Fantasy Baseball Dynasty Positional Rankings: Top-50 2nd Basemen

Dynasty leagues are the best, aren’t they? It’s the closest us fanatics can get to being a real baseball general manager. While you might not look at your team every single day of the offseason, dynasty leagues are a year-round commitment and there’s never a bad time to improve your team. Never I say! Whether you’re starting a new dynasty league or entering year 20, rankings play a vital part of any draft prep, trades, etc. I’ve released my overall top-500 as recently as March (and will update that soon), but I figured I’d dive a little deeper and break these down by position with some analysis and prospect talk. We’ve been making our way around the infield and find ourselves at the keystone today with my top-50 dynasty 2nd base rankings. This position is certainly on the rise.

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Fantasy Baseball Dynasty 2nd Base Rankings

Sexy Elite Tier

We’re now many years removed from this being a defensive-oriented, light-hitting position deprived of elite fantasy talent. Take a quick second to scroll down and look at the first five players in my rankings. Gleber Torres is going to lose second base eligibility after this season as the longterm shortstop for the New York Yankees, but even without him, this elite tier includes Ozzie Albies, Keston Hiura, Gavin Lux, and Jose Altuve. While Altuve is now 30 and potentially nearing the end of his time in this tier, the other three are 23, 24, and 22 years old respectively. Translation: This top tier is here to stay for a long time.

Trying to decide the order of this talented trio is a task with no losing outcome. There’s really no wrong answer here and anyway you rank them can be described as “splitting hairs”. For me, I have to go with the one that has put up back to back seasons of at least 102 runs, 24 home runs, and 14 steals. That man, of course, is the Curacao sensation, Ozzie Albies. On top of that, Albies also improved his walk rate (5.3% to 7.7%) and strikeout rate (17.0% to 16.0%) last season while slashing .295/.352/.500. He’s proven to be durable (averaged 159 GP in the last two seasons), safe, and a robust all-around offensive talent.

In time, I can see Lux or Hiura overtaking Albies. Lux projects to have a better hit tool with more power than Albies as well, so one could say his ceiling is a tad higher. But for now, I’d take Albies as the first second baseman off the board in dynasty leagues.

I’ll Die On This Garrett Hampson Hill

It’d be really nice if the Colorado Rockies would stop Rock-Blocking someone as talented as Garrett Hampson. My Hampson support is starting to slide into the minority of opinions, but I’m going to stick by it as I’m a firm believer in the tools. You can laugh about his current lack of playing time or how the Rockies “always do this”, but I’ll take the guy with solid tools any day of the week.

What are those “solid tools” I’m speaking of? Glad you asked. To start, Hampson is the best option the Rockies have for the leadoff position. The contact skills are above-average and Hampson displayed an advanced plate approach in the minors with a 10.4% walk rate and a 15.2% strikeout rate. With his contact skills and patience, a .280-.290 average and .350-.370 OBP is well within reach. Getting on base is a key part of being a leadoff hitter, but when you can add plus speed to those on-base skills, that’s when the big impact begins. Hampson has that plus speed and has flaunted that throughout his professional career, including with the Rockies last season when he swiped 15 bags in 105 games.

While Hampson doesn’t post the sexy exit velocity or barrel metrics, there’s at least some pop here. In a neutral park, Hampson would probably be in the 8-10 HR range, but when you factor in the Coors Field factor, that jumps to around 12-15.

So, let’s recap everything above. Hampson has the upside for a .280+ average, .350+ OBP, 12-15 home runs, and 25+ steals over a full season. If that’s at leadoff, you can pencil in 90+ runs as well with the quality of bats that would be behind him in that Rockies lineup. Yes, his playing time situation right now downright stinks. There’s no other way to put it. However, this also might’ve created a nice buy-low window for Hampson in your dynasty league. If it did, do yourself a favor and capitalize on it.

Top Second Base Prospects

My dynasty rankings take proximity to the Majors into consideration as well. The rankings below will not 100% correlate to my prospect rankings.

