Top 10 Third Basemen Battle!

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By popular demand, we’re going to take on the MLB Network’s infamous “Shredder” and match up JoeBlogs Top 10 at every position RIGHT NOW against theirs. I don’t mean to brag, but I’m pretty confident that our JoeBlogs Top 10 shortstops list utterly and completely destroyed MLB Network’s … in part because The Shredder obviously popped a few fuses before ranking Bobby Witt Jr. FOURTH among shortstops. The guy might be the best all-around player in baseball right now.

Today we’re matching up top third basemen.*

As we talk about MLB Network’s choices for Top 10 third basemen, I’m reminded of the famous line in George Borrow’s “Lavengro” — his narrator is listening to his landlord reminisce about his younger days as a boxer.

“There is nothing like the ring,” the landlord says. “I wish I was not rather too old to go again into it. I often think I should I should like to have another rally — one more rally, and then — but there’s a time for all things — youth will be served, every dog has its day, and mine has been a fine one — let me be content.”

Seven — SEVEN — of The Shredder’s Top 10 third basemen RIGHT NOW are in their 30s. That seems bananas to me. It’s like The Shredder is old-timey George Steinbrenner signing every Steve Kemp, Mike Easler, Don Baylor and Claudell Washington on the market in the desperate hope that the clock is going to wind backward.

I mean, yes, some players do age well into their 30s. A whole bunch of the best players in baseball in 2024 — Aaron Judge, Francisco Lindor, José Ramirez, Matt Chapman, Bryce Harper, Mookie Betts, Freddie Freeman, Ketel Marte and so on — were in their 30s.

But when it comes down to it, I’ll always take my chances and bet on youth.

No. 10

• MLB Network: Eugenio Suárez, Arizona Diamondbacks

• Me: Nolan Arenado, St. Louis Cardinals or somewhere else

It has been a crazy career for Eugenio, right? He’s got a pretty good shot of clubbing his 300th home run this season. Only 18 third basemen in MLB history have hit 300 home runs, and seven of those 18 are already in the Hall of Fame (Manny Machado and Nolan Arenado will surely join those seven someday).

Plus, Eugenio’s already fifth on the all-time third baseman list with 1,602 strikeouts. Two more whiffy years, and he could have that record alone.

I love the guy. But if I’m going with a mid-30s third baseman, I’ll ride with Arenado.

Even with Arenado, one of the best to ever play the position, I am skeptical. He’s turning 34 in April, and we’ve already seen his power sapped. Last year, he didn’t slug .400. He didn’t get to 20 homers for the first time in more than a decade.

So why bet on him? A couple of reasons. One, he can still pick it at third base. He may not be the Gold Glove dynamo he once was, but he’s still well above average.

Also, I have this weird feeling he will end up in Boston. It’s not an exact fit by any means — the Red Sox already have a pretty good third baseman we’ll talk about in a bit. But Boston so badly needs right-handed hitting that they’ve been chasing hard after Alex Bregman, who seems an even worse fit.

If they don’t get Bregman, I think the next logical step is for the Red Sox to work out a deal with the Cardinals for Arenado and figure out the third-base situation. And I think if that does happen, Fenway Park could be the exact right place for Arenado to get his second wind as a hitter.

That said, there are now rumors that the Seattle Mariners might be in the lead for Arenado … and that would be the opposite thing. Seattle would most definitely NOT be a great place for Arenado to rediscover his power. Mike Petriello explains just how awful a hitters park T-Mobile Park is.

No. 9

• MLB Network: Isaac Paredes, Houston Astros

• Me: Mark Vientos, New York Mets

I’m going out on a limb with this one. Paredes is obviously a very good young player — he got down-ballot MVP votes in 2023 when he banged 31 homers and played wherever he was needed — but I’m just not seeing this. I think a huge part of Paredes’s value was exactly that he was NOT a third baseman but instead a super utility player who could fill in at first, at second, even at short. Purely as a third baseman, he’s no better than an average defender — if Alex Bregman somehow returned to Houston, Paredes would probably move to second, moving Altuve to left, creating chaos — and Paredes really struggled at the plate in his 50-some games with Chicago last year.

