The Top 10 Third Basemen in Major League Baseball for 2026

While we just took a look at the shortstop position and determined that there’s probably not any more stacked in the game, a closer look at third base shows that it might be closer than you’d think.

Today’s third basemen fit the mold that we’ve always seen from the position. There are some outstanding defenders who show off incredible range and even stronger throwing arms (a must if you’re going to be proficient at this position), but the bats are still stealing the show. Some of the most prolific players to ever man the hot corner are most well known for their offensive prowess.

The modern version of this position has shown that that is still very much the case.

As a part of our annual series, we’re taking a look at every position on the diamond and ranking the best of the best ahead of the coming season. We’ve checked off catcher, first base, second base, shortstop, and designated hitter. Now we move over to the hot corner.

These are Just Baseball’s top 10 third basemen in MLB for 2026.

The voting panel for Just Baseball’s 2026 position rankings comprised of editors Ryan Finkelstein, Leo Morgenstern, Eric Treuden, and Joey Peterson, as well as Just Baseball’s Aram Leighton, Peter Appel, Peyton Ginas, and Jack McMullen.

Each panelist ranked players 1-15 and gave those outside of their top 15 a numerical score of 20. The list below reflects the average of those rankings – the lower the mean score, the better.

Honorable Mentions:

• Eugenio Suárez, Cincinnati Reds
• Max Muncy, Los Angeles Dodgers
• Kazuma Okamoto, Toronto Blue Jays
• Caleb Durbin, Milwaukee Brewers

Eugenio Suárez is coming off of one of the best performances of his 12-year career, as he led all third basemen with 49 home runs and 118 RBI (fifth and fourth in MLB, respectively). His .298 ISO also led all players at the position and landed him fifth on the league-wide leaderboards. He’s as powerful as they come, but with that light-tower-power comes quite a bit of strikeouts, as his 29.8 K% in 2025 landed him in the sixth spot in baseball.

Suárez can hit a ball farther than most people in the game today, but the strikeouts and complete lack of defensive value leaves a bit to be desired. Still, he earned some stray votes from our panel, and deservedly so.

Max Muncy is another player known for his bat, but we haven’t seen a whole lot of him over the past few years. The 35-year-old has hit 30 or more home runs four times since his 2018 breakout, but he’s also been limited by a multitude of injuries over the past two campaigns. If he can show that he’s got sustained health on his side in 2026, he’ll crack the top 10 in this very same article next year.

Kazuma Okamoto has never taken an at-bat in MLB, which makes it difficult to properly rank him in a piece like this. The 29-year-old signed with the Toronto Blue Jays on a multi-year contract this winter, and is projected to man the hot corner for them moving forward. Throughout an illustrious career in Japan, Okamoto hit 277 home runs in 11 years and had a career .856 OPS before making the jump. He’s got outstanding bat-to-ball skills, but it was difficult to automatically place him in the top 10 in baseball when we haven’t seen what he’s got just yet. Stay tuned.

Then there’s Caleb Durbin, who just wrapped up his first season in the majors and earned a third-place finish in NL Rookie of the Year voting. The 25-year-old is quick on his feet, doesn’t strike out much, and can competently line up at multiple positions around the diamond. Even with a contact-oriented approach, Durbin hit 11 home runs in his rookie campaign, so it’ll be interesting to see how his power fills out as his career goes on.

10. Jordan Westburg, Baltimore Orioles

• Average Ranking: 10.43
• 2025 Stats: 85 G, .265/.313/.457, 17 HR, 41 RBI, 115 wRC+, 1.9 fWAR

Jordan Westburg is another player who’s been hobbled by injuries, and it’s hard to fully ignore the fact that he’s never put together a full season of games at the big league level. Still, the 26-year-old made the All-Star Game in 2024 after a red-hot first half, and he continued to show some of that potential this past season, although he only wound up appearing in 85 games.

Westburg’s still young and has time on his side, so the concern level with his durability is lower than someone like Muncy, who is a full decade older. In the three shortened seasons we’ve seen from Westburg, he’s been hot and cold on defense, but he’s posted 10 Outs Above Average while just barely cracking the 1100-inning threshold.

The potential he’s got on both sides of the ball makes him dangerous, and also gives him a leg up on the quartet of players who made our list as honorable mentions.

9. Isaac Paredes, Houston Astros

• Average Ranking: 9
• 2025 Stats: 102 G, 20 HR, 53 RBI, 0 SB, .254/.352/.458, 128 wRC+, 2.5 fWAR

Even though he’s projected by FanGraphs’ RosterResource to be a bench player come Opening Day of 2026, Isaac Paredes has remained a steady offensive force for years now, and it feels like he isn’t quite talked about enough.

