Which star is No. 1 for '24? Let the debate begin!

Before every season, MLB Network sets out to name the Top 100 Players Right Now. It’s a difficult task, one that is well underway for 2024.

The final episode of the countdown will air on MLB Network on Wednesday at 8 p.m. ET, revealing the top 10 players on the new list. And this year, there is some real suspense.

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The title of the No. 1 Player Right Now has not changed hands much. It belonged to Mike Trout eight times in nine seasons from 2013-21 (Clayton Kershaw took it in 2015), before Trout’s former teammate, Shohei Ohtani, took the baton in 2022 and ‘23.

In 2024, however, we may well see a new name. Trout is 32, and injuries have severely limited his playing time over the past few seasons. Ohtani certainly still has an argument for the top spot coming off a sensational 2023, but the newest Dodgers star won’t be a two-way contributor this year, instead limited to DH duty (or perhaps an occasional outfield cameo) while he rehabs an elbow injury.

That situation opens things up for a talented field of challengers, several of whom could have an argument for their first No. 1 finish. But who should take the crown?

Before we get the official answer from MLB Network on Wednesday night, we asked five MLB.com experts to weigh in on this very question. Let the debate begin …

DAVID ADLER, researcher/reporter

Adler’s personal top 5 list
5. Shohei Ohtani, DH, Dodgers
4. Julio Rodríguez, CF, Mariners
3. Mookie Betts, 2B, Dodgers
2. Aaron Judge, CF, Yankees
1. Ronald Acuña Jr., RF, Braves

Why is Acuña your No. 1?
I'm not overthinking this one. The dude hit 41 homers and stole 73 bases last season. Acuña had a power-speed season the likes of which the game of baseball has never seen, and if you make history like that, you're No. 1. If I were making this list in 2022, after Ohtani's first two-way super-duper-star season, Shohei would've been my No. 1. If I were making this list in 2023, after Judge's 62 homers, Judge would've been my No. 1. The past year in baseball was the Year of Acuña. He has to top the list.

How difficult was this choice?
The hard part wasn't choosing Acuña at No. 1. It was choosing who to leave out of the top five. And that was really hard. Because I wanted Juan Soto (toughest at-bat in baseball), Freddie Freeman (most consistent elite hitter on the planet), Corey Seager (top dog on the World Series champs), Yordan Alvarez (impossible to get out in the postseason) and Adley Rutschman (the only true superstar catcher) all in there. And I had to snub them. But even without his pitching half, Ohtani was the best hitter in the American League last season, and he would've been a top-five player in baseball with his bat alone. J-Rod is an electric power-speed star like Acuña, but one who also plays a Gold Glove-caliber center field on top of that. Betts was so good that he was challenging Mr. 40-70, Acuña, for NL MVP until the very end of the season. And Judge didn't hit 62 home runs in 2023, but he did hit 37 in just 106 games -- which is a 55-homer pace if he'd played the same number of games that he did in '22.

Who is a candidate, from outside your top 5, to be No. 1 in 2025?
Bobby Witt Jr., SS, Royals. I'm going just outside my top 10 right now to take one of the players I believe in the most for the long haul. Witt is knocking on the door of MVP level, and he might smash that door down this season. He's exactly what an MVP looks like in baseball today: a dynamic, game-changing all-around star. At 23 years old, he just had a 30-49 season and was one of the best fielders in the league. Witt can be to shortstop what J-Rod is to center field. The J-Rod/Witt debate can be the next Acuña/Soto debate, or the next Trout/Harper.

SARAH LANGS, researcher/reporter

Langs’ personal top 5 list
5. Shohei Ohtani, DH, Dodgers
4. Julio Rodríguez, CF, Mariners
3. Mookie Betts, 2B, Dodgers
2. Aaron Judge, CF, Yankees
1. Ronald Acuña Jr., RF, Braves

Why is Acuña your No. 1?
We’ve known just how dynamic Acuña is for his entire career, and in 2023, he took that to the next level. He’s a unanimous reigning MVP who is poised for another stellar year. He doesn’t have to create another new club just to have a historic year and we know how much he brings to the Braves on a daily basis. Incredibly, his .596 slugging percentage last season should have been even higher based on his quality of contact, as exhibited by his .660 expected slugging. In other words, the otherworldly season we saw last year could have been even better. Can’t wait to see what 2024 brings.

How difficult was this choice?
I think I could make an argument for any of the players in my top five as No. 1. While the top player race is more wide open than it’s been in a while, the top five to seven seems quite set. What an incredible state of the game, to have so many players with strong arguments as its best.

Who is a candidate, from outside your top 5, to be No. 1 in 2025?
Juan Soto, RF, Yankees. This was an easy pick because I wanted to have room for him in the top five this year. After he has an MVP-caliber season in New York heading into free agency, why wouldn’t the best pure hitter in baseball be the best player?

