It’s always fun to look at MLB projections before the season and see whose numbers jump off the page.
Now’s the perfect time to do that for 2024. Let’s look for the players with stat lines worth taking notice of, using FanGraphs’ Depth Charts projections.
Here are 10 players with eye-popping projections for 2024 — five hitters and five pitchers.
Let’s start with the current National League MVP, who is expected to win the MVP award once more. And Acuña might win it all if he puts up these numbers. According to Wins Above Replacement, Acuña is expected to be the most valuable player in baseball and the most valuable player in the National League (Mookie Betts is second at 5.9 WAR). In addition, he is predicted to surpass Luis Arraez in the MLB hitting title race and have another absurdly fast season. Acuña may become the first MVP to win both titles in back-to-back years since Miguel Cabrera in 2012 and 2013
With Soto barely ahead of teammate Aaron Judge (6.1 WAR), the Yankees’ young star is predicted to be the American League MVP. Soto is predicted to be MLB’s best pure hitter, while Acuña is predicted to be the league’s best all-around player. With a Weighted Runs Created Plus of 171, Soto is expected to be 71% better than a league-average hitter, ranking him slightly ahead of Judge, Shohei Ohtani, Yordan Alvarez, and Acuña. Like usual, Soto is also expected to lead the Majors in walks. In fact, he and Arraez are the only two batters predicted to have more walks than strikeouts. He is also expected to hit a career-high number of home homers. In New York, this would be a Peak Soto season as the 25-year-old goes for his first MVP honor.
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