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Midseason Position Rankings: Outfield

Injuries aside, a lot in the outfield has held to form this season.

By Daniel Kelley
Richard Mackson-USA TODAY Sports

Exactly what is and isn't "expected" is tough to define. But in our week of midseason position rankings, Nick Hundley has been a top-10 catcher, Todd Frazier a top-three first baseman. Kolten Wong, just off a season of an 89 OPS+, is a top-ten second baseman, and Kris Bryant and Carlos Correa, who made their big-league debuts this year, are seventh or better at third and shortstop, respectively.

Each of those can be called unexpected to some level or another. But in outfield, the surprises aren't who did make the midseason top 75. By and large, these are names we would have projected for high rankings are up there, at least until you get somewhat deep. No, the surprises at outfield are the names that are missing, and those names — Giancarlo Stanton, Jayson Werth, George Springer — are missing because of injury.

In other words, as crazy as many of the infield positions have been, outfield has more or less held to form this season.

So with that in mind, I'm not going to belabor the intro. On to the rankings, with eligibility based on the Yahoo! fantasy game:

Outfield Rankings, rest of season

Rank Player Team Thoughts
1 Mike Trout LAA His 2012 was carried by speed; 2013, patience; 2014, run production. So far in 2015, he's eying a career-high in homers.
2 Andrew McCutchen PIT He was hitting .188/.279/.292 May 6, and we were worried. Since, he's hit .336/.434/.582, and we realized we were silly.
3 Bryce Harper WAS As great as he is, you still have to be on the watch for one of his injuries. Still, so dang good.
4 Hanley Ramirez BOS His defense is worse than anyone could have predicted, but hey, the bat plays.
5 Jose Bautista TOR More walks than strikeouts and 17 home runs. The batting average will come up.
6 Ryan Braun MIL Since May 5: .291/.363/.529. The lesson, as always: Ignore April.
7 Carlos Gomez MIL It's his worst season in three years, and he still has a 110 OPS+. He'll have a fine second half.
8 Adam Jones BAL He's striking out at the lowest rate of his career, which was always the most frustrating part of his game.
9 Jacoby Ellsbury NYY If you could promise me he'd stay healthy, he'd be top five, top six in the outfield.
10 Hunter Pence SFG Now that he's ostensibly healthy, he'll be a top-flight outfielder the rest of the way.
11 Brett Gardner NYY My first Fake Teams piece was on Gardner, and he's even better than I foresaw.
12 Grady Sizemore TAM (Just kidding. Wanted to make sure you were paying attention.)
12 Charlie Blackmon COL I maintain his general overrated-ness, but start him selectively and you'll be fine.
13 Starling Marte PIT His steals are a little down, but his power is a little up. Fair trade.
14 A.J. Pollock ARI He won't dominate anything, but he's a strong five-category contributor.
15 Mookie Betts BOS
16 Chris Davis BAL Stop robbing his home runs, everybody!
17 Matt Holliday SLC He's back from the DL now, and he ought to be fine going forward.
18 Billy Hamilton CIN In real baseball, I'd send him to the minors. In fantasy, though, he's still going to run wild.
19 Justin Upton SDP You'd love to see him put together a full season eventually -- .179/.282/.269 since the start of June.
20 Carlos Gonzalez COL He's looked better of late. God help me, I can't let go.
21 Yasiel Puig LAD Even in a frustrating and underwhelming season, he's hitting to a 115 OPS+,. Just let him do what he does and he'll be fine.
22 Joc Pederson LAD Since June 4, he's hit .176/.324/.303 with three home runs. If he struggles the rest of the month, don't blame the Home Run Derby.
