MLB Players Power Rankings: Top 10 Hitters in Week-12

MLB Players Power Rankings (5): Danny Santana, Texas Rangers

Week-12 Stats: 1.000 SLG | 0.561 wOBA | 255 wRC+ | 0.5 fWAR

At age 28, Danny Santana is in the midst of his seventh and best big league season. With each stop – 4.5 seasons in Minnesota and 1.5 in Atlanta – Santana has shown flashes of being a “good” player. Now, with the Rangers, Santana is finally living up to his potential.

Across the board, Santana is posting career highs and is outplaying his career average slashline by quite a margin. In fact, before Texas, Santana slashed .256 / .292 / .375. This season, he’s slashing .309 / .347 / .536.

This season, Santana has already posted a career high in home runs (8). Half of those home runs came last week, which is a big reason why he made this top-10 list. In fact, of all the hitters on this list, Santana has the 2nd best SLG (1.000). He trails only the #1 ranked hitter in this category.

Domingo Santana playing at this level has been tremendous for the Texas Rangers (42-36) who are currently 2nd in the AL West and 0.5 games behind in the Wild Card. If the Rangers manage to secure a playoff spot this season, it would be the first time they make it to the postseason in three years.

MLB Players Power Rankings (4): Manny Machado, San Diego Padres

Week-12 Stats: 0.926 SLG | 0.565 wOBA | 258 wRC+ | 0.7 fWAR

For the second consecutive week, Manny Machado has made this list and has ranked among the top 5 hitters in baseball. Despite losing the last three games, over the last week the Padres have managed to knock two games off of their hunt for the Wild Card. In fact, last week, San Diego was 4.5 games behind in the Wild Card, and this week they’re only 2.0 games back.

Manny Machado’s performance has been instrumental to this Pads team which on paper should really not be this good… yet. Also, With Fernando Tatis Jr. back, Machado is back at third base. At third, his defensive worth increases drastically, making his offensive woes earlier this season almost negligible.

This season, Machado is expected to hit 30 or more home runs for the fourth consecutive season. Pair that with his defensive ability and Machado is easly one of the most versatile players in baseball. WIth the Padres continuing to get better, Machado’s chances of a World Series in the near future looks better and better.

MLB Players Power Rankings (3): DJ LeMahieu, New York Yankees

Week-12 Stats: 0.913 SLG | 0.570 wOBA | 268 wRC+ | 0.7 fWAR

DJ LeMahieu has quickly turned into one of the toughest fanbases in baseball – Yankees fans – favorite player. Not only that, he should easily be regarded as this past offseason’s best signing as he has continued to show why he’s a professional hitter with tremendous versatility on the defensive side of the ball.

Much of the criticism LeMahieu received prior to signing with the New York Yankees was that he was a hitter who favored Coors Field. People doubted that in a different league and stadium, DJ would continue to be regarded as one of baseball’s best contact hitters.

This season, LeMahieu is having his best season since 2016 when he led the league in AVG (.348) and posted a career-high OPS of .911. Sure, he’s not hitting as good as he did in 2016, but for a hitter who averages a career AVG of .300 and .764 OPS, this year, his .322 AVG / .858 OPS is tremendous.

Most impressively, with runners in scoring position (RISP) those numbers spike to .478 AVG / 1.195 OPS. And among Yankee hitters, despite Gary Sanchez (2.0 fWAR) leading the AL in home runs, it’s LeMahieu (2.6 fWAR) whose the best player on the team, according to fWAR.

MLB Players Power Rankings (2): Mike Trout, Los Angeles Angels

Week-12 Stats: 0.862 SLG | 0.578 wOBA | 277 wRC+ | 0.9 fWAR

Mike Trout makes his return to the Top 10 list after a couple of weeks of taking a break from being the best player perhaps since Barry Bonds. Now, when you take a gander over at the #1 hitter, you might wonder why Trout, ranked 1st in fWAR, places 2nd on this list.

Well, the explanation is simple. Despite Trout’s value being higher than the #1 hitter, in terms of just his hitting, Trout just missed out on the #1 spot just slightly. This should take away from Trout’s greatness

With the Los Angeles Angels having a busy week – Pujols’ return to St. Louis – Trout continues to be the steadying force for the team. This season, Trout leads the league in R (62), BB (68), OBP (.466), SLG (.642), OPS (1.108), OPS+ (194), TB (165), and IBB (11). His OBP, SLG, and OPS are currently all career highs. This is all unbelievable, especially considering that Trout has been around already for 9-seasons.

It almost seems as though the decline will never come.

Last season, the Angels finished the season 80-82 for the second consecutive season. Currently, they’re 39-40, which surprisingly comes out to the exact same W-L% (.494). With Trout having made just one postseason appearance in his career, the team is itching to return and see if the best player in baseball can lead the team to MLB’s holy grail.

MLB Players Power Rankings (1): Pete Alonso, New York Mets

Week-12 Stats: 1.042 SLG | 0.611 wOBA | 291 wRC+ | 0.8 fWAR

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The New York Mets are a dumpster fire of an organization, no offense to any fans of the team. There is, however, one or two bright spots to it all, one of those being Pete Alonso.

This season, Alonso has 27 home runs and is on pace to break Aaron Judge‘s record of most home runs by a rookie of 53. Not only that, he is by far the best offensive player on a team that seems to be just falling apart.

Last week, Alonso left onlookers with the mouths watering, leading all hitters on this list in SLG, wOBA, and wRC+. His four home runs during the week ties Danny Santana and Domingo Santana for the most. His 27 home runs trails only Christian Yelich (29 HR) in all of baseball.

It’s too bad that at this point, it seems that he is being wasted on an organization that just can’t seem to get anything right… especially now. With Alonso, however, the future should look brighter for the team. Only time will tell.

Despite only 10 players being selected for the MLB Players Power Rankings, there are a select number of hitters that qualified but are not listed. Here they are:

• Matt Chapman, Oakland Athletics: 0.760 SLG | 0.489 wOBA | 216 wRC+ | 0.6 fWAR
• Carlos Santana, Cleveland Indians: 0.739 SLG | 0.502 wOBA | 219 wRC+ | 0.5 fWAR
• Jeff McNeil, New York Mets: 0.778 SLG | 0.495 wOBA | 216 wRC+ | 0.5 fWAR
• Eric Sogard, Toronto Blue Jays: 0.594 SLG | 0.430 wOBA | 174 wRC+ | 0.5 fWAR
• J.P. Crawford, Seattle Mariners: 0.519 SLG | 0.412 wOBA | 167 wRC+ | 0.5 fWAR