Mandatory Credit: Brad Rempel-USA TODAY Sports
3. Cleveland Indians
Kipnis had a resurgent 2015 season after a difficult 2014 campaign. However, his power, run production and steals haven’t returned to his 2012 and 2013 totals. He stole 12 in 2015 as opposed to 30 in 2013. He did post the best OBP mark of his career with a .372.
4. Chicago White Sox
Lawrie’s stats have been pretty consistent throughout his career but the reason we find him and the Sox at No. 4 is due to his 80 career games at second base out of a total of 522 games played through five seasons. It’s possible his move to being a full-time second baseman will work out well for the White Sox but his lack of time spent at the position gives us a small sample size to work with.
Mandatory Credit: Brad Rempel-USA TODAY Sports
5. Kansas City Royals
Despite a ludicrous campaign by the Royals’ fans to get Infante to the All-Star game, the champs find themselves at No. 5 here. Infante is riding the wave of his weakest season of his career after hitting .552 OPS with two home runs and 44 RBI’s. The Royals also feature Christian Colon who has a career OPS of .743 while also showing signs of being a strong fielder but he has only 152 at-bats and 64 career games on his resume making it difficult to predict his effectiveness.
The position looks to be among the deepest and youngest in the division. Time will only tell who winds up as the best but one thing will remain certain, it will be a fun race to watch for years to come.