MLB Position Player Tiers: Top 125 players grouped from baseball’s best to solid starters

By Stephen J. Nesbitt, Brittany Ghiroli and Eno Sarris

We’re back with The Athletic’s second annual MLB Position Player Tiers, in which we separate the league’s top 125 position players into five tiers, from superstars to solid starters. The aim of this exercise is simple: to blend projections, scouting, expert opinion and the eye test to create a comprehensive list predicting which players will provide the most all-around value in 2023.

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This is more than three writers’ individual rankings. It’s more than weighing last year’s results and this year’s projections. It’s more than perspectives from people around the game. It’s all of those things melded together to analyze each position player’s full suite of skills — hitting, running, defense and, in one case, pitching — and see where baseball’s best stand heading into the 2023 season.

After the three of us formed an initial list, we sent a color-coded spreadsheet to 25 executives, evaluators, coaches, players and analysts to check our work. “This list mostly makes sense. Not bad for three reporters,” a longtime scout said, damning with faint praise. But not all sources were such easy graders. We considered all of their feedback, debated among ourselves once again, shuffled some names around and settled on a final version.

Tier 1 comprises the best of the best in baseball. Tier 2 is MVP-caliber players capable of being Tier 1s. Tier 3 players carry All-Star expectations. Tier 4 is made up of surefire starters. Tier 5 is a pool of above-average regulars.

Before we go through the list tier by tier, a few notes:

• The players are in tiers, not individually ranked. Each tier is divided into lettered sub-tiers, and players are listed alphabetically within each sub-tier.
• The gap between lettered groups (like 1A and 1B) is less significant than the one between numbered groups (like 1B and 2A).
• We excluded any players who have yet to make their MLB debuts.
• We also left off injured players expected to miss half the season or more. Better to exclude Bryce Harper (Tier 2A last year) than drop him to Tier 5 because he’s projected to “only” accumulate around 2 WAR in limited games.

The following charts include 2023 projected stats courtesy Derek Carty’s THE BAT X projection model on FanGraphs.

TIER 1: Best of the best

TIER 1A

The Big Debate: Are Ramirez and Alvarez 1As?

Separating the top five position players from the top 10 is an exercise in folly — there will never be true consensus in these things. Our respondents surprisingly coalesced around a top four, giving us easily the most votes for Shohei Ohtani, Aaron Judge, Mike Trout and Mookie Betts as the best players in the game.

Getting to five was a bridge too far: another eight players received at least one vote to be included in our top five. Former Nationals teammates Juan Soto and Trea Turner got the most votes, so that’s a big part of why you’ll see them in Tier 1A.

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“Do not underestimate the positional value here,” one executive said. “(Turner) is the only infielder in this tier that plays up the middle and the only one other than Trout up the middle, period.”

Maybe that helps explain why Yordan Alvarez ended up in Tier 1B. “Maybe the best bat in the league,” said a scout about Alvarez, but admitted that the defense is not necessarily a strength.

And José Ramírez, coming off back-to-back 6 WAR seasons? Maybe just another year where “we don’t give him the love and respect he deserves,” as one player thought last season.

What’s coming for Soto?

Projections mostly say Soto is going to have the second-best season of his career — that his defense will come back online and be decent enough, that his power will return, that he’ll have better luck on balls in play, and that his baserunning will return to average. Carty’s THE BAT X projection system has Soto as the best position player in baseball in the 2023 season, and the new rules seem destined to help a lefty pull hitter like Soto.

But it’s not just the numbers that think 2023 will be a fine vintage for the slugger.

“This guy is going to have a monster year,” said a rival front office member.

Oh no, not this again

“Ohtani over Judge, easy,” one former player said.

“Judge has been one of the best in the game his whole career, but I’m not sure he actually took his game to a whole ’nother level last year,” a scout said. “Typical Judge is still top five in the game, of course!”

Perhaps we can revisit this debate during award season again, eh?

TIER 1B

The Big Debate: How to separate top third basemen?

We hemmed and hawed about Ramírez, who was right on the edge of Tiers 1A and 1B, but whether any other top third basemen belonged in Tier 1 at all became a point of contention as well. We had multiple respondents suggest moving down Nolan Arenado (“He’s 32. At some point he’s not going to beat his xwOBA by 40 points,” one analyst said) and Manny Machado into Tier 2, as well as a former player banging the table for Rafael Devers to climb into Tier 1.

