It was the best shape of his life, it was the worst shape of his life. The spring of hope has arrived, and with it comes a fresh look at all the baseball players we missed over the winter of despair. Every player’s 2025 fortunes are currently a profound secret and mystery to us, but with the regular season officially beginning in mere weeks, it is only natural to try casting light on what swiftly approaches.
The MLB Infielders who are overrated and underrated heading into 2025
This is part two of my series highlighting players whose public perceptions require a shift. Following part one’s focus on outfielders, I will now analyze underrated and overrated infielders. In my analyses, I will be using a project of mine called LASR (League-Adjusted Standardized Rating) which places all stats onto the same 20-80 scouting scale based on league qualifiers (all data is sourced from FanGraphs).
Underrated: Jordan Westburg
The Baltimore Orioles have ascended into contention in recent years thanks mainly to their bountiful crop of young hitters, with first overall draft picks Adley Rutschman and Jackson Holliday joining superstar Gunnar Henderson as the most prominent figures of the group. Quietly finding his place in the Orioles powerhouse, however, is another former first-round pick: third baseman Jordan Westburg.
In 2024, Westburg enjoyed a solid start to his first full season in the bigs, but unfortunately, he was unable to maintain that production. His results dropped steadily each month until a hand fracture at the end of July wiped out all but six games from that point forward. Still, he finished with 2.8 fWAR and a 125 wRC+ that was fourth among third basemen with at least 400 plate appearances.
Westburg showed above average power last year, and his Baseball Savant profile suggests there’s even more powder in the chamber. He is too aggressive at the plate, but he walked a lot more in the minors, so there’s hope for refinement there. His strikeout rate is at a manageable, league-average rate, and as a hopeful slugger, he could even sacrifice that a bit in exchange for more walks and home runs.
He may be primed to improve either way, as he underperformed his xwOBA, xAVG, and xSLG by at least 10 points each last year. Now that he’s got a full season under his belt, he’s better equipped to pace himself and avoid the second-half struggles. With Baltimore firmly in the middle of its contention window, Jordan Westburg should continue establishing himself as an essential force in the middle of their lineup.
Overrated: Jose Ramirez
Okay, wait, let me explain. Yes, Jose Ramirez is a great player whose early-career success was often overlooked. Since 2016, he ranks third in bWAR (49.6) and fourth in fWAR (49.8) among all position players. He is a Cleveland franchise icon and likely a Hall of Famer.
However, he has been labeled underrated so often and for so long that we are all used to seeing his name and making the mental adjustment that “He’s better than I think he is.” This is no longer the case.
On the surface, Ramirez seemed to have a typical season in 2024 by his standards. However, there were worrying signs that suggest his decline may not be in the distant future. To start, he overperformed his expected stats by a wide margin, with a wOBA-xwOBA gap of 0.035, which was tied for second among qualified hitters. There were similar disparities in his AVG-xAVG and SLG-xSLG.
Most concerning, however, is the decline in his plate discipline. Ramirez has historically been adept at taking walks, peaking at an outstanding 15.2% walk rate in 2018. Over the past few seasons, however, a downward trajectory has culminated in a 7.9% walk rate in 2024. This was below league average and contributed to a .335 OBP that looks rather pedestrian compared to his prior work.
Ramirez will likely put together another solid season in 2025, but he will turn 33 in September and is coming off a season with concerning expected stats, on-base ability, and quality of contact. Still without much help in the Guardians’ lineup, don’t be surprised if Ramirez continues trying to do everything himself — and paying the price for it.
Underrated: LaMonte Wade Jr.
If Moneyball was written twenty years later, its featured “But does he get on base?” subject would be LaMonte Wade Jr. instead of Scott Hatteberg. Wade gained popularity in 2021 for an extended run of incredible clutch hitting, but since then his bread and butter has been a more consistent and repeatable skill: drawing walks.
Among hitters with at least 400 plate appearances in 2024, Wade’s walk rate of 15.5% ranked third behind only Aaron Judge and Juan Soto. Those two are, to put it lightly, more feared hitters than Wade, so their walk totals are partially the result of being pitched around. Pitchers don’t approach Wade the same way, so being in their company means he knows the strike zone like nobody else in the game.
As a first baseman, Wade’s lack of extra-base power in 2024 did leave fans wanting more. He was better in that area in the past, though, so it’s possible that 2024 was a power outage that can be restored. His Baseball Savant profile suggests there might be more home run potential in the tank — though playing in spacious San Francisco certainly isn’t doing him any favors.
After he failed to replicate his 2021 magic in 2022, he has since had back-to-back quality seasons as a steady, reliable hitter. He is generally overshadowed in the infield by big acquisitions Matt Chapman and Willy Adames, but LaMonte Wade Jr. is an important member of San Francisco’s lineup and is their best bet to hit a walk-off home run clinching a 20-game winning streak.
