In the year 2021, baseball is a young man's game. Young players come up from the minors and have an immediate impact more than ever before. batted cleanup for a World Series champion at age 20. Drew Robinson Jersey Jr. flirted with a 40-40 season at age 21. At age 22, became one of only 17 players in the Expansion Era to post a 195 OPS+ or better.These days the best teams feature at least one bona fide superstar who isn't yet old enough to rent a car. Young, cheap players who provide immense value are the sport's most valuable commodity, and teams are better at player development than ever. Case in point: 23 players age 22 or younger have put up a 125 OPS+ since 2000, more than the previous three decades combined (20).Because young players are so vital, we here at CBS Sports have compiled a ranking of the 25 best players under the age of 25. Here is how we came up with our rankings:We researched (scouting reports, statistical data, etc.) and compiled our own personal top 25 lists, which were then averaged together to build the master list.Players are ranked based on expected 2021 performance only. We did not consider projected long-term value or contract status.To be eligible for our rankings, players must be 24 or younger on June 30, 2021. Fantasy Baseball Draft Kit Your ultimate baseball draft guide Dominate your Fantasy Baseball draft with our free Draft Kit, which gives you must-have positional and Top 300 rankings in a printable format. Plus track your draft with our lineup builder and salary cap tracker. I agree to receive the "Fantasy Baseball Draft Kit" and marketing communications, updates, special offers (including partner offers), and Joe Palumbo Jersey other information from CBS Sports and the Paramount family of companies. By pre sing sign up, I confirm that I have read and agree to the . Please check the opt-in box to acknowledge that you would like to subscribe. Thanks for signing up! Keep an eye on your inbox. Sorry! There was an error proce sing your subscription. With all that in mind, here is the official CBS Sports ranking of the top 25 baseball players in the world under the age of 25 going into the 2021 season. SD SS #23 Sign a $340 million contract and you get the top spot on our top 25 under 25 list. Well, no, that's not what happened, but Tatis is worthy of the No. 1 spot. He's a brilliant all-around talent who greatly improved his defense last year while still providing MVP-caliber offense. If there's a knock on Tatis, it's that we've yet to see him do it in a full 162-game season. Injuries limited him to 84 games in 2019 and last year was a 60-game season. That's nitpicking though. Tatis is already a top-10 player in the game and it feels like he is only scratching the surface of what he can do. 2021 season age: 22 SD LF #22 A case can be made Soto is the best hitter in baseball period, not only among players yet to turn 25. He has been historically good in his three MLB seasons. Here's where Soto ranks among the 77 players with at least 1,000 plate appearances through their age 21 season:Batting average:.295 (23rd)On-base percentage:.415 (5th)Slugging percentage:.557 (4th)OPS+:151 (6th)The five hitters with a better OPS+ than Soto: (166 OPS+), Ted Williams (161 OPS+), Jimmie Foxx ( Lance Lynn Jersey 156 OPS+), Rogers Hornsby (155 OPS+), and Ty Cobb (153 OPS+). Five of the best hitters to ever live, basically. Soto is roughly the same age as college kids drafted in 2020. Yeah, he leaves something to be desired defensively, but he's a transcendent offensive talent. Very, very few players throughout history have been this good this young. 2021 season age: 22 ATL CF #13 As far as I'm concerned, you could rank the top three players on this list in any order, and it would be defensible. Isiah Kiner-Falefa Jersey They're a cut above everyone else, so don't take Acuna being in the No. 3 spot as a slight. No shame in ranking behind Tatis and Soto. Acuna is a dynamic all-around talent who fell three stolen bases short of a 40-40 season a year ago, and has improved his walk rate from 9.2 percent in 2018 to 10.6 percent in 2019 to 18.8 percent in 2020. It's amazing the Braves were able to sign Acuna for a mere $100,000 as an international amateur free agent in 2014. 2021 season age: 23 TOR SS #11 Bichette has appeared in 75 big-league games to date, or le s than half of a regulation season. Even so, it's hard to overlook his results, which include a .307/.347/.549 slash line, a 137 OPS+, and 16 home runs. His swing-happy approach will result in some ugly walk-to-strikeout ratios, but his barrel awarene s and defensive Logan Forsythe Jersey ability should make him a valuable building block and a blast to watch. In a sense, think of Bichette as the American League's answer to . 2021 season age: 23 NYY SS #25 I'm not sure he'll ever hit 38 home runs like he did in 2019 again -- that seems to be a juiced ball (and ) aided homer total -- but Torres is a precocious young hitter who has cut his strikeout rate from 25.2 percent to 21.4 percent to 17.5 percent in his three MLB seasons. He's also shown a knack for producing in big spots, be it runners in scoring position (career .316/.375/.575) or high-leverage situations (career .341/.386/.604) or the postseason (career .342/.432/.605). Torres has been error-prone at shortstop early in his MLB career, though he's yet to play a full 162-game season at the position, and the adjustments he's made at the plate suggest he has the baseball acumen to get better in the field. 2021 season age: 24 ATL 2B #1 Albies tends to get overshadowed by Acuna, but make no mistake: he's a heck of a player himself. Although he's just now entering his age-24 season, he's already ama sed 60 home runs and 40 stolen bases (on 49 attempts) for his career. Albies is also a high-grade defender at the keystone, making him a well-rounded contributor. The biggest knock on Albies is that he's a generous swinger who offered at nearly 60 percent of the pitches he saw in 2020. He'll likely have to learn to be a little more disciplined as he ages, but for now it's hard to hold it against him given his results. 2021 season age: 24 BOS 3B #11 Despite being a big-name Red Sox player, I Danny Santana Jersey feel like Devers flew under the radar a bit in 2019. He led the big leagues in extra-base hits (90) and total bases (359), and he did that while posting a much better than average 17.0 percent strikeout rate. Devers is not the most disciplined hitter in the game (he chases out of the zone at one of the highest rates in the league), but he has a freakish ability to get the fat part of the bat on the ball no matter where it's pitched, and drive it with authority. He had a down year in 2020 (he was hardly
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