Buster Olney continued his top ten rankings over the weekend, covering right fielders on Saturday and catchers on Sunday. He has Gregory Polanco rated as the tenth best right fielder in baseball, while Francisco Cervelli gets high praise with his fourth place ranking.
Olney completed the outfield trifecta for the Pirates, previously ranking Starling Marte as the best left fielder and Andrew McCutchen as the second best center fielder. Gerrit Cole also got ninth place among starting pitchers.
Olney gave Polanco some excellent praise, saying he will be in the top ten for years to come. Polanco’s rebound from early season struggles got him on this list, with Olney saying that believes he may have turned a corner in July. In 45 games from July 6th until August 28th, Polanco put up an .894 OPS. That was well above the .630 OPS he had through 77 games to start the season. He finished with 50 extra-base hits, 55 walks and 27 stolen bases.
Cervelli only trailed Buster Posey, Yadier Molina and Russell Martin in the catcher rankings, and Olney wrote that Cervelli is one of the most underrated players right now. He gets credit for the strong offensive numbers, specifically his ability to get on base, plus his defensive work is highly respected. Cervelli had the best pitch framing numbers and gets a lot of credit for his work with the pitching staff. He hit .295/.370/.401 in 130 games this season.
