Today’s 2022 fantasy baseball rankings brings you the top 60 outfielders for 2022 fantasy baseball brought to by the letter O, as in, “Oh fudge.” Only I didn’t say the chocolatey goodness word, fudge. Oh, no, I said the mother of all cusses. The Fernando Tatis Jr. of curses. As always, my projections are noted for each player and where I see tiers starting and stopping. Here’s Steamer’s 2022 Fantasy Baseball Projections for Hitters and 2022 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 60 outfielders for 2022 fantasy baseball:
NOTE: All 2022 fantasy baseball projections are based on a 162-game season, and will be until we hear definitively there will be less games, due to the CBA. Also, I’m going on the assumption the NL is getting the DH.
NOTE II: 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 III: 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.
CONTINUE BACK TO THE TOP 40 OUTFIELDERS FOR 2022 FANTASY BASEBALL
41. Bryan Reynolds – This is a new tier. This tier goes from here until Straw. I call this tier, “Dr. Jekyll and Mr. Hoo-Ha.” This tier is filled with guys who I can look at and get mad one second, and look at again a few seconds later and get excited like Al Pacino after smelling a woman. As for Reynolds, on the surface, Reynolds’s 24/5/.300 peak is clearly better than Austin Meadows’s line, and, would you look at that, I ranked him above Meadows. (Meadows is in the top 60 outfielders, which are coming next.) Reynolds or anyone directly below him is a matter of how much do you need average. His .293 xBA last year was top 7% in the league, and his 25.6% line drive rate is clearly solid. The one thing about line drive rate is Adam Frazier led the league last year, but in 2nd was Nick Castellanos. So, you can hit line drives, and not home runs. Or “and homers.” As for Reynolds’s power and speed, I’m once again asking you how much do you need batting average? 2022 Projections: 86/20/84/.306/3 in 545 ABs
42. Josh Bell – Already went over him in the top 20 1st basemen for 2022 fantasy baseball.
43. Austin Meadows – Ya know what’s kinda wild? Any 20-something girl after a Prosecco? Hmm, not what I was going for, but good guess. What’s wild is Meadows went 27/4/.234 last year and was the 29th best outfielder on the Player Rater. Outfielders aren’t currently staying at the Renaissance Hotel. There’s a ton of guys still we have to go over, but a 27/4/.234 season being top 30 last year shows you how bleh the outfield position was, and currently is. Running through Meadows in the rankings should be a joyous affair, instead it feels like we accidentally opened the vault where Canada’s storing its maple syrup reserves, and we’re ankle-deep in the brown sludge, screaming, “Aunt Jemima, eh!” Luckily, no one was injured in the ensuing flood, because the maple syrup flood was moving at .03 MPH, about the same as Pablo Sandoval running to first. As for Meadows, did he time travel back a decade? Because he went from the age of 25 to 26, and looks like he gained ten years. I’ve never seen a guy go from 71st overall in Sprint Speed to 264th in two years, outside of Machado, and that’s more motivation vs. ability. Hey, Meadows, stop skipping leg day! His BABIP last year was .249, which is like some kind of Pujols-type BABIP, and Meadows wasn’t that unlucky! He hits everything in the air and runs like he’s in a vault of maple syrup. UPDATE: Traded to the Tigers. 2022 Projections: 84/29/93/.240/3 in 536 ABs
