Top 100 Prospects Position Rankings: Third Basemen

Now that we’ve wrapped up the Top 10 Prospects lists and The Top 100, we turn our attention to how the best of the best stack up against each other with our position rankings.

THIRD BASEMEN

Quality of the Class: It’s a down period at the hot corner. Three third basemen made our Top 100 and a few guys just missed the Top 100 despite solid cases for inclusion. But a large number of the prospects on this list are players who are years from the big leagues. As usual, a number of players on the shortstop list may end up sliding to third base before they reach the big leagues, so there will be some coming reinforcements.

Highest Ceiling: Rangers 3B Joey Gallo’s power is baseball’s equivalent of nuclear fusion. If Gallo can just make contact at a reasonable rate, he’ll battle for home run titles. There’s still a big question over whether he can do that as his strikeout rate waxes and wanes. He showed an improved batting eye early in the season but that patience fell apart after a brief big league callup.

Lowest Risk: What you see is what you get with Astros 3B Colin Moran. He’s a slow-footed third baseman who relies on his excellent arm to make up for his limited range. He doesn’t have a lot of home run potential because his swing is geared for line drives. But Moran hits for average everywhere he goes with a swing that should play in the big leagues. If a team is willing to live with his limitations, Moran can hit for average in the big leagues.

Bursting On The Scene: Cardinals 3B Paul DeJong has power and excellent bat speed that leads to lot of stinging line drives. With a lengthy track record of hitting, it wouldn’t surprise evaluators if DeJong proved to be one of the better bats in the Florida State League this year.

Third Basemen

1. Joey Gallo, Rangers

2. Rafael Devers, Red Sox

3. Franklin Barreto, A’s

4. Ryan McMahon, Rockies

5. Ke’Bryan Hayes, Pirates

6. Matt Chapman, Athletics

7. Austin Riley, Braves

8. Colin Moran, Astros

9. Jomar Reyes, Orioles

10. Miguel Andujar, Yankees

11. Jeimer Candelario, Cubs