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2020 Third Base Ranking Tiers (Fantasy Baseball)

2020 Third Base Ranking Tiers (Fantasy Baseball)

The hot corner is the deepest infield position in the game this year. There are at least 20 start-worthy hitters here, meaning this is a position that you can wait on and still feel good about what you come out with. Here are how the tiers break down.

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Tier One – The Sure Things

These two are neck-and-neck in our aggregated ADP rankings data right now. Who you prefer may be decided by your league settings, but both of these guys are absolute stud hitters.

Arenado was a bit of a risky bet early on in drafting season, as there were some rumors of him possibly being traded away from Coors Field. Those talks have slowed to a halt, solidifying Arenado as a first round talent once again. I think Arenado takes the top spot in a standard 5×5 category league, but if you are dealing with a points or OBP league, Bregman’s walk rate really gives him a boost. Either way, you can’t go wrong here.

Tier Two – Four Tool Players

This trio could all be tier one level players if not for just for some small question marks.

The near calendar year of being a .200 hitter for Jose Ramirez is still looming despite his awesome finish to the 2019 season. The big contract and ballpark downgrade are slight reasons for concern about Rendon repeating his elite numbers, and Devers has really only shown us signs of being a great fantasy contributor for one year.

I personally am not worried about any of these three, but you do have to place them a step behind Arenado and Bregman given the slight uncertainty. Ramirez is going in the late second to third round in some leagues, which is just an absolute steal for a guy who has shown 30+ homer pop, 30+ steal upside and .300+ batting average ability. I have my doubts that he can contribute in all three of those categories at once, but he should be a really solid in two of them this year as a floor, making him my favorite of this grouping.

Tier Three – The Mini Cliff

There is a substantial drop off after tier two in terms of upside and ADP right now. These four guys are all being drafted really close to each other and each brings their own unique story to your team.

If you want a solid floor player that has shown top 10 hitter ability in their career, Bryant and Machado are your guys. They have both been pretty uninspiring over their last couple seasons, but they come with an element of safety that you won’t find after they’re gone.

Suarez is a very cheap source of home runs, with his draft stock plummeting after having shoulder surgery this winter. There have been good reports on him, however, and it seems like he won’t miss much (if any) time. Getting him outside of the top 60 picks is a really nice way to catch up in homers and RBI if you are lagging behind a bit.

That leaves everybody’s favorite hitter, Vladdy Guerrero. There are serious questions about his ability to be an elite fantasy batt his year, given how many ground balls he hits and his inability to steal bases. However, you know the raw power he has and the bat skills he possesses. This is a great guy to take a bit of a risk on; at the very least you can enjoy your ride on the hype train all season.

Tier Four – Mixed Bag

This is a tier full of specialists that can give your offense a big boost in a category you are lacking in very late in the draft.

We have two of the league’s best batting average hitters in LeMahieu and McNeil for the teams out there that loaded up on some sluggers early. You have the inverse there in Donaldson, who should contribute in a big way in homers and RBI as long as he can stay on the field.

Then you have the big risk/reward bat in Moncada, who had an awesome 2019 season but has peripheral stats that suggest he will experience a lot of regression in 2020. Chapman and Muncy round out the tier as solid across-the-board contributors without standing out in any major way.

This is definitely a great tier to dive into after giving your team build a look; I would be comfortable with any of these guys as my starting third baseman.

Tier Five – Question Marks

No matter where you go in this tier, you are taking on some risk. With that risk, however, comes a possible big reward.

Your choice from this tier, once again, relies on what your team looks like. You have a couple of guys that are going to hurt your batting average in Moustakas and Sano, but could both hit you 40+ dingers.

Edman and Turner offer the opposite, giving you likely strong batting average without big home run upside. Both Sano and Turner have had major troubles staying on the field as well, and Edman has not even shown us half a year as a capable big league hitter.

Gurriel and Escobar had really nice 2019 seasons but were never much to write home about before then, and the underlying metrics do not really make them slam dunks to repeat. They are fine guys to have in a utility spot or the bench, but I would not want to rely on those guys in my starting lineup every day.

I like this tier quite a bit for what it offers, a good mix of batting average and power upside, these are some of my favorite guys to roll the dice on this year.

Key Takeaways

Third base is deep, deep, deep. Personally, I do not really recommend factoring in positional stuff in your choices early in the draft (in my view you should always just choose the best hitter available), but third base might make me re-think that this year. If you are in a league where your opponents typically forget about a position for a while after taking someone there, you could end up with some amazing value by waiting it out.

I would be perfectly fine if I end up with a pair of guys like Josh Donaldson and Justin Turner as my third basemen, and I could potentially get them both outside of the top 10 rounds of the draft. That allows you to get an extra SP on your roster or be the guy to reach for a second baseman earlier on. It’s undoubtedly a viable strategy this year.

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Jon Anderson is a featured writer at FantasyPros. For more from Jon, check out his archive and follow him@JonPgh.

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