31-40

Matt Carpenter
Prior to last season, Carpenter adjusted his approach to yield more power, and it certainly worked. He entered 2015 with a career seasonal high of 11 home runs. Then he went out and hit 28 on the year, and he did while maintaining a strong OBP.




Matt Harvey
32. New York Mets | SP
Now that his late-spring “injury” turned out to be nothing serious, we can resume projecting Harvey for another excellent season in 2016. Harvey just turned 27, so something in keeping with his career ERA+ of 144 sounds about right, and now that he's going into his second post-Tommy John campaign, we'll say he tops 200 innings for the first time in his career. Expect a top-five finish in the NL Cy Young balloting, barring injury.


A.J. Pollock
Pollock's developed into a complete threat. He's a good fielder in center, he's coming off a 2015 season in which he swiped 39 bags and took the extra base 52 percent of the time, and over the last seasons he's hit to the tune of a 132 OPS+.




Sonny Gray
The 26-year-old right-hander has a full repertoire, and across parts of three major-league seasons he's pitched to a 2.88 ERA (134 ERA+). Gray's small stature? Not a problem so far, as over the last years he's worked 427 innings and thrown 6,373 pitches.




Russell Martin
Martin's a skilled defensive catcher who over the last two seasons has batted .263/.364/.445. To put that in context, last season the average big-league catcher had a batting line of .240/.303/.379.




Francisco Lindor
He's already perhaps the best defensive shortstop in baseball not named “Andrelton,” and, unlike Simmons, Lindor can hit a little bit and steal bases. If his offensive ceiling turns out to be more in line with his 2015 numbers (as opposed to his minor-league outputs), then consider him a top-15 talent.




Jose Bautista
Yes, Joey Bats is 35 years of age, but he still rakes. Last season, his OPS+ checked in at 49, and he hit 40 homers and led the AL with 110 walks. If healthy, he should provide similar bestowals in 2016.





J.D. Martinez
Martinez rebuilt his swing in Detroit, and on the Tigers' watch he's batted .296/.350/.543 with 61 homers in 281 games. If you thought 2014 was an unsustainable fluke, then Martinez proved you wrong by winning a Silver Slugger last season.




Jacob deGrom
39. New York Mets | SP
The 27-year-old deGrom may have the best stuff in the Mets' rotation, and that's saying something. He throws one of the hardest sliders in baseball, and last season he struck out 27.3 percent of opposing hitters while walking just 5.1 percent of them. So long as he holds up under a likely increasing workload, he's a threat to win the NL Cy Young in 2016.




Yasiel Puig
Injuries are the only question with Puig. Across parts of three seasons in L.A., he's got an OPS+ of 141, and that includes season, when leg injuries sapped his production. We know what he can do when healthy. Now let's see if he can stay healthy.




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