Welcome back for another week of Top Dynasty Keepers for 2025.
We’ve taken care of the pitchers and the catchers, so this week my attention turns to the infield and first baseman specifically. Overall, this is a pretty solid position, aided in part by a host of players who also play another position.
In a 12-team or 15-team league, you should be able to find a strong starting first baseman for your team. There are also solid players ranked in Tier 3 and there are quite a few players ranked in Tier 4 who have really good upside if you can get past their growing pains
With that said, let’s get on with the rankings.
Just Missing the Cut
The players below may have had a solid slash line, but they fell short of producing average power numbers or had decent power but had horrible slash lines.
I had high hopes for LaMonte Wade but he simply has not lived up to expectations. He slashed .262/.383/.386 this season, but in 114 games he hit only eight homers with 33 RBI, way below his 17 homer, 45 RBI output of 2023. At 31 next season, Wade is nothing more than a depth player at this point.
Jonah Bride’s slash line of .267/.347/.434 is above average compared to the average first baseman, but he had only nine homers and 33 RBI. That just isn’t great production from a backup first baseman.
Juan Yepez had lots of people excited after 2022 when he hit 12 homers and drove in 30 in 76 games with the Cardinals. But he fell off the cliff in 2023, appearing in only 28 games and slashing .183/.246/.300. But he rebounded somewhat this year with a .283/.335/.429 slash line in 62 games with the Nationals. But that came with only six homers and 26 RBI. He will be only 27 next year, so he could be someone to keep an eye on if the power production returns.
Jhonkensy Noel is listed here even though he does not qualify as a first baseman in most leagues, starting only four games at first base and appearing in nine games at the position overall. But if your league does allows him to be a first baseman or you are betting that he will get enough appearances at first in 2025, then move Noel up in the rankings to at least Tier 3 as he has great power. He had a 6.6% home run rate with Cleveland, leading to 13 dingers in 67 games. His slash line of .218/.288/.486 isn’t great outside of the SLG, but a 162-game average of 31 homers is nothing to gloss over.
Victor Caratini is here because he started eight games and appeared in 11 overall at first for the Astros, likely qualifying him at first base in your league. Unless the Astros sign a first baseman during the offseason, Caratini will likely get even more time at first base as well as catcher. He doesn’t have a great power, but he has a .265/.332/.397 slash line over the last two seasons with 15 homers and 55 RBI in 149 games.
Top Prospects
- Deyvison De Los Santos, Mia
- Jac Caglianone, KC
- Xavier Isaac, TB
- Bryce Eldridge, SF
- Nick Kurtz, Oak
- Ralphy Velazquez, Cle
If you are looking to dip into the minor leagues to fill your first base position or backup spot, these are the top prospects I like. De Los Santos is the closest to the majors while Jac Caglianone is a dynamic two-way player in the Royals system who could be in the majors sooner than later after being drafted sixth overall this past summer. Kansas City did not have Caglianone pitch after drafting him, but the book is not closed on him being a pitcher.
TIER 5
*Age as of April 1, 2025
| RANK | PLAYER | 2024 TEAM | AGE |
|---|---|---|---|
| 50 | Rowdy Tellez | PIT | 30 |
| 49 | Jeimer Candelario | CIN | 31 |
| 48 | Justin Turner | SEA | 40 |
| 47 | Pavin Smith | ARI | 29 |
| 46 | David Fry | CLE | 29 |
| 45 | Ty France | CIN | 30 |
| 44 | Tyler Soderstrom | OAK | 23 |
| 43 | Seth Brown | OAK | 32 |
| 42 | Spencer Horwitz | TOR | 27 |
| 41 | Ryan O’Hearn | BAL | 31 |
Depth Players
If you are starting Rowdy Tellez, Jeimer Candelario or Justin Turner at first base, I’m sorry. Those three players should be on your team for depth purposes only. Tellez is coming off a 13-homer season while Candelario hit 20 in 112 games, but he had a .225/.279/.429 slash line. Turner is going to be 40 next year and is coming off a very so-so season.
Which Fry is the Real Deal?
David Fry, who can also play catcher and left field, is a great player when it comes to versatility. Multi-positional players are always a plus. He is also coming off a 14 homer, 51 RBI season in 122 games with a .263/.448/.804 slash line.
But most of that production came in the first two months of the season when slashed .352/.485/.629 with eight home runs and 27 RBI in 40 games. His production fell to .246/.307/.362 with no homers and five RBI in June and from July through the end of the season he slashed .211/.279/.367 with six home runs and 19 RBI in 60 games. Those numbers match the 57-game run he had in 2023 when he hit four homers and drove in 15 while slashing .238/.319/.416.
