We roll with the Shuffle Up series for fantasy baseball, the in-season version. What you see below is how I would organize the outfielders if I entered a new draft today. Use it to evaluate your team, consider pickups and drops, evaluate trade deals – the choice is yours.
My salaries are non-scientific in nature, intended primarily to show how I rank players and, more specifically, where the talent clusters are. Your list will be different, of course. That’s why we have a game.
I didn’t put anyone on the injured list; I’m not a doctor and the level of injury optimism varies widely between fantastic managers.
Three weeks ago, we shuffled receivers. After that, we hit corner infielders and middle infielders. Starting pitchers arrive next week.
Dig.
The big bills
$47 Ronald Acuna Jr.
$42 Aaron Judge
$41Yordan Alvarez
$37 Julio Rodriguez
$37Mookie Betts
$37Corbin Carroll
$36 Fernando Tatis Jr.
$34Bryce Harper
Acuña’s astonishing .413 last year can be explained simply: he was playing injured. His slugging is back to expected levels, and he’s rocking the best average and OBP of his young career. Acuña also runs aggressively and smartly (22 for 25), which makes him an absurd fantasy player. The banked value gap between Acuña and the No. 2 batter Freddie Freeman is the same as the gap between Freeman and batter #15, Cedric Mullins. To put it bluntly, Ronald Acuña is unfair.
Strikeouts are up slightly with Alvarez, but his batted ball profile remains a light show, lots of red-pinned red sliders. He crushes the left-handed throw this year, but his OPS is virtually identical against right-handers and left-handers for his career. He is probably the most destructive hitter in baseball.
Legit Building Blocks
$33Randy Arozarena
$31 Cedric Mullins
$30 Adolis Garcia
$30Josh Lowe
$29 Mike Trout
$28Kyle Tucker
$28Bryan Reynolds
$28Jorge Soler
$26Juan Soto
$25 Esteury Ruiz
$22 Luis Robert Jr.
$21Lourdes Gurriel Jr.
$21 Eloy Jiménez
$20 Christian Yelich
$18 Jarred Kelenic
Garcia is third in banked 5×5 outfield value, which is shocking when you consider he’s stopped the play in progress and average is still a drag. That said, the buoyancy of the Texas attack takes us to glorious places; Garcia is on pace to score 128 and drive 150. No one expects him to come close to those numbers, but Texas could be a Top 5 offense all year. . . It’s a shame Soler doesn’t have more running mates in Miami’s offense; his 17 homers produced just 35 runs. His expected stats are even better than his card back stats (he averages 10 bad luck, slugs 41 bad luck). I give Soler more than a puncher chance to lead the majors in the home runs. . . With a sad sigh, we accept that Trout is at the end of his career. He will never be less than a star, of course. But his average is just good-not-great these days, he stopped chasing after 2019 and the Angels offense has a lot of holes around it. Trout also hasn’t topped 140 games since 2016. He’s welcome on any roster, but he shouldn’t be your best hitter.
Gurriel’s lack of striking last year was explained after the season when we learned that his wrist was not straight. Life only has meaning looking back, but must be lived forward. The Diamondbacks might have cheated the Blue Jays in the Daulton Varsho trade, Gurriel landing and emerging star Gabriel Moreno. Meanwhile, Varsho went for a .211/.277/.372 start in the YYZ.
Talk to them, talk to them down
$17 Lane Thomas
$16Nick Castellanos
$16 George Springer
$16Masataka Yoshida
$15Alex Verdugo
$15 with Merrifield
$15Byron Buxton
$15Tommy Edman
$15 Seiya Suzuki
$14Kyle Schwarber
$14Brandon Nimmo
$14Austin Hays
$14Harrison Bader
$13Michael Harris
$13 Renfroe Hunter
$13Michael Conforto
$13Riley Greene
$12 Teoscar Hernandez
$11Christophe Morel
$11
$11Kris Bryant
$11Jack Suwinski
$11 Zach McKinstry
Thomas has a solid 114 OPS+ since joining the Nationals, which essentially makes him 14% better than an average offensive player in the league. He was useful as a debut player late last year, and he held the No. 1 spot this year, posting a .309/.363/.529 slash in 29 games. He is underestimated. . . Bader’s glove will keep him in lineup, and his category juice makes it an easy fantasy play. And even if this current average is not real, it probably won’t crater in this category. The Yankees stole a useful player. . . Hays is an underrated player for two reasons – he’s a bit lost in the shuffle among all of Baltimore’s young stars, and his top two fantasy categories are unsexy, batting average and runs scored. . I like quietly productive players like this, because the market constantly misjudges them.
