What do you want in an outfield? Is one superstar good enough? How about three above average hitters that aren’t great in the field? Maybe you’re looking for the inverse – three above average fielders that aren’t so good at the plate. Thankfully, there are plenty of teams out there that have solid mixes of everything, and they don’t need to fall into the trap of letting one player carry the weight for the entire trio.
1. Marlins. The outfield trio in Miami is incredibly underrated, nearly to the point where they’re *overrated* because everyone talks about how underrated they are. Does that make any sense at all? Anyway, the Marlins outfield is bolstered by a legitimate superstar in Giancarlo Stanton, and a pair of young up and comers in Marcell Ozuna and Christian Yelich. Stanton’s obviously one of the best players in baseball, but Yelich and Ozuna aren’t exactly scrubs out there. Both ranked above average both offensively and defensively, and the Voltron combined to hit 69 homers, steal 37 bases, and accrue 14.1 fWAR in 442 games. That’s impressive, no matter how you want to slice it. Sure, Miami has a superstar in right field, but their other two outfielders are both top 20/top 25 guys. Thus, they get the love from our rankings.
2. Pirates. In a year, Pittsburgh could take the top spot. It really all depends on the progression of young Gregory Polanco in right field. Polanco played 89 games in the majors, nearly all at the age of 22, and held his own. However, a lot of his final statistics for the year were buoyed by a hot start in June. In the second half of the season, he hit just .213/.268/.340. There’s a lot to like, but let’s pump the breaks on calling him part of the best outfield in the majors right now. Andrew McCutchen doesn’t need much of an introduction – the 2013 NL MVP was brilliant again in 2014, hitting .314/.410/.542 with 25 homers and 18 stolen bases. Starling Marte seems like the forgotten man out in left for Pittsburgh, but he hit .291/.356/.453 in his impressive second full season in the majors. The potential for this Pirates outfield is simply tantalizing, and they’ll all be together in the Steel City for at least another four seasons.
3. Dodgers. This ranking for the Dodgers may be a little aggressive, simply because we don’t know who will fill their third outfield slot as of yet. If Los Angeles runs Andre Ethier out there for 130 games alongside Carl Crawford and Yasiel Puig, you could conceivably drop them a few spots down the list. But if the Dodgers give the third outfield slot to prospect Joc Pederson, they have one of the best trios in the league. I’m banking on Pederson getting the spot in the long run this year, and that’s why I put the Dodgers this high. Puig is one of the most freakishly talented, yet completely frustrating, players in the league. His defense and baserunning are sloppy and his offensive game falls apart at times, but when he’s on his game, he’s one of the best players in baseball. Crawford is unfairly maligned because of his gross contract, but in 2014, he hit .300/.339/.429 with 23 stolen bases in 105 games. Is he the same player as he was four years ago when he was heading into his first Spring Training with the Red Sox? Of course not. Is he still a viable starting outfielder? Hell yeah. Pederson doesn’t need to be a star for the Los Angeles outfield to have a good year, but if he even begins to tap into his potential this season, the Dodgers outfield will be fun to watch and quite productive.
4. Padres. San Diego’s ranking is also quite aggressive, considering that all three of their starting outfielders haven’t played one home game at Petco Park. Sure, Matt Kemp and Justin Upton are familiar with the stadium from their days with the Dodgers and Diamondbacks, but playing three road series a year is different than playing 81 home games a year. It could take some getting used to. But that trio of Kemp, Wil Myers, and Upton looks simply tantalizing on paper, even if Upton looks destined to be one and done with the Padres. Even though he was broken with the Dodgers last year, Kemp hit 25 homers and slugged ,506. Upton hit 29 homers for a Braves team that was completely devoid of offense. Myers did have a disappointing season for the Rays, but is only 24 and was the 2013 AL Rookie of the Year. His potential is still out of this world. San Diego’s outfield will likely be a disaster defensively, but they could put together some unreal offensive numbers for a club that needs *some* sort of injection of power into their lineup.
5. Nationals. Here’s another potentially dynamic team in the outfield, even though it didn’t really work out that way in 2014. Jayson Werth remains one of the game’s most overlooked players – did you know his OBP was fifth in baseball last year? Yep – that’s a pretty eye-opening statistic and gives him value, even though Werth only hit 16 homers and stole nine bases. In center, Denard Span rebounded from a slow start to get on base at a .355 clip and steal 31 bases. In left for Washington is the divisive Bryce Harper, who missed two months with a thumb injury but continued to show glimpses of becoming one of the game’s biggest stars. In good faith, I can’t go any higher with Washington, though – Harper has been hurt in each of the last two years, Werth will be 36 in May, and Span is a good, but not great, regular.
