First Base Overview

It was a weak year overall for first basemen in 2024. We now head into the 2025 season with a clean slate and fresh optimism that this year’s crop will return more value, and perhaps include a number of young breakouts and veteran rebounds. There isn’t as much category selection needed this year, as just two hitters on this list are projected to earn positive value from stolen bases. So that means we’re back to rostering mashers who need to make a good dent in your home run total goal as you fill out your team.

Today’s Discussion

Welcome to the first rankings run! We are publishing these a full month earlier than last year. What does that mean? My initial rankings will probably be even more wrong than they were last year! Also, there are going to be more rankings changes as free agents sign, potentially pushing them onto or up/down the list, and knocking someone else off or up/down the list.

There are already four free agents that made the rankings, and it’s possible that any of these three free agents could join depending on where they sign and their expected role:

• Carlos Santana
• Justin Turner
• Anthony Rizzo

In addition to the free agents, I also wanted to highlight a trio of youngsters who have the upside to make the top 40 rankings:

• Kyle Manzardo
• Deyvison De Los Santos
• Jhonkensy Noel

Both De Los Santos and Noel have big power, but serious contact issues, while Manzardo was unimpressive during a cup of coffee with the Guardians, but has shown a pretty good skill set in the minors with both contact ability and power.

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Last week, I elected the starting pitcher all-profit team, naming the most profitable starting pitchers compared to their NFBC average auction values. Now let’s flip over to losses. Though not as exciting to review, you might take solace in knowing you owned a number of these pitchers if you ended up having a disappointing season.

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A couple of weeks ago, I elected the hitter all-profit team, naming the most profitable players at each position compared to their NFBC average auction value. Now let’s flip over to losses. Though not as exciting to review, you might take solace in knowing you owned a number of these hitters if you ended up having a disappointing season.

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Last week in honor of Election Day, I elected the hitter all-profit team, comparing NFBC average auction values (AAV) to end of seasons values earned as calculated by the FanGraphs auction calculator. Today, I’ll flip on over to starting pitchers.

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In honor of Election Day tomorrow, let’s elect the starters at each standard hitting slot that would compose an all-profit team. These are the 14 hitters that earned the most profit for their fantasy owners at each position. How many of these hitters did you own?

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At the beginning of April, I shared the names of nine hitters who had already increased their maxEV compared to 2023. Even after just a handful of games, each of these batters had already hit a ball harder than they did all of the previous season. So now I’m curious — was this the first sign of increased power, particularly home run power? Let’s review those names and find out if they enjoyed a HR/FB rate boost, a higher ISO, or both.

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Last week, I shared the end of season rankings and dollar values of the 40 first basemen I ranked during the preseason. I began with the hitters that earned a profit of at least $4 on their projected value, and then shared the hitters that took a loss of at least $8 versus their projected value. Today, let’s discuss the unranked — those hitters who failed to make my top 40, but found themselves inside the top 40 most valuable first basemen at the end of the season.

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Yesterday, I shared the end of season rankings and dollar values of the 40 first basemen I ranked during the preseason. I began with the hitters that earned a profit of at least $4 on their projected value. Today, let’s dive into the misses, or those that earned at least $8 less than forecasted.

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For the first time this year, the RotoGraphs team introduced a formal, organized positional ranking series that we updated on a weekly basis during spring training and through the season opener. I chose to take ownership of the first base position and you should refresh your memory of my final rankings before the season began. Let’s now review those final rankings and how each of the hitters ultimately performed.

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During the all-star break, I polled you fine readers about hitters and your expectations in the second half. The poll pitted the 10 greatest xwOBA overperformers against the 10 most significant underperformers. I asked you which group would post a higher second half wOBA and which range each group’s wOBA would fall into. Let’s now review what happened.

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