McKinstry’s production doesn’t fit his career profile at all, but he works the count and draws steps, he wants to run aggressively and the Tigers love him at the top of the roster. McKinstry also covers four positions in the Yahoo Leagues. I love versatile rovers like this; I like to play positionless fantasy baseball whenever possible. Give me a team of Legos.
Some plausible benefits
$10 Starling Marte
$10Brent Rooker
$10 Adam Frazier
$9 Ji-Hwan Bae
$8LaMonte Wade
$8Alex Kirilloff
$7Anthony Santander
$7Andrew Vaughn
$7Jeff McNeil
$7 Joey Meneses
$7 Orlando Arcia
$7Marcel Ozuna
$7Josh Naylor
$7 André Benintendi
$7Mitch Haniger
$7Jake Fraley
$7Leody Taveras
$6Lars Nootbaar
$6Amed Rosario
$6Harold Ramirez
$6Bryan De La Cruz
$6 Mickey Moniak
$6 Mauricio Dubon
Wade’s value is particularly sensitive to your league format; it’s less fun in weekly leagues where the peloton sits will eat you up, but a weapon to deploy if you have bi-weekly or daily moves. He’s parked at the top of the lineup when the Giants face a right-hander and an OBP machine. . . I wasn’t sure Marte’s speed would carry over into a 34-year season; that was not the problem. A lack of power was worrying though. It is better to be a year ahead than a year behind this type of player.
If Taveras had a better place in the lineup, I would consider him a level up. I’m interested in any ticket to Texas. But you lose so many plate appearances when you’re stuck in ninth place, and obviously the Rangers never move. Marcus Semien Or Corey Seager.
Good deal
$5Daulton Varsho
$5Steven Kwan
$5 Patrick Wisdom
$5Charlie Blackmon
$5Andrew McCutchen
$5Jarren Duran
$5 Brandon Marsh
$5 Akil Baddoo
$4James Outman
$4Brian Anderson
$4Seth Brown
$4Willi Castro
$4 Jose Siri
$4 Nick Senzel
$4Luke Raley
$4 Jurickson Profar
$3Robbie Grossman
$3 Quarter Taylor
$3Jake McCarthy
$3Brendan Donovan
$3Jon Berti
$3 Joey Gallo
$3 Ramon Laurano
$3TJ Friedl
$3 Kike Hernandez
$3Mike Yastrzemski
$2 Myles Straw
$2 Kevin Kiermaier
$2 Randal Grichuk
$2Chas McCormick
$2 Manuel Margot
$2Chris Taylor
$2Nick Pratto
$1 Connor Joe
$1Trey Mancini
$1 Mark Canha
$1 Nolan Jones
$1Oswaldo Cabrera
$1Trent Grisham
$1 Oscar Cola
$1Brenton Doyle
$1 Gross Odor
$1Ryan Noda
$1 Max Kepler
$1 Aledmys Diaz
$1 Eddie Rosario
$1 Joey Wiemer
$1Oscar González
$1 Corey Julks
$1 Gavin Sheets
$1Michael Taylor
$1Edward Olivares
$1Jake Meyers
$1 Pavin Smith
$1 call from Alex
$1 Travis Jankowski
Currently injured, not eligible for classification
NR Jazz Chisholm Jr.
NR Thairo Estrada
NR Giancarlo Stanton
NR Cody Bellinger
NR Adam Duvall
NR Tyler O’Neill
NR Victor Robles
NR Christian Arroyo
NR Dylan Carlson
NR Joc Pederson
NR Trevor Larnach
NR Jesus Sanchez
NR Nick Gordon
N. R. Wil Myers
NR Garrett Mitchell
NR Kerry Carpenter
NR Kyle Isbel
NR Avisail Garcia