Best First Basemen in MLB 2026

Source MLB StatcastThrough Oct 18, 202660 ranked first basemenRatings refreshed nightly

Ben Rice is the highest-rated first baseman in MLB 2026 on Legends Deck, at 95 overall. The top three are Ben Rice, Willson Contreras, Nick Kurtz, ranked by a percentile transform of real 2026 Statcast data. Every player here is a playable card.

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Best first basemen2026 · 60 ranked

Every first baseman who played an MLB game in 2026, ranked by Legends Deck card rating, with team, batting stats and Statcast numbers.
#	Player	OVR ▾	AVG	OPS	HR	RBI	SB	Barrel%	Exit Velo
1	Ben Rice	95	0.264	0.897	41	97	3	14.3%	91.9	View card ›
2	Willson Contreras	91	0.275	0.902	27	81	3	13.3%	89.8	View card ›
3	Nick Kurtz	90	0.256	0.879	21	69	7	18.0%	93.4	View card ›
4	Bryce Harper	89	0.269	0.865	29	87	7	10.3%	90.0	View card ›
5	Jake Bauers	89	0.266	0.873	26	86	11	14.0%	92.1	View card ›
6	Matt Olson	88	0.251	0.823	41	93	4	14.2%	92.5	View card ›
7	Pete Alonso	88	0.267	0.885	43	113	5	15.3%	93.9	View card ›
8	Vladimir Guerrero Jr.	87	0.260	0.688	9	57	7	6.9%	90.3	View card ›
9	TJ Rumfield	86	0.300	0.843	16	73	0	5.0%	84.3	View card ›
10	Alec Burleson	85	0.279	0.816	26	116	4	11.3%	92.0	View card ›
11	Freddie Freeman	85	0.288	0.792	16	70	7	8.1%	89.5	View card ›
12	Bryce Eldridge	84	0.269	0.825	17	57	1	11.5%	92.7	View card ›
13	Ty France	83	0.295	0.865	21	72	1	9.1%	91.5	View card ›
14	Jonathan Aranda	81	0.274	0.792	22	92	0	9.9%	91.1	View card ›
15	Yandy Díaz	79	0.293	0.805	22	85	3	7.1%	90.9	View card ›
16	Justin Foscue	79	0.271	0.816	11	34	0	10.4%	89.3	View card ›
17	Michael Busch	78	0.242	0.745	20	77	3	9.1%	88.4	View card ›
18	Coby Mayo	77	0.228	0.758	24	63	4	13.5%	91.3	View card ›
19	Joc Pederson	77	0.235	0.816	26	53	2	11.3%	92.1	View card ›
20	Vinnie Pasquantino	77	0.249	0.761	17	63	5	9.5%	90.0	View card ›
21	Ryan O'Hearn	77	0.265	0.770	18	76	1	6.8%	89.1	View card ›
22	Curtis Mead	77	0.253	0.851	17	48	6	10.9%	88.0	View card ›
23	Nolan Schanuel	76	0.276	0.736	7	49	1	2.4%	87.4	View card ›
24	Christian Walker	76	0.226	0.726	29	87	0	9.6%	89.0	View card ›
25	Andrew Vaughn	76	0.306	0.834	6	43	0	5.1%	90.1	View card ›
26	Aaron Sabato	75	0.000	0.000	0	0	0	—	—	View card ›
27	Christian Encarnacion-Strand	74	0.277	0.838	11	39	1	14.0%	89.5	View card ›
28	Spencer Steer	74	0.238	0.740	16	40	3	12.4%	89.7	View card ›
29	Nick Sogard	74	0.255	0.727	5	19	1	4.8%	86.8	View card ›
30	Spencer Torkelson	74	0.230	0.766	26	77	1	12.2%	89.5	View card ›
31	Paul Goldschmidt	73	0.252	0.765	18	52	1	9.9%	86.8	View card ›
32	Jake Burger	72	0.228	0.723	28	90	4	12.3%	90.1	View card ›
