Ranking the best 49 outfielders of 2023 in the MLB

We are finally seeing and hearing some of the sights and sounds of baseball this week with pitchers and catchers reporting for spring training. That means we're almost through the dog days of the offseason. 

Over the past several weeks, we've tiered nearly every infield position. This week, we move our attention to the outfield. Instead of doing a tier for each outfield spot, I decided to just do the outfield as a whole. That led to one player getting a tier named after himself.

Any guesses as to whom?

Here are the outfield tiers!

Mike Trout: Mike Trout 

I added a special tier for the outfielders. In this tier is Mike Trout — the GOAT. 

Why did I put him in a tier of his own? Well, I didn't feel right to put Trout in a tier with anybody else. With all due respect to everyone in the elite tier, Trout is one of the greatest of all time and that's all that needs to be said about this. 

Elite: Aaron Judge, Julio Rodríguez, Juan Soto, Yordan Álvarez, Mookie Betts, Kyle Tucker, Ronald Acuña Jr. 

Some people (looking at my "Flippin' Bats" co-host Alex Curry) might be upset that I included a certain rookie here, especially when I didn't have Jeremy Peña with the "Almost Elite" shortstops. But Rodríguez is the only rookie in his debut season to post 25 homers and 25 stolen bases. He also helped break the longest active playoff drought in American sports. 

Rodríguez is elite, no doubt about it — .284 batting average, 28 homers, 25 stolen bases, .853 OPS and good defense out in center field. He's already a star.

Almost Elite: Michael Harris II, Cedric Mullins, Kyle Schwarber, George Springer, Eloy Jiménez, Bryan Reynolds, Byron Buxton, Luis Robert, Fernando Tatis Jr., Teoscar Hernández, Starling Marte

Springer's a tough one for me. He's elite in the playoffs, but he's struggled to stay on the field during the regular season and doesn't produce at the same rate when healthy. Last year he posted a .276 average, 25 home runs, 76 RBIs and an .814 OPS. He's a great outfielder, but I'm not putting him in that "Elite" category. 

Harris just won Rookie of the Year in the National League. He didn't play a full season, but his production was elite nonetheless — .297 average, 19 homers, 20 steals and a .853 OPS. He almost went 20/20 in half a season. I just want to see it over a full season before I put him in the "Elite" category. But he appears to be one of the game's great outfielders.

Really Good: Brandon Nimmo, Corbin Carroll, Jazz Chisholm Jr., Daulton Varsho, Nick Castellanos, Kris Bryant, Anthony Santander, Steven Kwan, Hunter Renfroe, Taylor Ward, Ian Happ, Mitch Haniger, Alex Verdugo, Andrew Benintendi, Tyler O'Neill, Jake McCarthy, Randy Arozarena

Nimmo continues to be one of the game's most underrated outfielders. His numbers aren't going to jump out at you — .274 batting average, 16 home runs, 102 runs and an .800 OPS last season. But he's a great defensive outfielder, too. He can also serve as a leadoff hitter. All those intangibles are why he got an eight-year, $162 million deal this offseason. 

I have Chisholm in this group based on the player he was as an infielder. Granted, he's never played in the outfield during his pro career. If he takes to it defensively — he's already stated that his goal is to be a Gold Glove-caliber center fielder — he could be one of the game's "Elite" or "Almost Elite" outfielders. The bat is certainly there, as he hit .254 with 14 home runs and 45 RBIs while also stealing 12 bases in just 60 games.

I'm all-in on Carroll this year. I believe he's going to win NL Rookie of the Year. He's got it all — he's the fastest player in the game of baseball, at least analytics-wise. He's in the 100th percentile in speed. In 32 games last season, he hit .260 with four homers and an .830 OPS. He's going to steal a bunch of bags. He's going to play good defense. He has all of the tools. I'm going to give you a comp for him: Jacoby Ellsbury, that's who he reminds me of. 

Remember the name: I'm the driver of the Corbin Carroll bandwagon. Hop on board now or whenever you want, but the train's taking off from the station. 

Pretty Solid: Cody Bellinger, Seiya Suzuki, Harrison Bader, Lars Nootbaar, Ramón Laureano, Michael Conforto, Austin Meadows, Jorge Soler, Masataka Yoshida, Jesse Winker, Jack Suwinski, Christian Yelich, Joc Pederson

Four years ago, I would've had Bellinger in the "Elite" category. But he hasn't hit above .240 since 2019. That's tough. He hit .210 last year with 19 homers, 68 RBIs and 14 stolen bases over 144 games. Bellinger is not the Bellinger that we will our grandkids about someday. Can he get back to that player? Probably not. Can he get back to any sort of resemblance of that player? Maybe. He'll play good defense and he'll hit for power.

Meadows was a big pickup for the Tigers last offseason and had a very difficult year. He didn't play much, as he hit just .250 in 36 games while battling injuries and sickness. That likely contributed to the mental health issues he's opened up about, which also caused him to miss time. He recently said that he's worked through a lot of things and he feels a lot better physically and mentally. We saw him be "Really Good" with the Rays and he can reach that level again.

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