is ranked where they are and what to expect from them in the upcoming season.
Jump to team’s top-ranked player:
American League
BAL | BOS | CHW | CLE | DET
HOU | KC | LAA | MIN | NYY
SEA | TB | TEX | TOR
(No top 100 players: OAK)
National League
ARI | ATL | CHC | CIN
LAD | MIA | MIL | NYM | PHI
PIT | SD | SF | STL
(No top 100 players: COL, WSH)
More: Snubs, surprises
Next top 100 player for every team | MLB players weigh in on top 100
Stolen bases can take a significant toll on a player’s body, and 73 is a lot. Which begs the question: Would the Braves consider slightly reigning in Acuña, who’s oh-so-valuable everywhere else, in the wake of his knee scare this spring? “Nah,” Braves manager Brian Snitker said. At some point, Acuña will slow down on his own. But right now, Snitker said, “You’ve got to turn a kid like that loose.”
The Braves will do just that with Acuña, the reigning MVP after becoming the first 40-70 player in baseball history. The 2023 season saw Acuña pick up where he left off in 2019 — before the COVID-shortened season of 2020, the torn ACL of 2021 and the struggles coming off it in 2022 made us forget this might be the game’s most dynamic player. Except he did it while striking out less than half the time, triggering an absurd .337/.416/.596 slash line. He was just as athletic and far more refined than when he first burst onto the scene four years earlier — and he’s at a point in his life where he might still be getting better.
Season prediction: Another run at MVP, another season as a catalyst atop the Braves’ prolific offense and, dare we say, the first 50-50 season ever. — Gonzalez
Everything we thought about Judge’s role in the Yankees’ success was reinforced in 2023. On the day he slammed his right foot into the bullpen gate in Dodger Stadium, the team’s record was 35-25. The rest of the season — with Judge missing extensive time — the Yankees were 47-55. The absence of one superstar is typically more meaningful in the NFL, with quarterbacks, or in the NBA. It isn’t supposed to happen in baseball. But it did with Judge, who has evolved into a staggering combination of power, on-base production, baserunning and defense. He played half his games on a bum big toe last season and finished with an adjusted OPS+ of 175.
Season prediction: An old saying is that the best lineup protection comes from in front of a hitter, because with runners on base, pitchers are more compelled to work in the strike zone. Now Judge has Juan Soto in front of him. He will have a monster year. — Olney
3. Juan Soto, RF, New York Yankees
Soto’s defense may prevent him from ever being considered the best player in the game, but he’s certainly in the running for best hitter. Indeed, since 2020 he ranks first in the majors in batting runs created, ahead of Judge and Freddie Freeman. He was sixth in the category last season after hitting .275/.410/.519 with 35 home runs and 132 walks for the Padres. Now, following the big trade to the Yankees, comes the pressures of performing in pinstripes and playing for a huge contract in free agency, which he’ll enter after this season. While he did struggle those first two months with the Padres in 2022, consider this: He hit .307/.422/.604 with 23 home runs on the road in 2023. Now he gets to play his home games at Yankee Stadium. His numbers may explode in 2024, putting an MVP trophy in his sights.
Season prediction: His first 40-homer season, the best OBP in the majors, the most runs scored in the majors (batting in front of Judge will help there) … and the American League MVP Award. — Schoenfield
Over the last half-century, the list of players with more seasons of 8.0-plus wins above replacement than Betts is as follows: Barry Bonds, Alex Rodriguez, Albert Pujols, Mike Trout, Wade Boggs, Rickey Henderson, Mike Schmidt. That’s it.
The same seven are the only ones ahead of him in 6.0-plus WAR seasons, too. The company Betts keeps is simple: the elite of the elite — first-ballot Hall of Fame sorts.
At 31, Betts remains in his prime, and he was recently named the Dodgers’ shortstop — a move manager Dave Roberts called “permanent, for now” — after splitting time at second, shortstop and right field last year. He does everything right: hit for average (.307) and power (39 home runs), get on base (.408 OBP), run well (14 stolen bases) and play great defense. He is as solid and steady as they come, and while his OPS may not again approach 1.000, hitting in front of two other players in the top 10 of this list can’t hurt.
