Spring training may be winding to a close, but there are still a few position battles up for grabs. While most of the players competing for these jobs are not high-end fantasy assets, a few of them could prove to be major values in this weekend’s fantasy baseball drafts if they were to find themselves in a full-time job. Below, I’ve gone through each of the remaining positional battles that I see out there and, with the help of Thomas Nestico’s awesome playing time cheatsheet, tried to make sense of who might win the job and what that could mean for their fantasy value.
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AL East
Boston Red Sox
Second Base
Rafael Devers has said that he would DH if that’s what the Red Sox wanted him to do, and Alex Bregman has started no games at second base this spring, so it feels like a good bet that Bregman is the starting third baseman in Boston. That leaves Kristian Campbell, David Hamilton, and Vaughn Grissom to battle for second base. Campbell has, unfortunately, had a bad spring, going 5-for-33 (.152) with 13 strikeouts and five walks. While he’s one of the top prospects in baseball, he did start the 2024 season in High-A, so there’s an argument that he could use more time in the minors. Had Grissom done better than hit 6-for-32 (.188) this spring, he may have forced the Red Sox hand. Grissom did have just five strikeouts and four walks, so he’s making a lot of contact, but he didn’t win this job. Hamilton may have after going 10-for-40 (.250) with eight strikeouts, seven walks, and five steals. This is after a good MLB debut in 2024. I think this comes down to Hamilton and Campbell, but because Hamilton can also play short and be an elite pinch runner, he could make the team as a backup with the Red Sox giving Campbell a month or so at the beginning of the season to attempt to lock down the job. However, just know that this could be a Jackson Holliday situation. The Red Sox want to contend this season, and if Campbell doesn’t hit in April, the Red Sox have options to send him down and give somebody else a shot.
Corner Outfield
I think this is settled, but for how long? Jarren Duran seems locked in as the left fielder with Ceddanne Rafaela in center field. Masataka Yoshida still is only throwing from 90 feet, so he seems likely to start the season on the IL with Devers now at…