Fantasy baseball toughest second basemen to rank for 2027: Jazz Chisholm leads the biggest draft-day dilemmas — SkimNews
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- Fernando Tatis Jr. enters 2027 as the consensus No. 1 fantasy second baseman after playing nearly a third of his season there despite not playing the infield since 2021, though the analyst notes debate over whether he's a first- or second-round pick.
- Jazz Chisholm Jr. saw his offensive game collapse in a contract year, finishing with just 19 homers before a thumb injury IL stint, with swing decisions deteriorating (fewer swings at strikes, more chases) even as his average exit velocity hit a career high.
- Ketel Marte (turning 33 in weeks) showed new signs of slippage, with his chase rate jumping from 25% to 32% on out-of-zone pitches, though his .348 xwOBA remains the second-best mark among all second basemen.
- Ozzie Albies is on a multi-year decline at age 29, most notably losing his ability to crush lefties — his OPS vs. LHP fell from .940 in 2021 to .739 in 2026 — leaving him a fringe top-12 option.
- Nico Hoerner has lost his high-floor reputation: BABIP dropped from .313 to .278 against a career-best .300 expected average, sprint speed fell to a career-low 76th percentile, and steals dropped from 29 to 22 in the same plate appearances.
- Kody Clemens is putting up the best underlying numbers of his career at age 30 with a .699 OPS against same-handed pitching, emerging as a 'poor man's Brandon Lowe' — though the piece flags caution about betting on a one-year breakout.
- Otto Lopez, Ceddane Rafaela, Luis Garcia, and Casey Schmitt are among players losing 2B eligibility entering 2027, though the column argues the position will still be in better shape next season than it currently looks.
Why it matters: Fantasy drafters banking on second base as a plug-and-play position face real risk: the four players outside Tatis who typically anchor the position all carry meaningful 2027 question marks — Chisholm's contract-year collapse, Marte's age-driven chase-rate spike, Albies' multi-year slide, and Hoerner's suddenly-shaky floor. At least five established 2B-eligible names are also losing eligibility this offseason, meaning draft-day value at the position hinges on correctly pricing regression vs. decline for a handful of volatile bats.
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