Right Field

April rankings:

1. Mookie Betts, Red Sox
2. Jose Bautista, Blue Jays
3. Seth Smith, Orioles
4. Aaron Judge, Yankees
5. Steven Souza Jr., Rays

Wow. Well, I’m just going to have to own this embarrassment of a ranking. It’s hard to be more ludicrously wrong about something than to rank Bautista — let alone Smith — ahead of Judge. Judge, of course, laid waste to the league with an AL-best (and rookie record) 52 home runs, along with 114 RBIs and 1.049 OPS, on his way to a certain Rookie of the Year award and possible MVP honors. By contrast, Bautista’s 36 years caught up with him as he cratered to a .203 average and .674 OPS, his worst marks of any full season.

So, yeah, I overlooked Judge in a big way. In fairness, though, I wrote in April that he “has light-tower power and plenty of potential.” So maybe I should get partial credit? Perhaps? … No dice? All right, fine.

Betts, although he wasn’t quite at Judge’s level, had another excellent season for the Red Sox, with 24 homers, 102 RBIs, an .803 OPS and 26 steals in 29 attempts. And, according to FanGraphs, he was the best defensive right fielder in the league by far, with 31 Defensive Runs Saved (the second-highest was Judge’s nine).

Souza finally had the breakout year the Rays have been waiting for, bashing 30 home runs and driving in 78. Smith, meanwhile, provided the Orioles what they had hoped for when they acquired him, leading the team in OBP, but he started fewer than half the club’s games in right. Mark Trumbo and Joey Rickard each had at least 29 starts as well, and neither fared particularly well.

End-of-season rankings:

1. Judge, Yankees
2. Betts, Red Sox
3. Souza, Rays
4. Smith and others, Orioles
5. Bautista, Blue Jays

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