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Ultimately, considering all facets of the position, we stood pat. Arenado and Machado stayed in Tier 1 with Ramírez, while Devers, Alex Bregman and Austin Riley all landed in the MVP-caliber category of Tier 2. All three of the Tier 1 third basemen received at least one vote to be a top-five position player this season.

“Arenado had an awesome 2022 campaign,” one hitting coach said. “I think he is going to build off of that season and have an even better year at the plate in 2023.”

Acuña still a 1

Ronald Acuña Jr. is down season (by his standards) last year invited some uncertainty about his future — and led to a slide from Tier 1A in 2022 to Tier 1B in 2023 — but very few have his talent, and we’re betting his power numbers bounce back in his first full season since tearing his right ACL.

“I don’t have a great sense with Acuña of how serious those injury setbacks were, missing 43 games last year, but his 2020-21 was wild,” one scout said. Acuña had a .271/.399/.591 slash line with 38 homers and 25 steals in just 128 games across the 2021 and 2022 seasons.

Moving up

Francisco Lindor and Freddie Freeman were both outside Tier 1 on our initial list, but after consulting with our sources across the game we were swayed to upgrade both. Lindor was placed in Tier 3A last year, but a 6.8 WAR season put him back into the conversation among the most valuable shortstops in the majors.

Freeman led the NL in hits, runs, doubles and on-base percentage in 2022. He’s as steady as they come. “Not many .300/.400/.500 hitters out there,” a scout said, “and he’s been one for 10 years.”

TIER 2: MVP caliber

TIER 2A

The Big Debate: What to expect from Rodríguez and Tatís?

The panel debated and argued. Sure, the talent is there. But do we have enough information to say either Julio Rodríguez or Fernando Tatis Jr. belongs in Tier 1? Not yet.

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First, there’s Tatis, who is serving the rest of his performance-enhancing drug suspension and has played 130 games in a season just once: in 2021. Still just 24 but no longer “The Guy” in San Diego (that’s Machado after signing a mammoth 10-year contract extension) Tatís will play the outfield this year and try to regain the form that early on anointed him as one of baseball’s most exciting young players.

“Nando has every chance of outperforming everyone in this tier once he’s back and settled in,” a scout said.

Then there’s Rodríguez, who won AL Rookie of the Year last year after posting 6.2 WAR in Seattle and putting on an absolute clinic at the Home Run Derby (though that counts for nothing but style points). Rodríguez is the real deal, a 22-year-old talent who is putting the Mariners back on the baseball map after erasing a 21-year postseason drought in 2022.

“That deal for Rodríguez could easily end up being a bargain,” opined a rival executive of the seven-year, $119.3 million deal Seattle signed him to last year.

Both Rodríguez and Tatis have projected WARs over 5 in 2023. Both have arrows pointing up. By July, we could already be laughing about not including the pair among baseball’s elite.

Going for Goldy

Last year, we listed Paul Goldschmidt in Tier 3 and he went out and made us look silly with a 7.1 WAR for the Cardinals. Only three players had a higher fWAR in 2022. Will he do it again?

“He’s not flashy but is it possible he’s underrated?” said a former player. “Go watch (him) in the WBC.”

But this isn’t a ranking based on what happened last year. We’re trying to see into the future, and the best way to do that is to use projections as the base. By those numbers, Goldschmidt should be in this tier, among the 2Bs, due to his back-end top 25 projection. You have to consider his age, and the likelihood he has a repeat of last year, which was the second-best season of his career and his best in the last seven years. As one evaluator said after deciding against voting Goldschmidt into Tier 1, “I wanted to bet on the guy but ultimately decided to bet on some regression.”

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In the end, we split the difference between what we just saw from Goldschmidt and what the numbers say we’re likely to see, and nudged him up to the top of the second tier. Goldschmidt, in his age 35 season, is projected for a 4.6 fWAR and widely outperformed his expected batting average for balls in play (BABIP) in 2022. Could he do it again? Sure, we’ve been wrong about him before!

