Today we present the top ten second basemen!

#1 – #10

Quick note: After we had prepared our rankings the Yankees announced that Jazz Chisholm Jr. would be playing second base this year. If he had been included in our rankings, it’s safe to say he’d be high on this list.

Finding a second baseman for your dynasty team is not unlike shopping for a second car. You have a number of options and what you choose really depends on what you need. There are some expensive options for something flashy, some older models that will get you through the next few years, and some new models that look good but don’t have a track record yet. And of course, a few that look good until you look under the hood.  In our top ten, the choices aren’t too risky, but they aren’t all necessarily sure things.

The old reliables

Can we say our number-one ranked player in any category is also possibly underrated?  Maybe not right now, but Ketel Marte has often been underrated throughout his career. Last year at this time, I was asking if 2019 was going to be considered Marte’s “career year,” then he went out and proved that wrong by hitting 36 home runs with 95 RBI and a .372 OBP. He’s been able to stay on the field consistently through most of his career, keeps his strikeout rate under 20%, and last year his hard hit rate jumped from 42% to 53%.  The only thing he won’t provide a fantasy manager is stolen bases, but in all other categories, he is so far ahead of most of the field that that shouldn’t matter. It is reasonable to project he’ll maintain this level of production for the next three years.

Ozzie Albies is our number two, and from a dynasty perspective, perhaps the most likely from this group to outperform Marte over the next three years. When Albies is healthy and plays a full season, put him down for thirty home runs, 100 RBI, and double-digit steals. Unfortunately, the injury bug has found Ozzie quite frequently, as it has with other members of the Braves.  In Ozzie’s case, the injuries have been varied and not of the chronic soft-tissue variety, but the broken wrist last year could have an impact on his power stroke this year. He has good contact skills and although he doesn’t walk enough to provide an OBP boos, in a position that drops off quickly, at least at the major league level, he remains a valuable player.

Jose Altuve is a lifetime .300 hitter, has hit 229 career home runs with a shot at 250 before it’s all said and done, and has a history of clutch performances in the playoffs – is he a possible HOFer? The questions are whether his statistics will still look good five years after retirement and how will the voters treat the sign-stealing scandal. Time will tell, but for now, let’s decide what to do with him on our dynasty teams.  The short answer is hold if you’re contending now or trade to a contender if you’re not in a championship window. The signs are there that at the age of 34, Altuve’s not long for the top ten on this list. The 20HR/20SB season last year was nice, but his slugging percentage of .439 was the lowest since 2013 and his OPS of .790 was the second lowest of his career (2020 was the lowest). His hard hit rate from 2018-21 was over 33% and has slowly declined to 31%, zone contact the last three years has gone from 91% to 87%, and overall contact from 84% to 79%. These are not drastic declines, but at age 34 a reversal is highly unlikely.  One external factor that may suppress his value is that the new Astros lineup will likely have fewer RBI opportunities.

Marcus Semien has quietly put together a very good career. I rostered him after his 2016 season in one of my deeper leagues, and partly because I’m stubborn and partly because of the lack of depth in the position, I’ve held him and have really benefited from that decision from 2019 on. He is a compiler because he plays every day, only twice since 2016 has he played less than 159 games, and one of those years was in 2020 (he played 53 of 60 games). As with Altuve, last year there were signs of decline.  Semien’s home runs dropped to 23, the lowest for a full season since 2018, and he had fewer than ten stolen bases for the first time in his career. I don’t doubt his fitness and commitment, but in a dynasty league, you have to be careful with 34-year-old second basemen, stats will decline and you need to have your succession plan in place.

You know that spring is around the corner when you start hearing fantasy baseball analysts saying that Luis García Jr. is poised for a breakout. If you’re looking for that prediction, you won’t find it here.  I think last year was as close to a breakout as you’ll see, and while he established career highs with 18 home runs and 22 stolen bases, he’s not going to move much higher on this list. In fact, his presence in the top ten is more a statement about the position than it is about his potential production for the next three years. Last year’s improvement was noteworthy, as he increased his hard hit rate from 35 to 41 percent, his launch angle from 4.6 to 8.2, and his fly ball rate from 28 to 33 percent, and all of this puts a 20/20 season in the realm of the possible. He has high swing rates, and while his good contact skills keep his strikeout numbers in check, he doesn’t draw walks and this keeps his OBP low, just .302 for his career. At any other position you’d expect power numbers to justify that low an OBP, but at second base, you need to take this.

Last year’s models

Jackson Holliday did not have a good major league debut, let’s get that out of the way right off the top. In 60 major league games, he hit under .200, with five home runs and four stolen bases.  Of course, you can’t steal first, which is why I find it amusing that he recently stated that he’s working on his speed to make stealing more bases a priority. Looking at his batted ball statistics from last year, he really needs to make hitting line drives a priority, as fewer than ten percent of his batted balls were line drives. As a minor leaguer, he showed an excellent eye at the plate and the skills are there, but he needs to work on some things and it’s very possible that this will be another difficult year. I’m not worried about him in the long run and he’s going to be a valuable player for dynasty formats, but don’t count on him being a league winner for your team in 2025.

Jordan Westburg is one of two Baltimore Orioles in the top ten which poses an interesting question, will they both be eligible at the position for fantasy purposes? Assuming that Holliday sticks this year, Westburg is projected to move to third and there’s a very good chance he loses second base eligibility.  This will have an impact on his fantasy value since there’s more talent to compete with at third base, but if he manages to play enough second base to maintain eligibility, fantasy managers will be happy. He made an interesting change in his hitting approach in the majors and has been less patient at the plate. He still has a relatively low chase rate, under 30%, but he started swinging at more pitches in the zone. His contact rates are slightly above average, which means he’s not striking out much, but he’s not walking as much as he did in the minors and those minor league OBPs over .350 fell to .312 last year.

Matt McLain poses many questions for fantasy managers. Does the Reds trade for Gavin Lux to move McLain to the outfield? It probably does, but nobody’s confusing Lux for the Iron Horse and I think McLain is likely to get enough appearances at second to keep eligibility in most fantasy formats. Is McLain’s rookie year what we can expect going forward? After getting called up in mid-May of 2023, he hit 16 home runs in 89 games which projects to 29 over a full season. His rookie season was unfortunately cut short by an oblique strain, then 2024 was lost due to a shoulder injury complicated by a rib cage injury while he was rehabbing.  He did recover in time to play in the Arizona Fall League where he hit 4 HR in 13 games. He’s reported to be in good health for Spring Training and the fact that he was healthy enough to play in the AFL gives me confidence that he’ll pick up where he left off.

Fresh off the assembly line

Kristian Campbell was a fourth round draft pick in 2023 and hit .267 in 14 games at High-A Greenville, which didn’t raise any eyebrows.  All he did last year was play in three levels hitting 20 home runs, stealing 24 bases, and posting a tantalizing .330/.439/.558 slash line. He may open the season in Triple-A Worcester, but it won’t be long before he’s in Fenway Park.

Travis Bazzana was the number one overall pick in the 2024 draft, plays for an organization with a good track record for developing prospects, and plays a position notoriously thin for fantasy purposes. It’s not often that a player debuts in the top ten overall positional rankings the year after he’s drafted, but this one makes sense. I don’t expect Cleveland to rush him, but it won’t be long before he’s a fixture in their lineup.

(Drew Klein)