I’m thinking Fry is the player we saw in the second half of this season and not the first two months.
Solid Bench Player
Spencer Horwitz is a solid bench player thanks to the fact that he can play both first and second base. In only 94 games he hit 12 homers and drove in 38 while slashing .268/.359/.442. That is a solid line, and Horwitz is likely in line for more at-bats next season. If he matches the same production over 125 games, he is a Tier 4 player for sure.
TIER 4
| RANK | PLAYER | 2024 TEAM | AGE |
|---|---|---|---|
| 40 | Carlos Santana | MIN | 38 |
| 39 | Yandy Diaz | TB | 33 |
| 38 | Paul Goldschmidt | STL | 37 |
| 37 | Josh Bell | ARI | 33 |
| 36 | Connor Wong | BOS | 28 |
| 35 | Zach Dezenzo | HOU | 24 |
| 34 | Jonathan Aranda | TB | 26 |
| 33 | Kyle Manzardo | CLE | 24 |
| 32 | Ben Rice | NYY | 26 |
| 31 | Jose Miranda | MIN | 26 |
The Old
Carlos Santana, Yandy Diaz, Paul Goldschmidt and Josh Bell are all on the downhill side of their careers. But that doesn’t mean they are not serviceable. Santana continues to hit as he had 22 homers and 68 RBI this year for the Twins with a .234/.323/.414 slash line (the OBP and SLG are above the 1B average of .319 and .407). Diaz slashed .282/.342/.417 but had only 14 homers. I like a little more power in the first basemen and Xavier Isaac may be taking his job sooner rather than later.
Goldschmidt did not have a good season by his standards, slashing .241/.299/.406 with 22 homers and 62 RBI in 154 games. Those numbers are way below his career average of .289/.381/.510 and 162-game average of 30 homers and 100 RBI. It is likely the start of a continued downward trend, but I am not 100 percent sold on that yet.
Bell was basically your average first baseman this year as he hit 19 homers and drove in 71 runs while slashing .250/.320/.406. He had a nice stint with the Diamondbacks, but who knows where he will be next season and exactly his role will be. He will likely land a starting job somewhere and then get traded at the deadline just like in 2022, 2023 and again this year.
The Young
Connor Wong is here because he qualifies as a first baseman and thus has versatility. But he should not be your starting first baseman as he doesn’t measure up against other first basemen when it comes to the power numbers. Zach Dezenzo had a great season in the minors for the Astros but struggled at the major league level. If the Astros re-sign Alex Bregman and leave first base to internal candidates, Dezenzo has a chance to get a lot of at-bats there next season. But that is far from certain and he is at best a backup option right now.
Kyle Manzardo barely can be called first basemen and may not actually qualify there in your league as he started only two games at first and appeared in six games total out of the 53 games he played in this year. Manzardo slashed .234/.282/.421, but he did hit five homers in his 145 at-bats and hit 20 in 292 at-bats at Triple-A Columbus and has a career SLG of .544 in the minors.
TIER 3
| RANK | PLAYER | 2024 TEAM | AGE |
|---|---|---|---|
| 30 | Tyler Locklear | SEA | 24 |
| 29 | Ryan Mountcastle | BAL | 28 |
| 28 | Tyler Black | MIL | 24 |
| 27 | Luis Arraez | SD | 27 |
| 26 | Jake Cronenworth | SD | 31 |
| 25 | Rhys Hoskins | MIL | 32 |
| 24 | Nathaniel Lowe | TEX | 29 |
| 23 | Nolan Schanuel | LAA | 23 |
| 22 | Andrew Vaughn | CWS | 26 |
| 21 | Spencer Torkelson | DET | 25 |
Unproven Upside
Tyler Locklear, like Manzardo in Tier 4, has a strong upside. Locklear has tremendous raw power while also being able to hit to all fields. Between Double-A and Triple-A he slashed .272/.382/.468 with 16 homers and 67 RBI in 111 games. He struggled with the Mariners, but he should get a longer look at first base next season.
Depending on your league rules, Tyler Black may not actually qualify at first base as he started six games at first base out of the 14 games he appeared. His introduction to the majors did not go well as he slashed .204/.316/.245. However, he entered the 2024 season as a top 100 prospect in Baseball America, MLB and Baseball Prospectus thanks to a minor league career in which he slashed .272/.402/.453 with 37 home runs and 183 RBI in 315 games.
Not Ready to Give Up on…
…Spencer Torkelson. The Detroit first baseman (and every Tigers fan) is ready to forget about his 2024 season. Simply put, it was horrible as he was demoted to the minors midway through the season. Overall, he slashed .218/.287/.376 with only 10 home runs and 36 RBI in 89 games with 103 strikeouts. Torkelson is going to strike out as he has a 25.5% career rate. But is 2024 the real Torkelson? Or can he approach the 2023 version in which he hit 31 homers and drove in 94 runs and had a .446 SLG?
