Top 40 outfielders for 2024 fantasy baseball are here and they’re purdy like your little mouth! Sorry, been wanting to watch Deliverance, but can’t find it streaming, so been reenacting it from my memories with some toys I bought at a yard sale. *holds up Miss Piggy plushie* Squeal, Piggy! So, here’s Steamer’s 2024 Fantasy Baseball Projections for Hitters and 2024 Fantasy Baseball Projections for Pitchers.
Subscriptions are up and running, and you can already get Rudy’s Draft War Room. Anyway, here’s the top 40 outfielders for 2024 fantasy baseball:
NOTE: All my rankings are currently available on Patreon for the price of a Starbucks coffee, if you get one of those extra grande frappuccino jobbers. Don’t wait for the rankings to come out over the next month, and get them all now.
NOTE II: Free agents are listed as just that and not yet projected. Once a guy signs, I will write out their blurb and add in projections, or remove them, if they sign in an unfavorable place. They are ranked currently where I think they might be if they sign on for a full-time job.
NOTE III: To watch us discuss the outfielders:
CLICK BACK TO THE TOP 20 OUTFIELDERS FOR 2024 FANTASY BASEBALL
21. Teoscar Hernandez – This tier started in the top 20 outfielders for 2024 fantasy baseball. This tier ends at Seiya. I called this tier, “Jumping out of the closet on myself.” As for Teoscar, signed with…can you guess? There’s one team in the major leagues. Can you guess their name? It sounds like Rodgers. Fodgers? No, not Fodgers. That’s what Goldmember called his father. It’s the Dodgers! Damn, I thought you would’ve guessed that. The hilarious thing is I googled how many teams are there in MLB and there are 29 other baseball teams, supposedly! Can you name another team that signed someone this offseason? I didn’t think so! Okay, enough of the foolery, Tommy Boy, we have a Teoscar to hand out in Los Angeles…the best pitcher Teoscar goes to…A joke I will make 32 times this year! Or thereabouts, depending on how many ding-dongs he puts up. I love Teoscar, but maybe a skosh more than is warranted. He does average, like, 25 homers a year with a .255 average. It’s not exactly incredible, but he is in the best park and team to succeed. 2024 Projections: 83/32/91/.263/7 in 529 ABs
22. Lane Thomas – If you’re an ex-Cardinals outfielder, then you have a high probability to exceed expectations. Seriously, put Dominic Smith in the Cardinals’ outfield for two months then trade him, I have a theory I want to explore. I thought I’d be in the passing Lane, but instead I’m singing Get Outta My Dreams, Get Into My Car, Lane. [screaming at the skies] “Did you see the clever line I wrote, God? It’s me, Grey! I only ring you every hour, you should know me by now!” So, Thomas has 20-steal speed, it’s not fluky, so now the question is does he have 28-homer power, as he did last year. Launch Angle is kinda mid; fly balls are mid; Hard Contact% is kinda mid; his previous year HR/FB% seems kinda high for him. So, no. He doesn’t have 28-homer power, but 23/20/.250 hitting 2nd behind Abrams is a top 25 outfielder. Remember, he was a top 10 outfielder last year, so talking a slight fall-off, but not a cratering. 2024 Projections: 78/23/68/.254/20 in 576 ABs
23. Seiya Suzuki – If you take 27/8/.270 and put it next to 24/10/.275, how far apart are those projections in your mind? Okay, your mind is wrong. They’re close. Very close. Who are they? It’s Castellanos vs. Seiya. This is is to say, uh, Suzuki surprised me where his projections came out and thus where I had to rank him due to them. If you don’t think his projections are right, then that’s another matter. My thoughts were he plays 140 games, he shows a 14% HR/FB with an 11-ish Launch Angle and a 37% fly ball rate, leaves us around 23-24 homers, and his xBA was .282, his max exit velocity is top-tier, and his average exit velo is very good. He is a very good hitter, who has not been able to stay healthy, but even in 140 games, he’s giving you Castellanos in 155 games. 2024 Projections: 77/24/82/.276/11 in 502 ABs
24. Jordan Walker – This is a new tier. This tier goes from here until Carter. I call this tier, “I drink everything in your fridge.” The phrase, “I drink your milkshake,” refers to how after you beat someone, you beat them so bad that you drink their milkshake. If you can draft the guys in this tier, you will not only beat your competitors and enjoy their milkshake, you will drink their soda, their pickles, their hot sauce, their Gatorade, their everything. You will drink up their fridge.