1. Gavin Lux, Los Angeles Dodgers: Outside of Wander Franco, you could make a strong case that Gavin Lux has the highest floor of any current prospect. And then there’s that lofty fantasy ceiling that makes him even more desirable in dynasty leagues. With a plus or better hit tool, plus power, and average to above-average speed, Lux has the type of all-around offensive skill set that could make him an early-round fantasy selection for years to come.

2. Vidal Brujan, Tampa Bay Rays: When watching Vidal Brujan, the first aspect of his game that stands out immediately is his blazing speed. Scouts and analysts are split on whether to grade it as 70 or 80 (I lean 70), but regardless of grade, there’s 30-plus steal upside in these legs. Add in an above-average hit tool and enough pop to flirt with double-digit homers annually, and you have a potential high-impact fantasy second baseman in the making that should debut within the next year or so.

3. Nick Solak, Texas Rangers: While I’m not ultimately sure where Solak will end up defensively, he’s likely going to be a rock-solid fantasy option at any position. Solak doesn’t excel anywhere, but I’d say he’s above-average across the board and has produced at every level he’s been at. There’s .280/20+/15+ upside here. Don’t overlook him due to the lack of a standout tool.

4. Brendan Rodgers, Colorado Rockies: As was the case with Hampson above, Brendan Rodgers hasn’t had the easiest time breaking into the Rockies everyday lineup. It’s not long ago that some outlets had Hampson as a top-10 overall prospect. Top 10! While I never personally had him quite that high, Rodgers impressed me at the plate in my live looks a couple of years ago and possesses .290/25 upside.

5. Nick Madrigal, Chicago White Sox

6. Xavier Edwards, Tampa Bay Rays

Welcome to the slap dick tier of this top-10. Both of the next two prospects have similar skillsets that center around making contact and stealing bases. Madrigal is the more advanced of the two and one with a strikeout rate not achievable by mere mortals. He’s also much closer to helping out your fantasy squads with his debut potentially happening any day now. That’s the main reason why he’s ahead of Edwards here in my dynasty rankings. However, Edwards gets the slight not in my prospect rankings that factor in upside more heavily as I believe theres a touch more speed and higher OBP upside with Edwards. We’re basically splitting hairs here, but if you like speedy middle infielders that you can bank on a high AVG, these two are safe bets for you. Just don’t expect much power.

7. Aaron Bracho, Cleveland Indians: Here’s where it gets interesting. As it stands today, there’s a significant gap between the 6th snd 7th ranked second base prospects in these dynasty rankings. I’m not sure any of the next three names have the upside to bridge that gap either. Macho Man Aaron Bracho does, however. The speed upside we’ve discussed with most of the names ahead of him isn’t there, but Bracho has displayed an above-average to plus hit tool and power stroke. There’s a chance he could grow into a player very similar to what Brendan Rodgers currently is. If you’re looking for a name on the rise, you found him.

8. Mauricio Dubon, San Francisco Giants: When discussing the high-upside prospects at this position, Mauricio Dubon’s name never gets thrown around. Not even a passing whisper. Maybe that’s because Dubon isn’t that type of prospect. There’s nothing flashy about his game. However, this is one of the shallower positions when it comes to top-shelf prospect talent and Dubon’s modest power/speed potential and the fact that he’s already in the Majors definitely has some value in dynasty leagues. While he’s not going to be someone you build around, Dubon has the tools to provide low-end value while not hurting you in any one category.

9. Luis Garcia, Washington Nationals: After vaulting up into the top-50 of many fantasy prospect lists, Luis Garcia endured a tumultuous 2020 season that deflated all that helium he had built up. But not all is lost. It needs to be noted that Garcia was one of the youngest players at the Double-A level last season and the Eastern League has long been a pitcher-friendly venue in mostly cold-weather stadiums. Like Dubon, Garcia’s ceiling isn’t one you go out of your way to acquire, but the all-around package could allow him to develop into a steady fantasy contributor down the road.

10. Miguel Hiraldo, Toronto Blue Jays

While I don’t believe Hiraldo has the skillset to ascend into the elite tier of second base prospects, there’s definitely some breakout appeal here. Whether that happens will be up to the bat as Hiraldo is a below-average runner with limited range that will likely keep him away from shortstop in the future.

Alright, here are the rankings!

Media Credit: Rich von Biberstein/Icon Sportswire

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