Season prediction: A .300/.400/.500 slash line — only five players booked one last year — and the most runs scored for a player since the Dodgers moved to Los Angeles. (The record: Freeman’s 132 last year.) — Passan
His defense isn’t great, he’s slow and you’d like a few more walks or hits to boost his OBP, but he leads the majors in extra-base hits since 2019 — two more than Freeman. The 11-year extension he signed last year means he’ll continue to anchor the Boston lineup for the next decade.
Season prediction: Does Devers have another level? He hits the ball as consistently hard as anyone — 98th percentile in hard-hit rate — but his poor swing decisions also lead to too much weak contact. The tools are there for a .300, 40-homer season, but he’s pretty much established that this is who is: a very good hitter and, if not quite a superstar, a top-10 MVP type of player. — Schoenfield
Breaking down the top candidates »
How a 32-team MLB might look »
Kirby improved his slider last season, adding more sweep and vertical drop, and then started using a splitter more in the second half of 2023, improving his overall strikeout rate. In the final game of 2023, he unveiled a ridiculous knuckleball with 12 inches of arm-side run and 50 inches of vertical drop that Seager helplessly flailed at — not that we should expect to see it much in 2024. But it sure would be fun to see it every now and then.
Season prediction: This ranking suggests our voters are extremely high on Kirby performing even better given some of the starting pitchers he’s ranked above. Cole is the obvious Cy Young favorite in the AL while Kirby only ranks eighth in the current odds at +1500. Is this a good time to mention that Greg Maddux never had a 9.05-to-1 strikeout-to-walk ratio? — Schoenfield
Verlander is still going strong, but some drop-off is to be expected. He reported to camp with a shoulder issue that put him a couple weeks behind the other pitchers and will force him to begin the season on the injured list. And though the Astros don’t sound concerned, it’s certainly something to monitor. So is Verlander’s strikeout rate, which fell to 21.5% in 2023, his lowest in eight years. First-pitch strikes were particularly elusive.
Season prediction: Verlander needs 140 innings — and a clean bill of health — to trigger a $35 million option for 2025. It’s probably a safe bet that he’ll find a way to make that happen. His numbers might dip again in 2024, but not by much. Verlander, at 41, is still a force. — Gonzalez
2024 MLB prospect rankings
How bright is your team’s future? Kiley McDaniel ranks the top prospects and farm systems for 2024.
Top 100 prospects » | Bold predictions »
Ranking all 30 farm systems for 2024 »
Team-by-team rankings: AL » | NL »
Still, this will be a key season for Bogaerts — and the Padres — with a whole lot of contract (and money) binding team and player together. He hit the ball on the ground too much last year, but that improved as the season went along, so you have to wonder how the wrist was playing into that at the start. Overall, he adapted to Petco Park well enough, though his home production wasn’t what he put up at Fenway. It was a solid, not spectacular, NL debut.
Season prediction: As he transitions to second base — a position at which his below-average shortstop arm becomes a plus — expect Bogaerts to remain on the 4-to-5 WAR level. He’s a middle infielder who posts a 120 OPS+ or better every season, and his glove should play well at the keystone. Forget the contract; value the player. — Doolittle
The reigning NL Cy Young winner became just the 22nd hurler to win the award at least twice after going 14-9 while leading the majors with a 2.29 ERA and .181 batting average against in 2023. There’s no denying Snell’s pure stuff is as unhittable as any southpaw starter’s in the game, starting with a fastball that sits at 95-96 mph and adding a curveball and slider that both generated whiff rates over 50%. It also comes with a high degree of wildness that didn’t hurt him last season, as he went 13-3 with a 1.20 ERA over his final 23 starts. He became the first pitcher to lead his league in ERA despite walking more than five batters per nine innings. Concerns over his wildness and durability — the two years he won the Cy Young, 2018 and 2023, are the only two times he’s pitched more than 130 innings — might be why he has remained unsigned in free agency.
