On Monday morning, Buster Olney continued his rankings of the best players at each position in the majors. Yesterday he had Starling Marte as the second best left fielder in the big leagues, trailing only Yoenis Cespedes. Olney moved over to center field today and he ranked Andrew McCutchen as the fifth best center fielder in the game.
Olney notes that many scouts believe that McCutchen’s 2016 season at the plate was just an aberration and he should bounce back to have a solid season in 2017. He also thinks his extremely poor season on defense can be partially explained by the outfield positioning of the Pirates last year, though he also noted today and yesterday that the Pirates would be better off with Starling Marte in center field. McCutchen finished behind Mike Trout, Jackie Bradley Jr., Christian Yelich and A.J. Pollock (in that order) for the top spot center field spots. Last year, Olney had McCutchen ranked second behind only Trout.
As mentioned in the Marte article, the Pirates came up empty in the rankings for all four infield spots and also for starting pitchers and relievers. Over the next six days, Olney will have right fielders, catchers, starting rotations, bullpens, lineups and defenses, with one article each day.