3B: Casey Schmitt, Giants (No. 2022 stats: .336/.449/.559, 21 HR, 89 RBI (121 games with Orix Buffaloes of Nippon Professional Baseball league) In the second half of the season, Harper was as good as he's ever been, with a slash line of .338/.476/.713. Acuna Jr is still out recovering from the knee injury, but he should return in the next few weeks. 3 fielder overall in baseball. Perhaps one of the most underrated aspects of Judges game is his athleticism. The first part of the 2022 season could be crucial in determining whether Gallo is a fit for the market or, like Sonny Gray, might be more comfortable elsewhere. 2B: Vidal Brujn, Rays (No. A Batted Ball Event represents any batted ball that . The Dodgers worked out a one-year, $17 million deal with Bellinger for 2022. WILSON womens 12.5" Softball Glove, White/Black, 12.5 US. One of the most dynamic outfielders in the game when healthy, Springer brings power, speed and decent defense in center. Sign up to receive our daily Morning Lineup to stay in the know about the latest trending topics around Major League Baseball. Then there are Yelich and Bellinger, the NL MVP Award winners in 2018 and 2019, respectively. a batted-ball event with a launch angle between eight +6 Angel Pagan, Giants Runs saved on bunt attempts based on conversion rate, distinguishing between Sac Bunt and Bunt for Hit attempts. as Active Spin. Stats. A .230/.305/.388 career hitter in 534 plate appearances entering the 2022 season, Ward was one of the year's biggest surprises. We have tools and resources that can help you use sports data. This statistic measures the run value to defense and tries to measure how many runs a player has saved or given up through their fielding prowess. 7 since 2020, meaning the Twins secured three of MLB's top 10 defensive outfielders, all with elite arms. Shortstop: Dansby Swanson, Braves+21 Outs Above Average. Utility: Nicky Lopez, Royals+14 Outs Above Average. The 25-year-old will likely start regularly for the rebuilding D-backs in 2022, and he could deliver 15-plus homers and 10-plus steals. In the center of the defense is newly acquired outfielder Hunter Renfroe. Over 61 games in 2021, he hit .306 with 19 homers, swiped nine bags and posted a 1.005 OPS. Trout is a three-time league MVP and it feels criminal that he doesnt have more considering hes finished second four times. Another year, another pile of accolades for Mookie Betts who won his fifth Silver Slugger, sixth Gold Glove and made his sixth trip to the All-Star Game in the third season of a 12-year, $365 million deal with the Los Angeles Dodgers. Defensive Stats 15. How fast, in miles per hour, a ball was hit by a batter. These rankings are not a measure of performance since 2019; we are projecting the 10 best at each position for 2022. play. But Acua is improving, clearly. A native of Curacao, Rafaela's 2022 brought him to national prominence, with all sorts in agreement he might already be one of the best defensive outfielders in pro ball, period. Our annual All-Defense team is nearly certain to contain two things: future Gold Glove winners and Braves outfielder Cristian Pache. Its been a rough go for both players in the past two years, but it wasnt long ago that each was going in the first round of fantasy drafts. As Bellinger foundered last summer and some agents began to speculate whether the Dodgers might not tender him a contract, a highly ranked executive shot that idea down quickly. Total Zone Rating and initial framework for Wins above Replacement calculations provided by Sean Smith. Reynolds has dramatically altered his ground ball/fly ball ratio, from 1.56 in his rookie season of 2019 to 1.10 last year. Masataka Yoshida, LF. Few rookies in recent memory have had a greater impact on the culture of their team than Julio Rodrguez, who played a pivotal role in helping the Seattle Mariners reach the postseason for the first time since Ichiro Suzuki's rookie season in 2001. With 305 total bases he was one of just 12 players to break the 300 mark during the 2022 season, joining Aaron Judge (391) as the only outfielders on that exclusive list. The former Gold Glover made his triumphant return to Boston and has been a bastion in defense sporting a UZR of 3.7. 