After the trades, acquisitions, and signings of the Major League Baseball offseason, we believe that five clubs have enhanced their outfields to a point where they are the best in the game. Here are our rankings and rationale below:
1. Los Angeles Dodgers
There should be no doubt in any baseball fan's mind that the Los Angeles Dodgers are the preeminent favorite to win the World Series in 2020, based on their talent, financial flexibility and their player development. The only way that they would have gotten better this offseason is adding a superstar, and they did in Mookie Betts. After the weekend trade with Boston and Minnesota, the starting outfield unit for Los Angeles is AJ Pollock, Cody Bellinger, and Mookie Betts, with Chris Taylor and Joc Pederson as depth. In Bellinger and Betts specifically, they each have won MVP awards and are perennial All-Stars. In closing, the Dodgers had the best rightfielder in MLB; they just added the 2nd best player at that position in Betts.
2. Tampa Bay Rays
Tampa Bay is second on our list for a variety of reasons. While the team lost Avisail Garcia and Tommy Pham in free agency, the front office in Tampa has been an excellent job in identifying players to take over those spots. In acquiring Hunter Renfroe and Manuel Margot from separate trades from San Diego, they have built a defensive juggernaut in the outfield. Kevin Kiermaier and Manuel Margot were the best defensive outfielders in baseball in 2019, based on outfield OAA. Margot was +11 OAA, while Kiermaier was +17. Combined with Renfroe's power (hit 33 home runs last year) and the continued development of All-Star Austin Meadows (wRC+ of 142 and wOBA of 0.380 in 2019), the outfield of the Rays is elite.
3. Atlanta Braves
While we considered Milwaukee and Toronto for this final spot, the talent and offseason moves place the Atlanta Braves as having the third best outfield unit in Major League Baseball heading into the 2020 season. The Braves signed OF Marcell Ozuna to a 1-year $18 million contract this offseason to pair with the talent of Ronald Acuna Jr. and Austin Riley and the veteran experience of Nick Markakis, Adam Duvall, and Charlie Culberson. Atlanta's outfield is deep, experienced, talented, and can affect the game in a variety of ways offensively. In analyzing individual numbers, the wOBA numbers of Acuna Jr., Riley, Markakis, Duvall, Culberson, and Ozuna last year were 0.369, 0.307, 0.332, 0.360, 0.306, and 0.337 respectively. The outfield unit in Atlanta is tremendously skilled and is the third best heading into 2020.
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