Season prediction: We have to see where he signs, but does that dominant final four months mean Snell can crush it over an entire season? Unlikely. There’s just no recent track record of a pitcher walking that many batters and still pitching consistently at this level (in fact, his walk rate was the highest for a qualified pitcher since 1999), at least not since Nolan Ryan. In the end, let’s go with his career mark: a 3.20 ERA, which is still All-Star-level if Snell can stay healthy. — Schoenfield
60. J.T. Realmuto, C, Philadelphia Phillies
Is Realmuto going through what basically every player does as they get deeper into their 30s while handling such a demanding position — or, as Phillies manager Rob Thomson joked at one point late into the 2023 season, is he simply bogged down by being the father of four children? Whatever the reason, Realmuto’s home-road splits last season were eye-opening. He slashed a mere .198/.257/.320 inside Philadelphia’s Citizens Bank Park, one of the most hitter-friendly sites in the majors, and .306/.364/.587 on the road. Those splits were ultimately the reason his adjusted OPS went from 130 to 106 from 2022 to 2023, and one of the biggest reasons why he produced five fewer fWAR. It’s probably why arguably the game’s best catcher is only 60th on our list.
Season prediction: Realmuto’s barrel rate in 2023 (11.3%) was nearly identical to where it was in 2022 (11.2%). He, like many others, has hit well at Citizens Bank Park before. He’ll bounce back offensively — and remain solid enough behind the plate to still be considered one of the best at his position. — Gonzalez
61. Josh Hader, RP, Houston Astros
Will any pitcher in baseball history make more money pitching fewer innings than Hader has? Last season, he once again averaged less than an inning pitched per appearance but he was as good as ever, leading to that $95 million deal with the Astros. There was a moment during his career in Milwaukee where perhaps he looked like he had been used too much — back then he averaged more than an inning per appearance — but he rebounded from that dip in fine fashion. His free agent year of 2023 was a doozy, as he compiled a 1.28 ERA for the Padres while striking out 85 in 56⅓ innings. Expect Hader’s usage to remain the same in Houston as Ryan Pressly can help cover late innings as well.
Season prediction: Hader will save 40 games for Houston this year, a career high. — Rogers
Gilbert has been a sturdy, reliable performer in his two-plus seasons with the Mariners, never missing a start and winning 26 games the past two seasons with a 3.47 ERA while averaging 188 innings. He’s 6-foot-6 and throws 96 mph, but his fastball is the least effective of his pitches. He introduced a splitter last season to go with his slider and curveball, and he’s a joy to watch as he mixes all four pitches and pounds the strike zone (just 1.7 walks per nine innings). It’s possible there’s another gear here, as well, if he can cut down on the home runs (29 in 2023, 14 off those off his fastball).
Season prediction: You’d think Gilbert’s fastball would play up better since he also has elite extension given his height and delivery (99th percentile), but it’s a low-spin four-seamer, so he gives up a lot of hard contact. Maybe that does limit his upside to not quite Cy Young-contending levels, but I could see 15 wins, a 3.20 ERA and maybe his first All-Star selection. — Schoenfield
Doesn’t it seem like the better Montgomery gets, the harder it is for him to find a team that will keep him around? Surely, barring financial constraints, the Rangers would love to have Monty back after his essential contribution last season, a 6-3, 3.11 ERA second-half showing that helped save an injury-ravaged Texas rotation and punch a ticket to October. Over the past three seasons, Montgomery has averaged 175 innings with a 121 ERA+. He has big game experience, with a 2.63 over 37⅔ postseason innings. He’s done all this as a command pitcher who doesn’t rely on elite velocity. And yet he’s moved from the Yankees to the Cardinals to the Rangers over the past two years, followed by a way-too-long wait on the free agent market. Eventually, he will find a home — and the team that provides it will be very happy.
Season prediction: Montgomery will throw strikes, work the edges, provide bulk frames and end up with another sub-4.00 ERA. We just don’t know for whom he will be doing these things. — Doolittle
64. Tyler Glasnow, SP, Los Angeles Dodgers
So much attention has focused on Yamamoto, but Dodgers officials are bullish on Glasnow, who they signed to a five-year, $136.56 million contract immediately after acquiring him from the Rays. He is already 30, but the Dodgers believe he is just starting to tap into his potential as one of the sport’s upper-echelon pitchers. He flashed that in the lead-up to Tommy John surgery in 2021, posting a 2.66 ERA and striking out 123 batters in 88 innings. He ranks third among starting pitchers in strikeout percentage since 2019, behind only Strider and Jacob deGrom. But, alas, Glasnow also ranks 124th in innings.
