When talking about the first base or second base positions for Fantasy Baseball in 2025, you have to spend a lot of time talking about the relative lack of impact depth at both spots and how Fantasy players need to approach the position with some conscious decision-making to avoid missing out on the impact bats or overpaying for the lesser options. When we get to our shortstop preview, it'll be all about the opposite problem – the position is so deep with impact bats that it's worth asking how much you actually need to pay up.
At third base, though, I don't really think you need to overthink it. It's not the strongest of the hitter positions – that's either shortstop or outfield – and it isn't the weakest. It's just right there in the middle, filled with about a half-dozen early-round mashers, but also with plenty of depth even if you miss out on the top 12 or so at the position.
- Position Strategies: C | 1B | 2B | 3B | SS | OF | SP | RP
- Position Previews: C | 1B | 2B | 3B | SS | OF | SP | RP
- Position Tiers: C | 1B | 2B | 3B | SS | OF | SP | RP
You can find power here, with eight players coming off at least 25 homers in 2024 – and that list doesn't include Austin Riley or Jazz Chisholm, who were both on pace for it. You can find batting average here, too, with six qualifiers who hit at least .270 and five more who hit at least .260. There's even some speed available, with three different 3B coming off 40-steal seasons and an additional three who had at least 20.
And there's even a nice mix of reliable, in-their-prime veterans and some really exciting younger guys on the upswing of their careers, so you can take the chance on Royce Lewis, Junior Caminero, or Mark Vientos in the middle rounds if you want to shoot for some superstar upside. And, with Matt Shaw and Coby Mayo entering Spring Training with a chance to earn a job on the Opening Day roster, there's substantial upside even well into the later rounds.
It's a well-rounded position, in other words, with lots to offer for Fantasy players, and unlike at first base, the best players aren't well into their 30s, with the risk of imminent collapse that comes with it.
Third base is in a good spot entering 2025. Here's what you need to know.
After a relatively down year in 2023, Ramirez had the best season of his remarkable career. There is potentially a lesson to be learned here about not worrying too much about the specific production the previous year, and I can certainly see some people being disappointed in Ramirez if they expect a repeat of 2024. But his broad skill set is so strong that he should still be a top-five pick in pretty much every draft.
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From June 1 until his season ended in mid-August with a fractured hand, Riley hit .275 with a 38-homer pace. Which is to say, he hit like we expect Riley to hit. He got off to a poor start and ran out of time to get his numbers where they should have been, but I see no reason to think Riley won't be exactly the impact bat we expected him to be prior to 2024. I'll take any discount you want to offer.
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I'm mostly willing to give Devers the same benefit of the doubt as Riley, but there is one hang-up I can't quite get past: The nature of the injuries that ended Devers' season. Devers played through soreness in both shoulders until his season ended in September, and he was able to avoid surgery, as MRIs showed no structural damage. That should mean Devers will be fine after an offseason of rest, but there's enough doubt there for me that I do rank him below Riley.
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For the record, I do have Chisholm ranked as the No. 2 player at the position in Roto, mostly on the strength of his absolutely absurd run after getting traded to the Yankees. For the uninitiated, Chisholm put up a 162-game pace of 99 runs, 39 homers, 81 RBI, and 63 steals, which would make him a first-round caliber player and potentially a top-five player in Fantasy. But Chisholm's injury history is as long as a CVS receipt, and it includes a UCL sprain in his left elbow he mostly played through down the stretch last year, and that's going to scare at least a few players off him in any given draft.
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There is very little separating Machado from the three guys ahead of him – about 10 spots in my personal Roto rankings overall. He's a little bit older than them and seems to have just a little bit less upside, especially in a Padres lineup that looks somewhat questionable. Still, he has had between 28 and 32 homers in five straight seasons, seems like a good bet to hit around .270, and should steal a few bases, even. Machado is a fine consolation prize at the end of a pretty big tier drop.
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I'm a huge fan of Westburg's, but I'm also probably more likely to use him at second base than third base. He put up excellent quality of contact metrics in 2024 and showed the kind of athleticism that could lead to 15-plus steals if he puts his mind to it. The plate discipline is pretty bad, but it didn't hold him back much last year, and I think he can continue to rake in spite of it.