I’m going with another third baseman born in 1999 … Mark Vientos. Yes, the 2025 projections I’ve seen for Vientos are pretty meh — nobody seems to believe too much in his age-24 season when he slugged .516 and mashed 27 home in just 454 plate appearances. I get it. Vientos is very slow, he strikes out five times more than he walks, and his defense is below average. But I choose to believe in the guy: He’s young, he’s got power, he might be hitting behind Juan Soto (RBI opportunities!), and he was born in Norwalk, Connecticut, like Mo Vaughn.

No. 8

• MLB Network: Max Muncy, Los Angeles Dodgers

• Me: Royce Lewis, Minnesota Twins

I know. I know. There is no reason, none whatsoever, to believe that Royce Lewis will stay healthy. You would think we all would have learned our lesson by spending a decade desperately hoping for a different Minnesota Twins phenom, Byron Buxton, to have his healthy season. It never happened.

But I can’t help it. If you want a solid player — The Shredder seems to love solidity — well, yeah, Muncy is a better defender, and he draws walks and he’s an integral part of a super team. Sure, he’s the much safer choice, even if Muncy does turn 35 in August and is coming off an injury-plagued season of his own.

Still. In his first 21 games of 2024, after coming back from injury and the minors, Royce Lewis hit 10 home runs and slugged .750. Once you see that kind of potential, you can’t unsee it. Ever since he was the first pick in the 2017 draft, baseball has waited breathlessly for him to arrive. He doesn’t turn 26 until June. I’ll make the bet.

No. 7

• MLB Network: Nolan Arenado, St. Louis Cardinals

• Me: Junior Caminero, Tampa Bay Rays

I suppose the Shredder is not going to take a chance on a 21-year-old kid with just 213 plate appearances in the big leagues … but to me, Caminero over Arenado is easy. Have you heard the way the ball sounds coming off his bat? You will remember how Buck O’Neil always talked about hearing that sound three times in his life — hearing it when the ball came off Babe Ruth’s bat, then hearing it when the ball came off Josh Gibson’s bat, then hearing it a third time when the ball came off Bo Jackson’s bat.

Well, I think there are a bunch of players today who unleash that sort of sound — Shohei does, obviously, Judge does, I think the ball has a different sound coming off the bat of Kyle Schwarber too. Giancarlo. Yordan. Witt. Soto. Caminero’s bat plays in that orchestra. Yes, he’s got a lot to figure out, but I’ll take the 21-year-old who bludgeons baseballs.

No. 6

• MLB Network: Matt Chapman, San Francisco Giants

• Me: Alex Bregman, Free Agent

MLB Network has Bregman several spots higher than me … I’m dubious. I mean, Bregman is still a terrific player, but this has been a super-odd offseason. He offered to move to second base. Teams have gone hot and cold on him. The Cubs might want him, might not. The Blue Jays apparently want him badly, but that doesn’t seem like a great spot. The Astros might want him back, but that would set off a domino effect that could push Jose Altuve to left field, which is just weird. I don’t know how any of this works out. And Bregman turns 31 just after Opening Day.

So I’ll put him here. If he finds the right situation, I could see him being a top-five player again. And if he ends up in the wrong situation, I could see things going South.

No. 5

• MLB Network: Austin Riley, Atlanta Braves

• Me: Manny Machado, San Diego Padres

Manny Machado will end up in the Hall of Fame. I have absolutely no doubt about this. He should roll past 60 WAR this year, he should hit his 400th home run in the next couple of years, he’s been a top-five MVP finisher four times, he’s hit with power and played jaw-dropping defense and all the rest.

So why does he not quite FEEL like a Hall of Famer? Maybe he does to you, maybe it is my own gut health that causes me to miss out on Machado’s obvious greatness. I just hardly ever think about him. I derive little joy watching him play. Maybe in 2025, I’ll make an effort to watch more Padres games and try to get a fuller appreciation of Machado. I feel like I’m missing something there.