Season prediction: Glasnow will thrive while backed by a potent offense, but the Dodgers will be careful with someone who hasn’t thrown more than 120 innings in a season. His innings will jump to 150, and he’ll keep his ERA under 3.00. — Gonzalez
The first baseman mentioned casually this spring that he had turned down contract overtures with the Red Sox, and you can understand why — the path he took last season, when he hit .263/.367/.490 with 24 home runs and 65 RBIs and finished third in AL Rookie of the Year voting, is likely to take him to future superstardom. He has a rare combination of plate discipline and power, and like some Red Sox left-handed hitting legends of the past — Ted Williams, Carl Yastrzemski, Wade Boggs, David Ortiz — he is likely to have good habits reinforced by the presence of the Green Monster.
Season prediction: After the All-Star break last season, Casas hit .317 with a .417 on-base percentage and 15 homers. He seems fully capable of having a breakout year and finishing in the top 10 of the AL MVP race. — Olney
66. Ketel Marte, 2B, Arizona Diamondbacks
Marte’s postseason performance last year was something special. He delivered when the Diamondbacks needed it most in the NLCS, going 12-for-31 in the team’s upset of the Phillies. In 21 career playoff games, he has a .974 OPS, cementing him as the under-the-radar star to Caroll’s more headline-grabbing game. At just 29, but with nine years in the big leagues already, Marte might be getting better — and Arizona has him locked up through 2028. He’s simply a solid performer who belongs in the top 100 — though he may never break into the top 50.
Season prediction: Marte flashed power last season, hitting 25 home runs, but he might be at his best when he’s making contact and simply getting on base. He hit just 14 home runs in 2021 but his .909 OPS was the second-highest of his career. Expect a cutback on power, an increase in OBP and a reduced strikeout total for him in 2024. The D-backs added enough power this offseason that they may not need it from their second baseman. — Rogers
67. Eury Perez, SP, Miami Marlins
There may be no pitcher in baseball with greater upside than Perez, who, at 20, is the youngest player on this list. He is about as close to a create-a-player as there is on the mound: 6-foot-8, 220 pounds with exceptional body control, a fastball that sits at 98 mph and a plus slider, changeup and curveball.
While he was slightly homer-happy in his rookie season — his 25.4% groundball rate was the lowest of all pitchers in MLB with at least 90 innings — Perez flashed dominance more often than not in his 19 starts. This ranking may be a touch high because he’ll remain on an innings limit this season, but once he’s unleashed in 2025, he’s got a shot to reach a ceiling few have: the best pitcher in baseball.
Season prediction: The Marlins will monitor Perez’s output carefully this season, and he figures to finish somewhere in the 150- to 160-inning range. His home run rate will dip from around 1.5 per nine innings, and, accordingly, his ERA will do the same. He’ll wind up near the top of the NL leaderboard with a 2.71 ERA. — Passan
Every team needs a Hoerner, someone whose value has next to nothing to do with home runs but who does everything else well. It’s not that Hoerner can’t go deep — he’s rung up 19 dingers over the past two seasons — but the longballs are beside the point. He gets on base, steals and makes contact when you need someone to make contact. On the field, Hoerner slid over from shortstop to make room for Swanson, even though he was a very good defender at the six-hole. All he did was win a Gold Glove with metrics that supported that recognition. Add the package up and you have a four-to-five win player just entering the prime of his career.
Season prediction: As Hoerner hits his age-27 season, it’s time for him to make his first All-Star team. A .300 average, .360 OBP with the slightest uptick in slug will get him there, along with a pace on the bases that should get him over the 50-steal and 100-run barriers. — Doolittle
69. Sean Murphy, C, Atlanta Braves
Murphy struggled after the start of September last year, OPS’ing just .451. But his final numbers — a .251/.365/.478 slash line, 21 home runs, 4.2 fWAR — were still really, really good. And in some ways he was even better than that, with an expected weighted on-base average of .395, which would’ve landed him within the top 10 in weighted on-base average if he had enough plate appearances to qualify.
That’s another thing: Murphy, 29, started only 98 of the Braves’ 162 regular-season games behind the plate despite not landing on the IL. The Braves were careful with his workload. And Murphy, who spent his previous four years playing home games in Northern California, admitted that he struggled with the Atlanta heat in the summer months.