33	Spencer Horwitz	68	0.244	0.708	10	49	1	5.7%	86.8	View card ›
34	Andrés Chaparro	68	0.263	0.885	13	39	0	13.1%	89.9	View card ›
35	Josh Bell	66	0.255	0.738	21	96	2	9.6%	89.9	View card ›
36	Nathaniel Lowe	66	0.252	0.761	17	64	0	8.4%	89.6	View card ›
37	Yohandy Morales	66	0.255	0.851	4	10	1	15.6%	91.7	View card ›
38	Romy Gonzalez	64	0.185	0.572	1	7	1	4.4%	87.6	View card ›
39	Endy Rodríguez	64	0.267	0.840	7	20	6	10.6%	92.4	View card ›
40	Josh Naylor	62	0.261	0.667	10	57	30	4.4%	87.0	View card ›
41	Blaze Jordan	62	0.247	0.658	3	28	0	10.1%	88.4	View card ›
42	Ryan Mountcastle	60	0.286	0.690	0	1	0	0.0%	90.0	View card ›
43	Dominic Smith	57	0.253	0.694	9	46	0	5.8%	87.8	View card ›
44	Eric Wagaman	56	0.191	0.588	2	5	0	5.7%	84.8	View card ›
45	CJ Kayfus	56	0.182	0.644	1	2	0	21.4%	92.8	View card ›
46	Buddy Kennedy	56	0.116	0.364	0	1	0	10.7%	84.4	View card ›
47	Kyle Manzardo	54	0.215	0.684	13	39	0	12.0%	89.5	View card ›
48	Trey Mancini	54	0.308	0.748	0	4	0	18.2%	90.5	View card ›
49	Patrick Wisdom	53	0.106	0.351	1	4	0	19.2%	92.7	View card ›
50	Pavin Smith	51	0.183	0.556	3	12	2	4.7%	87.6	View card ›
51	David Fry	51	0.201	0.677	8	20	0	6.5%	86.3	View card ›
52	Rhys Hoskins	50	0.179	0.682	13	38	1	12.6%	89.4	View card ›
53	Carlos Santana	50	0.083	0.279	0	0	0	0.0%	87.8	View card ›
54	Michael Toglia	49	0.115	0.371	0	1	0	0.0%	91.6	View card ›
55	Abimelec Ortiz	46	0.188	0.572	5	14	0	7.5%	89.7	View card ›
56	Tyler Locklear	45	0.278	0.801	1	6	1	14.3%	83.8	View card ›
57	LaMonte Wade Jr.	44	0.205	0.654	4	19	0	3.3%	86.4	View card ›
58	Joey Meneses	42	0.150	0.430	0	2	0	0.0%	92.7	View card ›
59	Connor Joe	41	0.179	0.597	1	3	2	8.3%	92.5	View card ›
60	Rowdy Tellez	38	0.200	0.773	1	4	0	28.6%	91.8	View card ›

How this leaderboard is built

Legends Deck rates every first baseman using real 2026 Statcast data. For hitters, the key inputs are exit velocity, barrel rate, xwOBA, sprint speed, whiff rate, and chase rate. No scout opinions, no card-by-card tuning: the same fixed pipeline for every player.

Full methodology: How Legends Deck card ratings work. Or read the ranked breakdown: Best First Basemen in MLB 2026.

Questions

Who is the best first baseman in MLB 2026?

Ben Rice is the highest-rated first baseman in MLB 2026 on Legends Deck. The top three are Ben Rice, Willson Contreras, Nick Kurtz, ranked by a percentile transform of real Statcast data refreshed nightly.

How are MLB first basemen ranked on Legends Deck?

Hitters are scored on a percentile-normalized blend of exit velocity, barrel rate, xwOBA, sprint speed, whiff rate, and chase rate — pulled live. No editorial weights, just math.

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