And an underrated fact about the position is that might just be true most seasons, if for no other reason than second base tends to be a position where teams are more willing to experiment, defensively. The bar for defensive excellence across the board is higher at shortstop than at second base, obviously. While the range demands of third base are lower, the need for a strong, accurate throwing arm limits how many players are moved to third base unexpectedly.
You simply don't see a lot of guys move to those two positions without much warning or experience. Still, it'll happen regularly enough at second base that, for example, Fernando Tatis ended up playing nearly a third of his season there after not playing the infield at all since 2021. And Tatis will enter 2027 as the top-ranked second baseman as a result of that.
Nobody saw that coming, and other names like Otto Lopez and Luis Arraez added second base eligibility and ended up making a big difference this season as a result. So, even though Lopez is among the players losing second base eligibility entering 2027 – a list that also includes Ceddane Rafaela, Luis Garcia, and Casey Schmitt, among others – you can be pretty confident that the position will end up in better shape in 2027 than it might look this offseason. That doesn't necessarily mean you can just punt the position in drafts next season, safe in the assumption that you'll end up with decent production from someone who doesn't currently have 2B eligibility.
But it seems pretty reasonable to assume that someone will come along to strengthen this position, usually multiple someones. For now, here are the toughest players to rank for 2027 who do carry second base eligibility, and just for the record: Tatis is not on this list. I think he's exceedingly easy to rank as the top option.
While we can quibble about whether he's worth a first-round or if the inherent risk shown by his first-half struggles relegates him to the second-round range, I don't think anyone's going to realistically argue he shouldn't at least be a top-20 pick in 2027. There are definitely bigger question marks here. Uh, so much for that 50-50 season.
Chisholm had actually played close to a 40-40 pace since joining the Yankees before this season. His offensive game has absolutely collapsed ahead of his big free agency, and he had just 19 homers before going on the IL recently with a thumb injury. And the underlying numbers back up that this wasn't just a fluke – he legitimately took a big step backward this season despite posting the highest average exit velocity of his career.
Extract — continue reading at the source.
