But Bellinger is one of only three outfielders with a tracked throw over 101 mph last season -- Hunter Renfroe and Aristides Aquino are the others -- and that wasn't the first time he hit triple-digit velo on a throw from the outfield (he also did it once during the 2018 postseason). He had nine assists in 2022. . Tatis, of course, was a sensation in just about every way as a rookie in 2019, and his throwing ability was no exception. I like that he didn't change teams, and he retains the buoyancy of the New York lineup and park . 2. While a member of the Indians minor league team in San Diego, he once threw a ball from home plate and it landed 436 feet away, deep over the center field fence. As a rail-thin rookie, Bonds managed to accumulate 10 assists. So how do you rank a player who didn't have his first 2020 plate appearance until Aug. 30, but may have been the first- or second-best player in October, depending where you want to stack Corey Seager? The 26-year-old finished the season as a 6.0 WAR player, earning a spot among the Gold Glove finalists in center field on top of his excellent offensive numbers. Listen. Look no further than Realmuto, the class of defenders behind home plate and the quickest gun in the Major Leagues. Tier 1: Ronald Acua Jr., Mookie Betts, Mike Trout, Juan Soto, Christian Yelich, Cody Bellinger, Bryce Harper. For Springer, that box is checked indelibly. Buxton debuted for the Twins in 2015, and since then has become one of the best defensive outfielders in baseball. Through Williams's age 21 year -- two seasons -- he had 203 walks, 54 homers and an OPS of 1.041 in 293 games. The corner outfield duo of Nick Castellanos and Jesse Winker both rank among the MLB leaders in a number of offensive categories: Joining them isTyler Naquin, who earned a spot on the MLB roster on a minor league contract and is earning $1.5 million on a one-year deal. best outfield arms in mlb 2021 This is the best team in baseball. And I'm talking about strong arms, not merely accurate ones. Runners were afraid to take the extra base when these outfielders had the ball in their hands. The Frisco Classic is one of college baseball's premier early-season tournaments year-in and year-out, and this year's field is strong as usual, headlined by 2021 national champion Mississippi State and 2022 national runner-up Oklahoma. During nine full MLB seasons, Mike Trout has won three MVP awards, made nine All-Star teams and posted 75 WAR, per FanGraphs (Betts is the next-closest during that span with 40.2). He looks ready for a huge breakout season, after another year of offensive maturation. J.T. The Venezuela native surged three levels in his age-18 season, showing off plus power and 70-grade speed on his way to becoming the No. Most everyone reading this article is probably asking themselves who Glenn Gorbous is. There was a lot of debate during the truncated season why Yelich struggled so much -- and there's no disputing that his troubles were acute, something more than a slump. His arm was so powerful, that while pitching for his mill league, Jackson once broke a catchers arm and was subsequently moved to the outfield because no one wanted to catch for him. Throughout the year, we released monthly updates to our position-by-position power rankings, selecting the top 10 players at each spot. "There's a nuance to disciplined hitting that needs to become a habit. Standings. It has been suggested that the Indians have been cursed after trading Colavito, a fan favorite, to the Detroit Tigers in 1960. He has taken to the outfield and his plus-plus arm shuts down running games. Rob Neyer ranked him as our best right fielder in his Big Book of Baseball Lineups (pre-Bautista). Gallo, Soler, Lewis, Yastrzemski, Happ, Rosario and Mountcastle can provide it. The safe bet is that he'll bounce back and do a ton of damage in the summer ahead. Few players have joined an organization under more challenging circumstances than Verdugo faced when he went to the Red Sox. While his .286 on-base percentage and 31.2 percent strikeout rate leave something to be desired, he was a stellar defender (16 DRS, 11.8 UZR/150) to go along with his power production in a 3.8 WAR season. The longtime utility man split his time between center field (93 games) and second base (47 games), and he posted a 107 OPS+ with 58 extra-base hits in a career-high 585 plate appearances. A big part of any draft kit are the rankings, and we're continuing our staff consensus rankings for 2021 with our fantasy baseball outfield rankings. He is widely seen as defensively challenged and although he is just 30, his future is clearly going to be at DH. Share. Just like the regular-season rankings, players are ranked solely on the 2021 season. Like with many of the other top outfielders on this list, runners knew not to try for extra bases when the ball was anywhere near Barfield's hands. 3. Mookie. Infielder Tyler Hardman also finds himself in the top 30, but unlike Fitts, he wasn't even ranked ahead of the 2022 season. Or his 92 mph rocket from right to nail Stephen Strasburg at first base and preserve a Hyun-Jin Ryu no-hit bid on May 12. Seven of the first 15 players in MLB.com's player rankings are outfielders, including four of the top five. Reels. His career will always be under a microscope, but it's hard to call his 2021 performance anything but superstar-caliber. The Mariners sent pitchers Gerson Bautista, Justin Dunn, Anthony Swarzak and outfielder Jay Bruce to Seattle for infielder Robinson Cano and pitcher Edwin Diaz. . Didi Gregorius (free agent): 94.7 mph 7. Now the #20 prospect in the Yankees' organization, Hardman posted a 109 wRC+ across High-A and Double-A last season with 22 HRs in 111 games, but his over 30% K% is alarming for his projectability long-term. Yelich and Bellinger, the National League MVP Award winners in 2018 and '19, respectively, turned in disappointing campaigns a season ago, but were expecting big things from both in '21. 1 spot. The top 10 right fielders, based on input from folks around baseball: From Sarah Langs of MLB.com, about Betts: "He ended the year with a 93.3% contact rate on in-zone pitches, which led all hitters with at least 250 swings at in-zone pitches. 