03/07/2023

Six guys who could all end up in the Hall of Fame. Ranking them? Brutal.

The act of ranking baseball’s right fielders is something that should be feared, like launching a political position amid soused uncles at the Thanksgiving table, mistakenly sending a personal email to your entire office, or raising Megxit at Buckingham Palace. If you pick Aaron Judge over Mookie Betts, you’ll be persona non grata with Red Sox Nation. A high placement for Ronald Acuna Jr. over some of the more accomplished stars at the position promises to obliterate your Twitter feed.
But here we are on the last day of these positional assessments, weighing Judge’s power against the hitting acumen of Christian Yelich. Here we are, measuring the fielding excellence of Betts against Cody Bellinger, who could probably win Gold Gloves at three different positions if that were his thing. Here we are, trying to understand what’s possible for Acuna, and how much more Bryce Harper will provide in his marriage with the Phillies.