Five Outfielders to buy before the 2026 MLB season

After a few weeks hiatus from this series, we’re back at it in the midst of the World Baseball Classic, just a few weeks before the start of the 2026 season. This week, we’re lumping together all the outfield positions into one list, because, well, all of the positions get lumped together pretty frequently. The three  positions are pretty nebulous within each other and you often see guys swap from one to the other in season, more so than any other two positions in the sport. 

The other thing to note here is that a lot of the guys that were originally going to be included on this list ended up not being as good of value picks as initially anticipated. Even guys like Denzel Clarke have a pretty respectable market and the actual upside on a player like him isn’t even well known. Fortunately though, there was still value to find. 

Daylen Lile

Of all the players on this list, Daylen Lile is the biggest wild card with the lowest sample size of MLB production. That said though, his limited sample size is a promising one. 

In 351 PAs, which is a nice one season sample size, Lile posted an OPS of .845 and the numbers under the hood back up this performance. Lile is in the 100th percentile, as in the very best in baseball, in terms of both expected Batting Average and Launch Angle, the latter of which is one of the most valuable metrics when it comes to measuring hitters. 

While he doesn’t hit the ball particularly hard, he also is quite adept at not striking out and not swinging and missing, and although he grades out pretty bad in what is a pretty crowded Nationals outfield, at just 23-years-old, Lile has a chance to be a very key player for a Nationals team that could have a pretty good offense in the 2026 season. 

Lile’s Topps Chrome rookie autos can still be fetched at a pretty good price, as a base version sold on March 11 for just $20though that is admittedly on the low end of what his autos can go for. 

Heliot Ramos

I’m a big fan of Heliot Ramos, and his defensive profile grades out similarly to Lile’s in that it’s bad, but Ramos has shown an ability to hit. While his offensive production took a dip in 2025, his 2024 season at age 25 is an impressive one, especially considering the environment he has to hit in. 

Ramos swings hard and hits the ball hard, while having around a league-average strikeout rate and walk rate. The dip in his production from 2024 to 2025 might be a better reason to buy in on him right now, as the price will have dropped as well. 

Currently, Ramos has rookie autos from a variety of products selling in the $10-20 range, giving a nice cheap floor to get in on a player who has shown that they can produce at a big league level. He will also have good insulation in the Giant’s lineup, as he won’t exactly be relied on to help carry the bell for them, which could take pressure off and just let him hit. 

Josh Lowe

Josh Lowe rookie autos can be scooped up in some cases for under $10, making the risk of losing when you buy on him really low. And to a certain point, I understand why. He has been an incredibly injured player the last few years and when he has been healthy, he has not performed. Already 28, the former first round pick gets a chance on a new team in what could be one of the most slept-on moves of the off-season. 

Lowe’s 2023 is the reason he’s so intriguing. In 501 plate appearances, he puts up a .292/.335/.500 slash line good for an .825 OPS which is a genuinely impressive season. Even in a 2024 season where he greatly underperformed the year prior, the underlying numbers that show signs of a good hitter were still there. He still barreled the ball, hit it hard, and hit it in the air. 

While those things can’t be said about his 2025 season, a change of scenery might be just what Lowe needs, on top of staying healthy for at least a majority of the season. Being on the right end of a platoon helps Lowe as well. 

Wilyer Abreu

Wilyer Abreu is one of the most underrated players in baseball. I will die on the hill that he should have won Rookie of the Year in 2024 and he didn’t even finish top five in that voting, but that is a story for another day.

What he has done though, is taken home back to back Gold Glove awards, put up back to back three WAR seasons, in 2025 that came in only 115 games played,, and back to back seasons of an OPS+ over 115. He is a fantastic player that is overshadowed by a ton of other younger Red Sox like Roman Anthony and Marcelo Mayer but Abreu in his own right is a guy that every team in baseball would love to have. 

One of the only things that hurts him is his platoon splits, as he does not hit much against lefties, but being a lefty himself does at least still put him on the right side of what you want out of a platoon player. 

Wilyer Abreu’s Topps Chrome autos can be bought pretty consistently in the range of $30-40 and that feels like a potential steal given how he has performed over his first two seasons. He is also only entering his age 26 season, meaning there is room for him to get even better. 

Kyle Stowers

I am honestly stunned that there are some Kyle Stowers rookie autos that have sold in the range of $20 over the last few weeks. That is an incredibly low floor to get in on a player who had an OPS over .900 last season. 

While he is a bit older, 28 to start 2026, his production last season was no fluke. He absolutely demolished the ball as well as pretty much anyone in baseball, and while his second half was cut short by injuries, Stowers finally was given the opportunity to play and he ran with it. 

The Marlins have the potential to be a dark horse team in 2026, they have a bunch of under the radar talent both on the mound and in the field and Stowers might just be the best of them. And the price to buy in on the player is a nice one.