The corner infielder appeared in just 102 games in 2025, but he still managed to slug 20 home runs and post a 128 wRC+, which would’ve put him third amongst qualifying third basemen … if he qualified.

Nowadays, basically every crumb of his value comes from his bat, as his defensive contributions have steadily declined on a year-by-year basis. Strangely, he finished in the 90th percentile in OAA back in 2022, but it’s dipped down to 52nd, 44th, and 19th ever since.

He’s no longer got any value from his glove, but he’s got a ton of red on his Savant page from 2025 when it comes to how frequently he chases bad pitches, swings and misses, and draws walks. Defense or no defense, there’s a lot of value in hitting 20-plus home runs and consistently avoiding strikeouts and drawing free passes.

8. Bo Bichette, New York Mets

• Average Ranking: 8
• 2025 Stats: 125 G, 139 G, .311/.357/.483, 18 HR, 94 RBI, 134 wRC+, 3.8 fWAR

The 2026 season is going to be interesting for Bo Bichette for multiple reasons. One, the first time he takes an at-bat, it’ll be the first of his career on a team other than the Blue Jays. Two, the first time he takes the field on defense, it’ll be the first time he’s ever played the hot corner at the big league level.

Even without knowing how he’ll perform at third base (his weak throwing arm and questionable range suggests that it may not be pretty to start with), we were comfortable throwing him on this list, just based off of track record.

Over the last few years, Bichette has led the AL in hits and turned in a batting average north of .300 twice, while sporting an OPS above .800 in every full year of his career. Yes, his 2024 was a dumpster fire, but the way he bounced back this past season and got red-hot in the World Series deserves some praise. We know what Bichette can do with the bat when he’s on his A-game, and the most recent ABs we’ve seen from him have shown that his prime isn’t ending anytime soon.

7. Maikel Garcia, Kansas City Royals

• Average Ranking: 6.43
• 2025 Stats: 160 G, 16 HR, 74 RBI, 23 SB, .286/.351/.449, 121 wRC+, 5.6 fWAR

Maikel Garcia had one heck of a breakout in 2025, setting new career-highs in basically every single category you can think of outside of stolen bases. The 25-year-old earned a long-term deal with the Royals in December after making the All-Star Game, earning a Gold Glove, and finishing 14th in AL MVP voting.

Garcia is a threat to leave the yard anywhere between 15 and 20 times a year, steal 20-30 bases a year, and play some of the best defensive third base we’ll see around the league. This is a player who has the potential to shoot up these rankings come this time next year, but it’ll be immensely helpful for him to repeat his 2025 performance in ’26, that way we’ll have more than just one year of sample size to go off of.

Either way, it seems like Garcia is right on the cusp of turning into something special.

6. Austin Riley, Atlanta Braves

• Average Ranking: 5.71
• 2025 Stats: 102 G, .260/.309/.428, 16 HR, 2 SB, 54 RBI, 103 wRC+, 1.7 fWAR

Austin Riley has missed some time in each of the past two seasons after previously being one of baseball’s most oft-used players, and with that has come an offensive regression as well.

Still, his three-year performance from 2021 to 2023 saw him hit no less than 33 home runs a year while driving in no less than 93. When he’s on his game, he can be a lethal middle-of-the-order bat and one of the best run producers in the game, yet alone at third base.

Riley’s another player who isn’t really going to flash much leather over at the hot corner, but he also doesn’t really have to, at least when he’s swinging a hot bat. Even if the full-season numbers haven’t been where they once were recently, it’s worth noting that he hit .274 with 14 home runs in the first half of this past year. That alone shows that he’s got some hot stretches left in him, now we just need to see him carry it into the second-half as well.

5. Alex Bregman, Chicago Cubs

• Average Ranking: 4.85
• 2025 Stats: 114 G, 18 HR, 62 RBI, 1 SB, .273/.360/.462, 125 wRC+, 3.5 fWAR

This is where the real fun begins. The top five amongst modern third baseman is just brimming with talent, and when Riley finds a way to consistently be “on”, we’ll be dealing with one hell of a top six. Ditto for Garcia if he can put up two outstanding seasons in a row.

Starting off our top five is Mr. Consistency himself in Alex Bregman. He’s another one who will be suiting up for a new team come 2026, and this time he’s going to try the NL out for the first time in his career.

Bregman debuted in 2026 with the Houston Astros and became one of the best players they’ve ever had over the course of a nine-year stretch there. He made a pair of All-Star Games, won a Gold Glove, earned two World Series rings, and a Silver Slugger all before he made a one-year stop on the Boston Red Sox last year. There, he made the third All-Star Game of his career and remained an offensive force, posting his highest single-season OPS (.821) since all the way back in 2019.

