2019 Fantasy Baseball Draft Prep: Outfield Tiers, Version 2.0

Outfield is weak at the top, but there's never a shortage of options at the position, as Scott White's tiers show.

By Scott White

Mar 8, 2019 at 11:48 pm ET • 2 min read

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Tiers 2.0: C | 1B | 2B | 3B | SS | OF | SP | RP

Tiers, for the uninitiated, are an alternate form of rankings that groups players by expected level of production. While it's true every player is expected to produce less than the player ranked ahead of him, there are points in the rankings where the drop-off in expected production is more significant. And at those points, a new tier begins.

The goal is to give you a clear depiction of the distribution of talent at each position so that, in the heat of a draft, you can determine at a glance which position is the ideal one to target. Naturally, the one closest to dropping into the next tier is the one you'll regret having passed up a round later.

Below are the outfield tiers for 2019. They depict a position that's replete in the middle, if thin at the top.

The Super Elite: Mike Trout, Mookie Betts
The Elite: J.D. Martinez, Christian Yelich, Bryce Harper, Aaron Judge, Charlie Blackmon, Ronald Acuna, Giancarlo Stanton, Juan Soto†
The Near-Elite: (Khris Davis), Andrew Benintendi, Whit Merrifield, Starling Marte^, Kris Bryant, George Springer, Rhys Hoskins, Cody Bellinger
The Next-Best Things: Lorenzo Cain, Eloy Jimenez, Aaron Hicks, Dee Gordon^, Tommy Pham, A.J. Pollock, Michael Brantley, Justin Upton, Joey Gallo^, (Nelson Cruz), Wil Myers^, Mitch Haniger, Nicholas Castellanos, Eddie Rosario, David Dahl, Yasiel Puig, Michael Conforto, Victor Robles^
The Fallback Options: David Peralta, Mallex Smith^, Marcell Ozuna, Andrew McCutchen, Jesse Winker, Stephen Piscotty, Brandon Nimmo, (Shohei Ohtani), Billy Hamilton^
The Last Resorts: Nomar Mazara, Byron Buxton, Ender Inciarte, Gregory Polanco, Ian Desmond^, Greg Allen^, Franmil Reyes, Jose Martinez, Kyle Tucker, Shin-Soo Choo, Nick Markakis, Adam Eaton, Odubel Herrera, Randal Grichuk
The Deep-Leaguers: Hunter Renfroe, Kyle Schwarber, Max Kepler, Ryan Braun, Harrison Bader, Austin Meadows, Christin Stewart, Jackie Bradley, Kevin Kiermaier, Chris Taylor, Domingo Santana, Jake Bauers, Marwin Gonzalez, Yoenis Cespedes, Corey Dickerson, Ramon Laureano, Cedric Mullins, Trey Mancini, Lewis Brinson, Joc Pederson, Brian Anderson, Kole Calhoun, Josh Reddick, Adam Jones
The Leftovers: Alex Verdugo, Tyler O'Neill, Brett Gardner, Jorge Soler, Clint Frazier, Scott Schebler, Willie Calhoun, Dexter Fowler, Jay Bruce, Steven Souza, Teoscar Hernandez, Matt Kemp, Carlos Gonzalez, Enrique Hernandez, Adam Frazier, Ian Happ, Franchy Cordero, Kevin Pillar, Ben Zobrist, Manuel Margot, Avisail Garcia