Now that our friends at MLB Network have unveiled an ironclad, can’t-possibly-be-argued list of the Top 100 Players Right Now, it’s time for me to unveil my equally irrefutable team of players who, for one reason or another, are worthy of a little more attention.
Players who appeared on the Network’s Top 100 are eliminated from consideration for my squad of underrated talents. While there are players on that list who could be higher or lower, you can’t be considered a Top 100 player AND be underrated. That would defy the Earth’s metaphysical principles.
Also eliminated from consideration are:
- Major award winners (MVP, Cy Young, Rookie of the Year, Silver Slugger and Gold Glove) from the past five years
- Players with any All-MLB Team selections in their careers
- Players with any MLB All-Star selections in their careers
- Players with less than two years of service (you need time for your “rating” to be formed)
- Players with nine-figure contracts
As usual, this left me with a thinned pool, but one that forces us to take a deeper look at players who have either shined outside the spotlight or who might be on the cusp of tapping into their potential.
Presenting the All-Underrated Team for 2026!
Catcher: Ryan Jeffers, Twins
Catching is a tough gig. Foul tips. Collisions. Squatting. To fill the sport’s most physically demanding position while still delivering offensively is difficult, which is why some of us made such a big deal about Cal Raleigh hitting 60 dingers last year.
Jeffers is no Raleigh, but he does join the Seattle star as one of only four catchers with at least 335 plate appearances and at least a league-average OPS+ in each of the past three seasons (during which time, Jeffers’ OPS+ has been 13% better than average). The others are Brewers’ All-Star and Silver Slugger William Contreras and Dodgers’ All-Star and World Series hero Will Smith. So he’s got good company, and, as a result, Jeffers is expected to see more time behind the dish this year (read: 100 games or more, vs. the 80-some of the past three seasons).
First base: Nolan Schanuel, Angels
Schanuel turns 24 on Valentine’s Day, which not only means he’s been doomed to a life in which it’s more difficult to get a birthday restaurant reservation than it ought to be but also that he’s still very young and growing into his game power. Still, there’s already a lot to like about his production at the big league level. Because despite an absurdly quick promotion, just 40 days after he was taken 11th overall out of Florida Atlantic University in the 2023 Draft, he has absolutely held his own.
Through 1,303 career plate appearances, Schanuel’s OPS+ is 4% better than league average. Thanks to great whiff and strikeout rates and a very good walk rate, he’s gotten on base at a .353 clip -- the seventh-best among first basemen (50% of games played at first) with at least 1,000 trips to the plate since his debut season in 2023. Schanuel was praised as a Draft prospect for his elite contact and discipline, but there were no guarantees it would translate this quickly.
Second base: Xavier Edwards, Marlins
Edwards was traded twice before making his big league debut with the Marlins in 2023, but he looks like a keeper for them. While his overall offensive numbers did take a downturn last season after he had slashed .328/.397/.423 in a 70-game sample in 2024, his 14.2% K-rate last season points to disciplined at-bats that could hopefully lead to more consistent results in the future. He had a .292 average and .345 on-base in his last 97 games after returning from an injury in late May last season, so the arrow could be pointed upward in 2026.
Defensively, Edwards’ nine Outs Above Average at second last season, in which he shifted full-time from shortstop to second midyear, were behind only the 14 from the Cubs’ Nico Hoerner and the 10 from the Blue Jays’ Andrés Giménez. Those are two of the absolute best defensive players in MLB, and Edwards has the talent to potentially push for a Gold Glove of his own.
Shortstop: J.P. Crawford, Mariners
Crawford is why I made the rule for no awards “in the past five seasons,” because, while he did win a Gold Glove in 2020, that honor for defense in a 60-game season seemed like a silly reason to exclude him here. He checked off every other box.
The bottom line is that this guy has been an above-average offensive performer at a premier position for the better part of the past five years. He had a 108 OPS+ from 2021 through 2025. The only other shortstops (50% of games played at short) with better production in at least 700 games in that span were Trea Turner (124), Francisco Lindor (123) and Willy Adames (111). Crawford has limited power but a keen eye that leads to strong on-base percentages, and he’s a longtime leader for this M’s club.
Third base: Ernie Clement, Blue Jays
Admittedly, there are three strikes against listing Clement here:
- He was an October hero, breaking the record for hits in a single postseason.
- He was just named to Team USA for the World Baseball Classic, a high honor.
- He’s currently slotted in as the Blue Jays’ second baseman after the Kazuma Okamoto signing.
All fair. But given our prerequisites, there weren’t any better options among those who have seen significant time at third base, so I’m not going to punish Clement for having and making the most of his first October opportunity. He had established his value as a plug-and-play type before that -- high contact, plus speed and versatile range. It’s shown in his Baseball-Reference-calculated Wins Above Replacement over the last two seasons and where it lands among some other, more prominent infielders (this is not a full list):
Freddie Freeman, 8.2
Bryce Harper, 7.9
Rafael Devers, 7.8
Clement, 7.7
Alex Bregman, 7.6
Marcus Semien, 7.4
Manny Machado, 7.1
Left field: Taylor Ward, Orioles
No doubt, given the price and importance of pitching, there were people confused why the O’s traded four years of control of right-hander Grayson Rodriguez, the 11th overall pick in the 2018 Draft, for just one year of Ward. And no doubt, Rodriguez still has the time and talent to make them look foolish.