WILL LEITCH, national columnist

Leitch’s personal top 5 list
5. Julio Rodríguez, CF, Mariners
4. Corey Seager, SS, Rangers
3. Juan Soto, LF, Yankees
2. Ronald Acuña Jr., RF, Braves
1. Mookie Betts, 2B, Dodgers

Why is Betts your No. 1?
Without litigating last year’s MVP debate again -- either choice would have been fine, you really couldn’t go wrong -- I’m not sure it’s truly appreciated that Betts, without having any reason in Spring Training to think he’d be doing so, played 86 games in the infield last year and was just great at it, like it was 2012 again and he was back in Low-A Lowell. He’s the personification of that Old School “ballplayer” while also excelling in every advanced metric imaginable. I think he can do anything. Including, eventually, probably pretty soon, winning a World Series MVP Award.

How difficult was this choice?
Well, Acuña did something no one in baseball has ever done before last year. Soto is basically Ted Williams. If you extrapolated Seager’s stats from last year to a full season (rather than just 119 games) he’d have been better than everyone here. Julio could put together a whole season like his last two months and have it be one of the greatest seasons of all time. Fortunately, Shohei isn’t pitching this year, so I could eliminate him, but he’ll be back next year, complicating this even further. So yeah, it was a difficult choice, and I’m not accounting for the fact that I was being chased by alligators when I made it.

Who is a candidate, from outside your top 5, to be No. 1 in 2025?
Jackson Holliday, SS, Orioles. The easy answer is Shohei, but let’s see how his rehab goes. Holliday is nine years younger than the reigning AL MVP, by the way … and I wonder if he’ll be on this list by the end of the season.

MIKE PETRIELLO, analyst

Petriello’s personal top 5 list
5. Shohei Ohtani, DH, LAD
4. Aaron Judge, CF, NYY
3. Julio Rodríguez, CF, SEA
2. Mookie Betts, 2B, LAD
1. Ronald Acuña Jr., RF, ATL

Why is Acuña your No. 1?
It’s not because he just went 40/70, to be clear, because while that’s obviously impressive, the rules were changed last year to make base stealing much easier than it had ever been. It’s because Acuña did something far more incredible than that, which is to cut his strikeout rate down from one year to the next by just about as much as anyone ever has, and he hardly sacrificed power to do it – his slugging percentage went up by 183 points. The truly scary thing for everyone else is that Acuña is only 26 years old … and there’s considerable reason to think that 2024 wasn’t a once-in-a-lifetime peak year, and that he could be even better in 2025.

How difficult was this choice?
Very. Arguably harder than it’s been in many years. I wrote about this in January, pointing out that Mike Trout’s long-running reign had finally come to an end, and what should have been a seamless handoff to Ohtani ended as soon as Ohtani injured his elbow and became a DH-only player in 2024. (It’ll probably be Ohtani again in 2025 if we think he’s going to pitch.) For all of the niceties about Acuña I just said above, Betts’ move to second base could make all of his offensive firepower look even more impressive.

Who is a candidate, from outside your top 5, to be No. 1 in 2025?
Fernando Tatis Jr., RF, Padres. I wanted to say Juan Soto, because he’s Juan Soto – you know, 21st century Ted Williams – and there’s plenty of high expectations to see how his year with the Yankees will go as he enters a potentially historic free agency. But Soto’s defense is well below average, and the short porch in the Bronx won’t help him as much as you’d think. Instead, let’s go with someone who, not that long ago, was talked about in the same breath as Acuña and Soto: Tatis, who saw his star dim with injury and suspension issues that cost him all of 2022. His 2023 return was more good than great on offense, but his transition to the outfield was spectacular defensively, and he’s still only 25 years old. Now with a full year of post-absence play back under his belt, even a little more offense makes him a 30/30 player with a Gold Glove.

ANDREW SIMON, editor

Simon’s personal top 5 list
5. Juan Soto, LF, Yankees
4. Julio Rodríguez, CF, Mariners
3. Aaron Judge, CF, Yankees
2. Ronald Acuña Jr., RF, Braves
1. Mookie Betts, 2B, Dodgers

Why is Betts your No. 1?
One, he has been an elite player for a long time now, with no signs of slipping. Since his first full season in 2015, he leads all position players in FanGraphs WAR; if you cut it off at any year since then, he remains in the top three, including tied for first this past season. Two, he does everything at a high level. And three, while his defense in right field had slipped from elite to solid to about average over the past several seasons, Betts’ transition to playing primarily second base (after an impressive test run there in 2023) gives him a shot to wield an above-average glove at an up-the-middle position. In my mind, that puts him atop an extremely competitive group.

How difficult was this choice?
Quite difficult. Several players have a reasonable argument for being No. 1 -- and a few of them didn’t even land in my top five, Ohtani included. Acuña, in particular, is at most a tiny bit behind Betts. If he comes close to repeating his 2023 success, he’s likely in the top spot a year from now.

Who is a candidate, from outside your top 5, to be No. 1 in 2025?
Adley Rutschman, C, Orioles. Since the day he debuted in the Majors (May 21, 2022), Rutschman is tied with Rodríguez for sixth among MLB position players in fWAR. That’s what you get when you have a catcher who is a plus both offensively and defensively -- a type of player that doesn’t come around too often. So there isn’t especially far for Rutschman to go to reach the No. 1 conversation. If, at age 26, he can take one more step forward with the bat, he’ll do just that. Given Rutschman’s excellent expected stats last year, that is hardly out of the question.