Red Sox land more former players than current players on ESPN Top 100 list
ESPN released its rankings of the top 100 players in baseball Monday — and there are more former Red Sox players (three) on it than current ones (two).
Boston’s two representatives are both corner infielders, with Rafael Devers ranking as the 30th-best player in baseball and first baseman Triston Casas coming in at No. 65. No other Red Sox cracked the top 100. Three former members of the team did, though, with Mookie Betts (No. 4), Xander Bogaerts (No. 58) and Kyle Schwarber (No. 90) all being ranked.
That Devers, an established star who leads baseball in extra-base hits since 2019, is on the list is no surprise. But Casas is ranked pretty high after just one full season in the majors. In two different stories Monday, ESPN’s Buster Olney seemed quite bullish on Casas’ outlook for 2024.
“After the All-Star break last season, Casas hit .317 with a .417 on-base percentage and 15 homers. He seems fully capable of having a breakout year and finishing in the top 10 of the AL MVP race,” Olney wrote.
“Triston Casas is going to be an absolute masher, something he showed in the second half of last season, and in the years to come, he’ll be the sort of player for whom you can pencil in 35 homers and a .400 on-base percentage,” he added in another article. “Between his command of the strike zone, his strength, his bat-to-ball skills and the inherent advantage of being a talented left-handed hitter in Fenway Park, he will soon become one of the game’s pre-eminent sluggers. A perfect candidate for the Home Run Derby.”
The Braves and Astros led baseball with eight representatives on the top 100 list; Atlanta outfielder Ronald Acuña was ranked No. 1. The Yankees had three players ranked in the top seven (Aaron Judge at No. 2, Juan Soto at No. 3 and Gerrit Cole at No. 7). Unsurprisingly, the Dodgers were well-represented high on the list with Betts (4), Freddie Freeman (5), Shohei Ohtani (9) and Yoshinobu Yamamoto (No. 45) and Will Smith (No. 46) ranking in the top 50.
