We’ve already run through the best lineups, rotations and bullpens in our top 10s that fill in for power rankings during spring training. Next up is a fun and quite debatable project. We’re going to rank the best “duos” in baseball. And for this one, I’m going up to a top 12.
The most fun part of this is it doesn’t actually matter. The best teams will have more than two great players and a lot of times our picks for the top duo on the team don’t even bat back-to-back. I’m also going to ignore pitchers because I feel like if we talk about teams with the best duo, part of the mindset is you can watch this duo play together on an everyday basis.
As we’ve been doing with this series, this is a predictive ranking for the 2025 season. Past results don’t matter as much as what lies ahead, but only for this year. The temptation might be to rank Dylan Crews and James Wood for the Nationals, for example, but my hunch is they aren’t there just yet.
And while defense can move the needle, this is mostly about offense. The purpose is basically to see a collection of lineups and these are the top 10 duos of players that would most jump out as imposing. If we went back to the last two World Series, it’s a nice illustration of the purpose. The 2023 Diamondbacks had Ketel Marte and Corbin Carroll while the champion Rangers had Corey Seager and Marcus Semien. Last year, it was Aaron Judge and Juan Soto on the Yankees while the Dodgers actually had three stars standing out at the top of the order.
As an added bonus on the list this week, you not only get to disagree with the ranking itself, but you’ll also have an avenue to gripe with my choices as the top duo for each team.
Also considered: Jarren Duran and Rafael Devers, Red Sox; Kyle Tucker and Seiya Suzuki, Cubs; Vladimir Guerrero Jr. and Bo Bichette, Blue Jays; Jackson Chourio and William Contreras, Brewers; Elly De La Cruz and Matt McLain, Reds; Carlos Correa and Byron Buxton, Twins; Mike Trout and Jorge Soler, Angels; Lawrence Butler and Brent Rooker, A’s; Julio Rodríguez and Cal Raleigh, Mariners; Willy Adames and Matt Chapman, Giants
In all likelihood, Altuve, who turns 35 this season, has hit his decline. And yet, he still hit .295/.350/.439 with 20 homers and 22 steals last season. He isn’t the MVP-caliber player he used to be, but he’s still a difference-maker in the lineup and the Astros are a formidable presence until they show us otherwise.
Alvarez is among the most menacing hitters in baseball. His last three seasons average out to .303/.401/.587 with 162-game averages of 42 homers and 115 RBI. Of course, his career high in games was last season with 147 and he only played in 114 in 2023. His career high in home runs in an actual season is 37. He’s a total stud and yet his ceiling still seems very slightly limited over the course of 162 games.
They needed to be included here, but these aren’t the 2022-and-earlier Astros.
Ramírez has been one of the best and most underrated players in baseball for a long time. A long time. Yes, he’s long been known to be one of the best players to draft in fantasy baseball, but I’m talking among casual baseball fans. He’s not nearly as well known as he should be. He finished third place in MVP voting back in 2017 and 2018. He finished fifth last season. He’s still only 32 and is working on a pretty nice Hall of Fame case. He has to do a little heavy lifting here, but Kwan is a nice second piece, having hit .292/.368/.425 (126 OPS+) last season, his third in the majors.
The Braves were tough for multiple reasons. First off, Austin Riley and Marcell Ozuna are also in the mix for being part of the top duo. Those two may end up better than the two I picked. There’s also the fact that Acuña is coming off his second torn ACL. I ultimately picked him, but it also lands the Braves a few spots lower because he’s a bit limited to start the season. This duo would’ve been in the mix for No. 1 after the 2023 season. In fact, I think it would’ve won, as Acuña had won 2023 MVP while Olson clubbed 54 homers with 139 RBI.
There’s no doubt Olson was worse than Ozuna last year, but I’ve got Olson taking a step forward and getting a bit closer to his 2023 self while Ozuna is 34 years old and will likely soon hit his decline. It was tough to leave Riley off. Among this foursome, though, I don’t feel like there’s a wrong answer. And if anything, this ranking will prove too low.
Tatis looked like he was becoming the next great face of baseball after the 2021 season. Then came the 2022 disaster that included a PED suspension and shoulder surgery. He hasn’t been the same since, but his immense talent cannot be denied and that’s why I’m taking him over Jackson Merrill here. It’s his upside. He’s still only 26 years old and capable of becoming that 2021 version of himself again.
Machado is heading to his age-32 season, so that age-related decline should remain a few years away. He was MVP runner-up in 2022, but has battled consistency issues since. Still, he hit .275 with a 120 OPS+, 29 homers and 105 RBI last year.
If I was basing this ranking on last season, Tatis and Machado would probably fall out of the top 12. If I was basing it only on upside for the 2025 season, they could hit the top five. There’s plenty of variance with these two but, again, their upside is monstrous.
