In the second portion of the 2017 MLB positional previews, we project the game’s top 30 first basemen heading into opening day.
In what normally is a premier offensive position in professional baseball, there is no shortage of first baseman that can absolutely rake. There’s also a good mix of veterans and young players that show MLB’s diversity of talent regardless of age.
All of these quality first baseman in the league made it particularly difficult to formulate this list. In fact, it’s one of the most talented positions in the game just by looking at the impact they each have on their respective teams.
Like in the catchers list, this ranking is merely supposed to project who will be the better player for the 2017 season only. Not who had the best year in 2016 or who has the best outlook over the next five; this list will only analyze how good each player will be for this upcoming season.
This relies on a bevy factors. Offense is the most indicative of where they will be ranked, but defense and playing time will also factor in. For example, if there is a talented minor leaguer that won’t get the number of at bats for a reasonable sample size, he wouldn’t qualify.
With that being said, backups are fair play as there are a number of bench players who compare favorably to projected starters.
So what will the breakdown of MLB’s first baseman look like? Click on to find out….