Season prediction: Murphy has long solidified himself as one of the game’s best catchers, and there’s no reason to expect much drop-off at this point. He’ll have a better second half in his second year in Atlanta and, given the potency of the lineup in which he resides, will have his best offensive season in 2024. — Gonzalez
He has a four-seamer and a two-seamer, although he uses the four-seamer more against lefties and the two-seamer against righties. Against right-handers he’s more likely to mix in a sweeper and cutter, while using a curveball and changeup against lefties. Since 2019, he ranks 10th in ERA among pitchers with at least 500 innings — yet, as this ranking suggests, he’s rarely thought of as a top-10 starter. He leaves the Twins and joins the Cardinals, although he might start the season on the IL with a hamstring strain.
Season prediction: Assuming the hamstring isn’t a lingering issue, Gray should remain a top starter. He’s always been exceptional at limiting home runs (eight in 184 innings in 2023) and he’s improved his walk rate the past two seasons. How about a career-high 15 wins and an ERA just a little north of 3.00? — Schoenfield
We’re still learning what kind of player Greene will turn out to be, but there is no doubt that his tools and skill set are impressive. His two big league seasons, during which he had virtually the same amount of plate appearances, have been very different. Last season, he turned a sky-high ground ball rate into a better mix that featured an encouraging increase in line drives. That fueled Greene’s improved .288 batting average, though the BABIP underlining that (.384) looks bloated. The bottom line is that Greene hits the ball hard, plays a premium position and, at 23, is still getting better. He’s a crucial part of the foundation for whatever the Tigers become.
Season prediction: Greene will put in his first season with 140-plus games while giving away a few points of average and upping his homer total into the 20s, staking his claim to become the face of the post-Miguel Cabrera Tigers. — Doolittle
82. Matt Chapman, 3B, San Francisco Giants
The $54 million contract he signed with the Giants reflected both his past excellence — as a defender, particularly — and the doubts that evaluators still have about what kind of hitter he’ll be in the latter half of his career. Chapman, who turns 31 in April, has batted .226 over the past four seasons, with a high rate of strikeouts — including 165 in 140 games last season. He hit 17 homers in 581 plate appearances in 2023, but he also picked up his fourth Gold Glove — and it’s his defense that will always be the backbone of his value.
Season prediction: There is enough of a sample size in recent years to suggest that what you see is what you get — Chapman will hit 20-25 home runs and will have periods in which he’ll struggle to make contact. But his defense will help the Giants’ pitching staff, especially Logan Webb. — Olney
83. Ha-Seong Kim, 2B, San Diego Padres
It’s been a steady climb for Kim, who cracks our top 100 for the first time this year. His OPS+ has gone up in each of his first three seasons and now, with a higher floor, he has a chance to secure his first ever All-Star nod. Cutting down on strikeouts while still maintaining a high on-base percentage should be a goal of his for 2024. He had 75 free passes in 2023, a fairly high total for a non-slugger, and he also has 20 homer potential. Combine that with a .350 OBP and Kim could steadily move up the rankings a year from now.
Season prediction: Kim will slug .400 with an .800 OPS in 2024, continuing a trend of offensive improvement. — Rogers
84. Oneil Cruz, SS, Pittsburgh Pirates
Cruz’s first full season in the major leagues ended after just nine games, the product of a fractured fibula suffered during a home plate collision that triggered a near brawl. He says he is fully recovered now, restriction-free, but trusting his legs and regaining his timing will be a process. Once that happens, we’re all in for a treat. Frankly, we’ve never seen a 6-foot-7 shortstop with the type of power, speed and arm strength he possesses. (Yeah, you can say the same about De La Cruz, but he’s two inches shorter!) Cruz still has a lot of developing to do as a hitter, as evidenced by his 126 strikeouts in 87 games as a rookie in 2022, but that should come as he matures. In the meantime, sheer talent will carry him a long way.
Season prediction: Cruz set out for a 30-30 season in 2023, then watched his season end in less than two weeks. This year, his only goal is to remain healthy. The rest, he said, “will come.” OK, we’ll say it for him — Cruz will flirt with a 30-30 season. And he’ll produce a lot of upper-90s throws from shortstop. — Gonzalez
85. Andres Gimenez, 2B, Cleveland Guardians
Let’s throw this out there: Gimenez’s first two full seasons at second base — both ending with Gold Glove Awards — suggest he has a chance to become one of the best ever to play the position. He has outstanding range, both via the eye test and advanced metrics, outstanding hands (just six errors in 2023) and a strong arm (he came up as a shortstop). His offense is a work in progress, relying on a lot of hit by pitches to boost his on-base percentage, but he has managed to hit 32 home runs the past two seasons despite some of the lowest hard-hit rates in the game. He’s one of those guys the general public will overlook because of the offensive profile, but he’s a valuable player.