Notable quotable

An evaluator on Alex Bregman, who had 5.5 WAR in 2022 and has twice had 8 WAR seasons: “Wouldn’t be shocked if he ends up in Tier 1 at the end of the year.”

TIER 2B

The Big Debate: Which big-money shortstop do you have higher?

One signed a big deal with the Rangers last season. The other (finally) signed a big deal with the Twins this season. Tier 2A seemed too small to contain both Corey Seager and Carlos Correa in the same place, despite their similar projections. We chose to elevate Seager.

“Works for me,” one scout said.

“Seager for me, especially with the new rules,” said a scouting executive.

Plates in ankles aside, it might just be the new shift rules — and how Seager’s lefty, line-drive swing interacts with them — that pushed the Rangers shortstop into this tier. He should be able to hit for a higher average considering how often he was shifted last year (99 percent of the time) and how often he hit hard line drives to the pull side last year (more than anyone else). Better luck on balls in play will float all three parts of his slash line, and that might be enough to prove this choice correct.

Even if he doesn’t win the AL MVP like some people boldly predicted.

Impact of Altuve’s injury

Had Jose Altuve not suffered a broken thumb in the World Baseball Classic, he’d be a notch or maybe even two higher. “He’s got the talent to be Tier 1,” said a scout. But early indications are Altuve will miss about two months, which is particularly significant given he’s coming off an impressive season in which he finished top five in AL MVP voting. Altuve lowered his strikeout rate, increased his slugging and batting averages and is the heart of the defending World Series champions. But missing that much time kept him from being thrust into the top tier of players.

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Too early or just right?

We had votes to elevate Adley Rutschman atop Tier 2 and others to drop him into Tier 3. Rutschman is projected to be the best catcher in baseball (his 5.1 projected WAR is ahead of J.T. Realmuto’s 4.8) and produce more value than studs like Riley and Pete Alonso. Part of that projection is just the immense value of a catcher on the field, especially one who can hit.

But our panel was also divided on how quickly Rutschman will climb the ranks.

“Becomes the best all-around backstop in the game this season,” said one scouting executive.

“Adley is good,” a player said, “but it’s a huge jump to estimate 5-plus WAR for a rookie.”

“Realmuto and Rutschman didn’t seem to even be on the same planet in my mind before seeing these numbers,” said a hitting coach. “That was super interesting and yeah Realmuto has a definitive edge still here in value, but I just didn’t see them in the same discussion.”

Notable quotable

A former player and a hitting coach both wanted to see Devers moved up. “Devers and José Ramírez … could argue similar impact?” the hitting coach said.

TIER 3: All-Star

TIER 3A

The Big Debate: Is All-Star a slight for these guys?

After all this scrolling and so many words, landing in Tier 3 may appear a greater insult than it should. This is still a superb tier comprising top-50 position players for 2023. It would come as no surprise if they were representing their teams at the All-Star Game in Seattle this summer.

Tier 3A players are all capable of swinging across the divide into Tier 2 by putting together a strong season. A few names that had some helium as we discussed the feedback from our panel: Matt Olson (who was 4B last year), Dansby Swanson (4B), Bo Bichette (2A) and Alonso (3B).

A pitcher, when asked which of those names belongs in the MVP-caliber class, went with Olson: “Rakes. Has always raked. And plays good defense.” He noted Alonso’s profile relies almost entirely on his bat, and Swanson has only been an upper-echelon shortstop for one year.

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A scout offered this perspective on Alonso, who smashed 40 homers last year: “If Judge and (Giancarlo) Stanton are 90 raw power, Alonso and (Kyle) Schwarber are 80 raw, and they get to all of it for 80 game power while playing 150+ games a year. Schwarbs is an awful fielder, but Pete is significantly better on D than a (Rhys) Hoskins and way better than a Josh Bell.”

In the end, none felt fully justified as a Tier 2 player in 2023. We left them atop Tier 3. No insult intended.

On their way up

As one scout surmised, “Tier 3 might be guys just passing through, on their way up or down.” Our panel felt that two players in particular were poised to be squarely in Tier 2 next year.

Wander Franco: “Can rapidly move into the next tier. That kind of talent,” a scouting exec said.

