Chad’s 2024 Tiered Ottoneu Rankings: Middle Infield

As we move into draft season, I will be updating these rankings occasionally, when there is news to justify changes. The original rankings will stay at the bottom of the article to maintain my player notes. The original middle infield rankings were posted 1/25 and the most recent update is 2/27.

Changelog:

2/27 – Moved Corey Seager down a tier due to injury. Moved Jose Altuve, Andrés Giménez and Jorge Polanco each down a tier as part of an overall adjustment balancing spend by position. Moved Bo Bichette up a tier and Jeff McNeil down a tier after reviewing projections again. Moved Ezequiel Tovar up a tier based on a re-evaluation of his long-term outlook. Moved Brooks Lee down a tier based on opportunity. Moved Tim Anderson up a tier based on new role after his signing. Moved Cedanne Rafaela, Michael Busch, Miguel Vargas, Addison Barger, Kyren Paris, Weston Wilson, and Mikael Garcia down a tier based on early auction results (specifically, noting availability of better options late in auctions). Added Samad Taylor, Roderick Arias, Joey Loperfido, Colt Emerson, Leodalis de Vries, Tommy Troy, Jahmai Jones, David Hensley, Coco Montes, Andre Lipcius, Zack Short, Eddys Leonard, Niko Goodrum 구드럼, and Cristian Hernandez to the rankings as they now meet the criteria for being ranked (all are in the $0 tier except Taylor in the $0-$1 tier).

Updated Rankings:

January Rankings and Notes:

Merging 2B and SS into a single ranking is one of my favorite and least favorite decisions I made in the process of developing these articles. I like it because there is so much overlap. Out of 151 players ranked, 35 qualify at SS and 2B, including a number of the most valuable names. The similar replacement levels and the existence of the MI spot make it hard to determine which spot is more valuable for a player, so I either rank a guy like Mookie Betts in both lists (okay, he would be first, that is easy) or I merge the two. It’s my least favorite because ranking 151 guys and making notes on all of them isn’t fun.

Middle Infield is never a super strong position, but it is often filled with some of the most exciting names in the game, and that has not changed. Betts, Corey Seager, Jose Altuve and company are established stars. Elly de la Cruz, Oneil Cruz, Matt McLain, Jackson Holliday, Junior Caminero and others represent potential future elite stars. And of course there are a ton of MI prospects who, whether or not they stick, have the potential to be game-changers.

But the position thins out fast. I ranked 66 players in the $1-$2 tier or above, which feels fair – teams typically roster around 5 active MI to fill games played and, as noted above, MI prospects tend to be the most popular. This ranking assumes about 5.5 MI per roster, plus another 38 names in the $0-$1 tier that will be rostered in some places.

But the bottom of that 66 is a mix of guys who are exciting but might not get playing time (Matt Shaw, Jackson Merrill), guys who will get playing time but aren’t exciting (Trevor Story, Brendan Rodgers), and guys you don’t want to have to rely on (Miguel Vargas, Michael Busch). I only see about 30 names I feel good about as my starting MI options for Opening Day. And that means there aren’t enough to go around, which means I’ll feel compelled to aggressively keep or spend on MI.

For the methodology and notes on the rankings, please check out my intro column.