1/MLB No. The Brew Crew has set themselves apart from their National League East colleagues this season. Mullins is one of the games top defensive center fielders as well recording 200 putouts to go along with five outfield assists through 78 games in center field this season. Juan Soto is the second-best player in baseball and checks in at number two on our outfield list because of some dude named after a fish. He had great range going into the gaps, as he was worth +14 total Outs Above Average on plays going to his left or his right. He earns All-Defense recognition for the fifth straight year in 2022, and scouts have regarded him as the consensus best defender in the Minors for at least the past four seasons. When he came up in 2020, we saw glimpses of greatness. Sign up to receive our daily Morning Lineup to stay in the know about the latest trending topics around Major League Baseball. Defensive Stat Glossary. 2019: 1.01 Even as a young player coming up through the Cardinals' farm system, Arozarena demonstrated the unusual plate discipline that now distinguishes him. Right field A Bolt is any run where the Sprint Speed (defined as Ramon Laureano, Oakland Athletics. Per Langs, in a note last summer: "From 2019 to 2020, he had a huge drop-off in swing rate (45.2% to 34.6%), which was the largest in MLB. Hayes was a top-five fielder in all of baseball. Signed for a mere $15,000 out of the Dominican Republic in 2014, he's best suited for second base and has seen most of his professional action there. How much spin, in revolutions per minute, a pitch was Hes got a cannon in right field on top of the offensive prowess. Ranking the best center fielders of 2022 so far as Mike Trout leads the way. We look at every advanced analytic we can to make our lists, but we include intangibles not typically found in the numbers. He was one of only two qualified hitters with a strikeout rate below 10 percent, and he also won Gold Glove honors thanks to his brilliant defensive metrics (21 DRS, 8.4 UZR/150) in left field. Outfielders make up 11 of the first 29 players (including seven of the first 19) in MLB.com's Top 800 fantasy rankings for 2022. He won the AL Rookie of the Year Award in the season in which Wander Franco made his debut, which is saying something. Outfielders make up 11 of the first 29 players (including seven of the first 19) in MLB.coms Top 800 fantasy rankings for 2022. Right field: Daulton Varsho, D-backs+17 Outs Above Average. He filled up the stat sheet with 22 doubles, 25 home runs, 76 RBI, 89 runs scored and 14 steals while playing his usual solid defender in center field in a 4.0-WAR campaign. 10. Soto is the more refined hitter, leading the league in walks last season with 145; only two other players even got to 100. For catchers, we'll use pitch framing runs -- the amount of runs a catcher saves his team by getting extra called strikes on borderline pitches. indicates the player had fewer than the required number of at bats or There are a lot of folks with other teams -- a lot -- who don't understand why the Red Sox swapped Renfroe to the Brewers. Buxton is guaranteed to make at least $100 million, but that number will grow if he can stay on the field and trigger some incentive clauses. Which SS is best? Judge is the king of holding runners to a single, rather than a double, on a ball hit against the wall. You'll find Nicky Lopez down in the utility section. But passing on the talent at the top isn't an easy call. 11)OF: Corbin Carroll, Diamondbacks (No. Assuming there is a labor agreement in the next eight months, Judge is poised to get paid big bucks, either by the Yankees or in free agency, after he showed he could stay on the field last year. From that, we can say how likely it is (or isn't) that other outfielders make the play given the same opportunity. His plus-plus speed gives him more range than most at the keystone, and his solid arm strength stands out as well. Mullins was the only player in the Majors last year to put up a 30/30 season, while ONeill hit 34 homers, stole 15 bases and posted a .912 OPS, albeit with a 31.3% strikeout rate. Major League-best 54% of borderline pitches, even better by Outs Above Average than NL Platinum Glove winner Nolan Arenado, best defender of the big four free-agent shortstops, 17 plays with a catch probability of 50% or lower. Andrew Benintendi, Kansas City Royals/New York Yankees. The Venezuelan outfielder boasts a 3.1 UZR, 1.6 ARM, and 1.2 RngR this season. Despite his age and limited upper-minors experience, he didn't miss a beat in the majors, hitting .297/.339/.514 with 27 doubles, 19 home runs, 64 RBI, 75 runs scored and 20 steals in 22 attempts over 114 games. When Mike Trout is healthy, no one is better at baseball. This tier also includes a handful of high-risk, high-reward players, arguably none more tantalizing than Buxton. 