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It is time to revisit the first base position as we press on towards this 60 game MLB season. There hasn’t been a ton that has changed with this position over the last few months, but we will take another trip through the tiers nonetheless. Let’s get right into it.

And find all of our fantasy baseball ranking tiers here.

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Tier One

• Cody Bellinger
• Freddie Freeman

There is no reason to change anything at the top of your first base rankings list. Bellinger and Freeman are two of the best hitters in baseball, and they both come with a massively high floor. Bellinger is a significant step ahead of Freeman given his stolen base upside, which may even be more important now, but Freeman is a perfectly fine consolation prize – and there is a pretty big drop-off after these two are gone.

Tier Two

• Anthony Rizzo
• Paul Goldschmidt
• Pete Alonso
• Matt Olson

I’m doubling the size of my second tier here from my look at this position, bringing Alonso and Olson into the picture. The reason for this is the batting average category. Over a 162 game season, you can feel pretty good about Rizzo and Goldschmidt providing a strong batting average, and you wouldn’t be feeling very good betting on the same from Alonso and Olson.

Now, with a season that will be ruled by variance, I am assigning a bit less weight to the batting average category. I feel very confident in Alonso and Olson hitting a good amount of long balls over any size sample, so they move up my rankings and into tier two here despite the lower floors overall.

Tier Three

• D.J. LeMahieu
• Max Muncy
• Jose Abreu
• Josh Bell

The first three here are very solid, but they lack a certain upside that to me lags them behind the rest of the position. I’m not sure I can really picture any of these three guys running away with the #1 spot at the position, which I absolutely can see for the first six guys we talked about.

As for Josh Bell, I think he does have the upside to threaten for the #1 spot at the position over a 60 game sample, but there is also a big-time “prove it” factor that I can’t get over enough to have him in tier two.

Tier Four

• Rhys Hoskins
• Yuli Gurriel
• Danny Santana

Huge risk/reward guys here in tier four. With any BABIP luck, Hoskins could be one of the best value hitters in the league given the potent lineup he plays in and his raw power. Gurriel was the best hitter in baseball over a two-week stretch last summer, and Santana has a rare power/speed combination that is hard to find this late in the draft.

These are great options if you are trying to win a roto crown, because all of three of them have massive upside – they just have the same massive downside to counteract it.

Tier Five

• Carlos Santana
• Christian Walker
• Luke Voit
• Joc Pederson

Not a ton to write home about from here on out, but here are four guys that all offer their own flavors. Santana moves up to at least tier four in an OBP league, Voit and Pederson have massive raw power but playing time questions, and Christian Walker is a pretty big wild card. You probably want to do better than this for your starting first baseman.

Tier Six

• Eric Hosmer
• Joey Votto
• Daniel Murphy
• Michael Chavis
• Edwin Encarnacion
• C.J. Cron
• Yandy Diaz

None of these guys need to be drafted, and while they are all wildly different in terms of what they bring, I think they all belong in the same tier.

If you need some late-round batting average help, you have Votto, Murphy, and Yandy to help. If you want some raw power with no help in batting average, Chavis, Encarnacion, and Cron check that box. There is not a lot of upside in this group, but they can each help your team in certain situations.

Key Takeaways

Don’t wait too long on this position. Tier one is a significant step above tier two, and by tier four you are really rolling the dice. Even in a season that will be pretty random and strange, I want to play the percentages and lock in one of the top six first names above.

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