No. 4

• MLB Network: Manny Machado, San Diego Padres

• Me: Matt Chapman, San Francisco Giants

Matt Chapman surprised me last year. I thought he would go to that hitting dungeon in San Francisco and fall into the Springfield Mystery Spot bottomless pit. Instead, he just kept on doing Matt Chapman things. He played his usual fantastic defense — won his fifth Gold Glove. He banged his 40 or so doubles and 27 homers. He even stole 15 bases. In the process, he put up his third seven WAR season. He’s only the ninth third baseman ever to do that:

1. Mike Schmidt, 9

2. Eddie Mathews, 8

3. Wade Boggs, 6

4. George Brett, 5

5. Ron Santo, 4

6. Matt Chapman, Josh Donaldson, Evan Longoria, Adrian Beltré, 3

It’s funny to see Chapman and Donaldson listed side-by-side there — I do tend to confuse them. I mean — how could you not? They are both right-handed-hitting third basemen, roughly the same size, drafted in the first round, started their careers in Oakland, put up big seasons when no one was watching, got traded to Toronto and have put up a lot more WAR than you would expect. To separate them, you just have to remember that Chapman is the slightly better defender and the one more likely to make that crazy defensive play, and Donaldson is the slightly better hitter and the one much more likely to hit a routine fly ball and stand at home plate admiring it.

No. 3

• MLB Network: Alex Bregman, Free Agent

• Me: Rafael Devers, Boston Red Sox

So here’s my thing: I don’t know, long term, how the Red Sox are going to handle Rafael Devers's defense. He is, by pretty much every statistical measure I can find, a well-below-average defensive third baseman. He has pretty limited range. He’s an erratic thrower. He always leads the league in errors — seriously, always, he’s led the league in third-base errors by himself in each of the last seven seasons, which I have to believe is an all-time record* — and while errors are not a great way to judge defense, yeah, you don’t want to lead the league every single year.

Devers is such a good hitter that Alex Bregman — a far, far superior defensive third baseman — has offered to move to second if the Red Sox would sign him. On the one hand, that seems goofy, a bit like when A-Rod moved to third even though he was many multiples better at short than Derek Jeter. But on the other hand, it does make a bit of sense — Bregman is such a good defender and so versatile, he’d have no problem moving to second and would probably be a Gold Glove candidate there. Devers, alas, I don’t think that would work at all. I don’t know where you move except first or DH.

But, wow, can Devers hit, and he plays the game with joy, and he’s someone you build around. So my guess is that until further notice, they keep throwing Devers out there at third every day and live with the errors because he does so much else to help you win.

No. 2

• MLB Network: Rafael Devers, Boston Red Sox

• Me: Austin Riley, Atlanta Braves

The Shredder obviously took Riley’s injury-plagued 2024 season to heart, dropping him from No. 1 all the way down to No. 5, below Machado and Bregman. I, on the other hand, feel guilty ranking him this low at No. 3 because at age 28, I think he’s in prime position to have a big bounceback season and once again be the best in the game.

All in all, 2024 was just weird — not just for Riley but for pretty much every Braves player. But it was specifically weird for Riley — in mid-June, for no apparent reason, he was hitting .220 and slugging .330. It didn’t make any sense at all. Riley averaged 36 home runs per season from 2021-2023, he slugged .525, he played solid defense, he finished top seven in the MVP voting in all three years.

Riley did find his swing in mid-June — he hit a much more typical 292/.354/.588 for the next two months before his season was ended by Jack Kochanowicz’s 97-mph fastball off his right hand. I expect to see the good Riley again.

No. 1

• MLB Network: José Ramirez, Cleveland Guardians

• Me: José Ramirez, Cleveland Guardians

This is the place where I’m obligated to tell you just how underrated, underappreciated, underestimated and undervalued José Ramírez is.

How about these two third basemen who were born two and a half months apart in 1992?

Pretty similar, eh? Machado was a full-time player first and has 300 or so more games played so that’s basically the difference in WAR — that and Machado’s superior defense — but I think Ramírez has actually been the better player. They will both be in Cooperstown.