44. Trent Grisham – Ya know what’s funny to me that’s not really funny even to me, all the people who took a victory lap after Grisham’s great 2020 season, which was still only a 10/10/.251 season, did they lose their clout? Did anyone go in and zap their victory laps for illegally flouting? Illegally flouting sounds like something from the No Fun League. That’s what’s funny about being a ‘pert (still not funny), you take a victory lap off a lucky year from a player and everyone’s like, “Wow, (fill-in ‘pert name) was so right about (Ohtani, Mullins, Semien) last year!” Were they though? I mean, they were great, but choosing the 5% possibility is a choice, but does it make someone more right than someone else? Last year, I wrote in my Grisham blurb, “I should’ve wrote a schmohawk post for him,” and, yeah, clearly. I also said how goofy it was that Grisham was being drafted at the same point as guys with 5+ year track records. It was goofy! There’s a case to be made it’s still goofy how high I’m ranking him. With neutral luck, he’s a 21/15/.245 hitter. If he gets the right amount of counting stats, which there’s no, uh, accounting for, this is a fair draft spot for him. Am I more Jekyll than Hoo-Ha for him? Maybe but that’s six of one and an actual doctor named Jay wearing a Julius Erving jersey in the other, and maybe the Hoo-Ha is down there somewhere. 2022 Projections: 86/21/61/.248/15 in 533 ABs
45. Hunter Renfroe – Here’s what I said this offseason, “Traded to the Brewers. A last-minute, pre-lockout trade? As Scooby would say, “Hunter Renfroe?!” The move to Milwaukee is gonna cut down on Renfroe’s average a little, but could aid in power. The Green Monster giveth doubles for average (he had a career high in doubles last year, because of course), but it taketh away some low-flying missiles that could get to the seats. Really liked Renfroe last year in Boston, and this doesn’t hurt that enthusiasm. Me likey a lot.” And that’s me quoting me! Obviously more Hoo-Ha than Jekyll on Renfroe, but I struggled for a good 37 seconds on which tier to put Renfroe, and finally just put him here. 2022 Projections: 79/33/92/.249/2 in 519 ABs
46. Myles Straw – I rank everyone, then go back through and fill-in my thoughts, but when I’m ranking everyone the first time through, I write stuff like, “Overrated?” and “Check to see if I wrote a rookie post.” Next to Straw’s name, I wrote, “Check to see if I wrote a sleeper post for Straw. Also, pretend you never did the Hisashi dashi slurp SLURP thing, and start using slurp SLURP for Straw.” Turned out I never wrote a Straw sleeper. My guess for what November Grey was thinking (in November is when I write the sleepers) is while Straw is definitely someone I want to slurp SLURP! I didn’t write the post because, while I can write 500-word paragraphs of nonsense to fill up a blurb, how do I stretch a whole sleeper post out of, “Myles Straw is SAGNOF.” We’re not quite there again where I’m writing up a whole tier of SAGNOF. Steals have a face right now, and there’s a big ol’ Straw in the middle of it going slurp SLURP! 2022 Projections: 89/4/51/.275/32 in 573 ABs
47. Jesus Sanchez – This is a new tier. This tier goes from here until Carlson. I call this tier, “Let’s do dirty stuff after I’m done cleaning!” This tier of guys has me very excited, but I’m not delusional, they might be a chore to roster. I wrote a few sleeper posts for these guys, I’m in on them, guys and five lady readers, but they’re sleepers or just being drafted later, in general, for a reason. There’s some potential downside. As a superhero version of myself once said, “There’s no upside without downside.” As for Sanchez, already gave you my Jesus Sanchez fantasy. It was written while going on a walk. Ah, how quaint. 2022 Projections: 69/28/78/.253/2 in 479 ABs