I can’t give up on Torkelson just yet. If anything, he is probably a great buy low player right now as there are probably a host of dynasty league players looking to unload him.
TIER 2
| RANK | PLAYER | 2024 TEAM | AGE |
|---|---|---|---|
| 20 | Cody Bellinger | CHC | 29 |
| 19 | Michael Toglia | COL | 26 |
| 18 | Luke Raley | SEA | 30 |
| 17 | Alex Bohm | PHI | 28 |
| 16 | Yainer Diaz | HOU | 26 |
| 15 | Alec Burleson | STL | 26 |
| 14 | Christian Walker | ARI | 34 |
| 13 | Christian Encarnacion-Strand | CIN | 25 |
| 12 | Jake Burger | MIA | 28 |
| 11 | Michael Busch | CHC | 27 |
First Base as a Side Job
What do Cody Bellinger, Michael Toglia, Luke Raley, Alex Bohm, Yainer Diaz and Alec Burleson all have in common? All six players are NOT fulltime first baseman. Bellinger, Toglia, Raley and Burleson all saw time in the outfield in 2024 in addition to first base while Diaz is a catcher who saw action at first while Bohm is a third baseman most of the time.
But all of these players qualify at first base, with Toglia seeing the most action there with more than 100 games started at the position. After appearing in 31 games for the Rockies in 2022 and then 45 in 2023, Toglia played in 116 games and delivered 25 homers and 55 RBI. His 5.5% home rate was nice, but not his 33% career strikeout rate. But thanks to his power potential, I will overlook the strikeouts.
Burleson had a really nice season for the Cardinals, slashing .269/.314/.420 with 21 homers and 78 RBI in 152 games. He saw most of his playing time in left and right field this past season, but with Goldschmidt likely not returning to St. Louis, Burleson will continue to get plenty of time at first base. Burleson has increased his home run rate from 1.9% in 2022 to 3.5% this year and makes contact as he has a 13.1% career strikeout rate. He’s not spectacular, but he won’t kill you if you have to start him at first.
An Injury-Plagued Season
When you look at the stats Christian Encarnacion-Strand produced this year, they were pretty ugly – .190/.220/.293 slash line with two homers and 16 RBI. But Encarnacion-Strand was limited to only 29 games due to a fractured right hand. Fantasy players had high hopes for him entering the season after he his 13 homers and drove in 37 runs in 63 games in 2023 while slashing .270/.328/.477.
I fully expect Encarnacion-Strand to return to his 2023 form and be a big bat for the Reds in 2025 and beyond.
Living Up to Expectations
Michael Busch was a top 100 prospect rankings for multiple seasons before finally given a chance to play every day this past season with the Cubs. Drafted by the Dodgers with the 31st overall pick in 2019, the Cubs acquired Busch in January of this year and watched him hit 21 home runs and drive in 65 runs in 152 games while slashing .248/.335/.440.
Busch did struggle in the second half of the season, slashing .216/.303/.402 compared to .271/.357/.466 before the All-Star break, but he hit 11 of his 21 homers from July through the end of the year with 35 RBI in 73 games, so the power production remained steady. There is no reason to expect the power to go away and I expect the slash line will improve in 2025.
TIER 1
| RANK | PLAYER | 2024 TEAM | AGE |
|---|---|---|---|
| 10 | Salvador Perez | KC | 34 |
| 9 | Spencer Steer | CIN | 27 |
| 8 | Vinnie Pasquantino | KC | 27 |
| 7 | Triston Casas | BOS | 25 |
| 6 | Josh Naylor | CLE | 27 |
| 5 | Matt Olson | ATL | 31 |
| 4 | Pete Alonso | NYM | 30 |
| 3 | Freddie Freeman | LAD | 35 |
| 2 | Bryce Harper | PHI | 32 |
| 1 | Vladimir Guerrero | TOR | 26 |
Salvador Perez, Again
This is what I said about Salvador Perez in the catcher rankings, and it applies here…I am not going to punish Salvador Perez for being old. Despite the fact he will be 34 at the beginning of next season, he has shown no signs of slowing down. Since his 48 homer, 121 RBI season in 2021, Perez has still managed to hit 23, 23 and 27 home runs with 76, 80 and 104 RBI. Since his debut season in 2011, Perez has never slugged below .400. He is the Energizer Bunny…he just keeps going and going and going.