23 Matt Kemp SDP Awful season. Really bad. And he'll still finish 15-15 at least.
24 Jason Heyward SLC Take out April: .298/.357/.452. I'm thinking of recording a song called "Ignore the first month."
25 J.D. Martinez DET There's really no reason he's this low, but I just can't believe he made this leap. Doesn't the other shoe have to drop?
26 Michael Brantley CLE Last year was always going to be his career year, though you were hoping for more than five home runs by this point in the season.
27 Yasmany Tomas ARI
28 Jay Bruce CIN Year-by-year OPS+ since 2010: 124-118-121-120-81-119. I'm fine calling 2014's 81 the aberration.
29 Giancarlo Stanton MIA Ranking the injured guys involves so much guesswork. Will he come back on schedule? Will he be at full strength quickly?
30 Yoenis Cespedes DET It's his best OBP since his rookie year, which is a handy sign.
31 Christian Yelich MIA Between Stanton's injury and disappointing seasons from Yelich and Marcell Ozuna, it's easy to pinpoint the Marlins' problem.
32 Ben Zobrist OAK
33 Nelson Cruz SEA Home runs in April: 10. May: 8. Since: 3.
34 Jorge Soler CHC He's been the forgotten man among the Cubs big youngsters, but he'll have a good second half.
35 Lorenzo Cain KAN
36 Josh Reddick OAK He's only played more than 114 games once in his seven years, but if he can stay healthy, he can hit.
37 Ben Revere PHI He's at a career-high OPS right now.
38 Brandon Belt SFG
39 Billy Burns OAK 18 steals already, and he didn't even play until May.
40 Evan Gattis HOU
41 Norichika Aoki SFG
42 Melky Cabrera CHW
43 Andre Ethier LAD
44 Cameron Maybin ATL Can this finally be the Maybin we've been waiting for? Health is of course going to be a big question.
45 Denard Span WAS He keeps getting hurt, but healthy Span has been productive Span.
46 Seth Smith SEA
47 Marlon Byrd CIN There's no way he finishes the year in Cincinnati, is there? Where he goes could be very interesting.
48 Gregory Polanco PIT
49 Stephen Vogt OAK
50 Khris Davis MIL Either Davis gets traded, or Gerardo Parra gets traded, or both do.
51 Dexter Fowler CHC
52 Jayson Werth WAS
53 Gerardo Parra MIL See Khris Davis.
54 Nick Markakis ATL
55 George Springer HOU Springer's injury absence has come at just an awful time for the Astros.
56 Kole Calhoun LAA
57 Randal Grichuk SLC Hey, remember when the Cardinals got Grichuk AND Peter Bourjos for Davdi Freese and Fernando Salas? Good times.
58 Curtis Granderson NYM
59 Shin-Soo Choo TEX That contract was always going to look like a disaster by the end. No one thought it'd look like such a disaster so early, though.
60 Anthony Gose DET
61 Wil Myers TAM
62 Delino DeShields Jr. TEX
63 David Peralta ARI
64 Avisail Garcia CHW Is he ever going to develop beyond this? Sure, he's just 24, but there doesn't seem to be a significantly higher ceiling.
65 David DeJesus TAM
66 Steven Souza TAM As long as he's hitting .210 with a .301 OBP, 15 home runs and 10 steals offer limited value.
67 Josh Hamilton TEX Considering what the Rangers are paying Hamilton, he doesn't have to be great ... which is good, because he really hasn't been.
68 Odubel Herrera PHI
69 Chris Carter HOU Holder-outers are pointing to his insanely good second half last year. But we need to see something, and soon.
70 Jarrod Dyson KAN Alex Gordon's absence should equal a lot of steals for Dyson owners.
71 Torii Hunter MIN By OPS+, this is actually his worst offensive season since 2004.
72 Byron Buxton MIN He should be back from injury soon enough and, despite his early struggles, we know the talent is there.
73 Colby Rasmus HOU
74 Alejandra De Aza BOS With Baltimore (30 games, 112 plate appearances): .214/.277/.359. With Boston (31 games, 103 plate appearances): .323/.359/.573.
75 David Murphy CLE By OPS+, he's having his best season in eight years.