2019 Fantasy Baseball Draft Prep: Outfield Tiers 1.0

Outfield is, by nature, a robust position, but it's not so deep at the top, as Scott White's tiers show.

By Scott White

Jan 30, 2019 at 5:24 pm ET • 2 min read

Want to get a jump on the competition? Go to the CBS Sports app on your phone, open up "Settings" and sign up for Fantasy alerts to get the latest from our Fantasy baseball team as soon as it's available.

Tiers, for the uninitiated, are an alternate form of rankings that groups players by expected level of production. While it's true every player is expected to produce less than the player ranked ahead of him, there are points in the rankings where the drop-off in expected production is more significant. And at those points, a new tier begins.

The goal is to give you a clear depiction of the distribution of talent at each position so that, in the heat of a draft, you can determine at a glance which position is the ideal one to target. Naturally, the one closest to dropping into the next tier is the one you'll regret having passed up a round later.

Below are the outfield tiers for 2019. They depict a position that's replete in the middle, if thin at the top.

The Super Elite: Mike Trout, Mookie Betts
The Elite: J.D. Martinez, Bryce Harper, Christian Yelich, Aaron Judge, Charlie Blackmon, Ronald Acuna, Giancarlo Stanton, Juan Soto†
The Near-Elite: (Khris Davis), Andrew Benintendi, Whit Merrifield, Starling Marte^, Kris Bryant, George Springer, Rhys Hoskins, Cody Bellinger
The Next-Best Things: Lorenzo Cain, Eloy Jimenez, Dee Gordon^, Justin Upton, Tommy Pham, A.J. Pollock, Joey Gallo^, (Nelson Cruz), Michael Brantley, Mitch Haniger, Nicholas Castellanos, Eddie Rosario, Wil Myers^, Victor Robles^
The Fallback Options: David Peralta, Michael Conforto, Aaron Hicks, Mallex Smith^, Stephen Piscotty, Andrew McCutchen, Marcell Ozuna, David Dahl, Yasiel Puig, (Shohei Ohtani), Jesse Winker, Brandon Nimmo, Billy Hamilton^
The Last Resorts: Ian Desmond^, Jose Martinez, Kyle Tucker, Shin-Soo Choo, Chris Taylor, Adam Eaton, Franmil Reyes, Nomar Mazara, Odubel Herrera, Ender Inciarte, Nick Markakis, Gregory Polanco, Yoenis Cespedes, Hunter Renfroe, Kyle Schwarber, Randal Grichuk
The Deep-Leaguers: Ryan Braun, Kevin Kiermaier, Adam Jones, Marwin Gonzalez, Max Kepler, Jake Bauers, Harrison Bader, Joc Pederson, Christin Stewart, Brett Gardner, Steven Souza, Byron Buxton, Austin Meadows, Scott Schebler, Corey Dickerson, (Mark Trumbo), Ramon Laureano, Cedric Mullins, Kole Calhoun, Josh Reddick, Brian Anderson, Domingo Santana, Alex Verdugo
The Leftovers: Jay Bruce, Willie Calhoun, Trey Mancini, Teoscar Hernandez, Matt Kemp, Carlos Gonzalez, Dexter Fowler, Enrique Hernandez, Jorge Soler, Clint Frazier, Jackie Bradley, Tyler O'Neill, Ian Happ, Franchy Cordero, Adam Frazier, Kevin Pillar, Ben Zobrist, Manuel Margot, Avisail Garcia, Daniel Palka