27 prospect in the Cleveland organization would finish as one of the 10 best outfielders in baseball? DiMaggio was generally the better all-around player than Williams, just as Acua has a wider breadth of talents than Soto. 1 prospect in baseball with the Red Sox in 2017, Benintendi never quite lived up to expectations in Boston, but he has set himself up for a nice free agency payday after a strong 2022 season. He's similar to Pache, albeit with plus rather than plus-plus speed and arm strength, and likely will shift to right field if they play in the same Atlanta outfield. 2 spot in the lineup between NL batting title winner Jeff McNeil and the one-two punch of Francisco Lindor and Pete Alonso. Question, Comment, Feedback, or Correction? OF: Michael Harris, Braves (No. Cohen loves art, and in New York, outbidding George Steinbrenner's son for the best hitter in baseball would represent his pice de rsistance. Here are the players who just missed the cut, listed alphabetically: Ronald Acua Jr., ATLMark Canha, NYMDylan Carlson, STLOscar Gonzalez, CLENick Gordon, MINTrent Grisham, SDLourdes Gurriel Jr., TORAustin Hays, BALTeoscar Hernndez, TORJake McCarthy, ARIChas McCormick, HOUChristopher Morel, CHCLars Nootbaar, STLJurickson Profar, SDLuis Robert, CWSAnthony Santander, BALMyles Straw, CLESeiya Suzuki, CHCMichael A. Taylor, KCTyrone Taylor, MILLane Thomas, WASTrayce Thompson, SD/LADAlex Verdugo, BOSMike Yastrzemski, SFChristian Yelich, MIL. Allow this to also remind you that despite his hitting troubles, yes, Heyward remains a truly elite outfielder, but also to point out that the Rays may be putting together an insanely good defensive outfield. Hes as well-rounded as it gets in the outfield, and hes a nice dark horse for AL MVP. Tier 2: Yordan Alvarez, Aaron Judge, Starling Marte, Teoscar Hernndez, Cedric Mullins, Tyler O'Neill, George Springer, Nick Castellanos, Eloy Jimnez. We will use some advanced baseball jargon in this article. We suggest quickly reading about those stats at the links attached. 2021 Stats: 122 G, .264/.367/.487, .854 OPS, 131 wRC+, 25 HR, 58 RBI, 10 SB, 12.4% BB, 15.6% K, 3.9 fWAR, 4 DRS, -2 OAA. Ranking MLB's top 10 teams: A Braves repeat? He is considered one of the best defensive midfielders in the world and of his . Fantasy basketball: How concerning is LeBron James' injury? How far off the mound, in feet, a pitcher releases the The kid on the cover of Sports Illustrated has somehow lived up to the massive pressure bestowed upon him, resulting now in two MVPs, Rookie of the Year, and six All-Star appearances, and hes only 29 years old. order to rank the player, the necessary number of hitless at bats were He would find out he tore his ACL and would miss the rest of the season. Four other 2022 first-teamers made our 2021 squads. And while that's a long way off, it's not hard to envision what might be the first legitimate bidding war between the two New York teams. For infielders and outfielders, that's Outs Above Average, which uses a plus/minus system for every fielder based on the out probability of all of his chances. 2021 Stats: 36 G, .333/.466/.624, .835 OPS, 190 wRC+, 8 HR, 18 RBI, 2 SB, 18.5% BB, 28.1% K, 2.3 fWAR, -4 DRS, 1 OAA. But the 30-year-old looked as strong as ever at the plate before he hurt his calf last May, slashing .333/.466/.624 with eight homers in 146 plate appearances. He also has well-above-average arm strength that ranks among the best at his position. Outs Above Average. Hes really that talented. He hit .320 with a .387 on-base percentage in 93 games with the Royals before he was traded to the Yankees at the deadline, and while he battled injury down the stretch, his combination of contact ability and defense still made him a 3.2-WAR player in 2022. +10 Peter Bourjos, Phillies (now with Rays) Adolis Garcia actual value and not the value used to rank them, therefore some The 6-foot-7, 280-pound outfielder owns a career slash line of .276/.385/.552 with a 150 wRC+. As Sarah Langs noted, Yelich's underlying data suggests that he's still hitting the ball hard -- but there are other issues. And while the . Not to stray too far from Jose Ramirez's case, Daulton Varsho is also the primary source of offense for an anemic Arizona Diamondbacks offense. It's time to put a bow on the 2022 MLB season with Bleacher Report's final positional rankings. 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