Who are the top 5 MLB players right now ? Check it.

The MLB has never been more loaded with talent than it is right now heading into the 2022 season, here are the top 5 MLB players right now.

Who are the top 5 MLB players right now ? Check it.

Voting for Major League Baseball’s 2022 All-Star Game won’t even begin for another month, but it’s never too early to start arguing over who is currently the best in the business.

This ranking of MLB’s top players is not exclusively rooted in 2022 production. It’s actually more so based on what these players were able to accomplish over the past 3-plus years as opposed to the past 3-plus weeks.

But early returns were certainly a big factor in, say, red-hot Nolan Arenado and Manny Machado ranking ahead of slow starters Juan Soto and Mookie Betts, or pitchers like Carlos Rodon and Kevin Gausman even landing in the top 20.

Early returns (or, rather, the lack thereof) also played a key part in a few very good players missing the cut due to injury. If we were ranking players for a “rest of season” fantasy draft of sorts, all of Ronald Acuna Jr., Fernando Tatis Jr. and Jacob deGrom almost certainly would have made the cut. But they’re relegated to honorable mentions for now.

Here are the Top 5 MLB players right now  :

1. OF Mike Trout, Los Angeles Angels

Trout has yet to finish a season at No. 1 in MLB in all three of those categories, but he’s always close, posting an OPS of at least .990 in each of the past seven seasons.

In fact, Trout has four of the nine highest single-season OPS marks dating back to 2015 and is currently ahead (1.141) of even his personal best (1.090).

Compared to his usual level of excellence, Trout actually started out a bit slow this season, too. Through 10 games played, he was batting .273 with five extra-base hits.

Not bad, but chump change compared to batting .526 with three home runs, three doubles and a triple over the course of his subsequent five games.

2. 3B Nolan Arenado, St. Louis Cardinals

Nolan Arenado has tapered off a bit in the slugging department since a blistering hot start.

The Cardinals third baseman had at least one extra-base hit in eight of his first 10 games, finishing that season-opening stretch with five doubles, five home runs and 14 RBI. 

From 2015-21, Arenado led the majors in RBI (752; 71 more than his closest challenger), ranked second to Nelson Cruz in home runs (241) and was fifth in doubles (233), so no real surprises there.

At the time, he was batting .368 and slugging .895.

But while his slugging has dropped more than 200 points, his batting average has actually improved, as Arenado has become the patron saint of singles as of late.

3. 3B Jose Ramirez, Cleveland Guardians

It’s been a hot minute since anyone even remotely flirted with breaking Hack Wilson’s 1930 record of 191 RBI in a single season.

The only players to even reach 160 in the past 80 years were Manny Ramirez (165 in 1999) and Sammy Sosa (160 in 2001).

But Jose Ramirez has been on quite the RISP tear in 2022, compiling seven home runs and 28 RBI in his first 20 games.

Surely no one expects him to maintain that 162-game pace of 57 homers and 227 ribbies, but surely no one expects him to crash and burn, either.

Ramirez had 36 home runs last year and 39 in 2018, and has finished top six in the AL MVP vote in four of the past five seasons.

He’s out to a better start than usual, but this hasn’t exactly come out of nowhere.

4. RHP Max Scherzer, New York Mets

Max Scherzer is always good, but especially so when first getting a change of scenery.

When he relocated from Detroit to Washington before the 2015 campaign, he had a 1.51 ERA, 0.88 WHIP and 10.7 K/9 through his first 10 starts with the Nationals.

After getting traded to the Dodgers at last year’s July deadline, he was unbelievably dominant in his first nine games, racking up a 0.78 ERA, 0.66 WHIP and 12.3 K/9.

Lather, rinse, repeat in Queens, as Scherzer has been darn near unhittable through his first four starts with the Mets.

In his first start of the season, he went (by his standards) a bit easy on his former team from the nation’s capital, allowing three earned runs with six strikeouts in six innings of work.

He only threw 80 pitches, though, still getting his $43.3 million arm stretched out after the abbreviated spring training.

5. Shohei Ohtani

There was never really any doubt as to who would top this list.

Shohei Ohtani had one of the greatest seasons of all time in 2021, where he proved to be both a top-tier starting pitcher and one of the best hitters across the MLB.

Being a unanimous MVP selection shows the respect Shohei Ohtani commands.

The Los Angeles Angels have high hopes for Ohtani’s continued success. Going into 2022, he is the undisputed best player in the MLB.