Running with the Young Crowd
If you want to build around a first baseman younger than the age of 28 who is not named Vladimir Guerrero, then start with one of the following: Spencer Steer, Vinnie Pasquantino, Triston Casas or Josh Naylor.
Ranking Steer ninth may come as a surprise to some, but he hit 20 homers and drove in 92 runs while also stealing 25 bases. That is a huge advantage compared to other first basemen. With Encarnacion-Strand back next season, Steer will likely see his playing time at first base reduced, but not enough to no longer make him eligible at the position after next season.
I will admit right now that I was not on the Vinnie Pasquantino bandwagon ahead of the 2024 season. I was completely wrong. After being limited to 61 games in 2023 and slashing only .247/.324/.437, Pasquantino rebounded to hit 19 homers and drive in 97 runs with a .262/.315/.446 slash line this year. His 162-game career average is 23 home runs and 91 RBI with an outstanding 12.2% strikeout rate and 9% walk rate.
Not Making the Same Mistake Twice
After whiffing on Pasquantino, I am not going to make the same mistake twice and ding Triston Casas. A right shoulder injury limited Casas to only 60 games this year. But in those 60 games he hit 12 homers and drove in 30 runs with a .342 OBP and .455 SLG.
His 162-game average is 31 homers and 80 RBI with a .250/.357/.473 slash line. He does strike out too much (26.9% career rate) but he has a 5% career home run rate and an average EV of 90.3 mph. His power is real and he should be on your roster if you have a chance to snag him.
Quiet Producer
Josh Naylor had a career year. There is no question about that after his 31 homer, 108 RBI season. His previous career high in dingers was 20 in 2022 and his previous high in RBI was 97 in 2023. Even if Naylor doesn’t reach 31 homers again and settles into the 25-27 range, he will continue to drive in runs. In his three years as a fulltime player for Cleveland, his RBI total has gone from 79 to 97 to 108. When runners are on base, he puts the ball in play as he had a .256/.347/.477 slash line with runners in scoring position with only a 15.9% strikeout rate.
Heavy Hitting Veterans
Matt Olson, Pete Alonso, Freddie Freeman and Bryce Harper are now in their 30s. However, that doesn’t mean they are not going to be productive for the next three to five years.
Olson and Alonso are not going to provide you with a great batting average and their OBP is only slightly higher than the average first baseman. But both players can mash the ball. Olson slugged 29 homers this year and he has a career SLG of .512. Since 2018, he has not hit fewer than 29 homers in any full 162-game season. Olson will also take the field every day as he has played in all 162 games the last three years and appeared in 156 in 2021 (and even all 60 games in 2020).
Now a free agent, Alonso is going to get paid this offseason after surpassing 30 homers once again, slugging 34 this past season with 88 RBI. Since his debut season in 2019 when he hit 53 homers, he has yet to hit fewer than 34 in any full 162-game season. He has a career SLG of .514 and his 162-game average is 43 home runs and 112 RBI.
Freeman is just a machine at the plate. An ankle injury hobbled Freeman this past season, but he still hit 22 homers, drove in 89 runs and slashed .282/.378/.476. Freeman is good for nearly 25 homers and 100 RBI every season to go along with a career slash line of .300/.387/.512.
Harper is simply one of the best hitters in the game, no matter what position player you are comparing him to.
Need power and run production? Harper has a career 162-game average of 33 homers and 96 RBI. Need a solid slash line? Harper’s career line is .281/.389/.522. Twice in his career he has topped 1.000 in OPS and his career OPS is .911. He will add a few steals as well, though he managed only seven this year, his lowest total since 2017. But you don’t want Harper because of steals. You want Harper because of everything else he does.
Back on Top
Vladimir Guerrero Jr. had a breakout season in 2021, when at the tender age of 22, he hit 48 homers, drove in 111 runs and slashed .311/.401/.601 to finish second in the MVP voting. Those are some pretty lofty numbers to try to match every year, and Guerrero hasn’t. But all he has done since then is hit 88 home runs and drive in 294 runs while slashing .287/.360/.489. His “worst” season since 2021 was last year when he hit 26 homers and had 94 RBI while slashing .264/.345/.444.
Guerrero found his mojo at the plate this past season as he slashed .323/.396/.544. That is a top-10 finish across the board in the slash categories as the averaged ranked second in MLB while the OBP ranked third and the SLG ranked ninth. That is pretty solid for a player who hasn’t even reached his prime yet.
Come Back Next Week
Thanks for reading and come back next week when we continue the trip around the infield and tackle second base.
Previous Rankings
Top 50 Dynasty Keepers for 2025 – Relievers
Top 100 Dynasty Keepers for 2025 – Starting Pitchers
Top 40 Dynasty Keepers for 2025 – Catchers
