In fantasy baseball drafts, the second base position is highlighted by Mookie Betts, and guys like Ozzie Albies, Marcus Semien, and Jose Altuve rounding out the top selections at the position. However, if you’ve done some fantasy baseball mock drafts already as part of your research, you may be seeing some value at the position as you progress later into drafts. 

In this first second base position spotlight, I want to highlight the three players who I believe are the best values in fantasy baseball drafts at their current fantasy baseball ADP (average draft position). For one reason or another, the players below are three of my favorite players to draft at second base if I miss out on the elite options in the first couple of rounds. 

 

Go check out some of the fantasy baseball mock drafts we’ve done here at Fantasy Alarm and look where these guys are going in drafts! Without further ado, here are the three best values at the second base position for the 2024 fantasy baseball season.

Nolan Gorman, St. Louis Cardinals

Many seem to be quick to forget just how excellent Gorman was at the beginning of the 2023 season. Through the month of May, he slashed .272/.360/.555 with 13 home runs, 41 RBI, and four stolen bases! 

Yes, he cooled off considerably from there, and yet another back ailment popped up for Gorman, not to mention a hamstring issue, too. Upon his return from his trip on the IL for the back issue, he hit just .204 with a strikeout rate north of 37 percent across 58 plate appearances. Gorman is still just 23 years young, and he hit 27 home runs with seven stolen bases last season. Oh, look at that 97th percentile barrel rate!

Simply put, Gorman is going far too late in drafts for someone whose 162-game average for their young career comes out to .232/.317/.454 with 32 home runs, 80 runs scored, 86 RBI, and six stolen bases. Over the last calendar month, he’s going outside the top 15 players at the position, and the top 175 overall. 

He’s already an insane value, and if his offseason conditioning and nutrition helps him stay off the injured list, you’re looking at a 30-homer bat with the chance of posting double-digit stolen bases outside the top 175 picks (on average).

Zack Gelof, Oakland Athletics

In 69 games with the Athletics last season, Gelof slashed .267/.337/.504 with 14 home runs, 14 stolen bases, and an 8.7 percent walk rate. He posted a healthy 11.1 percent barrel rate and 40.7 percent hard hit rate. There’s plenty of pop in that bat of his, and while his home park may suppress some power, he still posted a hearty .504 SLG at home last season 17 XBH (5 HR). There’s a lot to like with Gelof, but that’s not to say there aren’t some issues.

His 67.9 percent contact and 16.1 SwStr% are far from ideal, nor was his .167 average and .486 ISO against lefties. Oakland isn’t playing for anything, so it wouldn’t behoove them to take him out of the lineup at all, so I’m not really worried about a platoon situation for Gelof. As the year went on, his strikeout rate trended in the wrong direction. A whiff rate of 36+ percent against non-fastballs certainly didn’t help!

Overall, the upside outweighs the risk with Gelof, and while his elevated strikeout floor will likely keep his batting average closer to .235 than .260 this season, he’s a legitimate 20/20 threat this season. In 23 games at Triple-A before being called up last season, he hit 12 home runs and stole 20 bases in just 69 games. Then, in the MLB, he hit 14 home runs and stole 14 bases in just 69 games! 

The Oakland offense will hurt some of his counting stats, but Gelof has the makings of a top eight or 10 second baseman in fantasy this season, but he’s currently being drafted outside the top 12 at the position.

Gavin Lux, Los Angeles Dodgers

Lux was going to be a popular draft pick of mine last year, but a torn ACL in spring training cost him his 2023 season. However, Lux is still a preferred target of mine, and while he enters the year with second base and outfield eligibility on most sites, the plans are for him to be the team’s starting shortstop. So, Lux will gain shortstop eligibility a couple of weeks into the season, providing your fantasy team with more lineup flexibility and versatility!

In 129 games back in 2022, Lux slashed .276/.346/.399 with six home runs, 20 doubles, seven triples, and seven stolen bases. He also had 66 runs scored and 42 RBI that season with a double-digit walk rate. He’s capable of hitting for a solid average at the major league level, and despite a late season slide in 2022 that catapulted his strikeout rate, he’s made massive improvements in the strikeout department.

The Dodgers could use Lux in a platoon, but even so, he’ll be on the larger side of it. However, if he handles lefties like he did in 2022 from a batting average standpoint (.263), but maybe add a bit more thump (.684 OPS), he could avoid a platoon and be a regular in one of the best offenses in baseball. If he hits ninth, while he may lose out on some ABs, he’ll be on base when the top of the order comes to bat, which means Lux is going to score a ton of runs.

While Lux won’t be great in any one statistical category, he’ll be good in quite a few, and at his current ADP, a 10/10 season with a .260+ batting average provides quite the return on investment for fantasy managers.