Season prediction: A third straight Gold Glove Award — the easy choice here — and perhaps a second straight Platinum Glove as the best overall defender in the AL as well. At the plate? Probably more like 2023 than 2022, when he hit .297 thanks to some good fortune on his balls in play. — Schoenfield
Longtime Brewers fans will get this reference: Adames is basically his generation’s version of Jose Valentin. Adames has gotten to his power earlier than Valentin and the latter didn’t have nearly as high of a strikeout rate, was a switch-hitter and so on. Still, they’re both good defensive shortstops with power and you don’t sweat their batting averages. Through their age-27 seasons, Valentine’s career slash was .245/.319/.429; Adames is at .247/.320/.439. (Yes, the league contexts are way different.) You’d like to see Adames, now 28, get back some of the average he had in Tampa but even if he stays on the Valentin path, he’ll continue to help teams. If the Brewers drop in the standings, Adames will be a popular name on the in-season trade market. He may be anyway after Milwaukee acquired infield prospect Joey Ortiz over the winter.
Season prediction: Adames has a lot to prove after his uneven 2023 showing at the plate. He’s also entering a walk year. Look for Adames to bounce back to the .250ish batting average range while once again threatening 30 homers. — Doolittle
87. Emmanuel Clase, RP, Cleveland Guardians
Another player who could be traded midseason, Clase’s value may never be higher than it is right now. He’s coming off back-to-back 40-plus save seasons for the Guardians but may not be as valuable to them as he will be to a contending team. Still, he’s under team control for three years, so he could bring back a haul at the summer trade deadline. In that regard, no other position on the diamond changes value from December to July more than closers. Teams often believe they’ll make due with what they have in the first half of the season and then realize during the heat of a pennant race that a closer is the missing and final piece to their puzzle. Clase could be that guy this summer.
Season prediction: Clase won’t record a fourth straight 70-appearance season, a huge total for a closer. He gave up a bit more damage last season — 68 hits, up from 43 the year before in the same amount of innings pitched — so Cleveland may keep his trade value high by taking it easy on him. — Rogers
88. Jeremy Pena, SS, Houston Astros
Peña’s breakthrough season in 2022, which saw him contend for AL Rookie of the Year, win a Gold Glove and help lead the Astros to a championship, was followed by some steps forward and some steps backward. He made better swing decisions in 2023, increasing his on-base percentage by 35 points, but his power dropped significantly. His 22-home run season in 2022 was followed by just 10 in 2023, including zero over his last 73 games. This spring, Peña unveiled a much more subtle, controlled batting stance designed to make him more efficient and strike baseballs with more authority. The Astros have raved about it thus far. They don’t really need much more offense from him, but they’ll certainly take it.
Season prediction: Peña’s first two years have seen him produce a 98 OPS+, with 100 representing league average. But we’re buying the new stance and the offensive resurgence that will come with it. He’ll get back to hitting more home runs, finishing with a 110 OPS+ and, because of his solid defense, 5.0 fWAR. — Gonzalez
89. Josh Jung, 3B, Texas Rangers
Texas chose Jung with the eighth pick in the 2019 draft for his bat, a right-handed thunderstick that crushed the minor leagues before his 2022 debut. In his first full season last year, he was in the AL Rookie of the Year mix before a late-season injury sidelined him for six weeks. He returned in time for the postseason, where he hit .308/.329/.538 and, perhaps more surprisingly, played exceptional defense at third, where some evaluators had wondered if he would stick when he was drafted. At 26, Jung is now a no-doubt third baseman, and while he’s got plenty of room to work on his swing decisions — he struck out five times as much as he walked last year — he could make his second All-Star team in as many years.
