And we’ve reached our final top 20 recap for the infield. You’ll never guess where we go next. Did you just say outfield? Okay, so you’re a good guesser. VinWins did a positional comparison, and here’s what we have:
Catchers are clearly the worst. Shortstops were a mess. 2nd basemen? Not great, but a hair better. 1st basemen were the best and 3rd basemen were on the come-up. This is almost a complete, reversal from last year. If I had to rank the infield from least to best: Catchers, SS, 2B, 3B, 1B. Shortstops, 2nd basemen and 3rd basemen are nearly identical in depth, and I will say the 3rd basemen are helped because there’s a ton of guys with 3rd base eligibility who were eligible elsewhere. Only real clearcut positions are catchers are worst and 1st basemen are best. Rest is a crapshoot. To recap my recap before the recap, this final ranking is from our Fantasy Baseball Player Rater with my comments. This is not for next year. Anyway, here’s the top 20 3rd basemen for 2026 fantasy baseball and how they compare to where I originally ranked them:
1. Junior Caminero – Feel similar to how I felt with Bobby Witt Jr. in the shortstops recap. Top guys feel underrated. Or maybe it’s just underappreciated. So, let’s try to appreciate Juco Loco a little bit more. For players aged 22 or younger, Caminero just had the 26th best offensive season since 1969. There all HOFers up and down the list, or will be HOFers. (That’s according to fWAR.) His was 17th best since 2000 and 6th best since 2021. For ISO since 2021, he’s the third and fourth best. His OBP went from .311 to .360 year over year. That’s pretty significant for a 22-year-old. He’s on a HOF arc like we saw from Juan Soto and Bryce Harper. I mention those two specifically, because they also started as youngsters and I’m an oldster saying youngster. So, Juco Loco’s numbers look sorta meh (100 runs? Meh. 101 RBIs. Meh.), but you have to remember the environment and his age. Vlad Jr. seemed to breakout at age 22 with 48 homers, but that was in an insane offensive year. Juco Loco just hit 42 homers in a year that did not see Gleyber Torres hitting 38 homers. Preseason Rank #2, 2026 Projections: 93/42/107/.274/8 in 593 ABs, Final Numbers: 100/42/101/.276/3 in 616 ABs
2. Miguel Vargas – See his recap at the top 20 1st basemen for 2026 fantasy baseball.
3. Sal Stewart – See his recap at the top 20 1st basemen for 2026 fantasy baseball.
4. Alex Bregman – This was one of the most puzzling positions in retrospect. Not sure I can take a dub on any of the guys I’m going over in this post, except Caminero. Murakami ended up ranked exactly the same as his preseason ranking and I can’t say I foresaw his season particularly well. Bregman’s likely the closest on the preseason projections (after Caminero) and the way he got those stats was ludicrous. He basically was awful or terrific, and nothing in-between. So, I got the overall projections almost exactly right but had no idea how he’d get there, and, even while he was “getting there,” I had little faith. Preseason Rank #8, 2026 Projections: 87/26/77/.263/3 in 591 ABs, Final Numbers: 92/28/93/.265/3 in 608 ABs
5. Kevin McGonigle – See his recap at the top 20 shortstops for 2026 fantasy baseball.
6. Nolan Arenado – This year I lost a lot more things out an open window than I thought possible from Torenado. Shows you don’t underestimate out a hot hitter or the difficulty it is to predict the weather. Due to the nature of the Torenado blurbs, I don’t get much a chance to talk about Arenado, and that’s mostly by design for certain players because what is there to say about a veteran? He enjoyed his return to the NL West and maybe the Rockies weren’t so stupid to sign him until 2027, huh? Well, then stupid again to trade him away and keep paying him. Preseason Rank #38, 2026 Projections: 53/17/62/.231/3 in 443 ABs, Final Numbers: 80/30/86/.255/4 in 533 ABs
