Need a nice warm and fuzzy feeling to cheer you up if you are trying to avoid the frigid temperatures outside? How about this – Opening Day is less than 100 days away!

As many of us are waiting for Opening Day and to unwrap gifts and spend time with family, here is an early fantasy baseball present the continuation of our look at the best fantasy keepers by position. This week it is the 2023 Best Keepers – Center Fielders.

The stereotype for center fielders over the years has been a player who doesn’t hit for power but will have a good slash line and steal bases for you. While sometimes stereotypes are incorrect, this one seems to straddle the fence. Let’s look at what the average left fielder, center fielder and right fielder produced at the plate in 2022:

LF: .250/.322/.403 19 homers, 72 RBI, 10 steals
CF: .237/.303/.385 18 homers, 65 RBI, 14 steals
RF: .241/.309/.385 21 homers, 75 RBI, 10 steals

What’s Out There?

In 2022, center fielders as a whole hit less homers and drove in fewer runs than corner outfielders. And they weren’t as good at the plate when it came to their slash line. So the stereotype of being better hitters didn’t prove to be correct. But at least the speed part did. The fact center fielders stole more bases makes sense considering the speed they need to play the position should carry over onto the base paths.

The power numbers are actually somewhat inflated thanks to Aaron Judge playing a chunk of games in center for the Yankees. Judge will likely see more time back in right field in 2023, leaving a possible power void at this position in 2024 outside of Mike Trout and a few other players.

Finding a center fielder who can give you some steals is somewhat easy. Finding the center fielder who can provide consistent power is much harder to find outside of the Tier 1 and Tier 2 players.

But enough of the small talk. Let’s take a look at the 2023 Top Keepers – Center Fielders.