Overrated: Trea Turner
Trea Turner signed his massive 11-year contract with the Phillies ahead of the 2023 season, and after a few months, it looked like a complete disaster. Fatefully (or coincidentally) prompted by a mid-slump standing ovation, Turner rebounded in the final two months of that season and, other than a six-week absence due to a hamstring injury, seemed to continue that success in 2024.
However, a look under the hood shows that Phillies fans might want to prep for another ovation.
Turner overperformed his expected results by a sizable margin in 2024, with a wOBA-xwOBA gap of 0.031 that was right behind Jose Ramirez’s mentioned earlier. As with Ramirez, Turner's batting average and slugging percentage were also significantly higher than their expected data counterparts. His Baseball Savant profile shows why: he simply doesn’t make the kind of hard, solid contact you’d want out of him.
To make matters worse, Turner has been chasing and whiffing at worrisome levels for three seasons now. While he has maintained an acceptable strikeout rate, he has walked less and less frequently, dropping from a 9.3% peak in 2018 to just 5.0% last season. By extension, his OBP isn’t high enough to warrant a spot near the top of a lineup, even though the Phillies are toying with making him their leadoff hitter.
He does still have his speed, but speed-focused players tend to decline quicker than others. His defense has also already taken a rough hit, as he was third-worst of all fielders by DRS last season. Philadelphia can likely still count on Trea Turner for a decent batting average and good power for a shortstop, but he’s got nine years left on his deal and those skills may not outweigh his drawbacks for much longer.
Underrated: Luis Garcia Jr.
Quick, name the two longest-tenured active Washington Nationals. Okay, sure, the section title gives one away, but you still might be thinking, “Really? Luis Garcia Jr.?” (The other is Kyle Finnegan, who recently re-signed with the club.)
With the departures of Tanner Rainey and Patrick Corbin, Washington no longer employs any players from its 2019 championship team. Since then, they have embarked on a lengthy rebuild that has left them mired below .500 every year. Though competing in the NL East in 2025 remains a tall task, they now boast an exciting young core that’s poised to make some noise — and Garcia is a key piece of the puzzle.
There is significant hype around the Nationals’ hopeful stars, headlined by outfielders James Wood and Dylan Crews. In discussions on the team’s future, however, Luis Garcia Jr. warrants inclusion but is often forgotten. He debuted in 2020, but is still just 24 years old and has generally improved in every season since.
Garcia reached a new level in 2024, posting a 3.1 fWAR that ranked sixth among all MLB second basemen. He makes contact at an excellent rate, and his power is improving after being below average in previous years. He does suffer from a lack of patience at the plate, but there’s still time for that to develop.
His 2024 campaign also included marked development as a baserunner and defender, jumping from below average to above average (by some metrics) in both departments. Other metrics disagree about his defensive ability, but there were at least improvements across the board.
Luis Garcia Jr. is relatively ignored, likely due to his generic-sounding name — which he shares with two other current big leaguers — and Washington’s lack of relevance in recent seasons. But it’s about time he receives some acknowledgment as a significant member of the Nationals’ future.
Overrated: Isaac Paredes
When the Houston Astros acquired Isaac Paredes in the Kyle Tucker trade, it was understandable for the entire baseball industry to point out how Houston’s stadium represents a perfect fit for Paredes. And that’s true: Paredes is perhaps the most pull-happy player currently in MLB, with a launch angle profile that easily creates images of him poking lazy fly balls into the Crawford Boxes.
But that’s just the thing: those fly balls are often incredibly lazy.
Though his eclipsing of the 30-homer barrier in 2023 may have led fans to think of him as a power hitter, his contact quality data suggests that may have been a fluke. With such low values in average exit velocity, hard-hit rate, and bat speed (and the expected stats to match), it’s a miracle that Paredes has shown any power in the bigs at all.
I’ll give credit where it’s due: Paredes obviously has great knowledge of the strike zone and is able to get the bat on the ball, with consistently excellent walk and strikeout rates through most of his young career. His proficiency in “finding his pitch” may explain his ability to create damage with little force.
However, major league pitchers identify and exploit weaknesses like nobody’s business. If a pitcher can accurately guess a hitter’s approach, chances are he’ll be able to cook something up that counteracts it. Paredes may have gotten away with a heavy reliance on pulled fly balls in the past, but by now pitchers have figured that out, and will especially pitch around that with the Crawford Boxes looming out in left field.
The Astros know they’ve downgraded at third base by replacing Alex Bregman with Paredes, but it may turn out even worse than expected.