2023 Dynasty Fantasy Positional Rankings: First Base

Unlike other positions on the diamond, first base has historically been populated by powerful sluggers and some of the best hitters in the game. With less emphasis on defensive value at the position, it’s far more likely that the best hitter among a team’s first base group sees the majority of the reps there.

This often means that the first base position is loaded with power hitters, often balancing out home runs and RBIs with batting average and on-base skills. Despite a lack of base stealers at the position, first base has managed to consistently produce top 10 hitters in overall fantasy scoring year after year. In fact, according to Razzball’s player rater (a system created by Razzball’s Rudy Gamble to measure in-season fantasy value) three of the top five hitters in fantasy in 2022 were first basemen (Paul Goldschmidt, Freddie Freeman and Pete Alonso). There’s certainly upside at the position regardless of its lack of premier speedsters.

Our rankings are targeted specifically for dynasty leagues, with a focus on balancing a variety of scoring formats. To achieve this we focus on wRC+ as our primary measure. While wRC+ by its nature is OBP-slanted, we take into consideration high and low batting averages when ranking players. The goal of these positional rankings is to provide the best possible order based on a value of three to five years, which means older productive veterans are discounted and may be ranked alongside or even behind prodigious talents yet to debut.

Keep all of this in mind when considering your team’s needs and the context of your league. If you are trying to compete in 2023, you should prefer Jake Cronenworth to Tyler Soderstrom (who we have ranked back-to-back)—but some of your league mates, especially those not competing, would likely prefer Soderstrom in a trade.

At the bottom of the list, we leaned toward players who may contribute in 2023 (and potentially not have a regular role in 2024) over prospects who would not contribute for a year or more.

1. Vladimir Guerrero Jr., TOR

2. Pete Alonso, NYM

3. Freddie Freeman, LAD

4. Matt Olson, ATL

5. Paul Goldschmidt, STL

6. Vinnie Pasquantino, KCR

7. Nate Lowe, TEX

8. Andrew Vaughn, CHW

GP’s Target: It’s easy to forget just how young Vaughn is. Entering his age-25 season, Vaughn already has two full major league seasons under his belt despite playing under 60 games in the minor leagues. After learning a new position in the early part of his career, Vaughn is slated to move to…