In their defense, though, Ward provides right-handed run-producing at a time when it’s in pretty short supply in the outfield. His 117 OPS+ (17% better than league average) since becoming a regular with the Angels in 2022 is tied for 13th among outfielders (50% of games played in the outfield) with at least 500 games played in that time frame, one spot ahead of Cody Bellinger (115).
Congrats(?) to Ward for making the All-Underrated team a second straight year. Last year, he was so buoyed by the honor that he cranked out a career-best 36 homers. So it looks good on him.
Center field: Jacob Young, Nationals
I’m not starting Young on my All-Underrated squad for his offense. He had a .583 OPS last year. And when he did get on base, he got caught stealing an NL-high 11 times. That’s not great, and Young, who has been floated as a trade candidate on the rebuilding Nats, might have trouble holding onto a starting job in center if he doesn’t start hitting.
But Young is one of the most eye-catching outfielders in MLB. He’s had many highlight-reel catches, but the best was when he somehow kick-saved a ball from landing on the warning track and came away with an amazing grab to rob the Mets’ Brett Baty of extra bases in September.
Young’s on this list because his defensive achievements -- including the third-most Outs Above Average (34) of any player at any position since the start of 2024 -- have not landed him a Gold Glove. Yet.
Right field: Matt Wallner, Twins
It’s hard to know what to make of Wallner’s 2025 season. Do you realize he had 41 extra-base hits … despite notching only 68 hits overall? If that sounds unusual, it’s because it is. There had only been two previous instances of a player notching that many extra-base hits with that few total hits -- Jay Bruce (43 and 67) with the 2019 Phillies and Mariners and Ryan Schimpf (42 and 60) with the 2016 Padres.
The underlying metrics tell us Wallner had one of the quickest average bat speeds in MLB, and that he was 85th percentile in barrel percentage. You might assume he had so few hits because he struck out a ton, and he did. But his 29.1% strikeout rate was actually more than a 7-point reduction from his 2024 rate, and his 11.7% walk rate was in the 84th percentile.
So there might be something here, if Wallner can be more consistent. Injuries have limited him to only 907 plate appearances over the past three seasons, but, within them, he’s churned out an OPS+ 29% better than league average. Just to understand what that figure means, it was an identical mark to what rising Nationals star James Wood put up in a slightly larger sample (1,025 plate appearances) from 2024-25 and about the same as what Pete Alonso (130) did in more than twice as many trips to the plate (2,062) from 2023-24.
Designated hitter: Dominic Canzone, Mariners
This has traditionally been a tough spot to fill on this “team,” given the parameters. The Tigers’ Kerry Carpenter and the Cardinals’ Iván Herrera (a catcher who was mostly limited to DH duties by injury last year) fill every qualification except for the MLB Network Top 100 list, on which they appear at Nos. 94 and 98, respectively. So they merit a mention, at least.
But let’s salute Dominic Canzone for a fine, albeit limited 2025. He slashed .300/.358/.481 in 269 plate appearances in 82 games. He was the left-handed side of a platoon, and he did good damage against righties (10 homers, 10 doubles, 12 walks). That’s a really small sample, and, honestly, it is possible that, as an Italian-American from Northeast Ohio (same as Canzone), I am overrating him. But after seeing this awesome T-shirt he wore for BP, I’m OK with it. Keep swinging, my Cleveland-born paisan!
Starting pitcher: Merrill Kelly, Diamondbacks
Kelly’s long and winding road has him back in the desert. This guy was drafted three times, released by the Rays in 2014, pitched winter ball in the Dominican and spent four seasons with the SK Wyverns in the Korean Baseball Organization before the D-backs brought him back to the States in 2019. He wound up serving a prominent role in their run to the NL pennant in 2023. And if the story had ended there, it would have been a pretty darn good one.
But over the past three seasons (including a short stint with the Rangers after last summer’s Trade Deadline), Kelly has compiled a 29-18 record with a 3.51 ERA and an ERA+ 21% better than league average. That ERA+ ranks 12th in all of MLB in that span among those with at least 400 innings pitched.
Check out this list of starters with comparable ERA+ marks in that timeframe (not an exhaustive list):
Framber Valdez, 124 (one of the current top free agents)
Freddy Peralta, 123 (blockbuster trade acquisition by the Mets this winter)
Logan Webb, 121 (finished in top six of the NL Cy Young voting all three seasons)|
Ranger Suárez, 120 (scored five years, $130 million from Red Sox)
Entering his age-37 season, Kelly’s price tag was nowhere near Suárez territory. The D-backs got him back on a two-year, $40 million deal.
They appreciate him, and so do we.
Relief pitcher: Danny Coulombe, free agent
There are a handful of excellent relievers who fit our parameters, but I like the extra layer of Coulombe remaining unsigned at this late stage of the winter, going into his age-36 season, to add to his case.
Coulombe debuted with the Dodgers in 2014, first pitched meaningful innings for the A’s in 2016, went back to the Minors and then re-emerged in 2020 as a completely different pitcher. Despite a 90-mph fastball, he gets above-average strikeout rates while posting miniscule walk rates and inducing tons of mishits and groundballs. If we key in on his past three seasons (with the Orioles, Twins and Rangers), he’s put up an ERA+ of 165 (or 65% better than league average) and an ERA- (calculated by FanGraphs, which works in reverse, with a lower number being better) of 59. The former ranks 12th among relievers with at least 100 innings in that span, while the latter ranks eighth.
Given his age and the shoulder fatigue he battled late last year, it’s hard to know how much more Coulombe has left in the tank. But here’s a salute to an underrated arm.