Michael Harris II: “Has the upside to be up (a level),” a front office member said.

Franco already was a Tier 2A pick in 2022, so it might appear we’re overly bearish on him in 2023. If he stays healthy for a full season, he could justify an MVP-caliber rating again. For now, Tier 3 feels right.

TIER 3B

The Big Debate: Which Rookie of the Year favorite will prevail?

Corbin Carroll landed in Tier 3. Orioles youngster Gunnar Henderson did not. Both are early favorites for Rookie of the Year in their respective leagues. So why did we have Carroll ahead?

We originally had both in Tier 4 (Top Starter), but several sources suggested we move Carroll up. That’s how certain baseball people are about the 22-year-old Diamondbacks outfielder. Carroll slashed .260/.330/.500 in 32 games in the majors last year.

Henderson, who plays shortstop and third base, hit .259/.348/.440 in 34 games for the Orioles.  Both can make hard contact and have the potential for double-digit stolen bases under 2023’s new rules that encourage running.

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By the slightest margin, most baseball people — including these three reporters — take Carroll. But it’s a shoelace really.

Which Jazz will we see?

One of the most electric players in baseball, the main issue for Jazz Chisholm Jr. in the first few years of his career has been staying healthy. Get hurt once, it’s unlucky. Do it more than that and people start to get down on you.

“Until he can prove he can stay on the field, he’s down a tier for me,” a scout said.

“Swing and miss and on base (is a) concern with Jazz,” added an analyst.

Perhaps this will become bulletin board material for Chisholm, who had a 2.6 WAR last year and is projected to beat that in 2023. Honestly, we hope so. A healthy Jazz is good for baseball.

Welcome, welcome! 

Alejandro Kirk wasn’t on this list last year but made the jump up to Tier 3B after a solid season in which the 23-year-old Jays backstop had 4.4 WAR. Kirk’s bat is impressive enough that Toronto’s then-manager Charlie Montoyo called him one of the team’s best hitters — which is saying something with that Toronto lineup.

Where Kirk fits in the catching equation is a little clunkier. But catchers in general are difficult to rank on this list because they’re never going to play more than 120 to 130 games unless a team really pushes for them to DH. Kirk could see plenty of time there. When you can hit, teams will find a spot for you.

Cleveland second baseman Andrés Giménez also jumped from off the board last year to Tier 3 thanks to a 6.1 WAR season that opened a lot of eyes, saw him collect a Gold Glove and go to the All-Star Game. (Where does Cleveland keep finding these guys?!)

Notable quotable

An evaluator finds himself consistently down on Cedric Mullins: “Seems like he fits more in the tier below (Tier 4), but I think I might have identified him as being a bit too high last year as well?!”

TIER 4: Top starter

TIER 4A

The Big Debate: Which young stud will obliterate their projections?

One of these young players is going to step forward and leave this tier — and more reasonable expectations for their value — behind. They have that kind of upside. So, which one will it be?

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Pick your fighter.

Oneil Cruz: “He runs faster than Tyreek Hill, he hits the ball as hard as Giancarlo Stanton, and he throws it as hard as Justin Verlander … and he plays shortstop,” an executive said.

Jeremy Peña: “If he can stay consistent, he can be a monster for Houston,” a scout said.

Luis Robert Jr.: “I like the others more, but think they will have trouble exceeding expectations. So I will go with Robert,” said one scout, wryly.

Henderson: “Oneil no, too much of a plate discipline problem, Robert is another beast, but I would say the safer play is Gunnar,” said a current player. A hitting coach added: “Gunnar, 100 percent.”

Maybe this Tier 4 placement will be a stepping stone for all of them. But, for now, they get a more conservative ranking while we dream on their futures.

Skeptics abound

“Tier 4 has surprisingly good players that have their skeptics in the past,” a scout said, and there’s certainly a sub-group in this tier of veterans who might be underappreciated.

Jeff McNeil has one of the best hit tools in the game but had to fight his way to the big leagues. Yandy Díaz combines contact with a great eye at the plate but seems unheralded even among the Rays. Max Muncy averaged 35 homers in his healthy years but started off being released by the Athletics. Tommy Edman was a 5 WAR infielder last year but got voted down into this tier. We had him in Tier 3 before sending out the list to sources.

