THE TOP PLAYERS FOR 2024

     As we get even nearer to the start of the 2024 MLB season, we wonder who will be the best players. I am going to answer that question to the best of my ability. 
    There are some players who have been solid for many seasons, some who have had the recent rise to stardom, and some who have just come out of nowhere. Let's get started, shall we?

CATCHERS
AL: Adley Rutschman, BAL
NL: JT Realmuto, PHI

    Adley Rutschman is a young man of about 26, and has already emerged as one of the best catchers in the game today. He has plate discipline, pop, and defense, as well as age. He is a very solid young player, and seems able to stick around for a long time.
    JT Realmuto is entering his age 33 season and has been in the Majors for ten years. In that time, he has made an impressive name for himself as quite possibly the best catcher in his time. He holds a career 34% caught stealing rate, a massive 9% above the average! He has three all-star appearances, three silver sluggers, and two gold gloves, and is extremely consistent.

FIRST BASEMEN
AL: Vladimir Guerrero Jr, TOR
NL: Freddie Freeman, LAD

    Vladdy is certainly a very good player, but hasn't really shown a ton since that awesome 2021 campaign when he slashed .311/.401/.601. In the two seasons since that monster year, he's slashed .269/.342/.462. However, he did win the Home Run Derby in 2023 and has a reputation as one of the most dangerous hitters in the game. And at only 25 years, we'll see.
    Freddie Freeman is a stud. Though 34 years of age, he's been trending up and up. Freeman hit his apogee in 2023 when he hit .331 with a league-leading 59 doubles and 29 homers. He's been the best first baseman in the game for a while, and I'm confident he'll be at the top again in 2024.

SECOND BASEMEN
AL: Marcus Semien, TEX
NL: Mookie Betts, LAD

    Marcus Semien has proved himself not only to be a star player, but a durable one. Since the shortened 2020 season, Semien has played every regular season game except for one. He's shown that he can hit bombs, steal bases, show a flashy glove, and play consistently. He's a solid player who's trending upward.
    Mookie Betts has been an outfielder almost all of his ten year career. However, he played 70 games at second base in 2023, and Dave Roberts, manager of the Dodgers, announced that he will be playing second in 2024. Mookie is also trending up at the moment and is coming off of a monster season in which he hit .307 with 39 home runs. He has also been a solid fielder at second base and is part of an epic trio that consists of him, Freddie Freeman, and Shohei Ohtani.

THIRD BASEMEN
AL: Jose Ramirez, CLE
NL: Austin Riley, ATL

    Jose Ramirez has been in the league for 11 years and proven himself as one of the best. He averages over 40 doubles per 162 games and drives in just a ton of runs, even while playing for a rather disappointing offense with the Indians. A very solid player.
    Austin Riley has made a name for himself since 2021, in which he has excelled in power, defense, and durability. He's really a model of what you want in a third baseman. Along with just being that good, Riley is still pretty young at 26, with the upcoming season being his age 27.

SHORTSTOP
AL: Corey Seager, TEX
NL: Trea Turner, PHI

    Corey Seager just came off a career year in which he was probably one of the three most feared hitters in the game. He hit .327 with 33 homers and 96 RBIs in only 119 games. He holds a career slash line of .292/.361/.512 in 906 games. He'll be entering his age 30 season in 2024, and is right in his prime (which has pretty much been his whole career). 
    We get it. Trea Turner struggled a bit at the start of the 2023 season. However, he still had a solid year (especially for a shortstop), batting .266, clobbering 26 bombs, and scoring 102 runs. He's still stealing bases, and he hit .298 in 2022 and .328 the year before, and for the sake of time, I won't go on with his batting averages. The bottom line is this; he's great, and had an off year. A very good year, but an off one. He'll be fine.

LEFTFIELDERS
AL: Juan Soto, NYY
NL: Corbin Carroll, ARI

    Juan Soto has been great his whole career. He hits homers, has great plate discipline, scores a bunch of runs while also driving them in, and now, plays for the Yankees. Juan Soto is the only player in the game today (that I know of) who walks more than he strikes out. In his 6 seasons in the Majors he has walked 640 times and stuck out 577. He's never had a season with an OBP under .400 and has a career on-base percentage of .421, which is the highest of any active player. He also has a career slugging percentage of .524, so this guy means business.
    Corbin Carroll is a nice little addition to the outfield. He plays anywhere in the outfield, but made more of his appearances in leftfield (74) in 2023 than any other position. He just won the Rookie of the Year award, posting solid stats like 116 runs scored, 25 home runs, 54 steals, etc. Besides this, he plays stellar defense wherever he's put. He's only coming in to his second full season next year, but he'll probably be solid again.

CENTERFIELDERS
AL: Julio Rodriguez, SEA
NL: Jung Hoo Lee, SF

    Julio Rodriguez has been in the league for two years now and has proved himself to be one of the flashiest players in the game. Strong in both offense and defense, he has averaged 30 home runs, 93 runs, and 31 steals across his short career. And at only age 23, he should impress for a long time. I would easily choose Mike Trout over J-Rod except for the fact that Trout is always injured, and I worry that he will either get injured again, or the effects of the injuries will hamper his play. We shall see soon.
    In an attempt to only choose players who specialize in the position listed (a very hard task indeed), I have chosen KBO start Jung Hoo Lee to represent the NL's centerfielder. He was pretty darn good in the KBO, slashing .340/.407/.491 in his 7 year tenure. And now, at 25, he's able to sign in the U.S. for 6 years, $113,000,000. Nicknamed 'Grandson of the Wind', he was held in high respects in Korea. Will he be able to make a name for himself here?

