It's a new year, and with that comes our first set of rankings for the 2018 fantasy baseball season. As a reminder, our first round of rankings comes to you courtesy of Pierre Camus and Jeff Kahntroff, in addition to yours truly.

Today, I’ll be finishing up the hitter side of things with a look at how we ranked players in the outfield. You can see our previous ranking and analysis columns for catcher, first base, second base, third base and shortstop.

Expect a fair amount of adjustments in future installments. These are preliminary rankings and a lot can happen between now and March, particularly with so many free agents still languishing on the market.

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Editor's Note: In our Rankings Wizard, you can check out all of our staff's initial 2018 fantasy baseball rankings for mixed leagues, points leagues, AL/NL only leagues, dynasty leagues and more.

2018 Fantasy Baseball Tiered Rankings: Outfield (January)

 
 
Tier 1

Remember when people were seriously suggesting that anyone other than Mike Trout should go first overall in fantasy drafts? Oh, wait, they still are. Trout is only 26, hadn’t landed on the disabled list before last year, and nobody else in baseball has produced at anything close to his level over the last six seasons. Don’t overthink this, folks.

Tier 2

That’s not to say there aren’t plenty of other elite options in the outfield. All three rankers in this round have Charlie Blackmon, Mookie Betts, and Bryce Harper as top-10 overall players.  Kris Bryant rounds out the top five outfielders, followed closely by the Yankees’ dynamic duo of Giancarlo Stanton and Aaron Judge. I have them essentially flipped in my rankings as compared to my colleagues. While Stanton has a longer track record, he’s also had a tough time avoiding injury. J.D. Martinez has yet to sign, but he’s been roughly Stanton’s equal in terms of offensive production over the last four seasons. Finally, Cody Bellinger’s disastrous showing in the World Series doesn’t seem to have impacted his 2018 draft stock based on early ADP data.

Tier 3

This group is mostly comprised of old reliables – emphasis on the “old” in Nelson Cruz’s case – but includes a couple of 2017 breakouts close to my Phillies-loving heart. Rhys Hoskins’ transcendent debut has a lot of owners excited to see what he can do with a full season. A 50-homer pace is unrealistic, but Steamer projects 36 bombs, with quality run production and a passable batting average. I still haven’t gotten over Domingo Santana being included as the player to be named later in the completely unnecessary Hunter Pence trade (reportedly due to a clerical error, no less!) and last season showed why. The hulking outfielder made good on the George Springer comps he earned as a prospect, contributing in all five standard categories in his first full season. It’s a testament to his impressive raw power that he managed to hit 30 home runs despite a groundball-heavy profile. If he can figure out how to elevate the ball even a little more often, there’s potential for a monster here.

Tier 4

Some divisive players in this tier (in terms of how they’re viewed in the larger fantasy community, if not by our staff rankings). That starts right at the top with Byron Buxton. The former top prospect’s struggles are well-trod territory at this stage, but he “finally” flashed the potential many had long dreamt on in his age-23 season. Buxton recovered from a horrific start to finish the year with 16 homers and 29 stolen bases. Though strikeouts remained a problem, he managed to pull his batting average up above .250 for the first time. I’m less bullish than my colleagues, but I certainly see the appeal.

I’m also the low man on Andrew Benintendi, though I’m likely to give him a bump in future iterations. While he never had a prayer of winning Rookie of the Year with Judge obliterating the league, he still put up a five-category season in his first year. Another all-around performer was Tommy Pham, whose ADP should be one of the more interesting developments this year. He’ll be 30 in March, and it’s fair to wonder how much of his breakout can be sustained. Lastly, Billy Hamilton’s elite stolen base totals are enough to put him at the end of this tier despite his considerable shortcomings as a hitter.

Tier 5 

I’m putting more stock into the breakouts of Whit Merrifield and Chris Taylor than my colleagues, even if I don’t necessarily expect them to reach those heights again in 2018. Matt Olson is certainly intriguing, but there might be no more obvious candidate stat for regression than his 41.4(!!!!) HR/FB%. Intriguing might as well be Shohei Ohtani’s middle name, but he’s much more likely to provide value on the pitching side of things than at the plate. I’m fading Ian Desmond and Michael Brantley pretty hard this year, though either could easily make that look foolhardy.

Tier 6

Somehow, I’m the only one who ranked Ronald Acuna in this round. This is admittedly an aggressive rankings, but he’s the consensus top prospect and blew through three levels of the minor leagues last year, improving at every stop. The combination of power and speed here is too enticing to ignore, and it would be surprising if he doesn’t open the year in the starting lineup now that Matt Kemp has been dealt away. For those who don’t want to pay Buxton’s expectant price, Manuel Margot could give you similar production at a much more reasonable cost.

Tier 7

While I’ll acknowledge that my ranking of Aaron Altherr probably needs to be revised downward, I’m lodging a formal complaint against Pierre for barely putting him the top 300. Toss out his injury-plagued 2016, and Altherr has a career MLB line of .261-83-24-87-11 in 578 plate appearances. The Carlos Santana signing might cut into his playing time if the Phillies don’t trade one of their outfielders – two of whom are also ranked in this tier – but his production deserves more respect. Pierre also didn’t even rank Bradley Zimmer, but that may have been an oversight. Elsewhere in this tier, Shin-Soo Choo put together a sneaky useful season in 2017, while Kyle Schwarber looks a lot less appealing after the league-wide power surge and the loss of his catcher eligibility.

Tiers 8 & 9

As you’d expect, the bottom tiers are mostly populated by players with obvious flaws, playing time concerns, or both. A few names jump out. Mark Trumbo, Carlos Gonzalez, and Jose Bautista aren’t far removed from being sought-after commodities, but a combination of recent struggles, age, and the altered offensive landscape have sent them tumbling down draft boards. Youngsters like Lewis Brinson, Derek Fisher, Clint Frazier, and David Dahl have talent to spare but lack track records and/or clear paths to playing time. Otherwise, take your pick of boring vets (Kole Calhoun, Melky Cabrera), SB specialists (Cameron Maybin, Jarrod Dyson, Delino DeShields), or guys who definitely won’t repeat their 2017 performance (Avisail Garcia).

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