“Even with all the infield hits his speed gets him and the hustle doubles/triples that boost his slugging, it’s a .706 OPS the past three seasons,” a scout wondered aloud about the Cardinals’ shortstop. Another evaluator replied, “Seems more top starter than All-Star, but in that tweener category.”

Keep proving them wrong, right?

Notable quotable

Steven Kwan almost won AL Rookie of the Year, but that doesn’t mean we’re fully appreciating him. “Underrated,” an executive said. “Contact ability and discipline is more valuable than you think, and he also plays a plus left field.”

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TIER 4B

The Big Debate: Will the prime version come back?

Kris Bryant and Christian Yelich were in the Tier 5 bucket when we sent out our initial list this spring, and when all opinions had been gathered we were persuaded to nudge them into Tier 4B — which means they’d be a top-80 position player in the majors in 2023.

Was that the right move? If a Tier 4 player is worth roughly 3 WAR, it might be a stretch.

Yelich isn’t a middle-of-the-lineup star anymore — instead of .325-average, 1.000-OPS, 40-homer seasons he’s now turning in .250 averages, .730 OPS and 15 homers — though he still gets on base and runs well. Bryant is born to feast at Coors Field, but injuries have limited his availability and poor defense has dinged his WAR. Still, one hitting coach was surprised to see Bryant sitting in Tier 5.

“He’s an interesting one,” the hitting coach said. “Slugging through the roof it always seems. Just gotta have a healthy year this year after the last two.”

Ketel gone cold

What should we make of Ketel Marte now? The Diamondbacks second baseman had big offensive numbers in 2019 and 2021 (limited to 90 games by injuries), but now his mediocre-to-poor seasons outnumber the good seasons six to two. As the Diamondbacks roster strengthens around him, Marte has been thought to be a central part of their next core. But that’s not so clear anymore.

“I just see an average everyday second baseman,” one scout said. “Just a 50 for me. Yeah, Ketel still can absolutely crank a ball, but he spent all of last season just saying ‘F— it, I’m swinging out of my shoes even if it’s a cutter or two-seamer running in on my hands to blow me up.’”

Marte also has graded poorly at second base the past two seasons. The scout added: “Ketel has all the skills to play 50 defense at second but found a way to play just 40 defense there last year.”

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Notable quotable

Regarding Randy Arozarena, baseball’s current king of the big moment, one front office member said, “This is the REGULAR season right?” (They voted to move him down a tier.)

TIER 5: Above-average starter

TIER 5A

The Big Debate: Is the WBC bump real?

Look, I don’t want to say Lars Nootbaar became a Japanese sensation, but Nootbaar became a Japanese sensation. The Cardinals outfielder had a nice run for the championship squad, driving in four runs, scoring seven times and posting a .424 OBP. Nootbaar also drove in the go-ahead RBI early in the final against Team USA and seemed to have bonded with Ohtani.

“Nootbaar has great plate skills and strong contact quality,” said a big-league hitting coach. “With a full season’s worth of at-bats, I fully expect him to have a break-out 2023.”

Vinnie Pasquantino, who played for Team Italy, is another name that kept coming up as a fringe Tier 4 player coming off a stellar rookie season. The Royals outfielder had 298 plate appearances and a .832 OPS with a 137 wRC+. With a nickname like The Italian Nightmare, maybe it’s only a matter of time before he’s in the top half of this list.

“(He’s) a bit of a unicorn,” an executive said of Pasquantino. “Great timing in the box. Looks to avoid Ks at all costs and has the ability to do that. Hitter not a slugger.”

McMahon mashing

Last year, the Rockies’ Ryan McMahon had a better year than his statistics show. In 2022, his average exit velocity was in the top 10 percent and his hard-hit rate landed in the top 17 percent. He’s smoking the ball again this spring, turning in the second-hardest hit ball. He’s a sleeper if you’re a fantasy baseball fan and a guy who could easily outperform his spot on this list. And don’t Colorado fans need something to cheer about?

Notable quotable

Ke’Bryan Hayes plays a beautiful third base, but he’s had an OPS in the .600s each of the past two seasons. An evaluator is still optimistic: “I still think he is going to hit more than he has, and the defense brings so much value.”