As for Walker, already gave you my Jordan Walker sleeper. It wore its hat inside the house. 2024 Projections: 72/25/81/.263/10 in 531 ABs
25. Jackson Chourio – Already gave you my Jackson Chourio fantasy, and everything holds true since I wrote it, except the projections. In that post, I said, “If he were a lock for Opening Day, he would easily be my top prospect.” And that’s me quoting me! That was obviously meant to include “besides Yamamoto.” Now that Chourio signed a deal with the Brewers it would be absurd for them to keep him in the minors. In that post, I said he could be Ronald Acuña Jr. That is what we’re dealing with here. I went back and looked at Acuña’s rookie year, and, yeah, the sky’s the limit here. Go feast your eyes on Chourio’s clips in my rookie outlook post. 2024 Projections: 71/19/76/.249/28 in 509 ABs
26. Wyatt Langford – Already gave you my Wyatt Langford fantasy. It was written while profusely apologizing to Cougs without knowing what I did. UPDATE: Was moved up, feeling more confident about him breaking camp. 2024 Projections: 78/22/71/.278/20 in 511 ABs
27. Riley Greene – Already gave you my Riley Greene sleeper. It wrote itself a note in a bottle. 2024 Projections: 84/21/61/.274/12 in 533 ABs
28. Anthony Santander – Already went over him in the 1st basemen rankings.
29. Josh Lowe – There should be a tier of 20/20 guys who I don’t trust to be 20/20 guys, but could be 15/20 or 20/30 or 20/40 or 20/50 because steals are so obscene right now. As I said a bit this offseason, players are now “the desire to steal” away from going from a 15-steal guy to a 40-steal guy. I’m exaggerating a little, but not by much. If I’m being honest with you — and why not, we have a parasocial relationship — it was hard for me to rank Lowe this, uh, high, considering he’s a platoon player. He does have speed and power, though, and that goes a long way to fantasy value. UPDATE: Oblique injury, will miss the start of the season. 2024 Projections: 54/15/66/.281/21 in 389 ABs
30. Evan Carter – Already gave you my Evan Carter fantasy. It reminded me of this old joke that I can’t remember anymore. 2024 Projections: 81/16/72/.264/24 in 541 ABs
31. Kyle Schwarber – This is a new tier. This tier goes from here until Mullins. I call this tier, “Precipice of egregious.” I mean, how bad could it be? That question looms over this entire tier. These guys could all be totally fine, but their worst case scenarios are the stuff of nightmares. I will say all of these guys can be fine and give you what they always give you, whether that’s power or speed or some combo, but they’re also on the precipice of egregious.
As for Schwarber, his basement is terrifying. Not saying he’s making babies out of doll parts and reanimating them in his basement, but I’m saying his worst case scenario scares the beezebras out of me. 2024 Projections: 97/41/96/.191 in 579 ABs
32. Bryan Reynolds – His worst case scenario isn’t as terrifying as doll parts strung together and propped up in a rocking chair being treated as someone’s mother, but in some ways it’s even worse because of how boring he could be if he loses just a fraction off his line. Bryan Reynolds in a snap could become Bryan De La Cruz. Or rather Bryan De La Snooze. 2024 Projections: 81/25/84/.260/7 in 552 ABs
33. George Springer – Allow Stevie Wonder’s Lately to begin the Springer blurb.
Oh, I’m a man of many wishes,
I hope my premonition misses
But what I really feel my eyes won’t let me hide
‘Cause they always start to cry
‘Cause this time could finally mean I’m right to say to Springer, “Goodbye!” Goodbye! Goodbye! Go away already, won’t you please! I wave goodbye…
I’ve been saying goodbye to Springer for the last five years. He’s like the outfield version of Whit Merrifield. At some point Springer’s steals have to dry up, don’t they? What a crazy thing the pitch clock rules have played on steals totals: In 2015, Springer had the 52nd highest sprint speed and stole 16 bags, his career high. Dot dot dot. Until last year! When he had the 226th sprint speed and stole 20 bags. Sprint speed isn’t everything for steals. You have to know when and how to steal, but guessing a player will lose steals in today’s game is the way to madness. By the way, on a side note, Stevie Wonder was in front of me in line at the supermarket, and he was shockingly big. I am not a large person, but he towered over me, and big, like I was behind a football player. I also cut him some slack when he didn’t put the separator down on the conveyor belt to separate our groceries. 2024 Projections: 84/23/68/.252/18 in 507 ABs
34. Jorge Soler – Signed with the Giants. Soler has made his career in a lot of parks that would be considered pitchers’ parks, and has excelled, so I’m not worried about his power in San Fran. He’s a 32-homer hitter anywhere, even on the dark side of the moon. Guess you could say Soler hits ’em where the sun don’t shine. You walked right into that one! Like, I basically said you have something on your shirt, you looked down and I poked you in the eye. Just kindergarten-type setups here and you fell for it. Do better. 2024 Projections: 73/32/83/.245/1 in 511 ABs
