MLB Top 10: Who is number 1 in second base?
Our classification of the best in each position continues with a familiar face that is in a new team and enters the scene in the second base.
Spring training camps are underway, which means it is time to analyze baseball status. As part of our preview of the 2025 season of the MLB, Buster Olney of AM850 Bring your classification series by positions back, in which you surveyed people in the industry to help you classify the 10 best players in each position.
Today, we classify cream and cream in the second base, including a family name that moves to the position with a new team.
The objective of this exercise is to identify the best players for the 2025 season, not who could be the best in five years or throughout their career. We will present one position per day during the next two weeks under the following calendar: receptors, first base, third base (20/2), Campocortos (21/2), corner gardeners (24/2), central gardeners (25/2 ), designated batters (26/2), opening launchers (27/2) and relieved (28/2).
Alex Bregman played in the third base for the stars during the last nine seasons, winning a gold glove last season. If you go to the second base for the Red Sox this season, it will continue to be among the 10 best base of the sport (as you will see below), but there will be adjustments. You will have to refine your movement to the right, something that is not so important in the third base, and you will have to feel comfortable when you pass the ball to the campocorto in double play attempts.
But Bregman was an average picture player in his baseball life before joining the stars. Given that story, the manager of Los Angeles Angels, Ron Washington, an interior table instructor for a long time, recently said that “the transition will be very easy.”
“They will have to help you adapt to the angles and you will have to get used to the foot game in the double plays. But Bregman is a player with a set of tremendous skills and the second base will definitely be easier than the third base, and we know how he played In the third base.
“On the second base, he will see everything. In the third, it was only reaction and instinct. base”.
Rafael Devers has been Boston’s third base for almost as long as Bregman. It is three times All-Star and the best paid player in the history of the franchise. But while Alex Cora openly reflected on the possibility that Bregman moved to the second base while the team player was a free agent, Cora has not confirmed this change since Bregman agreed a three -year contract with the red socks, and some evaluators Rivals do not believe that happens.
“You have the best third base of the American League in your Roster, and you won’t play on the third base?” Asked one rhetorically. “That makes no sense. They will solve it in spring training. They just have to talk to Raffy.”
Devers has always been close to Cora, a relationship that will be important if and when conversation about a movement occurs. What Cora could tell Devers, reasonably, is that the red socks are a better team with Bregman in the third base.
If Devers, who has been fighting with shoulder problems in recent years and is considered a mediocre defender anyway, goes to designated hitter and Bregman occupies the third base, that will also provide a path for Kristian Campbell, one of the Best baseball prospects, play in the second base for the Red Sox at the beginning of the season. Campbell hit .330 while progressing at three levels of minors last season; In 115 games, he hit 32 doubles, three triples, 20 homers and stole 24 bases. A rival evaluator said: “The best scenario for the Red Sox is that (Campbell) reaches spring training and demonstrates that he is ready for the big leagues, and leaves Devers clearly – all – who needs to be part of the alignment “.
But until Devers leaves, we will include Bregman between the second base. The classification below is based on the comments of the evaluators of the entire sport.
Top 10 of second -base players
1. Ketel Mars, Arizona Diamondbacks
If it were not for the excellence of Shohei Ohtani and an injury in the second half, Mars would have been a strong candidate for the most valuable player of the National League. He accumulated 6.8 War in just 136 games, connected 36 homers and scored 93 races. The only players in the middle of the painting with a wrc+ higher than that of Mars (151) were Bobby Witt Jr. and Gunnar Henderson.
2. Marcus Semien, Texas Rangers
If the offensive of the Rangers is going to recover, Bruce Bochy will need more than Semien, whose OBP went down to .308 last season. But even in a year down, he connected 23 home runs and scored 101 races.
Semien also remains an elite defender: only Brice Turang and Andres Gimenez had more saved defensive races than half last season.
3. Alex Bregman, Boston Red Sox
The best possible result for Bregman and the Boston Red Sox in 2025 would be that he had a spectacular first year in Fenway Park, as Adrián Beltré did, and then chose to get out of his contract and launch the free agency next autumn . Bregman’s numbers in Fenway Park are notable: an offensive line of .375/.490/.750 in 21 games, and whether it beats in front of Rafael Devers or behind him, it is likely that he has a lot of protection because he will often arrive to the plate with corridors based and the opposite pitcher cornered in a corner.
4. Jose Altuve, Houston Astros
The stars have talked about giving Altuve more opportunities in the left garden, and Altuve is open to the idea, which reflects the regression in his defense. But Altuve, who will turn 35 in May, still hit: last year he averaged .295, with 185 hits and an OPS+ adjusted 126. Altuve could reach 2,400 hits and 250 home runs in his career by the end of the year.
5. Jonathan India, Kansas City Royals
It is not clear how India will be deployed in the field, perhaps dividing the time between the second base (the position that played mainly with the reds) and the third base and the left garden. But there is no mystery about where it is expected to be in the alignment. Last year, the (many) first kc batters combined for a 66 WRC+, which occupied the last place in the elderly, and this year, India will probably occupy that position. Last year, it generated an OBP of .357, with some power and some speed. He and Bobby Witt Jr. will probably create many opportunities for Salvador Perez, Vinnie Pasquantino and those who continue to take them to the plate.
6. Andres Gimenez, Toronto Blue Jays
Cleveland moved the three -time gold glove winner to Toronto due to his contract (about $ 87.5 million in his next five seasons), but also due to his reduced offensive: his OPS+ adjusted fell from 141 in 2022 to 82 Last year, with a .298 rambling percentage. But his defense is special: it could be argued that he is the best MLB defensive player in any position. Only the central gardener of Washington, Jacob Young, accumulated more outs above the average Jiménez.
7. Brendan Donovan, St. Louis Cardinals
I would receive more attention if San Luis were a contender to the playoffs; After three seasons, he has an OBP for. 364 with an OPS+ of 116.
8. Luis Garcia Jr., Washington Nationals
He will turn 25 in May and is part of the reason why Washington could be a surprise team this year. It has some power (18 homers last season) and speed (22 robberies).
9. Nico Hoerner, Chicago Cubs
He underwent elbow surgery last fall and puppies are not sure when he will be ready to re -join the alignment. But when I do, manager Craig Counsell will have an excellent defense in the second base again. Hoerner hit .273 last season, with a respectable OBP of .335.
10. Jazz Chisholm, New York Yankees
He has returned to the second base after having been in the Campocorto, the central garden and the third base, but its main value for the Yankees will be what it does on the plate. Last year, Chisholm connected 24 home runs and stole 40 and registered his best numbers of the season after arriving in New York on the deadline of exchanges.
Honorable Mentions
Ozzie Albies, Atlanta Braves: It comes from a season full of injuries, with its OPS+ adjusted falling to 95 last season from a 126 brand, the best of your career, in 2023.
Brice Turang, Milwaukee Brewers: A lot of speed (50 robberies in 56 attempts) and a lot of defense (he was the leader of the MLB in defensive races saved last season) and is only 25 years old.
Brandon Lowe, Tampa Bay Rays: When it stays in the field, it causes a lot of damage to the rivals: it hit 21 home runs in 107 games in 2024. But 205 games have been lost in the last three seasons.
Matt McLain, Cincinnati Reds: Cincinnati has the hope that he will recover after being lost all last season for a shoulder injury. To review: he had an OPS+ adjusted from 127 in 2023.
