Spring training camps are underway, which means it is time to look at the state of baseball. As part of our 2025 MLB season preview, ESPN's Buster Olney is bringing back his positional ranking series, in which he surveyed those around the industry to help him rank the top 10 players at every position.
Today, we rank the best of the best corner outfielders in MLB.
The objective of this exercise is to identify the best players for the 2025 season, not who might be best in five years or over their career. We will roll out a position per day over the next two weeks. Here's the rest of the schedule: catchers, first basemen, second basemen, third basemen, shortstops, center fielders (Tuesday), designated hitters (Wednesday), starting pitchers (Thursday) and relievers (Friday).
Who are the top corner outfielders in baseball? Let's dig in.
A small sample of postseason struggles and a dropped fly ball in the World Series obscured some of what Aaron Judge accomplished in the preceding months last year, which was quite simply one of the greatest regular-season performances ever. His adjusted OPS+ of 223 was higher than the best season posted by these Yankees all-time greats (though Babe Ruth did have five seasons of 225 or better):
Yogi Berra: 142, 1956
Derek Jeter: 153, 1999
Bernie Williams: 160, 1998
Don Mattingly: 161, 1986
Dave Winfield: 166, 1979 (with the Padres)
Roger Maris: 167, 1961
Alex Rodriguez: 176, 2007
Joe DiMaggio: 185, 1941
Reggie Jackson: 189, 1969 (with the A's)
Lou Gehrig: 220, 1927
Mickey Mantle: 221, 1957
But Judge did that damage with an all-time great hitter aligned in front of him in the batting order: Juan Soto, who left in December to sign a record-setting contract with the Mets. Last year, Soto had the highest full-season OPS+ of his career, at 178, drawing 129 walks and reaching base nearly 300 times.
A natural question is: What will Judge do this year, without the benefit of Soto hitting in front of him?
Judge's preference is to bat third, and it's unclear whether Cody Bellinger will hit in the No. 2 spot and whether Jazz Chisholm Jr. or perhaps Austin Wells will have the No. 4 spot. No matter how the lineup is arranged, however, Judge probably won't have a hitter getting on base in front of him 42% of the time as he did last year. When Judge batted with runners on base last season, he hit .338 with a .480 OBP.
One evaluator said he doesn't think Soto's departure will have much impact on Judge, though. "He's always hit," he said. "He hit before Soto, he'll hit after Soto."
Others disagree, such as ESPN's Eduardo Perez. "I've said all along -- 20% discount with promo code SOTO22," Perez wrote in a text. "Why pitch to [Judge] when he's locked in."
Chipper Jones, the Braves Hall of Famer, wrote in a text that the absence of Soto "will definitely have an effect on (Judge's numbers). Soto is a bad man at the plate. I'm not sure the Yankees have someone who even approaches Soto's OBP on their roster."
Said former big leaguer Tony Gwynn Jr.: "It'll definitely have an impact for sure. An adjusted OPS+ of 223 is crazy. He'll be back in the 150-175 range."
Longtime catcher David Ross: "I'm not sure what the numbers will be, but in my opinion, it could be significant."
Former Yankee Alex Rodriguez doesn't think that Judge's numbers will be dramatically impacted.
"Soto was there for just one year, and Judge hit 62 homers in a year before Soto arrived," he said, in a phone interview. But Rodriguez does think Judge's RBI total -- 144 last year -- will go down without Soto's presence, and that he'll get walked more. The identity of the hitter behind Judge "is one of the most overrated aspects in the sport. It's far more important to have someone good hitting in front of you. I had the luxury of (Bobby) Abreu having tough at-bats and getting on base in front of me."
"Otherwise, there are times when you don't even have the donut on your bat in the on-deck circle yet and you're walking to the plate because the guy in front of you is a quick out and they're calling your name."
"It's not like Judge hasn't had monster seasons without Soto," wrote Ben McDonald, the former pitcher and current ESPN analyst. "Having said that -- no doubt it's going to hurt some. It's nice to be hitting with runners on all the time, and that's what Soto provided. The key this year is whoever is hitting behind Judge -- Bellinger, Stanton or whoever -- has to be good to force teams to pitch to Judge."
