{"id":566474,"date":"2026-02-11T16:32:18","date_gmt":"2026-02-11T16:32:18","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/mlb\/566474\/"},"modified":"2026-02-11T16:32:18","modified_gmt":"2026-02-11T16:32:18","slug":"red-sox-join-exclusive-company-with-mlb-network-position-rankings","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/mlb\/566474\/","title":{"rendered":"Red Sox Join Exclusive Company With MLB Network Position Rankings"},"content":{"rendered":"<p>MLB Network is officially done ranking its top 10 players at every position for the 2026 season, and the Boston Red Sox are in good company.<\/p>\n<p>Two Red Sox players ranked No. 1 at their respective positions: Jarren Duran in left field and Aroldis Chapman among relief pitchers. Boston also had the <a href=\"https:\/\/nesn.com\/2026\/01\/mlb-network-rankings-spotlight-red-sox-roster-flaw\/\" rel=\"nofollow noopener\" target=\"_blank\">No. 2 left fielder<\/a> in Roman Anthony.<\/p>\n<p>The Red Sox are <a href=\"https:\/\/x.com\/MLBNetwork\/status\/2021414385479032865\" rel=\"nofollow\">one of only two teams<\/a> with multiple players ranked No. 1. The other was the Seattle Mariners, who had Cal Raleigh at catcher and Julio Rodriguez in center field. <\/p>\n<p>That\u2019s a good sign for Boston. While both teams made the playoffs last year, the Mariners had a better record and were <a href=\"https:\/\/nesn.com\/2025\/10\/emotional-cal-raleigh-discusses-gut-wrenching-mariners-loss\/\" rel=\"nofollow noopener\" target=\"_blank\">one win away<\/a> from reaching the World Series.<\/p>\n<p>The Red Sox have one of the best outfields in baseball thanks to Duran and Anthony. Duran was an MVP candidate two years ago and played at an All-Star level last year despite some regression. Meanwhile, Anthony is coming off a historic rookie season and <a href=\"https:\/\/nesn.com\/2025\/12\/what-red-soxs-roman-anthony-learned-during-rookie-season\/\" rel=\"nofollow noopener\" target=\"_blank\">could be even better<\/a> this year.<\/p>\n<p class=\"nesn-in-content-ad__copy\">Story continues below advertisement<\/p>\n<p>Chapman is also coming off a historic season and was the most dominant closer in baseball last year, winning the <a href=\"https:\/\/nesn.com\/2025\/11\/red-sox-closer-wins-second-al-reliever-of-the-year-award\/\" rel=\"nofollow noopener\" target=\"_blank\">Mariano Rivera AL Reliever of the Year Award<\/a> after posting the best ERA (1.17) of his career.<\/p>\n<p>Chapman is heading into his age-38 season, however, so it may be difficult for him to replicate those numbers this year.<\/p>\n<p class=\"nesn-in-content-ad__copy\">Story continues below advertisement<\/p>\n<\/p>\n<p>As for Seattle, Raleigh is unquestionably the best-hitting catcher in baseball after smashing 60 home runs and knocking in 125 runs last season. He was the AL MVP runner-up to New York Yankees superstar Aaron Judge.<\/p>\n<p>Rodriguez has been one of MLB\u2019s best all-around players since debuting in 2022, making three All-Star teams and recording four straight 20\/20 seasons. He\u2019s also had a pair of 30\/30 campaigns, including last year.<\/p>\n<p>Both teams are expected to compete for a playoff spot this year, so it wouldn\u2019t be surprising to see these two clubs meet up in the postseason.<\/p>\n<p class=\"nesn-in-content-ad__copy\">Story continues below advertisement<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"MLB Network is officially done ranking its top 10 players at every position for the 2026 season, and&hellip;\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":206428,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":"","_share_on_mastodon":"0"},"categories":[2375],"tags":[1113,5,141,48,2542,3297,604,3992,4,89,2543],"class_list":{"0":"post-566474","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-boston-red-sox","8":"tag-aroldis-chapman","9":"tag-baseball","10":"tag-boston","11":"tag-boston-red-sox","12":"tag-bostonredsox","13":"tag-cal-raleigh","14":"tag-jarren-duran","15":"tag-julio-rodriguez","16":"tag-mlb","17":"tag-red-sox","18":"tag-redsox"},"share_on_mastodon":{"url":"https:\/\/channels.im\/@mlb\/116052960508918298","error":""},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/mlb\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/566474","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/mlb\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/mlb\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/mlb\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/mlb\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=566474"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/mlb\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/566474\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/mlb\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/206428"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/mlb\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=566474"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/mlb\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=566474"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/mlb\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=566474"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}