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We're taking a leap of faith here to a certain extent because Caminero just hasn't proved it at the MLB level yet. He's been one of the top-hitting prospects in baseball over the past few years, and has hit well at every level of the minors at a very young age – he won't turn 22 until just before this year's All-Star break. But he was less than dominant at Triple-A (.829 OPS) and didn't make a huge impact in 43 games in the majors last season, so he may not be quite the finished product we're hoping for. But the upside here is considerable, and it wouldn't be a huge surprise if he were an Austin Riley-level contributor as soon as this season.
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For some, the fact that Lewis was at least an elite producer when healthy made it easier to buy into the injury risk, so his struggles in 2024 are sure to scare them off. I'm less worried about it because I think you can just take what he's done at the MLB level at more or less face value: .268 average, 33 homers, 104 RBI, 81 runs, and six steals in 152 games. That's not that different from what we're expecting from Machado, is it? The upside outcomes look less certain after a tough 2024, and the injury risk will always scare some off. But I still think Lewis can be an impact bat when he's on the field. Let's hope he finally stays there.
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As of early February, Bregman remains unsigned, and that's not ideal, because he seems like someone whose skill set might really be dependent on his landing spot. The Tigers reportedly remain interested, and that would seem to be a disaster, as Comerica remains one of the toughest places for right-handed hitters to hit, especially for power. The ideal outcome remains a return to Houston, a good lineup, and a home park where we know his swing works. But for now, Bregman's value remains somewhat in limbo.
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Vientos made enough improvements to his plate discipline to allow the big underlying power to play up, and he could be well-situated for a massive season batting behind Francisco Lindor and Juan Soto. But his plate discipline, while improved, remains pretty bad, and he ran a 33% strikeout rate from July 1 on, which might be untenable, even with how hard he hits the ball. There are some Austin Riley-level outcomes here on the high end, but a trip back to Triple-A is within the realm of possibility, too. I probably won't be taking the plunge on Vientos at cost.
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Chapman's 2024 season was weirder than you think. He bounced back with 27 homers, but his 15 steals were a big part of his impressive Fantasy ranking, and that pretty much came out of nowhere – he had just 11 in seven seasons prior, and was one of just two players on the Giants with more than six last season. Can you really bet on a repeat of that? If not, he's a solid source of power and should contribute around 175 combined runs and RBI, which is a fine profile, but probably not a difference-maker.
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Houston was just about the best landing spot possible for Paredes and his lift-and-pull swing. He doesn't hit the ball hard at all, but he can consistently hit it about 340 feet down the left field line. The problem last season is that Wrigley Field is about 355 feet down the left field line; Daikin Park (the new name for the Astros' stadium) is a cozy 315 down to the Crawford Boxes. A return to the 31 homers and 98 RBI Paredes managed in 2023 seems realistic, and he's a viable starting option at third base – and if Bregman does return to Houston, Paredes could be an even better fit as your starting second baseman, if rumors are to be believed.
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Burger is one of the most one-dimensional players in the league. He can crush bombs, but he does very little else well, and as the first half of last season showed, when he isn't hitting for power, things can get pretty ugly pretty quickly. He's probably pretty insulated from losing playing time with the Rangers, and the upside here if he stays locked in and hits 35 homers is pretty significant. But this is also a Rangers team with playoff aspirations, so if he isn't slugging like expected, he might find himself on the bench more than you can stomach.
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Suarez bounced back in a big way in 2024, and I more or less expect a repeat. Maybe not 191 combined runs and RBI, but the 30 homers feel like a reasonable bet – he has hit at least that level in five of the past seven years, and one of the exceptions was a 15-homer showing in just 57 games in 2020. He's going to hit for power. If he hits close to .250 again, he's going to be a huge value in drafts this year, but even if he's more like a .230 hitter, the price is reasonable enough to make him worth drafting. The fact that his zone contact rate climbed back over 81% after two years at or below 76% in Seattle makes me feel more confident. I'm ranking him ahead of the consensus as a top-12 3B.