The way Bregman is able to pair a steadily productive bat with defensive chops that have remained solid as he enters and continues into his 30s makes him a shoo-in for at least a top-five spot on our rankings.

4. Manny Machado, San Diego Padres

• Average Ranking: 4
• 2025 Stats: 159 G, 27 HR, 95 RBI, 14 SB, .275/.335/.460, 123 wRC+, 3.8 fWAR

It’s wild to see how Manny Machado‘s defensive prowess has declined as he’s aged, but that bat isn’t going anywhere anytime soon. Plus, at this point, Machado’s 14-year reputation as one of the game’s best players should just speak for itself at this point.

The 33-year-old will enter Year 15 with seven All-Star Game selections, two Gold Gloves, three Silver Slugger Awards, and a Platinum Glove under his belt. Like I said, the output speaks for itself. Even as he’s inched closer to his mid-30s, Machado has remained a special talent at the plate. Just last year, he was an All-Star and fell just a hair short of both 30 home runs and 100 RBI.

Machado’s wRC+ hasn’t dipped below 113 since all the way back in 2017 and he, like Bregman, has been the picture of consistency for so long now. Should he keep this up (we think he will), he’ll remain near this spot.

3. Junior Caminero, Tampa Bay Rays

• Average Ranking: 3.43
• 2025 Stats: 154 G, 45 HR, 110 RBI, 7 SB, .264/.311/.535, 129 wRC+, 4.6 fWAR

What Junior Caminero has already accomplished before his 23rd birthday is just ridiculous, but in the best way. In what was just his first full season at the game’s highest level, Caminero hit a whopping 45 home runs while driving in 110 runs and scoring 93 of his own.

He also hit the ball harder than most, as his AVG Exit Velocity landed in the 92nd percentile and Bat Speed was in the 100th, so you know we’re dealing with a special kind of talent.

It’s nice to see a small-market team like the Rays find such stability at the hot corner again after previously leaning on Evan Longoria there for a decade. Now the next step needs to be for them to lock him for as long as they possibly can, because it’s clear that the raw talent is off the charts.

Caminero is still so young, but this past year showed us that he’s got superstar written all over him. As so many others on our annual rankings continue to get up there in age, Caminero’s young enough where he could still have 15 years left in him. Absolutely wild.

2. Matt Chapman, San Francisco Giants

• Average Ranking: 2.86
• 2025 Stats: 128 G, 21 HR, 61 RBI, 9 SB, .231/.340/.430, 118 wRC+, 3.7 fWAR

The 2026 campaign will be Matt Chapman‘s 10th at the game’s highest level, and he’s been consistently dropping jaws since day one. The way he fields his position at third base has always been magical, and he’s got five Gold Gloves and two Platinum Gloves to back that up. Even this past year, he finished in the 87th percentile in OAA and 74th in Arm Strength. He’s inching closer to his 33rd birthday, but is showing no sign of slowing down.

And that’s just what he brings to the table with his glove. Don’t forget about his offensive value.

Chapman has only topped the 30-home run barrier once in his career, but he’s regularly came close to doing so again. This past year, he hit 21 of them but still drove in 61, scored 76 runs, and posted a 118 wRC+. He’s consistently been a 4-5 win player over the past few years, and he should continue to do so in the coming season.

The third base position is carried by players’ bats more than their gloves, but Chapman is a rare breed that combines the two into an elite-level player.

1. José Ramírez, Cleveland Guardians

• Average Ranking: 1
• 2025 Stats: 158 G, 30 HR, 85 RBI, 44 SB, .283/.360/.503, 133 wRC+, 6.3 fWAR

There’s just no way you can bet against José Ramírez to take the top spot, is there? AS the years go by, the man remains one of the game’s best all-around players, and he isn’t stopping anytime soon.

Ramírez, 33, just hit 30 home runs (fourth time since 2018) this past year while driving in 85, stealing 44 bases, hitting .283 and posting an .863 OPS. This earned him a third-place finish in AL MVP voting, and while he’s never won the award, he has now finished in the top five in voting a whopping five times.

So much of Ramírez’s reputation leans on what he does at the plate, but don’t sleep on the fact that he’s great defender at the hot corner, too. He’s remained one even as he’s aged, turning in 6 OAA this past year while having 6 Defensive Runs Saved at the position the year prior.

Over the years, Ramírez has gone from an underrated and solid player to one that finds himself in “future Hall of Famer” talks. He’s an extra-base hit machine who, like multiple others on this list, has been the picture of consistency for years now. No player on this list, or perhaps in the game today, represents that word better than this 13-year veteran has.