Updated Fantasy Baseball Corner Infield Rankings: Value check for 1st and 3rd basemen - Yahoo Sports

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The calendar has moved to May, which means it’s time to get some positional Shuffle Ups your way. We have enough data to form some actionable opinions (in some cases), or at least educated guesses (in some other cases).

The players below are salaried and ranked as if I were entering a fresh draft tonight. What’s happened to this point is an audition, nothing more. Don’t get hung up on the salaries in a vacuum, which are just comparison tools. Players at the same salary are considered even.

Most of the players who have 1B or 3B eligibility in Yahoo leagues are on this list. I excluded anyone currently on the IL (Eugenio Suárez, for example) and anyone with catcher eligibility (we’ll rank those guys with the catchers). I also ignored anyone in the minors, with one late exception.

Have some respectful disagreement? That’s good, that’s why we have a game. Share your thoughts anytime on social media: catch me on Twitter/X or on Bluesky.

And away we go.

## The Big Tickets

$36 José Ramírez

$30 Sal Stewart

$29 Matt Olson

$28 Nick Kurtz

I was concerned about the Cleveland offense to begin the year and that’s been valid, as the Guardians stand 24th in runs. But Ramírez has more walks than strikeouts and is still swiping bases aggressively, even in his age-33 season. He’s already a walk-in Hall of Famer.

Maybe this salary looks high for Stewart, but I was tempted to go even higher. He’s a five-category contributor and he’s controlling his at-bats, with a decent walk rate and an acceptable strikeout rate. All of his hard-hit sliders are Kool-Aid red. I wonder if the Reds regret not fast-tracking him last year, but Stewart is here to stay now.

## Some Confusing Veteran Stars

$27 Vladimir Guerrero

$26 Manny M