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Bohm got off to a huge start last season, looking like he was possibly taking a big step forward. But it ultimately ended up being a pretty up-and-down path to a pretty typical Bohm season. He's going to hit for a pretty good average, and pretty middling power for a corner bat, but there should be strong RBI totals here. He likely leaves you at a power deficit as your starting 3B, but as a corner infielder, he's one of the cheapest sources of batting average and RBI you'll find in drafts.
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I wonder if Arenado regrets turning down a trade to the Astros earlier this offseason. The Cardinals remain, by all accounts, intent on finding a trade for the one-time face of the franchise, and he wasn't going to find a better one for his skill set than Houston – that could have been him in Isaac Paredes' place in the top 12! Instead, he remains an aging slugger who hasn't posted an expected wOBA on contact better than league average since 2019. Arenado took a big step backward in 2024, but landing in the right spot – Boston? – could help him bounce back. But the avenues to get back to Fantasy relevance are not plentiful at this point.
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Injuries are threatening to derail Jung's once-promising career, but I quite like him as a later-round CI option this season. He was on a 30-homer, 100-run, 100-RBI pace in 2023 before suffering a fractured thumb, and he never really had a chance to get going in 2024 after getting hit by a pitch that caused a fractured wrist three games into his season. If he's healthy, Jung has shown difference-making upside, and it'll cost very little to find out if he can get back to that level this season.
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If Jordan Westburg is a poor man's Gunnar Henderson, Norby is kind of like a poor man's Westburg. He doesn't hit the ball nearly as hard, but he did manage to generate a really impressive 14.8% barrel rate last season that could point to 20-plus homer potential. And there's plenty of athleticism here to project double-digit steals, in line with Norby's 26-homer, 14-steal-per-150-games pace at Triple-A. There's an outcome where Norby basically replicates what Spencer Steer does at a 150-pick discount.
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The Cubs have a glaring, roughly Matt Shaw-sized hole in their lineup at third base, so it's pretty obvious what they're hoping is going to happen this spring: They're hoping Shaw is going to take the job and run with it. He's a 23-year-old with just 35 games above Double-A, so they probably can't just hand him the job, but if he holds his own this spring, we should expect him to win that job. And that's worth getting excited about, as the 2023 first-rounder is coming off a season where he hit .284/.379/.488 across Double-A and Triple-A. He's got a good approach at the plate, including a manageable 17% strikeout rate in his professional career, and enough power and speed to think he could emerge as a legitimate five-category contributor for Fantasy. Given how well he played in his Triple-A cameo last season, Shaw has the potential to step in right away and be a starting-caliber Fantasy option with upside.
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We tend to get over our skis on young players, to the point where Caminero hitting .249/.299/.424 as a 21-year-old last season was viewed as a disappointment. But it's worth keeping some perspective on these things, so here's some perspective for you: Of Scott White's top 10 prospects for the 2025 season, only two are younger than Caminero. Of the eight older than him, four haven't even made their MLB debut; of the other four who have, two (Dylan Crews and Jasson Dominguez) were quite a bit worse than Caminero in their MLB action in 2024. Caminero has a ferocious, powerful swing that figures to generate tons of power in the long run, and so far, strikeouts mostly haven't been an issue for him – his 21% strikeout rate in Triple-A last season was right in line with what he managed in the majors, so no real concerns there. If there is one concern with Caminero, it's that he brings very little to the table besides his bat – four steals across three levels last season – which means there's a lot more pressure on the bat to be excellent. We're betting he will be, and in short order, making him a viable upside pick around 100th overall.
