Left field hasn’t seen much turnover this winter in the NL East, but one team made a significant addition this summer, which you will see later in the rankings. This will be a fun one, as the left corner of the outfield can potentially be one of the deepest position groups in the division.
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No 5. Kyle Stowers, MIA
Kyle Stowers, 27, was traded to Miami in the Taylor Rogers deal last season. He and Connor Norby were the headliners heading back to the fish, but Stowers’ Miami tenure did not start as he would’ve liked. Stowers slashed .186/.262/.295, producing an abysmal OPS of .556. Underlying metrics are somewhat a fan of the former O’s top prospect, as his batted ball numbers were solid with a 51.3 HardHit% and 10.9 Barrel%.
Stowers is projected to start in LF for the Marlins and have a much better season. ZiPS projects the lefty to post a 103 wRC+ with 18 homers over 460 PAs, which would be solid for the Marlins, the rebuilding fish could use a breakout-type player in Stowers to start moving things the right way.
No 4. Max Kepler, PHI
Max Kepler just recently acquired this offseason by the Phillies will be a key piece to this season if he can put up numbers like he did in 2023 (123 wRC+, 2.8 fWAR). Last year was a rough year for Kepler posted a below-average 94 wRC+ in 399 plate appearances. However, the poor performance could be linked to a knee injury sustained to Kepler that was addressed in the offseason. If Kepler can recover and play to the back of his baseball card, the $10M price tag could look like a bargain for the Phils.
Projections are somewhat all together on how they view him as a league-average bat with about 1 and change fWAR to go with it. For the Phillies to go on a deep run this year, Kepler will have to be better than last year.
No 3. James Wood, WSH
The 22-year-old superstar and former top prospect for the Nationals is poised to have a massive breakout season. In those 79 games in 2024, James Wood was elite, putting up a 120 wRC+, .354 OBP, and 52.0 HardHit%. His bat has a ton of pop but he only had 9 homers in 336 PAs. The main culprit was Wood’s inability to pull the ball, registering only a 31.8 percentage on pulled balls.
It’s not farfetched to say Wood can easily be a 20-20 player next season. He hits the ball hard enough to eclipse the 20-homer plateau, and he stole 14 bases last season while in the 85th Percentile in sprint speed. The potential is there, but only time will tell if Wood will suffer a sophomore slump or breakout into being one of baseball’s best stars.
No 2. Jurickson Profar, ATL
Jurickson Profar was rewarded by the Braves with a three-year, $42 million contract after registering his best season in the majors with the Padres. The former No. 1 overall prospect in baseball had an electric, as he put up an elite wRC+ of 139, which was 12th best in baseball.
There are zero questions about his bat, which could debatably put Profar No. 1 on this list. But his defense in the field and poor base running kept him at No. 2. This past season he had a -7 OAA and 26.5 SprintSpeed which were in the bottom percentiles of each respective stats.
There are some doubts if Profar is going to bring the hot bat into the new season, as his barrel% was a 7.2 (43rd percentile), and with a high BABIP, it will be interesting to see if the 31-year-old outfielder will be able to bring elite level production to the Braves. Nonetheless, he deserves to be No. 2 on this list after this past season.
No 1. Brandon Nimmo, NYM
Brandon Nimmo solidifies himself at No. 1 on MMO’s top-five left fielder’s list. Nimmo is coming off an alright season last year where he battled through plantar fasciitis for a majority of the second half and playoffs. The injury could be seen in his first and second-half splits, as his OPS went from .815 in the first half to .596 during the second half. Nimmo is expected to be ready for opening day, and if he’s even 95% that will be huge as read previously when he was nearly fully healthy he was one of the best-hitting outfielders in baseball. Here at MMO, we have Brandon Nimmo slotting into the No. 5 slot in the lineup just behind Pete Alonso.
During the 2024 season, Nimmo set a career-high in stolen bases (15) and he did that without getting caught once. Something to keep an eye on is Nimmo stealing bases, wouldn’t expect it early if he’s still battling the plantar fasciitis that he had surgery on during the offseason, but as the season progresses, it could be something he does more of.
