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2020 Fantasy Baseball Rankings: Top 30 First Basemen (Updated)

Due to the real possibility of a shortened season being imposed soon, it’s time to update the rankings!

Arizona Fall League All Star Game Photo by Christian Petersen/Getty Images

We updated the catcher rankings at the end of last week, and now it’s time to roll through the more exciting positions to see what has changed. As with catcher, I’m including our original consensus rankings from late January. Then it’s myself, Mark Abell, and Jonathan Butler adding in the refreshing part of the ranks.

First Base New Ranks

PLAYER TEAM Jan Rank JB Rank Heath Rank Mark Rank New Avg
PLAYER TEAM Jan Rank JB Rank Heath Rank Mark Rank New Avg
Cody Bellinger LAD 1 1 1 1 1
Freddie Freeman ATL 2 2 2 2 2
Pete Alonso NYM 3 4 3 3 3.25
Anthony Rizzo CHC 4 3 5 7 4.75
Matt Olson OAK 5 5 4 8 5.5
Josh Bell PIT 6 8 7 4 6.25
Jose Abreu CWS 7 6 6 9 7
Max Muncy LAD 9 9 8 5 7.75
D.J. LeMahieu NYY 10 10 9 6 8.75
Paul Goldschmidt STL 8 7 10 10 8.75
Carlos Santana CLE 12 12 12 12 12
Edwin Encarnacion CWS 13 11 14 11 12.25
Rhys Hoskins PHI 14 14 11 13 13
Luke Voit NYY 15 13 13 14 13.75
Christian Walker ARI 16 15 18 15 16
Danny Santana TEX 18 16 16 16 16.5
Yuli Gurriel HOU 17 20 15 18 17.5
C.J. Cron DET 20 17 17 17 17.75
Joc Pederson LAD 22 18 19 20 19.75
Eric Hosmer SD 21 22 20 19 20.5
Michael Chavis BOS 19 21 22 22 21
Evan White SEA 30 19 21 24 23.5
Daniel Murphy COL 23 26 26 21 24
Renato Nunez BAL 27 23 23 25 24.5
Yandy Diaz TB 24 25 25 26 25
Joey Votto CIN 28 27 28 23 26.5
Justin Smoak MIL 26 24 29 29 27
Miguel Cabrera DET 39 30 27 25 30.25
Howie Kendrick WAS 31 28 31 31 30.25
Jesus Aguilar MIA 33 29 30 30 30.5

There’s a lot going on there, so I worked out a simple table with each man’s original ranking, his current ranking, and his plus/minus.

First Base Changes

PLAYER TEAM New Rank Old Rank Change
PLAYER TEAM New Rank Old Rank Change
Cody Bellinger LAD 1 1 -
Freddie Freeman ATL 2 2 -
Pete Alonso NYM 3 3 -
Anthony Rizzo CHC 4 4 -
Matt Olson OAK 5 5 -
Josh Bell PIT 6 6 -
Jose Abreu CWS 7 7 -
Max Muncy LAD 8 9 1+
D.J. LeMahieu NYY 9 10 1+
Paul Goldschmidt STL 10 8 -2
Carlos Santana CLE 11 12 1+
Edwin Encarnacion CWS 12 13 1+
Rhys Hoskins PHI 13 14 1+
Luke Voit NYY 14 15 1+
Christian Walker ARI 15 16 1+
Danny Santana TEX 16 18 2+
Yuli Gurriel HOU 17 17 -
C.J. Cron DET 18 20 2+
Joc Pederson LAD 19 22 3+
Eric Hosmer SD 20 21 1+
Michael Chavis BOS 21 19 -2
Evan White SEA 22 30 8+
Daniel Murphy COL 23 23 -
Renato Nunez BAL 24 27 3+
Yandy Diaz TB 25 24 -1
Joey Votto CIN 26 28 2+
Justin Smoak MIL 27 26 -1
Miguel Cabrera DET 28 39 11+
Howie Kendrick WAS 29 31 2+
Jesus Aguilar MIA 30 33 3+

So the big change inside the top 10 is the pouring of some cold water onto Paul Goldschmidt, which I certainly feel is warranted given that I was the most bearish on his chances from the get-go. I’m glad we finally have a correction that was overdue, which is ranking Max Muncy and D.J. LeMahieu ahead of Goldy.

Carlos Santana gets a boost due to the removal of Trey Mancini, it should be noted.

Evan White (+8) and Miguel Cabrera (+11) were significant departures from January rankings. As for what has changed...I couldn’t tell ya? Maybe we were just slow to come around on White, who should start for Seattle and offers some hope at power and speed. As for Miggy, he reported to Spring Training in great shape...hopefully the layoff hasn’t done him any harm.

Aside from Goldy, we’ve got Michael Chavis falling a couple of spots. I’d say the presence of Jose Peraza has to be of some concern, especially in a short season.

And he didn’t make the top 30, but Kevin Cron bears mentioning with the possibility of a universal DH rule being put into place. Cron’s was originally ranked like the backup he was in late January, our 45th first baseman off the board. He checked in at No. 37 once we refreshed, which may not sound epic but is still a noteworthy move given his power potential and the chance that he might see enough at-bats to matter in 2020.

Who are you guys moving up in the crazy time in which we are living?