7. Kazuma Okamoto – See his recap at the top 20 1st basemen for 2026 fantasy baseball.
8. Jazz Chisholm Jr. – See his recap at the top 20 2nd basemen for 2026 fantasy baseball.
9. Max Muncy – I’ll claim to not know a damn thing when looking at these end-of-the-year stats and I don’t, but Muncy did what he does when he’s healthy. There’s no way of knowing when a guy will be healthy all year. You can make a preseason gamble that a guy will stay healthy, but that’s all it is. It’s a calculation you have to make in the preseason. Is a guy’s price worth the chance he stays healthy? If you did that with Matt Chapman, Royce Lewis, Jordan Lawlar or others were you dumber than the person who gambled on Muncy or less lucky? Preseason Rank #19, 2026 Projections: 44/17/52/.229/2 in 309 ABs, Final Numbers: 81/29/76/.252/3 in 488 ABs
10. Manny Machado – Okay, you ready for Big Conspiracy Theory Brain? BCTB coming at you with a Big One! In order to try to gain leverage on the players for the upcoming lockout, Manfred put a dead ball into play all this year. Machado’s Ks went up a little and his HardHit% went down a little, but how else do you account for a .275 hitter hitting .217? It’s gotta be as BCTB says. Preseason Rank #4, 2026 Projections: 86/28/94/.272/12 in 588 ABs, Final Numbers: 82/30/91/.217/5 in 589 ABs
11. Isaac Paredes – See his recap at the top 20 1st basemen for 2026 fantasy baseball.
12. Brooks Lee – See his recap at the top 20 2nd basemen for 2026 fantasy baseball.
13. Ezequiel Duran – See his recap at the top 20 1st basemen for 2026 fantasy baseball.
14. Munetaka Murakami – I jot down all the names and then go back to write the blurbs, and Murakami was the point where I realized 3rd basemen were less valuable than 1st basemen, because I remember he didn’t make the top 20 for 1B. If you’re curious, Murakami is at 114th overall on the Player Rater and Dubon (the last 3B) is at 151. That’s what you’re also drinking if you didn’t have Caminero. As for Murakami, this was the worst case scenario. And. Dot dot dot. It wasn’t really that bad if you consider his ADP was 202. It was a tale of two halves, though. I’ve seen people say he was much worse after he returned from the injury, which is true, but I don’t know if we can just say that was it. He had a 33.6 K% in the first half when he was “good” and was bound to be exploited at some point. A guy like him is going to have huge swings of hot and cold streaks. It’s sorta like how we see Oneil Cruz hit .280 one year and .180 another year. This was also the big concern with Murakami when he came to MLB. He had a 29.5 K% in Japan, that’s going to translate to…Preseason Rank #14, 2026 Projections: 54/26/62/.219/6 in 477 ABs, Final Numbers: 82/35/77/.207/1 in 454 ABs
15. Zack Gelof – See his recap at the top 20 2nd basemen for 2026 fantasy baseball.
16. Bryson Stott – See his recap at the top 20 2nd basemen for 2026 fantasy baseball.
17. Jose Ramirez – I blame the WBC, I blame his hamate bone, I blame it on the rain, yeah, yeah, blame it on the stars, wooh! Last time JoJoRam disappointed, I wrote a Jose Ramirez overrated schmohawk post and I was right. See, the job of the fantasy baseball ‘pert is to only remember when you are right. Anyhoo! It was in 2019, and, even that year, he hit for more power. ACKSUALLY, he hit for more power in 2020 in 60 games. The big issue with Ramirez’s year and why it’s going to be the absolute bugaboo of all drafters next year is: Was it age or the hamate bone? He’s been incredibly consistent with continuing to steal, but that has to stop at some point, doesn’t it? He’s 34 and stealing 37 bags? That’s crazy for someone like him. What I mean by “like him” is he’s a clearcut future HOFer. He could rest on his laurels. Hit a few dingers, and collect paychecks. Instead, he went 37 for 41 on steal attempts. That’s ludicrous for someone of his stature. You can’t get Wyatt Langford to steal that much with his elite speed, ten years his junior, and a hot poker into his ass. Preseason Rank #1, 2026 Projections: 106/34/104/.282/35 in 604 ABs, Final Numbers: 71/12/53/.235/37 in 473 ABs
18. Bo Bichette – See his recap at the top 20 shortstops for 2026 fantasy baseball.
19. Caleb Durbin – At the All-Star Break, they should have a 50-yard dash between Josh Naylor and everyone who stole less bags than Naylor. To say Durbin is faster than Naylor is like saying a gazelle is faster than ketchup coming out of a Heinz bottle when not hitting the 57. Preseason Rank #10, 2026 Projections: 67/10/63/.271/28 in 531 ABs, Final Numbers: 74/13/64/.248/20 in 508 ABs
20. Mauricio Dubon – See his recap at the top 20 2nd basemen for 2026 fantasy baseball.
