Based on their bio and projections entering the 2021 MLB season, we're excited to rank the top ten first basemen in the MLB. First base is a place on the field where the team's best batter is often hidden in order to do the least amount of damage on the field. It doesn't take a historian to list the best hitters of all time, and many of them — Lou Gehrig and Albert Pujols, for instance —happened to play first base.
10. Carlos Santana, Kansas City Royals
Even at 35, Carlos Santana is still a force to be reckoned with.(Jason Miller/Getty Images)Santana, 35, is leaving Cleveland after spending the last 10 of his last 11 seasons there and instead will be joining the Kansas City Royals in 2021. Between 2011 and 2019, Santana has averaged 25 homers, 83 RBI, while posting a .366 on-base percentage over his entire career. And 2019 was his best year when, at age 33, he won his only All-Star spot and Silver Slugger Award.
9. Rhys Hoskins, Philadelphia Phillies
Rhys Hoskins' health hopefully won't hinder his success in 2021.(Adam Glanzman/Getty Images)The 28-year-old is entering his fifth season, all with the Phillies. In his two full seasons (2018 ,2019) he's averaged 32 home runs and 91 RBI. His on-base percentage was pretty good -.354 and .364, respectively - considering his low batting average and 323 strikeouts in those two seasons. There's more than enough pop in his bat to compliment Bryce Harper and JT Realmuto and keep the Phillies competitive in the rugged AL East.
8. Matt Olson, Oakland Athletics
The long ball comes naturally for Matt Olson.(Ezra Shaw/Getty Images)Just imagine if Beane and the A's had some real money to spend. Then they could keep these young studs they unearth every year. laughably ahead of the financial behemoths like the Big Apple, Boston, and Los Angeles. The Dodgers are so rich they just acquired Mookie Betts, either the best or second-best player in the sport (behind Mike Trout), in his prime, as if they plucked him from a bin at Whole Foods. The A's found Olson in 2012, when he was 18, and then called him up for a cup of coffee in 2016. He got Rookie of the Year votes in 2017, in just 59 games, won a Gold Glove in 2018 and '19, and averaged 30 homers a year over all three years. He needs to work on his strikeouts, but otherwise he's just another coming off the conga line of young bucks in rut, who eventually leave because Oakland can't afford to keep them.
7. Pete Alonso, New York Mets
Pete Alonso will look to get back to his rookie year form in 2021.(Sarah Stier/Getty Images)Alonso is not No. 1 or 2 because we want to seem immune to East Coast bias, plus he wasn't as awesome last year as he was as a rookie the year before. But it's not silly to say the Mets' barrel-chested slugger had the best maiden season a first baseman ever had in about 150 years of the sport. Alonso, whom pals and pundits affectionately call, "Polar Bear," was an All-Star, finished 7th in MVP vote, and moonwalked to NL Rookie of the Year. That's what happens when you score 103 runs, hit 30 doubles, and finish with a .358 on-base percentage. Oh, and he crushed 53 home runs, the most a rookie has ever hit. (It also led all MLB.) And he stole the bold ink from the Yankees, which is almost impossible to do in NYC. Alonso slightly tailed off last year, but pro rata he would have banged 48 home runs and notched 105 RBI had MLB played a full slate of games. And he just turned 26.
6. Anthony Rizzo, Chicago Cubs
Anthony Rizzo has been a trusty weapon at the plate and in the field for the Cubs.(Quinn Harris/Getty Images)Rizzo seemed to have the world by the baseballs in 2016. His Cubbies broke the Goat's Curse and won their first Fall Classic since 1908. He had just finished his third-straight All-Star season, and was a hitting machine, averaging 27 homers between 2012 and 2019, and over 100 RBI between 2015 and 2019. He won four Gold Gloves and finished in the top-ten of the MVP vote three times. The only reason he's not near or at the top of this list is because Rizzo struggled during last year's pandemic-shortened season (60 games).
5. Max Muncy, Los Angeles Dodgers
Max Muncy broke out of his regular season slump in the playoffs.(Ron Jenkins/Getty Images)Muncy would have been higher on this list last year. In 2018 and 2019, he lit up MLB by blasting 35 homers each year, while punching in 177 runs. In 2019, Muncy made his first All-Star team but then dropped off sharply in 2020. Heaven forbid the Dodgers don't have a .300 hitter with 45 homers and 150 RBI at every slot in their Herculean lineup.
4. Jose Abreu, Chicago White Sox
Jose Abreu had an incredible campaign in his 2020 MVP season.(Julio Aguilar/Getty Images)Abreu is a serious man. Though he broke into the big leagues at age 27 (2014), he has been a human wrecking ball since. In seven seasons he's been an All-Star three times, has driven in over 100 runs five times (including an AL-best 123 RBI in 2019), and has averaged nearly 30 homers a year (28.2). Oh, and he was the American League MVP last year. His numbers were titanic. Abreu had 76 hits, 60 RBI, a .617 slugging percentage, 148 total bases, all in just 60 games, and all of which led the American League.
3. Luke Voit, New York Yankees
Luke Voit's power surge in 2020 turned a lot of heads.(Mike Stobe/Getty Images)You're going to see a gaggle of Yankees on these lists, because the Yankees have the most loaded roster west of Chavez Ravine. The 6-foot-3, 260-pound Voit is built like a fire hydrant, swings the bat with fury, and led the American League with 22 homers last year. He even finished ninth in the AL MVP vote. The problem with Voit has been health. The 30-year-old has only played more than 70 games in a single season once, when he suited up for 118 games in 2019. Projections have Voit mashing 33 homers this year while notching 88 RBI.
2. Paul Goldschmidt, St. Louis Cardinals
Paul Goldschmidt is about as consistent an offensive threat as you'll find.(Justin K. Aller/Getty Images)The 33-year-old vet has played 10 seasons, and was an All-Star in six of them (all in a row, from 2013 - 2018). He also owns three Gold Gloves, three Silver Slugger awards, and has finished top-three in the National League MVP vote three times. He has hit over .300 four times and finished with a .297 BA twice - astonishingly consistent numbers. Even at 32 last year he batted .304.
1. Freddie Freeman, Atlanta Braves
Freddie Freeman took home the NL MVP award in 2020.(Todd Kirkland/Getty Images)No shock here. Freeman was the best last year, and should be the best this year. He was second in the Rookie of the Year vote in 2011, is a four-time All-Star, has a Gold Glove, a Silver Slugger, has gotten MVP votes in six different seasons, and was finally named National League MVP in 2020. Just to give you a sense of Freeman's freak show skill set, last year he batted .341, swatted 23 doubles, bashed 13 homers, and drove in 53 runs - in just 60 games. That doesn't include his 45 walks and .462 on-base percentage. And the 31-year-old does this stuff every year.
Related articles:
Ranking the 9 Greatest First Basemen in MLB History
Ranking the 9 Greatest Second Basemen in MLB History
Ranking the 9 Greatest Third Basemen in MLB History
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