Season prediction: A calf strain has sidelined Jung for most of spring training, and the Rangers will take it easy with him, with Ezequiel Duran a plenty capable fill-in. Thirty home runs isn’t out of the question for Jung, nor a .500-plus slugging percentage, and power plus glove makes up for the relative lack of on-base percentage. — Passan
90. Kyle Schwarber, LF/DH, Philadelphia Phillies
Schwarber, if nothing else, is consistent. You can count on him for home runs and strikeouts, with some walks and the occasional single mixed in. It says a lot about his game that over the past two years, he finished 16th and 19th in MVP voting despite hitting .218 and .197, respectively, with a combined 415 strikeouts. But, oh, those home runs are almost always majestic and he seems to hit them when the team needs them most. His leadership has been well documented, as has his consistent appearance in the postseason — he’s been home during the playoffs just once in his career.
Season prediction: Schwarber hit a 483-foot home run last season, third longest in MLB. He’ll top that this year, reaching 500 feet for the first time in his career. — Rogers
You can’t really call a player who signed a $162 million contract underrated — especially one who plays in New York — but Nimmo probably still flies under the radar even after a second straight excellent season. He had been injury-prone earlier in his career, missing significant time in 2017, 2019 and 2021, but has now had back-to-back 150-game seasons, justifying the Mets’ gamble — at least in the first year of that big contract. With a career .380 OBP, he’s one of the best in the game at getting on base and his career-high 24 home runs in 2023 came with an increased launch angle, which suggests the power surge was legit.
Season prediction: The “Happiest Man in Baseball” — nobody smiles more than Nimmo — will have his happiest season yet with 30 home runs and his first All-Star selection. — Schoenfield
92. Evan Carter, LF, Texas Rangers
Let’s start with an entirely unfair leaderboard. Among players with at least 75 career plate appearances, here is your all-time top four in OPS+: 1. Babe Ruth, 206; 2. Ted Williams, 191; 3. (tie) Barry Bonds and Carter, 182. Carter followed that small-sample triumph during his late-season debut by putting up a .917 OPS in the postseason, helping the Rangers to a championship.
And now, the 21-year-old will be Texas’ starting left fielder on Opening Day. One thing we already know is that the moment will not be too big for him. One to-do item for Carter: He hasn’t hit lefties at all. After reaching MLB, he was 0-for-10 in the regular season, and in the minors, he had a .253 slug against southpaws, managing one double in 106 plate appearances.
Season prediction: Carter won’t remain a 182 OPS+ guy and may still have to sit against most lefties. But he’s so good in so many ways, he’ll challenge for AL Rookie of the Year honors, with teammate Wyatt Langford possibly being one of his chief competitors. — Doolittle
93. Gabriel Moreno, C, Arizona Diamondbacks
Of all the trades in recent years, the Diamondbacks’ pilfering of Moreno from the Blue Jays in December 2022 when he was a top prospect will be one of the most consequential. In his first full season last year, Moreno proved himself one of the best catchers in the big leagues — a game-changing defender behind the plate with a bat that’s plenty capable of holding its own. If it is more than that — if Moreno can hit more than seven home runs (his total in 2023) while maintaining a batting average that, at .292 on days he caught, was tops in the big leagues — we’re talking perennial MVP candidates. As is, Moreno’s floor is exceptionally high, and at just 24, he’s primed to be a force for the next decade.
Season prediction: Moreno, who showed up to camp this year in fantastic shape, takes a leap, batting .285, getting on base 35% of the time and slugging more than .450 with 18 home runs and 81 RBIs while moving up in the Diamondbacks’ much-improved lineup. — Passan
Some of the defensive metrics — particularly outs above average and Statcast’s outfield-jump measurement — graded Chisholm as an above-average center fielder in his transition from the middle infield last year. But once again, he couldn’t stay healthy. Bouts with turf toe and an oblique strain limited him to 97 games in 2023 — one year after a lower back strain and a partially torn meniscus kept him out for the regular season’s final three months. Chisholm, 26, is bursting with talent, evidenced by his 19 home runs and 22 stolen bases in limited action last year. But at some point we need to see it over a full season.
Season prediction: This one is more of a hope than a prediction: 150 games. We’re all pining to see a fully unlocked Chisholm. Let’s hope 2024 is the year we finally get it. — Gonzalez
Volpe hit just .209 with a .283 OBP in his rookie year in New York, but there is potential here as he became the first Yankee ever with a 20-20 season and the first since Derek Jeter to win a Gold Glove at the all-important position on the diamond. The Yankees believe he can control the strike zone better in his second season, which should keep him squarely in the top 100 when you consider his other abilities as a baseball player. His floor is decent, but what is the ceiling? We should find out more about that in 2024.