8. Ketel Marte and Corbin Carroll, Diamondbacks
Marte looked like the biggest challenger to Shohei Ohtani for a second last season, but a late injury knocked him down to third place in the MVP race. He’s still in the middle of his prime and coming off his best year yet (.292/.372/.560, 155 OPS+, 6.8 WAR). He also might be the second-best player on his own team. Carroll was a superstar in 2023, winning NL Rookie of the Year and finishing fifth in MVP voting. He followed it up with an utterly miserable start to the 2024 season. He did find himself down the stretch, though, hitting .254/.343/.557 in his last 75 games. He finished with 22 doubles, 14 triples, 22 homers, 74 RBI, 35 stolen bases and 121 runs. A full season of both players firing on all cylinders means the D-backs offense is one of the best in the league.
7. Corey Seager and Marcus Semien, Rangers
The perpetual injury concern for Seager lingers and Semien is coming off his worst year since 2018. I think we have to consider the World Series hangover is real with Semien. He plays every single game. He appeared in 162 games in 2021, 161 in 2022 and 162 in 2023. Tack on 17 playoff games in 2023 that bled into November and it’s possible he was just exhausted last season. It happens. I’m counting on him looking a lot more like 2023 this year. Seager is, of course, an MVP-caliber player whenever he’s on the field. In the last two seasons, he’s hit .303/.371/.567 (160 OPS+) with 63 doubles, 63 homers and 170 RBI in 242 games.
The Rangers were and are much more, but the won the 2023 on the strength of this duo and they remain a force.
It was a tough call to pick these two and not include Trea Turner, but make sure to take note that I’m leaning on how imposing the two players look, offensively, on the lineup card.
In his three seasons with the Phillies, Schwarber has averaged 44 home runs per season. Last year, he raised his batting average over 50 points and posted a .366 on-base percentage while leading the NL in walks. He’s hit the 100-run mark three straight years and even topped 100 RBI twice despite hitting leadoff a good portion of the time.
Harper’s OPS+ in the last three seasons? 146, 145, 149, respectively. Basically, he’s going to be between 45% and 50% better than average while posting a good batting average and hitting home runs at a full-season pace of mid-30s (he’s averaged 34 home runs for every 162 games during his time in Philly).
This isn’t the highest-ranked duo where this is the case, but it should be noted that one individual can drag the other member of the duo up a bit higher. It doesn’t have to be an equal partnership. That was always going to be the case with the Royals, whether I went with Vinnie Pasquantino or stuck with the venerable Sal. Perez is 35 years old this season, but he’s still got plenty of power, having hit 27 homers with 104 RBI last season. The 119 OPS+ was his best mark since the 2021 season when he hit 48 bombs.
This is, of course, mostly about Witt, though. There’s heavy competition, but there’s also an argument to be made that he’s the single best player in baseball this season. In 161 games last year, he collected 211 hits, which included 45 doubles, 11 triples and 32 homers. He drove home 109 runs while scoring 125 times. He stole 31 bases. He hit .332 with a .588 slugging percentage. He joined the legend George Brett as the only Royals players to ever top 9.0 WAR. He doesn’t even turn 25 years old until June.
We’re banking on bounce-backs here from the second half in 2024. After the All-Star break, Rutschman hit .207/.282/.303 while Henderson’s OPS was .956 before the break and .799 after. Henderson was still a beast all season long and finished fourth in AL MVP voting, but there was a downgrade there. I’m counting on both of these players to much more closely resemble who they were in the first half and the wall in left field coming in a bit with give the switch-hitting Rutschman a boost from the right side.
3. Aaron Judge and Cody Bellinger, Yankees
With the departure of a player who will be (spoiler alert) in the No. 1 spot, Aaron Judge is left to do a lot of heavy lifting with anyone else for the Yankees’ top duo. He’s plenty capable of that, though. He didn’t have an obvious Robin to his Batman in 2022, when he hit 62 home runs with 131 RBI. Last season, he was ridiculous, slashing .322/.458/.701 with 58 homers and 144 RBI. I think Bellinger is really going to enjoy playing his home games in Yankee Stadium, with that violent-looking swing tailor-made for the short right-field porch.
This ranking is mostly about Judge, though. He’s just that good at the plate.
2. Shohei Ohtani and Mookie Betts, Dodgers
The Dodgers suffer here from the exercise being limited to two players. If we did best trios, we’d loop in Freddie Freeman and put the Dodgers at the top without a second thought. It was difficult to choose between Freeman and Betts and I wouldn’t argue with anyone deciding to use Freeman, coming off his historic World Series performance. I chose Betts because Freeman is now 35 years old and on a surgically repaired ankle.
There’s not a ton of explanation needed for Ohtani and Betts being ranked this high. It’s two MVPs — Betts has one with three second-place finishes while Ohtani has three along with one second-place finish — who fill up the stat sheet regularly.
The shiny, new toy bumps the Mets to the top of the list. Lindor was stellar last season, finishing second in NL MVP voting to Ohtani while Soto finished third on the AL side behind Judge and Witt. Soto is the best on-base machine in baseball and he also hit 41 home runs last season. He again walked more than he struck out. He’s now sitting right behind Lindor, who hit .308/.376/.560 with 26 homers and 23 steals in his last 107 games last regular season before a good postseason that included a series-clinching grand slam.
Lindor is 31 years old while Soto is still only 26. This is the best duo in baseball for 2025.
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