Ranking the 15 projected starting American League third basemen

While his team has been mired in controversy this offseason, Bregman is coming off a season in which he was the runner-up for AL MVP (finished fifth in voting in 2018). He doesn’t strike out often (168 strikeouts compared to 215 walks over the last two years) and has also connected on 72 homers and 88 doubles with a .970 OPS over that time. He also showed great improvement in the field last year at both third base and shortstop.

It was a banner 2019 season for Rendon as he won a Silver Slugger, was a Gold Glove finalist, finished third in NL MVP voting, and won a World Series with the Nationals. Now on the Angels, he finished with career-highs last year in homers (34), RBIs (126), runs (117), batting average (.319), and OPS (1.010).

The premier defensive third baseman in the AL (and perhaps all of baseball), Chapman finished sixth in AL MVP voting after finishing seventh in 2018. He’s also become somewhat of a standout at the plate too with 60 homers, 78 doubles, and an .855 OPS over the last two years.

Finishing third in AL MVP voting in 2017 and 2018, Ramirez got off to a terrible start last year before looking like his former self to end the season. After the All-Star break, he hit .327 with a 1.105 OPS. He’s also stolen 97 bags in the last four years.

Only 23 years old, Devers still has work to do to improve in the field, but his excellent offensive season in 2019 helped him to a 12th-place finish in AL MVP voting. His outstanding year at the plate included a .311 batting average, .916 OPS, 32 homers, 54 doubles, 115 RBIs, and 129 runs.

After an injury-riddled 2018, Donaldson rebounded nicely finishing 11th in NL MVP voting with Atlanta last season. The 2015 AL MVP was a Gold Glove finalist, walked 100 times, and hit 37 home runs. The Twins signed him in the offseason to a four-year, $92 million deal.

After somewhat of a disappointing first full season in 2018 in which Moncada struck out a ridiculous 217 times, he bounced back with an excellent year in 2019. He raised his batting average 80 points from the previous season to .315, raised his OPS 201 points to .915, and hit 25 homers along with 34 doubles.

While Guerrero Jr. probably didn’t quite reach the absurd heights expected of him after he made his big league debut on April 29, he still was an above-average performer at the plate with a .272 average, 15 homers, and 26 doubles. Not turning 21 on March 16, some incremental improvement is to be expected, hopefully in the field as well since the defensive metrics weren’t fond of him at all last year.

The 32-year-old Seager hit 23 home runs last season, the eighth-straight season in which he has hit at least 20. The former Gold Glover is still an asset in the field, and he hit much better in the second half of last season due in part to a batting stance correction according to the News Tribune.

If the rankings were based on last year, Urshela would be higher. His season literally came out of nowhere though, as entering 2019, the 28-year-old had 499 career plate appearances in the big leagues with a lowly .589 OPS. Forced into action due to injured players on the Yankees, he flourished in 2019 hitting .314 with 21 homers and 34 doubles. Whether he can repeat that success remains to be seen.

Receiving his most major league action in 2019, the 28-year-old Diaz became a reliable hitter for the Rays. Injuries limited him to 79 games, but he hit .267 with 14 home runs and and .816 OPS. He doesn’t have the range of the elite third basemen, and he’s often started at first base and designated hitter.

Now 33 years old, Frazier hit 21 homers last season which was the eighth-straight year he hit at least 18. He also hit .251 which is a large improvement from the .218 he batted from 2016-18. He’s remained steady in the field even as he advances in age.

While he’s hit 88 home runs over the last four years, there are still a lot of warts in Franco’s game. He has a sub-.300 on-base percentage over that same time frame and even spent some time at AAA last year after the Phillies sent him down. He’s also not very reliable in the field, but at 27 years old, there’s still hope for him to show improvements in his game.

While Candelario was at least respectable at the plate in 2018, he took a big step backwards last year. In 94 games, he hit just .203 with eight homers and a .643 OPS. He’s always shown a propensity for drawing walks at an above-average rate.

In his first extended big league action last year, Ruiz proved to be solid at the hot corner, although he wasn’t much of a threat at the plate. He had just 25 extra-base hits (12 home runs, 13 doubles) in 370 at bats last year.