2023 Dynasty Fantasy Positional Rankings: Second Base
Image credit: Alex Bregman and Jose Altuve (Sean M. Haffey/Getty Images)
For much of baseball’s history, the keystone has been manned by slap hitters who would give you runs and stolen bases—and, if you were lucky, good batting averages. Recently, as teams began to embrace the shift, defenses were able to get away with putting fielders with less range (but big bats) at the position without sacrificing run prevention too much. Hence, we saw players like Mike Moustakas, Max Muncy and Ty France get eligibility there. With the upcoming rules changes constraining a team’s ability to shift, we may start seeing a return to the position being populated with better defenders—and this has informed our list.
Our rankings are targeted specifically for dynasty leagues, with a focus on balancing a variety of scoring formats. To achieve this we focused on wRC+ as our primary measure. While wRC+ by its nature is OBP-slanted, we took into consideration high and low batting averages when ranking players. The goal of these positional rankings is to provide the best possible order based on a value of three to five years, which means older, productive veterans are discounted and may be ranked alongside or even behind prodigious talents yet to debut.
Keep all of this in mind when considering your team’s needs and the context of your league. If you are trying to compete in 2023, you should prefer Kolten Wong to Jace Jung (who we have ranked back-to-back)—but some of your league mates, especially those not competing, would likely prefer Jung in a trade.
At the bottom of the list, we leaned toward players who may contribute in 2023 (and potentially not have a regular role in 2024) over prospects who won’t contribute for a year or more.
One minor note is that we added Nico Hoerner to this list, despite the fact that he does not yet have second base eligibility (in most leagues). However, with the Dansby Swanson signing, we expect Hoerner to get second base eligibility early in the season.
1. Jazz Chisholm Jr., MIA
2. Ozzie Albies, ATL
3. Andres Gimenez, CLE
4. Jose Altuve, HOU
5. Marcus Semien, TEX
6. Vaughn Grissom, ATL
7. Gleyber Torres, NYY
8. Miguel Vargas, LAD
DW’s Target: A popular target in redraft leagues so far this preseason, Vargas is divisive when comparing the “real life” prospects lists with fantasy lists. For fantasy, I believe that Vargas will be consistently valuable, especially if he gets multi-position eligibility on a yearly basis. Already projected to be an above-average hitter at age 23, the expectations moving forward, starting this year, are a high batting average and a high OBP while accumulating runs and RBIs near the top of the batting order. Even if he never exceeds average power or speed, he is a productive contributor similar to Gleyber Torres (listed back-to-back), irrespective of format.
9. Brandon Lowe, TBR
10. Curtis Mead, TBR
11. Ketel Marte, ARI
12. Jorge Polanco, MIN
13. Max Muncy, LAD
14. Jeff McNeil, NYM
15. Luis Arraez, MIA
16. Jonathan India, CIN
GP’s Target: After capturing the NL Rookie of the Year award in 2021, India endured an injury-plagued 2022. It impacted his play on the field and his overall line suffered. With reports of a return to health this offseason, I fully expect India to rebound in 2023. Blessed with strong plate discipline, above-average bat-to-ball skills and average power, India impacts the game in a multitude of ways. Calling Great American Ballpark home doesn’t hurt either, particularly for a righthanded-hitting pull hitter.
17. Nico Hoerner, CHC
GP’s Fade: Hoerner enjoyed a strong season in 2022, but despite the improvement offensively he produced a wRC+ of 106. From a fantasy perspective his batting average of .281 and 20 steals in 2022 had value, but Hoerner still ranked just 14th at the position according to the Razzball player rater. He was less valuable than Luis Arraez and Josh Rojas, and just more valuable than Ryan McMahon. With Dansby Swanson in the picture and the potential for a healthy Nick Madrigal stealing some at-bats, I’m lukewarm on Hoerner repeating his 2022 value.
18. Trevor Story, BOS
DW’s Fade: Although it’s admittedly low hanging fruit to pick a player who is recovering from UCL surgery as someone to fade, even without the injury, the 30-year-old has only managed to post a 100 wRC+ the last two years, and (although this is reductive) his xBA and xSLG have declined every year since 2018. Even assuming that he finishes this season strong, he would probably only be projected in 2024 to have a .250/.320 BA/OBP line. Although he should still boast above-average defense and a power/speed combination of around 30 to 35 home runs and stolen bases, his best days are most likely behind him.
19. Termarr Johnson, PIT
20. Gavin Lux, LAD
21. Connor Norby, BAL
22. Thairo Estrada, SFG
23. Brendan Rodgers, COL
24. Luis Urias, MIL
25. Jordan Westburg, BAL
DW’s Sleeper: Although the Orioles minor league player of the year shouldn’t technically be seen as a “sleeper,” the fantasy community seems a bit behind on him. True to the Orioles recent hitting philosophy, at Triple-A last year Westburg’s underlying metrics—consisting of a plus chase rate, a plus barrel rate and an average contact rate—aligns with the average to above-average scouting grades he has across the board. Because he is capable of playing solid defense anywhere on the infield, I expect Westburg to be in the Orioles’ plans for years to come.
26. Bryson Stott, PHI
27. Josh Rojas, ARI
28. Nolan Gorman, STL
29. Brendan Donovan, STL
30. Jace Jung, LAA
31. Kolten Wong, SEA
32. Ceddanne Rafaela, BOS
33. Brandon Drury, LAA
34. Whit Merrifield, TOR
35. Michael Massey, KCR
36. Jean Segura, MIA
37. Chris Taylor, LAD
38. Joey Ortiz, BAL
39. Edouard Julien, MIN
GP’s Sleeper: The Twins infield situation is crowded but after two consecutive seasons with an on-base percentage of .400 or higher, 15 or more home runs and 15 or more stolen bases, Julien has played his way onto the 40-man roster. Should an injury occur among the current infield group, Julien could slide into a starting role for the Twins. His combination of elite on-base skills, average power and average speed could allow him to produce a top 15 line among second basemen in 2023. Julien’s long-term upside as a table setter could potentially lead to high run totals and on-base ability that could pay dividends in OBP and points setups.
40. Michael Busch, LAD
41. Brayan Rocchio, CLE
42. Jonathan Aranda, TBR
43. Luis Garcia, WAS
44. Luisangel Acuna, TEX
45. Justin Foscue, TEX
46. Spencer Steer, CIN
47. David Hensley, HOU
48. Tyler Black, MIL
49. Zack Gelof, OAK
50. Nick Yorke, BOS
The Next Prospects: Who will be the next to enter this list?
1. Hao Yu Lee, PHI (50/High)
2. Juan Brito, CLE (50/High)
3. Mikey Romero, BOS (55/Extreme)
4. Eric Brown, MIL (50/High)
5. Jake Fox, CLE (50/High)
6. Osleivis Basabe, TBR (50/High)
7. Adrian Pinto, TOR (50/Extreme)
8. Cutter Coffey, BOS (50/Extreme)
9. Rosman Verdugo, SDP (50/Extreme)
10. Jordan Diaz, OAK (45/Medium)
11. Tyler Freeman, CLE (45/Medium)
12. Xavier Edwards, MIA (45/Medium)
13. Carlos Jorge, CIN (45/High)
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