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If the Mets really do stand firm on not bringing Alonso back, the bust case for Vientos does become harder to make, simply because hitting behind Francisco Lindor and Juan Soto could put Vientos in line for tons of RBI opportunities. The ceiling here could be very high if Vientos repeats his 2024 breakout … I just don't know that he will. Vientos' breakout was fueled in large part by improvement in plate discipline, allowing him to put his excellent raw power into play more often. However, though Vientos' plate discipline was improved in 2024 … it was still pretty bad! His zone contact rate of 75% was 197 among 207 players with at least 400 PA, while his chase rate of 32% was in just the 22nd percentile among the same group. Vientos has the power to make the most of the contact he makes, but his underlying stats suggest there was still some good fortune to end up with the numbers he did in 2024 – his .356 wOBA outpaced his .331 expected wOBA, the seventh-biggest gap of any hitter. Vientos' circumstances could make him a star, but there are a lot of ways this could go really wrong.
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Catcher Top Prospects
1. Matt Shaw, 3B, Cubs
Age (on opening day): 23
Where he played in 2024: Double-A, Triple-A
Minor-league stats: .284 BA (443 AB), 21 HR, 31 SB, .867 OPS, 62 BB, 95 K
After overcoming a slow start last year to hit .318 with 18 homers, 21 steals, and a .959 OPS in his final 80 games, Shaw is now set to take over as the Cubs' third baseman, a move precipitated by the inclusion of Isaac Paredes in the Kyle Tucker deal. The majority of his batted balls go the opposite field, giving him a sturdy batting average base to go with his power and speed.
Scott's 2025 Fantasy impact: fighting this spring
2. Coby Mayo, 3B, Orioles
Age (on opening day): 23
Where he played in 2024: High-A, Triple-A majors
Minor-league stats: .293 BA (358 AB), 25 HR, .964 OPS, 42 BB, 102 K
Major-league stats: .098 BA (41 AB), 0 HR, 4 BB, 22 K
Like teammate Jackson Holliday, who's no longer eligible for prospect rank lists, Mayo's major-league debut was so miserable that it can't help but raise concerns about his future, so the fact he still ranks this high should tell you how special his power is. Pete Alonso seems like a realistic comp, right down to forecasting Mayo's eventual move to first base. I'll note, though, that a right-handed hitter with such limited defensive utility has a short leash offensively.
Scott's 2025 Fantasy impact: fighting this spring
3. Cam Smith, 3B, Astros
Age (on opening day): 22
Where he played in 2024: Low-A, High-A, Double-A
Minor-league stats: .313 BA (115 AB), 7 HR, 1.004 OPS, 15 BB, 24 K
A big riser in his final year of college, Smith continued to soar in his pro debut, outperforming every other 2024 draft pick to become the key piece in the Kyle Tucker deal. A quieter setup helped him cut down on strikeouts, giving him the look of a batting average standout who makes loud contact to all fields. Whether the Astros can leverage that loud contact into more over-the-fence power will go a long way toward determining Smith's eventual Fantasy standing.
Scott's 2025 Fantasy impact: midseason hopeful
4. Jace Jung, 3B, Tigers
Age (on opening day): 24
Where he played in 2024: Low-A, Triple-A, majors
Minor-league stats: .258 BA (349 AB), 15 HR, .841 OPS, 71 BB, 95 K
Major-league stats: .241 B (79 AB), 0 HR, 5 2B, .666 OPS, 15 BB, 29 K
The younger brother of Josh Jung isn't the most tooled-up player, but he gets the most out of what he has by working the count and manipulating the barrel to different pitch types and locations. There's enough power to his pull side to envision Brandon Lowe-type numbers, though, of course, Comerica Park does Jung no favor in that regard. It's also not yet clear that he passes muster defensively, which could cost him playing time this year especially.
Scott's 2025 Fantasy impact: fighting this spring
5. Brayden Taylor, 3B, Rays
Age (on opening day): 22
Where he played in 2024: High-A, Double-A
Minor-league stats: .250 BA (424 AB), 20 HR, 29 SB, .858 OPS, 76 BB, 141 K
Clearly, Taylor demonstrates power, speed, and a willingness to take a walk, but between the way he comes about that power, looking to elevate everything to his pull side, and the way he struggles to make contact, his strikeout rate climbing to 37 percent in his 30 games at Double-A, batting average is a liability. If he's Brandon Lowe with more speed, that's a great outcome, but it's also probably the best-case outcome.
Scott's 2025 Fantasy impact: midseason hopeful
