Shohei Ohtani has held up the free-agent market. I did not want him to hold up this column.
As the weekend began, teams were still waiting to see where Ohtani would land, because it would so impact not just the organization that signed him (duh), but also define what was still needed and how much money all the other clubs had in this sport-wide domino effect.
It also will have transformative power on the below list. Once the Yankees obtained Juan Soto to team with Aaron Judge, and with the reality (don’t tell anyone) that I am going on vacation Monday, I wanted to do a top-10 list of the best dynamic duos in the sport.
Which teams have the best positional twosomes.
My criteria is just about 2024 not the long-term and reflects the whole player, not just offense. But what we are basically asking is: If you had to win next season, which pair would you take in what order with this proviso — it is the pre-Ohtani-signing edition:
Their combined 1-for-21 as Los Angeles was shockingly swept out of the Division Series by Arizona dimmed their 2-3 finish for the NL MVP. But they are a brilliant, righty-lefty, all-around combination. Betts and Freeman were two of the five players to exceed a .300/.400/.500 slash line last season — Freeman did it by also recording 59 doubles and going 23-of-24 in steals, Betts did so with a career-best 39 homers while moving around second, short and right. My biases on both remain: If I had a game to win, I would take Betts over anyone, because in some way he is going to positively impact the outcome, and if I had one at-bat to decide a game, I would take Freeman.
Judge (20.2) and Soto (18.7) have the best offensive Wins Above Replacement (Baseball Reference) over the past three years combined. These are players who reach base more than 40 percent of the time — one from the right side, one from the left — while providing power (in Judge’s case, the best in the majors). The knock is Soto is a poor defender and baserunner. Maybe he will always bat in front of Judge so he can just jog on the bases a lot.
They sandwiched Betts-Freeman in the NL MVP vote by finishing first and fourth. Another righty-lefty pair. I think that is what convinced me to make this the duo rather than the all-righty Acuna-Austin Riley. Well, that and Olson’s 54 homers and relentless durability.
On paper, the right combo is probably the lefty pair of Alvarez and Kyle Tucker. But every time I watch the Astros, I leave believing that nothing has changed over the past decade — Altuve is the engine of the offense. And also that I feel about Alex Bregman like I do Betts — he is going to find a way every game to help you win.
If you could get 600 plate appearances from Alvarez or Soto, who would you take? They both were terrific against each other in the 2019 World Series, and both are clear bat-first players. I think Alvarez is the more fierce hitter, but Soto has been much more durable.
The $500 million double-play combo was 2-3 in AL MVP voting behind Ohtani while helping Texas to its first championship. Another lefty-righty duo fueled by Seager’s batting genius, and Semien’s all-around game and great durability. I will need to see more, but by June 1, it is possible the correct pairing here might be Seager and Evan Carter — that is how impressive the rookie was in every way during the postseason.
This is another that may change by June 1 — with the top prospect in the sport, shortstop Jackson Holliday, poised to join the roster. For now, the upside of the AL Rookie of the Year (Henderson) and a switch-hitting catcher with high-end offense and superb defense is hard to bypass.
Brandon Nimmo might accumulate more WAR than Alonso, but not more fear among opposing teams. Since debuting in 2019, Alonso leads the majors in homers with 192, followed by Olson (177) and Judge (174), while playing the third-most games behind Freeman and Semien. Don’t look now, but Lindor is building a Cooperstown candidacy with two Gold Gloves, three Silver Sluggers and more WAR through age-29 (42.7) than Derek Jeter (40.4).
Harper is going to play first base now, and Turner is coming off a good- but-not-great first Philadelphia season. But Harper’s ability to rise to the moment and Turner’s all-around skill set land them on the list.
The NL Rookie of the Year in Carroll and the most productive postseason player in Arizona’s run to the 2023 NL title in the switch-hitting Marte.
First, just a quick note that it was hard to leave out St. Louis’ Nolan Arenado-Paul Goldschmidt, Toronto’s Bo Bichette-Vlad Guerrero Jr., Seattle’s J.P. Crawford-Julio Rodriguez, Minnesota’s Carlos Correa-Royce Lewis, Cleveland’s Andres Gimenez-Jose Ramirez and Tampa Bay’s Randy Arozarena-Yandy Diaz (with no idea if/when star shortstop Wander Franco will play again for the Rays).
Even without Soto, the Padres should have firepower with Machado, Tatis and Xander Bogaerts. Machado is coming off a down year as (among other items) he lost 40 points of batting average to drop to .258. Still, he hit 30 homers and remained a superb third baseman. Tatis returned from his PED-related suspension to win a Gold Glove in right field while amassing 25 homers and 29 steals.