Season prediction: Volpe will sacrifice some power for more contact and less strikeouts. He’ll raise his average 35 points, but won’t reach 20 home runs this season. — Rogers
He’s not the player he was during his 2018-19 peak, when he won back-to-back batting titles while finishing first and then second in MVP voting, but Yelich did have his best season since 2019, hitting .278/.370/.447 with 19 home runs, 28 stolen bases, 106 runs and 3.6 WAR last year. Most importantly, he’s managed his back issues the past couple of years and played 144 games in 2023 (although he missed 12 in September when his back flared up). With a slew of speedy outfielders to choose from — especially if Jackson Chourio cracks the Opening Day roster — Yelich may see more DH time this year, but he should once again serve the Brewers as one of the top leadoff hitters in the game.
Season prediction: More of the same, assuming he stays healthy. At 32, there’s no reason to expect anything different, so let’s say 20 home runs, 25 stolen bases and a .265 average. — Schoenfield
97. Cal Raleigh, C, Seattle Mariners
There just aren’t that many everyday catchers anymore. Last season, just nine backstops qualified for the batting title and Raleigh was one of them. Only Realmuto (535) had more plate appearances as a catcher in 2023 than Raleigh’s 494. No catcher hit more home runs than him, with 24 of his 30 dingers coming while he played behind the plate. (The rest were while he was DHing or pinch hitting.) Raleigh gets on the field so much because he’s a switch-hitter with power and not much of a platoon split. Just as important, he can defend. According to Fangraphs’ consensus defensive measure (Def), only two players in the majors offered more defensive value in 2023. Raleigh is still under the radar, but he’s emerged as one of baseball’s best catchers.
Season prediction: Let’s just say that you shouldn’t draft Seby Zavala, Raleigh’s backup, for your fantasy team. Raleigh will again rack up 140-plus games, threaten 30 homers and build a case for Gold Glove consideration. — Doolittle
98. Merrill Kelly, SP, Arizona Diamondbacks
At age 35, he is the third-oldest player in the Top 100 — only Verlander and Goldschmidt are senior to him — and that seems to fit the narrative of his career as a late bloomer. He was pitching in Korea in his age 29-season, and since then, he has seemingly gotten better and better, using his repertoire and experience against hitters more and more effectively — to the degree that last October, he was standing on the mound in a World Series game.
Season prediction: His 3.29 ERA last season was the best full-season performance of his career, and there’s no reason to think he’s going to slow down. He is his generation’s Jamie Moyer, and he’ll have another solid year for the Diamondbacks. — Olney
Williams’ first full season as closer was a dominant success: 36 saves, a 1.53 ERA, his second All-Star appearance and a ridiculous .129 batting average allowed that led the majors among pitchers with at least 50 innings and ranks as the eighth lowest ever. That was hardly a fluke given he allowed a .151 average in 2022. Williams lives off his changeup, a pitch so good it has its own nickname, “The Airbender.” He throws it more than 50% of the time, which makes his 94 mph fastball look 110 mph. Like Hader before him, Williams carried a light workload — just 58 innings in 2023 — so it will be interesting to see if new manager Pat Murphy pushes him a little harder.
Season prediction: Aroldis Chapman’s .119 average allowed in 2014 is the lowest ever for a pitcher with at least 50 innings. With three fewer hits, Williams would have broken that mark. So let’s go with a .117 average allowed. — Schoenfield
100. Walker Buehler, SP, Los Angeles Dodgers
Coming back from a second Tommy John surgery can be quite daunting, even for someone as talented and as confident as Buehler. The 29-year-old right-hander was racing to return in time to help the Dodgers in last year’s playoffs but had to shut it down after just one rehab start. Now, he’s being built back up slowly. He’ll begin the season on the IL, then be placed on an innings limit upon activation in 2024 — his final season before free agency. The last time we saw Buehler, he had established himself as one of the sport’s elite starting pitchers and also one of its best big-game performers. What he’ll be moving forward remains a mystery.
Season prediction: The 2024 season will in many ways function as a transition year for Buehler. The Dodgers will probably keep his innings to the low hundreds, hoping to preserve him mostly for October. But Buehler’s ability and competitiveness will nonetheless allow him to return as one of baseball’s most devastating starters. — Gonzalez
