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MLB's all 25-and-under team: Who are the best young players in baseball?

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Though many of its top young stars lack widespread recognition, Major League Baseball has enjoyed an incredible influx of new talent in recent seasons. What follows is this author’s best effort at concocting the best possible team of MLB stars aged 25 years or younger.

Because certain positions lack a wealth of young players to choose from — especially first base, often reserved for aging players that once played more demanding defensive positions — I needed to get a little creative in some spots. Technically, if I wanted to get very creative, I might field a team largely comprised of stellar young shortstops, since there are a bunch of them and presumably all could field easier spots on the diamond. To avoid that, I tried to keep most players in their primary positions and only selected guys who started at least five games — a tiny qualifier, no doubt — in these positions in 2016.

In other words, Kris Bryant’s going to be the first baseman here even though he mostly plays third base. If that seems like a copout, consider how strange it might seem to have a grouping of the game’s best 25-and-under players that excluded this list’s third baseman in favor of relatively unheralded Phillies first baseman Tommy Joseph, basically the only guy 25 or younger that was a regular first baseman last season.

OK, here we go:

Catcher: Gary Sanchez, New York Yankees

(Kim Klement/USA TODAY Sports)

This was one of the list’s easiest decisions, as the only other player that merited consideration was Cubs backstop Willson Contreras, and unlike Gary Sanchez, Contreras failed to homer in seemingly every single at-bat in his 2016 rookie season. The Sanchize, suddenly the centerpiece of the Yankees’ impressive youth movement, spent half a decade on top prospects lists before graduating to the Majors last summer and posting power numbers unlike any he ever managed in the minors. Sanchez may have established unreasonable expectations with his stunning .299/.376/.657 line across 53 games in 2016, but guys don’t often luck their way into hitting 20 homers in 201 at-bats. Sanchez has some work to do defensively, but by all accounts he’s got a cannon arm and the requisite skills and dedication to remain a fixture behind the plate and in the middle of the lineup in the Bronx for years to come.

First base: Kris Bryant, Chicago Cubs

(Photo by Ethan Miller/Getty Images)

Again, Bryant is best known as a third baseman, but defensive versatility is quietly one of the most fun parts of the 25-year-old reigning NL MVP’s game. While torching Major League pitching for the second straight year in 2016, Bryant started 100 games at third, 48 in corner outfield spots, and six at first when Anthony Rizzo sat out. It’s exceptionally rare to find a player as talented as Bryant who is both willing and able to play so many positions. Albert Pujols shuttled around the corner spots in his first few years, too, but that’s about the only good comp for Bryant and Pujols, you may know, is a future first-ballot Hall of Famer closing in on 600 career homers.

Second base: Javier Baez, Chicago Cubs

Javier Baez (AP Photo/Marcio Jose Sanchez)

We’re three spots deep and the Cubs already own two position on this list and one honorable mention, but then, that’s a good way to go about winning your first World Series in over a century. After his October heroics, Baez likely boasts a better reputation than he does a history of Major League production, and this choice was no layup: Cases could be made for any of Rougned Odor, Trea Turner, Jose Ramirez, Jonathan Villar and Jonathan Schoop, but of that group only Odor and Schoop appear likely to play more games than Baez at second base in 2017 — Turner, Ramirez and Villar will be entrenched elsewhere on the diamond. All of Odor, Schoop and Baez have some pretty serious issues with plate discipline, but Baez appears the best defender of the trio, and he’s just too damn fun to leave off this list.

Third base: Manny Machado, Baltimore Orioles

Manny Machado (Gary A. Vasquez/USA TODAY Sports)

Even with Bryant inked in at first base, it was extremely difficult to choose between the 24-year-old Machado and the Rockies’ Nolan Arenado, who turns 26 in mid-April. Arenado is this author’s pick for NL MVP in 2017. Both Arenado and Machado are gifted defenders at third and there’s a strong case to be made for including both on this list, since Machado undoubtedly has the range to play shortstop and started 43 games there in 2016. But defensive metrics, for whatever they’re worth, give Machado a slight edge over the undeniably gifted Arenado at third, as do park-adjusted offensive numbers. It’s so close, though. Maybe this whole thing is a dumb exercise. They’re both great. I did not come here to bury Nolan Arenado, only to celebrate Manny Machado.

