48 days until Opening Day ... 

One thing you should know about the second base position heading into the 2025 season is, that everything you think you know about the position could well be wrong a week into the season.

That's only a slight exaggeration. Right now, it looks like the weakest non-catcher position in Fantasy, a position light on stars and heavy on specialists who might be able to help you in one or two categories, but might be a drag in just as many. It's a position with some players worth getting excited about – and, frankly, has enough depth in the middle rounds that I don't exactly think you need to make targeting one of the stars a necessity – but is lacking in the high-end outcomes department, relative to other positions.

But by early April, that could be totally untrue. Already, we're pretty confident that Jazz Chisholm is going to be the Yankees starting second baseman, and might be the No. 1 player at the position as soon as the sixth game of the season. But the biggest hurdle to him being the top 2B might be on the other side of the country, where Mookie Betts could return to second base for the Dodgers. 

The Dodgers did say early in the offseason that the plan is for Betts to be the starting shortstop in 2025, but that plan might be in flux. Since then, they signed Hye-seong Kim, a Gold Glove caliber middle infielder from Korea, and still have Tommy Edman, who is probably a better fit at shortstop than Betts – it's admirable that Betts made the switch back to the infield and wasn't a disaster, but I don't think he either the range or arm strength to be even an average MLB shortstop at this point on his career. The Dodgers could opt to play Kim at shortstop and Edman in center field, or they could view Kim as more of a utility player, in which case, Edman could play shortstop if one of James Outman or Andy Pages proves capable of being an everyday option in center field.

That's two potential top-24 players who could be 2B-eligible a week into the season, and that's not all. Matt McLain seems likely to be the primary 2B for the Reds, and there's even a chance Cubs top prospect Matt Shaw could play there early on in the season if Nico Hoerner's elbow isn't healthy. And then there's this intriguing long-shot option: What if the Astros re-sign Alex Bregman and move Isaac Paredes to second base?

By my count, that is four players who would be in the top 12 at the position right now if they qualified, and another who wouldn't be far off if we knew he was going to crack the Opening Day roster (Shaw). Things could change between now and Opening Day, obviously, so you shouldn't build your whole draft plan around having Betts or Chisholm at second base. 

But if it works out, this position could look a lot better than it currently does, and it may not take long. 

In Wednesday's episode of Fantasy Baseball Today, we dove deep into our thoughts about the second base position, and you can head here to watch Frank Stampfl, Scott White, and I break it all down. In the rest of today's newsletter, we're going to be diving into Scott White's Second Base strategies piece and my Second base preview piece to make sure you know what you need to tackle the position.

Let's take a closer look: 

"How stale has this position gotten?

I said something similar about first base, that all the mainstays are getting older, but for how many years in a row now has the same trio of Jose Altuve, Ozzie Albies and Marcus Semien  driven the conversation at second base? You get occasional pop-ins like  Trea Turner that one time and Mookie Betts that other time, but it always comes back to those three. And after a year in which two of them failed to live up to expectations, you can hardly blame people for investing their dollars elsewhere.

But maybe the premise is faulty. After all, the consensus top second baseman heading into 2025 is someone else entirely: Ketel Marte, who also leads the position in OPS over the past four years. So where has he been all this time? Injured, partly, and also straining to regain our trust after notable misfires in 2020 and 2022. He has it for now, but he's also not exactly a breath of fresh air at age 31."

-From Scott White's 'Second Base Strategies' column

Offseason Recap

• Gleyber Torres signed with the Tigers
• Jonathan India traded to the Royals
• Andres Gimenez traded to the Blue Jays
• Gavin Lux traded to the Reds
• Thairo Estrada signed with the Rockies

Not exactly the most impactful group of offseason moves of all time, though there are some things to note here. First off, there's Torres landing in Detroit, nearly a worst-case scenario for his Fantasy value. Comerica Park is an extremely tough place to hit, especially for power – if Torres had played every game in his career there, he would have 104 homers, compared to 143 if he played every game at Yankee Stadium. Not good. He's never been much of a source of batting average, and his foot speed continues to move in the wrong direction. I could see 12-15 homers and steals here, but that might be close to the ceiling in both. He's a boring MI pick now.

