2019 Positional Power Rankings: Second Base

On Monday, Jay Jaffe kicked off our positional power rankings series by evaluating first basemen. If you need a refresher on the process or the concept behind the series, Meg Rowley wrote a handy explainer. Today, we stay on the infield and tackle second base.

The stereotype surrounding second base is that these players aren’t good enough defensive players to man shortstop and aren’t good enough hitters to play third base. There are those that defy those conventions. Jose Altuve is one of the best players in the game. Javier Baez and Ozzie Albies can handle short. Robinson Cano has been one of the better hitters in baseball for a decade. Mike Moustakas probably should be a third baseman, but weirdly won’t be one this year. There are many, however, for whom those traditional designations fit. Only two teams have four-win projections at the position, with a bunch of high-floor three-win types. That doesn’t scream stardom, but there’s a lot of hidden upside in these projections. In addition to Albies, we see possible stars in Gleyber Torres and Luis Urias. Javier Baez only gets partial playing time at second. Scott Kingery, Carter Kieboom, Keston Hiura, Bo Bichette, and Nick Madrigal don’t play a huge role below, but they do represent talented young players who could help their teams to the top of these rankings in the years to come.





Craig Edwards can be found on twitter @craigjedwards.

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CamdenWarehouse
4 years ago

What will be the first position with Orioles ranked above 30?

naturalspringwatermember
4 years ago

Batperson.

CamdenWarehouse
4 years ago

maybe they can hire a batdog and go for the number 1 spot

HappyFunBallmember
4 years ago

Mascot.

More seriously, it might be CF where Mullins isn’t entirely awful. They could squeeze ahead of MIA for starting pitching as well.

But if you included everyone’s AAA clubs, the O’s assuredly be lower than #30 at 1B, and quite possibly at least one OF corner as well.

sadtrombonemember
4 years ago

What order are we going in?

Assuming that we do the infield first before anything else, it’ll probablybe third base, where Renato Nunez cannot be the worst starting 3rd baseman in the league.

That said, I am most confident that the Orioles will actually receive not-worst production at the outfield slots, where they have actual people who can play baseball and several teams (Giants, Marlins, White Sox, among others) do not.

dtpollittmember
4 years ago
Reply to  sadtrombone

Don’t forget the Indians outfield! Baaad.

BenZobrist4MVP
4 years ago
Reply to  sadtrombone

Yeah, I’m pretty sure at least the Royals will project worse at third.

jrogersmember
4 years ago
Reply to  sadtrombone

3B is up and (spoiler alert) the O’s are all the way up to #29!

sadtrombonemember
4 years ago
Reply to  jrogers

woooooooooooo!!