This is the time of year where the various national sports outlets start making their predictions and rankings going into the 2025 season. While a number of teams and players will inevitably have grievances about where they are ranked (bot real and imagined), the treatment Atlanta Braves second baseman Ozzie Albies was as predictable as the sun rising and the Yankees choking when the going gets tough.
While Albies has been overshadowed a bit in recent years due to the sheer number of stars on the Braves' roster, he is a three-time All-Star who is a consistent 25-ish home run threat every season assuming he stays healthy (more on that in a second). If you asked most rational people, Albies would be on most of their top 10 second basemen in MLB lists.
However, MLB Network is far from reasonable when it comes to Albies. It has been a running joke that MLB Network refuses to put Ozzie on their rankings of the best second basemen for years now. Well, the outlet put out their second base rankings heading into 2025 and Albies is once again nowhere to be found.
Here are the Top 10 second basemen in the Big Leagues, according to The Shredder! @MLBNow | #Top10RightNow pic.twitter.com/nTk1JGohWU
— MLB Network (@MLBNetwork) January 17, 2025
MLB Network's refusal to rank Ozzie Albies among MLB's best second basemen has to be a joke
Clearly there is someone at MLB Network that gets off on trolling Braves fans with this Albies disrespect and if that is the case, well done. Since 2021, Albies ranks fifth in fWAR among all qualified second basemen in fWAR with 10.1 and yet he hasn't been on these rankings since 2022 and he only ranked eighth back then. A truly amazing commitment to the bit.
Ok. At this point it's just a truly great bit....
— JJ Cooper (@jjcoop36) January 17, 2025
It's Charlie Brown and the football
It's Sideshow Bob and the rakes.
If Ozzie Albies wins NL MVP he needs to still be kept off this ranking. https://t.co/NG0ZoCOMmv
Perhaps a more rational explanation resides in how MLB Network comes up with these rankings. Most of the basis for these comes from The Shredder which is MLB Network's "data-driven" projection system and those rankings are then tweaked by MLB Network analysts. Contrary to, well, basically everything other data point and projection, The Shredder must really not like the time that Albies has missed due to injury including the broken wrist he suffered last season. The only other rational explanation is that someone at MLB Network has some sort of weird grudge against him.
These rankings truly do not matter. Albies is still going to do whatever he is going to do even if he isn't ranked here. It is pretty embarrassing frankly that MLB Network continues to put out these rankings with such blatant disregard for common sense. Albies shouldn't be at the top of this list and, coming off the injury, keeping him out of the top 5 is defensible. But keeping Albies off the list altogether? Come freaking on.