Shortstop: Francisco Lindor, Cleveland Indians

Francisco Lindor (David Richard/USA TODAY Sports)

Another impossible choice. If you’re unfamiliar, baseball is currently enjoying arguably the greatest crop of young shortstops in the sport’s history, and picking Lindor here means somehow leaving Carlos Correa and Corey Seager off the team. How is that even possible? Correa and Seager boast more power than Lindor on offense, but to the eye, at least, Lindor appears the best defender, and the guess here is that Lindor’s strong contact skills ultimately give way to improved slugging numbers at the plate. Again, though: Flip a three-sided coin. I’m not about to tell you that Correa or Seager are anything short of outrageously good young players. As noted, Manny Machado’s got a case to be here, and Trea Turner may too by the end of the season. Xander Bogaerts played like an MVP in the first half of 2016. None of Jonathan Villar, Addison Russell and Trevor Story has done enough yet to join the Lindor/Correa/Seager triumvirate, but they’re all really good too.

Left field: Christian Yelich, Miami Marlins

(Steve Mitchell/USA TODAY Sports)

Though he flies under the radar, the sweet-swinging Yelich plays outstanding defense in left field and spent 2016 demonstrating some of the home-run power long expected of him despite playing his home games in spacious Marlins Park. Yelich can’t match his more heralded, better paid outfield-mate Giancarlo Stanton for moonshots, but he has quietly been just as valuable as Stanton over the past three seasons and is now locked up under contract with the Marlins through at least the 2021 season. Oddly, most of the game’s best young outfielders played no left field whatsoever last season, making Yelich a fairly easy choice here once Kris Bryant came off the board.

Center field: Mike Trout, Los Angeles Angels

Mike Trout! (Kevin Sullivan/The Orange County Register via AP)

Mike Trout!

Right field: Mookie Betts, Boston Red Sox

(Steve Mitchell/USA TODAY Sports)

Great name. Great bat. Great speed. Great glove. Great range. Great, great, great, great, great. By Wins Above Replacement, the only players in baseball history who have ever been as good as Betts was in 2016 at such a young age are seven inner-circle Hall of Famers plus Mike Trout and Bryce Harper. Speaking of which…

Designated hitter: Bryce Harper

Bryce Harper (AP Photo/Alex Brandon)

OK, so I’m breaking the arbitrary rules I established for myself here as Harper played only one game as a designated hitter last season. Plus Harper’s coming off a down year, and it wouldn’t really be unreasonable at all to leave him off the list in favor of Betts after the season Betts had in 2016. But any list of great young ballplayers that excludes Harper still feels a little like a troll-job, because of all the guys listed here, only Harper has ever had an offensive season as good as his 2015 campaign. Was it an isolated incident? Probably not. You don’t accidentally post an 1.109 OPS at age 22, and prolonged bouts of injury and ineffectiveness should still not overshadow the fact that Harper’s only 24 and has four All-Star nods on his resume. Don’t hold the hype against him. I may be biased by Harper’s impressive but meaningless spring-training stats this month, but it says here Harper bounces back in a big way in 2017.

Starter: Noah Syndergaard, New York Mets

(Steve Mitchell/USA TODAY Sports)

This freakin’ guy. One might make cases for Carlos Martinez, Aaron Sanchez or Michael Fulmer here after the strong seasons they had in 2016, but the counterpoint is, look at Noah Syndergaard. Just look at him. No, don’t look. Avert your eyes, mortal. This man is 6’6″ and 250 pounds and throws harder than any starting pitcher in the world and owns a nasty array of breaking stuff and can command all of it. There’s also that hair.

Closer: Roberto Osuna, Toronto Blue Jays

(Kim Klement/USA TODAY Sports)

This author happens to have a bit of a closer crush on young Mariners reliever Edwin Diaz, but Osuna gets the nod here for a longer resume. Still only 22 with two full seasons’ worth of solid late-inning work on the back of his baseball card, Osuna mixes precocious craftsmanship with a high-90s fastball and great control. He’s fly-ball prone, which can be worrisome in late innings, but Osuna’s big strikeout numbers and ability to limit walks mitigate any damage done by longballs.


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