Jon Anderson's Second Base Tiered Rankings and Projections

February 14, 2022

Jon Anderson looks at the second base position, separating ranked players into tiers to help you get a better understanding of the position at a high level for 2022.

The second base position has long been a wasteland for fantasy purposes. For whatever reason (maybe there's no reason at all and it's just random chance), the least exciting athletes seem to end up playing this position. You can typically squeeze a lot of batting average and even some steals out of here, but you don't often find the 40+ homer threat (shout out Dan Uggla though!) or the 30/30 guy.

Here in 2022, thanks to a big trade last July, we do have an elite fantasy bat at the second base position. We also have a pretty decent consolation prize, but after things rapidly decline.

We'll take a look at my second base fantasy baseball rankings inside the top-300 or so players here, while we rank 'em and tier 'em off. Let's do it!

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Tier One

It's only Trea, you cannot convince me to put anybody in the same grouping. This guy adding second base eligibility with the Dodgers last year was massive for his already sky-high fantasy value. That alongside the lack of steals and batting average in the field, plus the injuries to guys like Jacob deGrom and Ronald Acuna Jr., have put Trea right at the top of the ADP boards, going #1 or #2 in most drafts.

Tier Two

I don't know if the editors are going to like me for this, but I'm going back-to-back one-player tiers to start. Nobody would consider taking Albies ahead of Turner, but also nobody would consider taking any of the Tier Three guys ahead of Albies. That makes it pretty obvious to me that it must be done this way.

Albies had an awesome 2021 season, showing increased pop while stealing bases and racking up tons of runs and RBI. The batting average dipped due to a high fly ball rate, but he still managed the strikeouts beautifully. It would not be surprising for Albies to have just a massive season here at age 25 and be right in the top-five picks next year. Getting Albies in the second round is a great way to go, and he's a total steal in the third.

Tier Three

Merrifield stays near the top of the position as he just keeps stealing a bunch of bases. His projection for 30 here is a pretty conservative one too from my view. While we expect plenty of regression for Semien, he still profiles as an easy top-50 pick with the power/steals combo at a bad position.

I have Ketel well ahead of the field, as you can tell by the ADP disparity there. He has shown massive raw power while profiling for a really strong batting average and being non-zero in steals. He's one of my favorite targets in the top-100 picks relative to price.

Tier Four

This is where it gets tough. We have exactly zero five-category players from here forth. All of these names do one or two things very well, but they all come up short of the "potential league winner" by the projections.

The big upside names here are Lowe (if he can continue to improve in K%), India (if he can add a bit more raw power), and Chisholm (if he can make a big stride in striking out). Polanco and Edman are very safe for what they can do - so this tier is really all about how you like to play the game.

Tier Five

The home well has dried up here. Only McMahon in this tier projects for 20 homers, and it's not that hard to project for 20 homers these days. This tier is mainly high-contact, versatile players. In fact, we have four of the 13 hitters with triple-eligibility all in this tier.

If you miss the boat on Turner/Albies, this seems like a pretty decent way to fill a 2B spot, as all of these guys are pretty safe bets at some kind of fantasy production.

Tier Six

At this point, you really want your 2B spot to be taken care of. None of these players are very exciting, and the ceilings are all quite low (save Rojas and Lux, maybe). They can make for serviceable middle-infield options in deep leagues, but you really should not be looking to rely on these names for offensive production.

Tier Seven

This is essentially "the rest". Toro had a pretty nice 2021 season, lowering his strikeout rate while raising his barrel rate. Gimenez and Hampson are young players that can steal bases and have a good amount of upside, and then the rest of these guys are batting average specialists only, pretty much.

My Second Base Strategy

If I got my pick of a draft pick, I would probably be taking the #1 or #2 overall pick. I usually don't feel this way, but the draft really opens up for you if you can bag one of Tatis or Turner to start things off. Albies is also a favorite of mine in the second round; I don't think I'll ever let him get past me after pick 20.

If I miss on those two, I'm probably going to aim for two of the Tier Four guys with all that position eligibility (say, Cronenworth and Urias). I would hope that I have plenty of homers already locked in if I get to that point though because, after Tier Three, the power numbers are pretty much dried up.

Thanks for checking out second base tiers, keep on coming back as we tier off every single position to help you prepare for your draft!

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