14. Speaker also holds the unique record for most unassisted double plays by an outfielder with six. Despite his great arm, Gorbous only managed to play three seasons in the major leagues. In the third season of a five-year, $60 million contract, Pollock enjoyed his best season in a Dodgers uniform, hitting .297/.355/.536 for a 137 OPS+ with 27 doubles, 21 home runs and 69 RBI. His 5.7 WAR was second on the AL West champions roster, behind only Carlos Correa. The left-handed outfielder had a rock solid 2022 season, holding a .281 batting average with 12 home runs while leading the South Atlantic League with 34 doubles joining Project Birmingham. In 2019, 24 players hit 30 home runs or more who qualified at outfield. Speaker is the MLB record holder for most career outfield assists with 449. Each player was included in the rankings at the position where he played the most innings. He was forced to retire at age 30 as the result of a broken jaw which forced him to play with a facemask for a few years. Bobby Abreu has had one of the strongest and most accurate arms in baseball in recent years. His strong defensive play definitely helped make up for the fact that he had a low OPS. Luis Robert, Chicago White Sox Despite missing almost all of September with a hairline fracture in his left thumb, Bez tied for third in Defensive Runs Saved (26) and placed second among all players in Outs Above Average (+19). The best arms tend to have lower rates because they get run on less, though Clemente is barely in the top 70 all time and IIRC Vlad doesn't even crack the top 200 Though I guess my point agrees with you, he wasn't great but he wasn't awful 2 Buzzed27 San Francisco Giants 5 yr. ago Not sure what you're talking about exactly. In addition to a standard strength-training regimen for upper body and arm strength, outfielders can perform daily throwing drills, such as one-knee throwing and long tosses, to build their. His defensive abilities were rewarded as he received 10 Gold Gloves over the course of his career. However, the slugger has missed nearly a full seasons worth of games (142) over the past three years due to an assortment of injuries, which is something for fantasy managers to keep in mind. He could seemingly throw out any runner trying to pick up an extra base. Trent Grisham, San Diego Padres has him drawing comparisons to Hall of Famer Ted Williams. All stats courtesy of Baseball Reference and accurate through Monday's games. We're going to try something a little different. The regimented preparation that had worked for Yelich in the past was simply not available to him, and he may have suffered for it. I texted Votto that I thought Williams would've loved to watch the Nationals' Juan Soto, who might be the closest replica to Williams, with his remarkable plate discipline and power. In the short 2020 season, he had more walks (49) than strikeouts (43). The goal is to decide which team has the best catchers, infielders, outfielders, bench, starting pitchers and relief pitchers. Braves manager Brian Snitker mentioned during the playoffs that he liked to hear Ozuna predicting to teammates in the dugout the pitch sequencing he was about to see -- and a lot of the time, Snitker said, Ozuna would be exactly right. Since there are three times as many outfielders as there are other positions on the diamond, it made sense to tack an honorable mention list of 25 guys onto our top 25 list. Quinn said, "Meusel's arm was the best I ever saw. Kaline was known for his perfect throwing from and his ability to catch and throw. The 26-year-old made notable strides at the plate in 2020, posting the best chase rate (14.1%, second lowest in MLB), walk rate (15.6%), hard-hit rate (43.2%) and barrel rate (12.5%) of his career. Clemente is tied with Willie Mays for the the most Gold Gloves for an outfielder with 12. He ultimately found his way back to Tampa Bay on a new one-year, $3 million deal that includes a 2022 club option. Andre Dawson had a cannon for an arm. Here are five options going much later in drafts than they should based on their . His swing rate on all pitches dipped to 35% (in '20), which ranked 141st among 142 qualified hitters. The ultra-versatile Taylor was an All-Star for the first time in 2021, posting a 110 OPS+ with 25 doubles, 20 home runs, 73 RBI, 92 runs scored and 13 steals in 148 games. fourth round of the 2021 MLB Draft in right-handed . From first-time All-Star Andrew Kittredge (44 G, 1.41 ERA) to reclamation project Collin McHugh (27 G, 1.30 ERA) to 31-year-old rookie Louis Head (20 G, 3.16 ERA), they continue to plug and play better than any organization in baseball when it comes to building a bullpen. As another player the Arizona Diamondbacks gave away, Adam Eaton continually shows himself to be a gritty . Ozuna, meanwhile, is back with the Braves after signing a four-year contract. All in the family: how three generations of Jaquezes have ruled West Coast basketball, Alonso says Aston 'living a dream,' eyes podium. He had an average max-effort arm strength of 94.1 mph, seventh-fastest among MLB outfielders (min. In five-and-two-thirds career innings, Colavito only gave up one hit. (Worth noting: Second on that list was DJ LeMahieu, who had a 92.9% in-zone contact rate, then Anthony Rendon and Tommy La Stella tied at 91.2% each.)". He also quietly held his own in right field (3 DRS, 2.0 UZR/150) after posting negative defensive metrics in left field previously, and his 7.1 WAR led all outfielders and ranked fifth among all players in 2021. Craig Counsell, Brewers. The 26-year-old got off to a slow start this year, but he caught fire in May and never looked back. He's hit .300 or better in five of the last seven seasons, and in the two he didn't, he batted .299 (in 2017) and was injury-ravaged in the other (2016). Baseball's best arms: Ranking MLB's top 10 starters & relievers for 2021. Yelich was the 2018 NL MVP and runner-up in the MVP voting last year. After years of teasing his immense raw power potential in the minors and sporadically in the big leagues, Tyler O'Neill finally put together his long-awaited breakout season. 4 overall prospect. The 23-year-old is expected to return sometime during the first half of next season. The best player at the position was Ronald Acuna (.280 with 127 runs, 41 home runs, 101 RBI, and 37 steals . February 24, 2023. He hit .281 with an .800 OPS after the All-Star break, and he capped off the season by winning his first Gold Glove.