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TIER 5B

The Big Debate: Headed up? Or down?

In a tier that’s already pretty fuzzily defined — above-average is a moving target, after all — the Tier 5B players are even harder to describe broadly. Consider that both Javy Báez and Miguel Vargas are in this sub-tier. They don’t seem to come from the same baseball solar system.

Vargas was hurt, yes, but he just spent a week in spring not swinging at a single pitch, which lines up with the reports of his selectivity at the plate. Meanwhile, only three batters swung at more pitches last season than Báez. Vargas is trying to find his defensive position in his first full season. Báez has a long career of making flashy plays behind him.

“Báez has enough defensive value to remain a valuable player, even if the bat doesn’t really recover,” said one executive. “Not nearly worth the money, but still.”

“Feel like (Vargas) is overrated,” said a scout who, admittedly, has only had a quick look at him. “May struggle with second base and bat isn’t plus for a corner.”

“Unsure of why scouts wouldn’t like him. Smart player. Special bat,” an executive countered.

There won’t be much consensus about these two players, or the tier in general. On their way up or down — for now, they’re above average.

The White Sox pair

Eloy Jiménez and Yoán Moncada are teammates on the field, and tier-mates in this list.

Both have the potential to climb higher.

“When Jiménez is healthy, his bat is always a marvel,” our James Fegan wrote about the impressive spring the slugger is having.

Projections assume Jiménez (listed in Tier 5A last year) will miss anywhere from 20 to 50 games this year, so that’s an easy way for him to beat his projected numbers: just play more. There’s a sense various ailments have also held back Moncada (Tier 4A last year) over the past two years. So look away, White Sox fans, when Fegan reports on them having minor injuries.

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It’s all about health here, and a good deal of the team’s hopes ride on their ability to stay on the field.

TIER 5C

Biggest debate: Where to draw the line?

Limiting our list to 125 position players means we can’t include every player considered an above-average regular — roughly a 2 WAR season — for 2023. There are dozens more players projected to be at least that valuable (like Yasmani Grandal, Dylan Carlson and Alex Verdugo) this season and scores of others who were worth 2-plus WAR last year (like Travis d’Arnaud, Jose Trevino and Josh Rojas) and could repeat under the right conditions.

So, deciding the last spots on our tiers requires a series of judgment calls.

A year ago, we swapped in AJ Pollock and Mike Yastrzemski for Adam Frazier and Nicky Lopez at the last minute. The verdict? Mostly meh. Yastzemski produced 2.2 WAR. The other three fell well short of 2 WAR.

For the sake of transparency, our final adds this year were Ezequiel Tovar and Brendan Donovan, replacing Mark Canha and the injured Rhys Hoskins. We’ll check back in at the All-Star break and see how right (or wrong) we were.

Last (alphabetically) but not least 

Kolten Wong may be the platonic ideal of a Tier 5C player. He is forever firmly above average. He helps out a bit in all facets of the game, though the two-time Gold Glove second baseman’s defensive metrics nosedived last season.

Now 32, Wong’s 162-game average through his prime was about 15 homers, 15 steals and a 105 OPS+.

“I’d prefer that player to a lot of the aging bat-only guys above him who have struggled to stay healthy,” one analyst said.

Who’s next?

While players who have not yet made their MLB debut are not eligible for this year’s Position Player Tiers, we’ll get a wave of new arrivals on Opening Day that you can expect to show up here (or much higher) next year.

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Jordan Walker is vaulting from Double A into the Cardinals lineup. Anthony Volpe forced the issue this spring and will start for the Yankees. Masataka Yoshida has a new home in Boston. Oscar Colás will patrol right field for the White Sox. Brice Turang will be with the Brewers from the jump. And many more brand-new big leaguers will follow in the next few months.

Notable quotable

One hitting coach banged the table for Dodgers DH J.D. Martinez, who we left outside of our top 125: “J.D. is going to have a bounce-back season in 2023 and have one of his best seasons yet.”

Here’s how many position players each team has in each tier.

(Top photo: Getty Images; Brace Hemmelgarn, Denis Poroy. Mary DeCicco)