35. Esteury Ruiz – Neither here nor there, but it’s funny how dysfunctional the A’s organization is that Michael Lewis lumped heaps of praise of them. Sure, it was many years ago, but Billy Beane is still there, but he suddenly forget how to find value where others overlooked it? Thankfully, Lewis just wrote a book gobbing smacks worth of praise on Sam Bankman-Fried so Moneyball wouldn’t look as bad by comparison. Incredible hindsight from Lewis when looking at Moneyball, The Blind Side and the SBF book. Any hoo! As I said, that had nothing to do with Ruiz, and how bad could he be to be in this tier? How does 5/50/.220 while batting ninth sound to you? Bad enough? 2024 Projections: 54/6/57/.241/51 in 507 ABs
36. Cedric Mullins – His last name is accurate, because he had me Mullins his ranking! Hashtag nailed it! High five me right now! No? Okay. In the end, Mullins couldn’t make worse contact if he were Richard Dreyfuss building mashed potato sculptures. He had a Launch Angle of 21.6. I’m sorry, what the f*ck is that? Yes, that is so perplexing I used my one F bomb of the year on it. By the way, former MLB catcher Gary Carter invented the phrase F bomb. That piece of trivia will never get old for me. You can do a google if you don’t believe me. Any hoodle! Mullins with a 21.6 Launch Angle is almost as bad Yelich with a 3, just in the opposite way. Mullins’s 49% FB rate coupled with 275-foot power is incredibly bad. I won’t project him for it, but I wouldn’t be shocked to see Mullins fall into a platoon at some point. 2024 Projections: 57/17/71/.229/24 in 531 ABs
37. Jarren Duran – This is a new tier. This tier goes from here until Outman. I call this tier, “Put your head on a swivel.” The common slang “head on a swivel” means to keep your eyes all around you. This tier does not mean that. Instead, imagine your head was placed on a swivel, like a Lazy Susan or an office chair, then spun around. You’d be dizzy pretty quickly. That’s this tier. The tier name is referring to how I felt thinking about drafting the guys in this tier this high, but my projections for them landed them here for me, and far be it from me to disagree with me. I’ve been dizzied, but I will overcome (my own dizziness, thanks for asking).
As for Duran, this tier is also: I almost wrote sleepers for these guys. Duran, especially, should’ve likely got a sleeper. Here’s something that I noticed on our 15-team rankings. Duran is marked as having no value in runs, RBIs or power. I’ll quibble a bit on the power being negative, but that’s personal opinion. Ya know, if a guy who hits 10 homers in Triple-A in 68 games is an opinion and not a fact, but whatever. That’s fine. Where I’m having a hard time is he’s hitting leadoff, more than likely, so no value in runs makes no sense. He has to have the value of Yoshida in runs, at least! If his power holds from Triple-A, and he hit eight HRs last year in 332 ABs, so it seems to be holding, then he has to be as good at power as the 15-homer guy Yoshida. Maybe Duran hits for a lower average than Yoshida. He did not last year, but let’s say he hits .260. So, he’s lower in average, same in power, at least same in runs and lower in RBIs (assuming leadoff, but assuming leadoff and not giving him runs over Yoshida makes no sense). Therefore, to make up the difference, Duran would need to double Yoshida’s 10 steals projections. Let’s see. Dot dot dot. Spoiler alert! He clears 20 steals by a lot! Somehow Duran is buried in early drafts, but he’s a 15/30/.260 hitter with upside from there. The only legit concern is he platoons. Why would he platoon? He was a .289 hitter vs. lefties last year, he’s good with the glove and who is playing center now instead of him? A scarecrow in a Verdugo jersey? 2024 Projections: 86/15/55/.266/31 in 511 ABs
38. James Outman – Already gave you my James Outman sleeper. It was written while dreaming in technicolor. 2024 Projections: 78/27/86/.256/19 in 504 ABs
39. Lourdes Gurriel Jr. – This is a new tier. This tier goes from here until the top 60 outfielders for 2024 fantasy baseball. I call this tier, “Aight but not aight aight and definitely not aight aight aight.” These guys are aight, but not aight aight like, “Aight, he’s dope” or “Aight aight aight,” like you’re just so mesmerized with a guy you just keep nodding and saying aight. No, these guys are aight, but more like, “He is aight. Period.” i.e., “This player is satisfactory.”
As for Lourdes, he re-signed with the Dbags this offseason, but really it was them being resigned. I’m being too harsh. Satisfactory is not bad. Bad is bad. Satisfactory’s got the word ‘factory’ in it because it’s a blue collar word for solid, decent, hard-earning player who does well with what they have. Lou-Gu-Ju is exactly that. He’s way more valuable than you expect, but isn’t going to elicit a “Damn, nice pick” in the draft. 2024 Projections: 72/22/86/.274/6 in 536 ABs
40. Masataka Yoshida – He’s such a bleh, whatever 2nd outfielder while being such a prototypical third outfielder. He’s also so borrrrrrrrrrrring. There’s no way he’s cracking 20 homers with his Launch Angle. There’s no way he’s going to get magically “fast.” He’s playing in the outfield where Andrew Benintendi once called home, while being so effin’ boring himself, and basically repeating what Beninten-did. Yoshida is carrying the boring torch. Why, though? What is your Benintentions? So, how is that aight? That’s exactly what it is. He’s so aight while not being aight aight or aight aight aight. 2024 Projections: 77/15/74/.293/10 in 548 ABs
CONTINUE TO THE TOP 60 OUTFIELDERS
