2024 Top 15 Outfielders

By: Jake Russell and Jacob Zanolla

Welcome to our 2024 Outfield rankings! We compiled our top 20 total outfielders for the 2024 season, along with a few honorable mentions that just missed our list. Enjoy, and let us know what you think!

Ronald Acuña Jr

Acuña won the NL MVP last season and became the only player to ever post a 40/70 season. Acuña was a bit of a unicorn in more ways than just that, though. He had just an 11.4 K%, and coupled it with quality of contact rates that rivaled Aaron Judge’s. He had the highest EV of his career on this 454 foot home run off of Emmet Sheehan.

Acuña does leave a bit to be desired in the field, where he had -9 OAA, but his offense is so good it just does not matter.

Aaron Judge

Judge followed up his MVP 2022 campaign with a great 2023 (that was shortened due to an unfortunate injury after he crashed into an outfield wall). He still hit for a 174 wRC+, and is arguably the best hitter in baseball. No hitter hits the ball as hard as him or as frequently as him, which he couples with elite plate discipline. Yeah, Judge strikes out a lot, but it’s just not a problem when you lead baseball in barrel per batted ball rate, barrels per PA, hard-hit%, etc. I could go on and on. Judge will probably slot in at CF this year, where he has been about average over the past two seasons, posting 0 DRS, and 3 OAA over 767 innings. You really could make a strong argument for Judge at one, but he slots in just behind Acuña.

Yordan Alvarez

Alvarez is another one of the best hitters in baseball, and sports a 166 career wRC+, an incredibly impressive number for the soon-to-be 27 year old. Though Alvarez likely will be a primary DH, he splits time between there and the outfield, and we won’t have a DH list so I figured he could go in the outfield list. Yordan is kind of a perfect hitter. He doesn’t have any flaws. Great hit tool, great launch angle optimization, great discipline, great power. The only question with him is if he can stay healthy. If he can, the ceiling is a perennial MVP caliber player.

Juan Soto

Soto has now been traded twice between the past two seasons, but he joins the Yankees to form one of the most formidable offenses in baseball. Soto’s worst offensive season was a 143 wRC+, back in his sophomore season, and he was one of just 4 players to walk as much as or more than they struck out last year. Soto has one issue, really, and that is that he pounds the ball into the ground way too much–but it doesn’t matter. His quality of contact and plate discipline combo make for one of the best hitters in baseball.

Fernando Tatis Jr.

Tatis came back from his suspension in 2023 after missing all of 2022, transferred to the outfield, and won the NL Platinum Glove after posting an insane 29 DRS in Right Field. Tatis had “just” a 113 wRC+ and .770 OPS, but his underlying numbers were very strong: Tatis had a hard-hit rate in the 90th percentile, a barrel rate in the 70th percentile, and underperformed his xwOBA by the 9th largest mark in baseball. It’ll be exciting to see what Tatis can do with a full season (knock on wood), but it would not be shocking if he ended up closer to 1 than 5 by the end of the year.

Julio Rodriguez

J-Rod is one of the most electric young players in the league, and combines a great bat with gold glove level defense and top of the line baserunning. In the first half of last season, he had just a 103 wRC+. In the second? 156. J-Rod loves to swing, and it’s worked in his favor so far, and should continue to do so.

Mike Trout

Man… it feels wrong to put Mike Trout this low. The future first ballot Hall of Famer is still just 32, but injuries have really taken a toll on him, and 2023 was his worst season rate-wise of his career. Not that we don’t think Trout won’t bounce back, but there is so much talent above him, and Trout has lost a step in the field as well. However, a fully healthy trout could find himself much closer to one. Baseball is better when Mike Trout is healthy, so I really hope that’s the case.

Kyle Tucker

Tucker is another one of those hitters who just doesn’t seem to have a weak spot. He has great EVs, a great hit tool, and really good plate discipline–and a 138 wRC+ to show for it over the past 3 seasons. He’s also a quality defender in right field–a very well rounded player.

Corbin Carroll

Corbin Carroll burst onto the scene in 2023 as a rookie en route to the NL Rookie of the Year award. Carroll split times between all three outfield spots. Carroll has plus raw power, great speed (led the league in BsR last year), though was in just the 16th percentile in SEAGER, Bobby Orr’s plate discipline metric. A second year adjustment could work well, but he’ll be a very productive player even if he doesn’t.

Luis Robert Jr.

Luis Robert is just about the only good offensive player on the White Sox right now. Robert is one of the more athletic players in baseball, and is coming off a 5 WAR season. He plays gold glove level defense in centerfield, and added a 128 wRC+ last season. He had a 15.4 barrel%, which ranked in the 93rd percentile. His biggest issue is his pretty poor PD–he has had a chase% above 40% each of the past two seasons. Clearly, though, it’s working for him, and he remains a very productive player.

Adolis García

The World Series hero had his best season yet at age 30, posting 4.8 fWAR behind a 124 wRC+, 2 OAA, and 6 DRS. Adolis dropped his chase% by an incredible 8% from 2022 to 23, and a .471 xwOBACON (which was top 5% in baseball). Adolis García was already a good player, but improving his plate discipline like that allowed him to take a huge leap–one that should continue into the 2024 season.

Brandon Nimmo

Nimmo is still, somehow, one of the more underrated players in baseball. After so much of his career was clouded by injury issues, the past two seasons he has played 150+ games in both, with a 131 wRC+ and 9.5 fWAR. Nimmo has pretty good plate discipline–okay that’s an understatement. He has never been below the 91st percentile in chase% in his MLB career. He is a great leadoff hitter, and honestly a good defender too–11 OAA over the past 3 seasons is pretty solid. Plus, he had a 9.5% barrel% last year. Very good player.

Seiya Suzuki

Man, am I excited for Seiya Suzuki to play this year. He has absolutely torn the cover off the ball in spring training and had an incredible second half last year. I wouldn’t be shocked if Suzuki ended up much higher on this list by season’s end. He ended 2023 with a 126 wRC+ and 3.2 fWAR in 138 games. Suzuki had a 149 wRC+ in the second half of 2023, so here’s hoping he can continue that trend for 2024.

Michael Harris II

Michael Harris is another player who had a tale of two halves. Harris missed almost all of April, and had just a 93 wRC+. Second half? 134! Maybe he just got healthy, maybe he simply played better, but it ended up with an overall very good season. Harris’ plate discipline isn’t great, but the power is off the charts, and he is a gold glove caliber defender.

Lars Nootbaar

Lars Nootbaar is another under-the-radar outfielder, who has a 120 wRC+ dating back to 2022, and plays real solid defense across all 3 outfield spots. It remains to be seen where he spends the majority of his time this year, but Lars can play Center, Left, and Right. Lars walks a ton, coming in at 14.5% over the past two seasons, though he will have to miss some of 2024 with a rib injury.

Honorable Mentions (Alphabetical Order)

Cody Bellinger

Nolan Jones

Wyatt Langford

Jordan Walker

Christian Yelich

The outfield is so stacked, any of these players could have made the top 15. Guys like Bellinger and Yelich bounced back after tough stretches, while Nolan Jones had a great rookie year and looks to build off of it. Jordan Walker was pretty brutal in Right Field last year, but could see a big defensive improvement after his first full season playing the position. And you can’t forget Wyatt Langford making the Rangers OD roster just 8 months after being drafted–a truly skilled hitter who has done nothing but hit at every level of baseball he has played at.

Picture Credit: Megan Briggs, Getty Images