48. Alex Kirilloff – Already went over him in the top 20 1st basemen for 2022 fantasy baseball.
49. Andrew Vaughn – Already went over him in the top 20 1st basemen for 2022 fantasy baseball.
50. Alex Verdugo – Alex Cora thinking he should hit Verdugo 4th thru 9th for around 200 plate appearances last year turned me into The Joker. Though, just as I was applying my purple mascara, Cora hit Verdugo 2nd. It’s pretty crazy that a major league manager needs 200 plate appearances to realize something as obvious as a 15/5/.300 hitter is about as prototypical a number two hitter as you’re gonna find. Or even leadoff over Enrique Hernandez, but dare to dream on that. The chore here? Try cleaning up for Verdugo vs. lefties (.228 last year). 2022 Projections: 93/15/59/.298/5 in 557 ABs
51. Avisail Garcia – Here’s what I said this offseason, “Signed with the Marlins. Had one of the sneakiest productive seasons last year, going 29/8/.262. Yes, he had a season you would’ve taken from George Springer. This might get the Marlins to stop trying to make a thing from Garrett Cooper. Kim Ng, “He’s never going to fetch us anything, is he?” That’s her looking at Garrett Cooper. Yes, the Avisail Garciasigning might finally get the Marlins to stop trying to make Garrett Cooper a thing. By the way, my money’s on Avisail sleeping with Jorge Alfaro’s wife. We shall see!” And that’s me quoting me! Sadly, Alfaro was traded before he could get cucked. 2022 Projections: 61/24/66/.271/7 in 421 ABs
52. Jo Adell – Already gave you my Jo Adell sleeper. It was written while dancing in the pale moonlight. 2022 Projections: 67/28/76/.253/10 in 537 ABs
53. Dylan Carlson – Looked at all his minor league fly ball rates, and his HR/FB% last year and nearly convinced myself that Carlson can grow into a 35-homer, .280 hitter, and then I looked at his Statcast page, and I started to worry he might hit 17/.240 with no speed. His average should keep getting better with his power, and if he were in a better park, I might’ve even wrote a sleeper post for Carlson, but his minor league 18% HR/FB might be hard to repeat in the majors, and his 37%-ish fly ball rate doesn’t give me the best of feels. Think the most optimistic step forward for Carlson this year is going from a .266 hitter to one who could sneak into the .290s. 2022 Projections: 83/21/71/.281/4 in 561 ABs
54. Michael Conforto – This is a new tier. This tier goes from here until the top 80 outfielders for 2022 fantasy baseball. I call this tier, “Full bar booing as I sway side-to-side like Axl Rose, singing, ‘Patience.'” These guys are on my last nerve. Or noive if Curly from The Three Stooges is reading. I’m trying to karaoke Patience, but I’m tone deaf and the lyrics scroll is going way too fast to read. “All we need is just a–Hey, could you slow down the scroll? I’m trying to perfect my side-to-side sway and I missed some words.” At that point, the karaoke crowd starts booing and you’re dodging mozzarella sticks. As for Conforto, FREE AGENT 2022 Projections:
55. Chris Taylor – Already went over him in the top 20 2nd basemen for 2022 fantasy baseball.
56. Daulton Varsho – Already went over him in the top 20 catchers for 2022 fantasy baseball.
57. Ian Happ – This guy is the epitome of wearing thin the song Patience. The epitome of the epitome — the epitomiest — of that is Ian Happ coming one game started short of getting 2nd base eligibility (in Yahoo leagues, at least). His Launch Angle came down dramatically like Gloria Swanson on a staircase, and I don’t think that’s good for Happ’s game. It’s not like the reduced Launch Angle led to more Hard Contact or a better line drive rate. Now he just hits a bunch of ground balls. His 24.3% HR/FB is doing so much heavy lifting, literally. His .220 xBA is trying my patience in 2022 and I haven’t even drafted him yet. Then I see his 2nd half stats (16 HRs, .268) and I think about how my expectations are rising just to be let down again. “Ugh, I hate him so much,” which is what I say after inconceivably drafting him again. 2022 Projections: 67/27/86/.234/7 in 531 ABs
58. Joey Gallo – There’s just under 200 reasons why I couldn’t rank Gallo any higher and Axl Rose is on ice skates on thin ice swaying side-to-side. The just under 200 reasons also has a period in front of it, so it’s expressed “just under .200.” If I were the Yankees, I’d let Gallo and Miguel Andujar platoon, based on matchups, which wouldn’t help either of their fantasy values. Unless, of course, Twitter user, JeterisaGod27rings, is correct, and Andujar is traded for someone like Julio Urias, or something equally as unlikely. 2022 Projections: 79/36/84/.195/5 in 481 ABs
59. Mark Canha – Already gave you a Mark Canha fantasy. It was written while waving like one of those cats in a sushi restaurant. 2022 Projections: 73/21/64/.239/10 in 571 ABs
60. Jorge Soler – Signed by the Marlins. Pit bull approves of this signing. Not the Miami-based rapper, I went to a pit bull in my neighborhood and said, “Jorge Soler to the Marlins,” and he barked. So, ya know, that’s his approval. Soler could hit the ball out of any park, so not worried about this hurting his power, but his average has been on decline and not showing much sign of a bounce back. This should be a solid landing spot for him though, much like Aguilar before him, because why wouldn’t they play Soler every day? 2022 Projections: 71/29/84/.230/1 in 481 ABs
CONTINUE TO THE TOP 80 OUTFIELDERS FOR 2022 FANTASY BASEBALL
