Baseball fans continue debate as MLB announces spots 40-31 of league’s top 100 players: "Resisting the urge to be a hater" "I’m crying laughing" 

New York Mets v Oakland Athletics
Pete Alonso of the New York Mets is congratulated by teammates after he scored against the Oakland Athletics.

Winter continues to heat up as MLB makes its way through ranking the league's Top 100 players. The league posted players ranked Nos. 40-31 on Twitter on Friday, and fans continued their raging debate over which players they deemed to be either too high or too low heading into the 2023 season.

Two players leapt all the way into the 30s in the MLB rankings after not being on the list at all last season, and both signed with new teams this offseason.

New York Yankees pitcher Carlos Rodon landed at No. 38 after putting up a second-straight healthy and superb season in 2022.

Shortstop Dansby Swanson's bat caught up with his superb glove with the Atlanta Braves last year, and he entered the countdown at No. 39 as he debuts with the Chicago Cubs.

Swanson's inclusion this high met with several raised eyebrows, while others felt Rodon should have been ranked higher after excelling for the Chicago White Sox in 2021 and the San Francisco Giants in 2022.

Yankees staff ace Gerrit Cole made the biggest drop among the players announced on Friday, falling from No. 16 last season to No. 37. Many fans felt that was tremendously harsh for a player who led all of MLB with 257 strikeouts in 2022.

As far as the MLB poster boy for Friday's tweet, New York Mets first baseman Pete Alonso, fans really were not certain that he deserved to leap from No. 62 in 2022 to No. 31 in 2023.

As with any rankings list ever made since the beginning of time, the latest batch of 10 MLB greats was met with scorn and ridicule from most respondents. However, fans are reacting and debating and paying attention to baseball. And that, in the end, is why MLB bothers to do the rankings.

Other movers in MLB's Top 100, Nos. 31-40

Max Fried of the Atlanta Braves pitches against the New York Mets.
Max Fried of the Atlanta Braves pitches against the New York Mets.

Braves starter Max Fried made a decent jump up to No. 36 from No. 48 last season. Houston Astros first baseman Jose Abreu cracked the top 40 at No. 40 after being No. 45 in his final season with the Chicago White Sox.

Shortstop Xander Bogaerts moved from the Boston Red Sox last year, where he was ranked No. 23, to the San Diego Padres, where he is now ranked No. 32. Texas Rangers shortstop Corey Seager fell from No. 21 to No. 33, with Toronto Blue Jays shortstop Bo Bichette dropping two spots in the past year, from No. 32 to No. 34.

Philadelphia Phillies hurler Zack Wheeler tumbled 10 spots in a year, dropping from No. 25 in 2022 to No. 35 in 2023.

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Edited by Joseph Schiefelbein
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