One guy I'm actually kind of excited about, however, is India. He's facing a similarly tough park transition from Cincinnati to Kansas City, especially for his middling raw power. But Kansas City is actually a pretty good place to hit otherwise, boosting batting average and leading to plenty of doubles and triples. With his solid plate discipline, I could see a scenario where India puts up similar homer and steal totals to Torres, but with a .270 average and 90-plus runs as the Royals leadoff hitter. He's a viable starter in H2H points leagues especially. 

Consensus rankings

For breakdowns of each of the top 12 and more, head here. 

1. Ketel Marte, Diamondbacks ( The Elite Tier)
2. Jose Altuve, Astros
3. Ozzie Albies, Braves
4. Marcus Semien, Rangers (The Near-Elite Tier)
5. Jordan Westburg, Orioles
6. Luis Garcia, Nationals (The Next-Best Things Tier)
7. Xander Bogaerts, Padres
8. Brice Turang, Brewers
9. Nico Hoerner, Cubs
10. Brandon Lowe, Rays
11. Gleyber Torres, Tigers
12. Luis Rengifo, Angels (The Fallback Options Tier)

One Sleeper at Second Base

Kristian Campbell, Red Sox

Look, I'm not totally opposed to the idea of giving Vaughn Grissom another chance, something the Red Sox are reportedly at least considering ahead of Spring Training. And if Grissom comes out in Spring Training and wins the job, hey, more power to him. But let's be honest: The Red Sox absolutely cannot afford to be complacent about the second base spot in their lineup, because it was an absolute disaster in 2024 – their second basemen collectively had just a 45 wRC+, the worst mark by any team at the position since the 2021 Orioles. If the Red Sox want to be serious about contending in 2025, they can't have a black hole in the lineup like that again. The good news is, they have a viable backup plan now in case Grissom looks overmatched again. And, frankly, Campbell should probably just be the Plan A at this point. He doesn't have a long track record, but he just put together one of the most impressive seasons by anyone in the minors in 2024, hitting .330/.439/.558 while getting all the way to Triple-A and more than holding his own. He's a universal top-20 prospect (at least), and while I can see the case for giving him a bit more time in the minors to prove it was 100% for real – he only played 19 games at Triple-A and only 75 above A ball – Campbell might be the team's best option for the keystone right now. It shouldn't be long before we see him there one way or the other.  

One Breakout at Second Base

Triston Casas, Red Sox

Westburg barely cracks the top five of the most hyped Orioles prospect debuts over the past four years, but he established himself as a player worth getting excited about in 2024, and there's room to grow. At the risk of oversimplifying, Westburg is kind of a lesser version of Gunnar Henderson , combining a well-rounded skill set with tools that aren't quite as loud as Henderson's but which still should lead to big production. Especially now that the Orioles are moving the fences in left field back in, after a multi-year experiment that saw it become arguably the toughest place in baseball for right-handed hitters to homer. The park should play much closer to average, at least, and that'll only help Westburg, who was on pace for 25 homers before a late-July hit-by-pitch left him with a broken hand that cost all but six of the final 53 games of the season. One trick we'd like to see him borrow from Henderson: Turning his 91st percentile sprint speed into something like 20-plus steals, the way Henderson went from 10 to 21 in his second full season. The path to a truly impactful season from Westburg is trivially easy to see. 

One Bust at Second Base

Luis Garcia, Nationals

If the Nationals were ever going to give Garcia a chance to truly play every day, wouldn't last year have been the time? They entered the second half of last season nine games under .500 and Garcia still only started 77% of the team's games after the All-Star break - this despite Garcia playing at a higher level than ever before. He started just 15 games against lefties last season and I just don't see much reason to think that's going to change in 2025. If the breakout he enjoyed in 2024 was for real, he could still be worth a top-120 pick, but I think there's plenty of reason to be skeptical - especially about his 22 steals, which were 13 more than his 2023 total despite what remains below average foot speed. With Garcia likely to put you at a deficit in runs and RBI due to his lack of an everyday role, you really need him to be a 20-20-type hitter, and that's no sure bet.