RIGHTFIELDERS
AL: Aaron Judge, NYY
NL: Ronald Acuna Jr, ATL

    Aaron Judge is Aaron Judge. That's kind of all I need to write about here. But, since I'm writing about every player I've mentioned, I'll do a brief Judge assessment. He hits a ton of home runs. He broke the AL home run record set by Roger Maris, and hit 37 home runs this year while limited to only 106 games (57 per 162). He can also hit for average. He has a career batting average of .282 and hit .311 in that sweet 2022 campaign. And he is leading all active players in slugging percentage (.582) and has a .982 career OPS, so yeah.
    Acuna is Acuna. That's also all I need to say. He hits for average, he hits for power, he runs. He is coming off an MVP award in which he hit .337, hit 41 homers, drove in 106 (as a leadoff hitter), scored 149 runs, stole 73 bases, and had a 1.012 OPS. An easy MVP choice. He has a career .292 batting average anis only entering his age 26 season, so he's looking pretty good.

DESIGNATED HITTERS
AL: Yordan Alvarez, HOU
NL: Shohei Ohtani, LAD

    Yordan Alvarez is the young DH for the Astros. The big man is a frightening hitter, sporting a career .295/.390/.588 slash line. Whenever I see him play, he's hitting bombs or being walked (something that pained me as a Rangers fan during the ALCS). Mostly a DH, Yordan also plays a bit of leftfield for the dangerous Astros lineup. Already considered one of the most dangerous hitters in the game, will Yordan be able to up his stats next year?
    We all know Shohei Ohtani. The DH/pitcher has won two MVP awards since joining the Show in 2018. He's also coming off the best season of his career in which he had a 1.066 OPS and 3.14 ERA. Ohtani signed in free agency with the Dodgers and will be looking to send his talents (only for hitting in 2024) to LA.

STARTING PITCHERS
AL: Gerrit Cole, NYY
NL: Spencer Strider, ATL

    Gerrit Cole is coming off an impressive season in which he won the Cy Young Award and went 15-4 with a 2.63 ERA. A consistent pitcher entering his age 33 season, he sports a ton of good qualities like strikeout numbers, low walk rate, and good mileage. He's definitely making a push towards the Hall of Fame (not that a lot of the players mentioned here aren't), and if he has a few more good seasons, we'll probably see him there.
    If you hadn't read it yet, go read it first: https://talkinprobaseball.blogspot.com/2023/08/who-is-best-starter-currently-in-mlb.html. I'll give you some time... Now then, Spencer Strider went 20-5 in 2023 and has a career record of 32-10 in his three seasons (two full seasons). Like I said up in the article I just showed you, he has ridiculous strikeout rates, filthy stuff, and an amazing mustache. And a pitcher of such talent is only 25 years old, so he'll be getting better and better with experience.

RELIEF PITCHERS 
AL: Emmanuel Clase, CLE
NL: Devin Williams, MIL

    Again, if you've never read it, you should check this out:   https://talkinprobaseball.blogspot.com/2023/12/ranking-mlbs-closers-part-vi.html
    Now then, I know I said that Felix Bautista is the best closer in the AL, but he's injured and will probably be out all of next season. Therefore, I'm going with numero dos: Emmanuel Clase. Though he ranked second on the list, he's still the real deal. He has a career ERA of 2.00 and 111 saves in his four years of work, only three of these as the closer. 2024 will be his age 26 season, so he should be good for a while.
    You can read this too if you're up for a lot of reading:   https://talkinprobaseball.blogspot.com/2023/09/ranking-mlbs-2023-closers-part-iii.html
 Ok. Devin Williams has been 'the Boss' so to say, for Milwaukee, He had 36 saves and a 1.53 ERA in 2023 and has a career 1.89 ERA. He has a career record of 26-10 and a very high strikeout rate. He's very consistent, something not necessarily typical of a reliever, so he's easily the best reliever in the NL.

    So now we're finished. If you want to see all the players in my projected dream teams, here they are:

                AL
C: Adley Rutschman, BAL
1B: Vladimir Guerrero Jr, TOR
2B: Marcus Semien, TEX
3B: Jose Ramirez, CLE
SS: Corey Seager, TEX
LF: Juan Soto, NYY
CF: Julio Rodriguez, SEA
RF: Aaron Judge, NYY
DH: Yordan Alvarez, HOU
SP: Gerrit Cole, NYY
RP: Emmanuel Clase, CLE

             NL
C: JT Realmuto, PHI
1B: Freddie Freeman, LAD
2B: Mookie Betts, LAD
3B: Austin Riley, ATL 
SS: Trea Turner, PHI
LF: Corbin Carroll, ARI
CF: Jung Hoo Lee, SF
RF: Ronald Acuna Jr, ATL
DH: Shohei Ohtani, LAD
SP: Spencer Strider, ATL
RP: Devin Williams, MIL

    For those who like my blog enough to read to the end of this fairly long post, thank you for reading. It took hours to complete this one, and the longest part was finding an NL centerfielder. Anyway, thank you for reading, and I'll sign off here: Ginko-V