6. Angels. In my initial draft of these rankings, I had the Angels fifth. Then Josh Hamilton had shoulder surgery and I bumped them down a spot, even though a platoon of Collin Cowgill and Matt Joyce might out-produce Hamilton this year. Hamilton’s contract has obviously been a disaster that he hasn’t lived up to during his two years in Anaheim, but he’s shown flashes of his old self when he’s been on the field. I’m probably being a bit too optimistic, but that’ll happen sometimes. But the Angels will be fine without Hamilton – Mike Trout is the best player in baseball, and Kole Calhoun quietly hit .272/.325/.450 with 17 homers in just 127 games last season. Maybe that Cowgill/Joyce platoon will make the Angels forget all about Hamilton and his ailing shoulder.
ST. LOUIS, MO – JULY 26: Matt Holliday #7 and Jon Jay #19 both of the St. Louis Cardinals celebrate a victory over the Los Angeles Dodgers at Busch Stadium on July 26, 2012 in St. Louis, Missouri. Photo by Dilip Vishwanat/Getty Images)
7. Cardinals. Hey look – more potential! Matt Holliday had another Holliday-esque year in center for St. Louis last year, smashing 20 homers as the team’s primary left fielder. Mike Matheny finally committed to Jon Jay in center after toying with Peter Bourjos early on, and Jay rewarded him with a .303/.372/.378. Ex-Brave Jason Heyward will take most of the at bats that went to the largely ineffective pair of Randal Grichuk and Allen Craig last season, and seems primed for a breakout year at just 26 and playing for a new organization for the first time in his career. However, just like many of the other teams on this list, there’s the potential for failure here. Holliday is 35, and while he was still good in 2014, it was his worst season as a Cardinal. Jay will be 30 next month, and really never developed to be more than the player he is now. There are also questions about Heyward, who really should be a better player than he is – the .350 OBP and Gold Glove defense is fantastic, but he’s launched 20 homers just once in his career. That’s not ideal for a corner outfielder.
8. Rockies. One of the lone highlights for the Rockies this offseason came early on, when former right fielder Michael Cuddyer accepted a two-year, $21 million contract from the Mets just hours before his deadline to accept a qualifying offer from the Rockies. The Rockies won’t skip a beat without him, as Charlie Blackmon, Corey Dickerson, and Drew Stubbs will vow for two outfield spots alongside Carlos Gonzalez. Each of those three players was a revelation for Colorado in 2014 – Blackmon hit 19 homers and stole a team-leading 28 bases, Stubbs homered 15 times and swiped 20 bags, and Dickerson led the team with 24 homers. Sure, one of those three will get lumped into tomorrow’s “bench” category, but when you’ve got three guys like that fighting over two outfield spots, you’re in good shape. That doesn’t say much about Gonzalez, who had a 2014 to forget after playing in just 70 games. But remember – he was a 20/20 player in each year from 2010 to 2013. Yes he’s 29, but I need more than one ghastly year to completely forget about an all-world player like him.
9. Indians. I think the only player in baseball that was a bigger surprise than Indians outfielder Michael Brantley was…Indians starting pitcher Corey Kluber, who won the AL Cy Young. But Brantley was simply brilliant for the Tribe – he hit 20 homers and stole 23 bases while hitting .327/.385/.506 for the team. And as usual when you have an MVP candidate in the outfield, you don’t need to do much to fill out the two other spots out there to make your outfield formidable. Cleveland is dealing with Michael Bourn’s ugly contract in center right now, and Bourn only played in 106 games last season. But is his .257/.314/.360 line really all that awful? The ten steals are awful, but he’s not the same player he was out there anymore. Hey, at least he’s playing better than Nick Swisher, who could find it difficult to get playing time this year after the acquisition of Brandon Moss. Speaking of Moss, he seems the most likely candidate to earn the third regular spot in the outfield, and he’s coming off of three straight 20 homer seasons with Oakland. That’s a solid major league player, and a great complement for Brantley at Progressive Field.
10. Rays. Wait wait wait. The Rays? After trading Wil Myers *and* Ben Zobrist? Well, sure. The final spot on these lists largely comes down to personal preference, and Tampa Bay’s outfield is still pretty good. Desmond Jennings will continue to patrol center field at the Trop, and has been a consistently good (if not slightly underwhelming) player. Steven Souza was the main return for Myers, and seems like he’ll be the guy to get most of the reps in left field. He’s only played 21 games in the majors, but the 25-year old thrashed the AAA International League to the tune of a .350/.432/.590 line with 18 homers and 26 stolen bases in just 96 games. The main projections for Souza are obviously a little more bearish than that, but they do have him as close to a 20/20 player in 2015. Finally, there’s Kiermaier, the 24-year old who shocked the league last year. In 108 games, he played fantastic defense for the Rays and hit .263/.315/.450 with ten homers. Maybe he’ll be a fourth outfielder when all is said and done with his career, but that outfield defense is drool-worthy.
Honorable mentions: Brewers, Royals, Yankees
