Buster Olney’s top 10 MLB position players: Corner outfielders
Now that spring training camps have begun, it’s time to assess baseball’s current situation. ESPN’s Buster Olney is returning his positional ranking series, whereby he polled industry insiders to determine the top 10 players at each position, as part of our 2025 MLB season preview.
The top MLB corner outfielders are ranked by us today.
Finding the top players for the 2025 season—not the best players in five years or during their career—is the aim of this exercise. Over the next two weeks, we will release one position every day. The remaining schedule is as follows: Catchers (Tuesday), designated hitters (Wednesday), starting pitchers (Thursday), relievers (Friday), shortstops, center fielders, first basemen, second basemen, and third basemen
Which baseball players are the best corner outfielders? Let’s get started.
Aaron Judge’s performance in the previous months of last year was easily one of the best regular-season performances ever, but it was somewhat overshadowed by a few postseason setbacks and a dropped fly ball in the World Series. Although Babe Ruth had five seasons with an OPS+ of 225 or above, his adjusted OPS+ of 223 was higher than the highest season recorded by these Yankees all-time greats:
Berra, Yogi: 142, 1956 In 1999, Derek Jeter: 153 Williams, Bernie: 160, 1998 Mattingly, Don: 161, 1986 Dave Winfield (with the Padres): 166, 1979 Maris, Roger: 167, 1961 Rodriguez, Alex: 176, 2007 DiMaggio, Joe: 185, 1941 189, 1969 (with the A’s) Reggie Jackson Gehrig, Lou: 220, 1927 Mantle, Mickey: 221, 1957
However, Judge caused that harm by having Juan Soto, one of the greatest hitters of all time, in front of him in the batting order. Soto left in December to sign a record-breaking deal with the Mets. Soto reached base almost 300 times, drew 129 walks, and had his highest full-season OPS+ of his career last year, at 178.