Judge is high on the list of MLB's top 10 corner outfielders. At the top, in fact.
Top 10 corner outfielders
1. Aaron Judge, New York Yankees
Not having Soto hitting ahead of Judge might hurt, but that could be offset to some degree by Judge's shift back to right field from center. Down the stretch, there were times when Judge did not seem to be moving as well in the outfield -- as if he were tired.
He generated a lot of wild numbers last year, such as: In extra innings, Judge had a .900 OBP -- four intentional walks in 10 plate appearances -- and batted .800, with four hits in five at-bats.
2. Juan Soto, New York Mets
Think about this: The Mets have committed more value in tickets for Soto's family per game than they will on the salary for manager Carlos Mendoza in 2025.
Sometime early this season, Soto will collect career hit No. 1,000. He could end up becoming one of the last players to get to 3,000.
This season will be a full dress rehearsal for Tucker to become the next $400 million player, and next winter, he could see the Yankees join the Cubs and other teams in attempting to sign him to a huge contract.
In just 277 at-bats with the Houston Astros last year, when he was dealing with an injury, he generated 13 doubles, 23 homers and 56 walks (with just 54 strikeouts) for 4.7 WAR.
4. Ronald Acuna Jr., Atlanta Braves
Acuna is this far down the list only because he missed most of last season following knee surgery. The Braves and Acuna seemed to have learned some lessons from when he blew out his other knee, in 2022, which should help his rehabilitation.
He'll get back to being one of the most explosive players in the majors -- Manny Machado came back from two knee surgeries to have a Hall of Fame career -- but this year, Acuna might be far more conservative in his baserunning.
5. Corbin Carroll, Arizona Diamondbacks
Carroll went through a classic sophomore slump, but in what was a down year for him, Carroll still did enough to score 121 runs, steal 35 bases and play high-end defense. Over his final 56 games last season, he scored 56 runs, posting a .931 OPS.
6. Fernando Tatis Jr., San Diego Padres
Tatis' salary spikes to $20.7 million this year, and the Padres need him to continue to grow as a hitter in his age-26 season. But he showed again in the postseason just how dynamic he can be.
7. Jarren Duran, Boston Red Sox
All the conversation this spring about where Rafael Devers will play has clouded over this truth: Duran was Boston's best player last year, and one of the best anywhere. He led the majors in doubles and triples and scored 111 runs, generating 8.7 WAR.
8. Steven Kwan, Cleveland Guardians
Kwan posted an OPS+ of 126 in 2024, and he's starting to add some thump to his swing -- he had 14 home runs in 122 games last year after compiling nine homers in his first two seasons.
9. Christian Yelich, Milwaukee Brewers
He was having a great year (.909 OPS) when he went down with a season-ending back injury in July, but he expects to be ready at the start of the 2025 campaign.
"I saw before I came here that I might be a question mark for Opening Day, and I'm not sure where that came from. Unless something crazy happens [in spring training], I don't see why I wouldn't be ready."
10. Jackson Chourio, Milwaukee Brewers
You could make an argument for him being higher in the top 10, considering how he finished last season as a rookie in Milwaukee. Over his last 89 regular-season games in 2024, he batted .301 with 23 doubles, 14 homers and 14 steals.
Honorable mentions
Mike Trout, Los Angeles Angels: The Angels have moved him to right in the hope he can stay healthy, and presumably, the move to the new spot will be relatively seamless. Whether he can stay on the field is the big question: Trout has missed 59% of his team's games over the last four seasons.
Teoscar Hernandez, Los Angeles Dodgers: He could put up huge numbers again after hitting 33 homers last year and then signing a multiyear deal with L.A.
Riley Greene, Detroit Tigers: He has one of baseball's best swings, and Detroit's late-season surge in 2024 coincided with Green's return from the injured list.
Anthony Santander, Toronto Blue Jays: Only five players have hit more homers over the past three seasons than Santander's 105.
Lawrence Butler, Athletics: Over his last 66 games of 2024, Butler had a .303/.348/.591 slash line.
Ian Happ, Chicago Cubs: His excellent defense is just part of his value as shown by his career OPS+ of 115 (including a 120 mark last season).