Olney ranks Cubs infield #1

  1. Texas Rangers

Second baseman Rougned Odor started so badly last season that he was sent to the minors, but after he was recalled, Odor -- who turns just 22 in a few weeks -- hit .292 with 18 doubles, 8 triples and 15 homers in 91 games. Odor looks as if he could be a high-impact offensive player (although he did not rate well in defensive metrics in 2015), working in an infield that also includes first baseman Mitch Moreland, future Hall of Famer Adrian Beltre and veteran shortstop Elvis Andrus.

Andrus will be a player worth watching this season because of his postseason meltdown and because he seemed to reverse his steady decline in the second half of last season. With others in the organization pushing and encouraging him, as Evan Grant has written about, Andrus improved his OPS from .624 in the first half to .718 after the All-Star break. He is 27 years old and is owed $103 million over the next seven seasons.

Beltre needs 233 more hits to reach 3,000 in his career and 33 more RBIs to reach 1,500 -- and nobody has more fun playing, it seems, than Beltre and Andrus.

Talks of a contract extension for Beltre have begun, by the way.

  1. St. Louis Cardinals

It's impossible to know exactly how Cards manager Mike Matheny will dole out playing time among his infielders, such as who will play first base, how often Jedd Gyorko will play second, and whether the Cardinals will start to be more selective about how often the 33-year-old Jhonny Peralta is in the lineup at shortstop. But Matheny should have a nice range of choices, with second baseman Kolten Wong developing and with some platoon choices at first in Matt Adams, Brandon Moss and Stephen Piscotty.

Third baseman Matt Carpenter continues to evolve as a hitter, probably to a place where no one thought he could go. Last year, Carpenter had 75 extra-base hits and a .501 slugging percentage. Among third basemen who qualified for the batting title, Carpenter ranked fifth in slugging percentage.

  1. Houston Astros

The Astros appear to be set for years to come in the middle of the infield, with 21-year-old Carlos Correa at shortstop and 25-year-old Jose Altuve at second base; some executives believe it won't be long before Correa is regarded among the best players in baseball.

Sometime in the near future -- perhaps in 2016 -- Alex Bregman, the second overall pick in the 2015 draft, could man third base for the Astros. He reached high Class A ball last year, and presumably will start this season in Double-A.

If the Astros move Bregman from shortstop, it won't be during spring training, writes Evan Drellich.

For now, Luis Valbuena is penciled in at third base for Houston after bashing 25 homers (albeit with a .224 average) in 2015, and the Astros will pick a first basemen from a group that includes Valbuena, Jon Singleton and Marwin Gonzalez -- although the assumption of some evaluators is that Houston will be open to upgrades at first during the 2016 season.

  1. Seattle Mariners

The addition of Adam Lind to at least be part of a platoon at first base could greatly help the Mariners' production at the position; last season, Seattle first basemen had a collective .702 OPS, which ranked 29th in the majors. Robinson Cano played through injury last season and still hit .287 with 56 extra-base hits, and Kyle Seager is among the best third basemen in baseball.

Ketel Marte's shortstop play in August and September last season represented an upgrade for a team that had tried Brad Miller, Chris Taylor and Nick Franklin there.

  1. Chicago White Sox

The White Sox will go into the 2016 season with some questions at shortstop and second base, but they have big-time power at the corners with Jose Abreu at first base and the newly acquired Todd Frazier at third base.

  1. New York Yankees

Didi Gregorius was terrible at the outset of last season, but got better and better as he settled in at shortstop. From May 29 on, he played exceptional defense and batted .285. Mark Teixeira surprised everybody with his power before he got hurt; he'll open the year as the Yankees' first baseman in 2016, but New York already has a good safety net in place in Greg Bird, who had 11 homers in 178 plate appearances last season.

Starlin Castro takes over at second base, but maybe the X factor of the group is Chase Headley, who seemed to develop some throwing yips as he struggled through the first year of his four-year deal. If Headley's play stabilizes, this could be a good group.

Best of the rest: The Red Sox, who have one of the best shortstops in the game in Xander Bogaerts, as well as a player capable of great stuff in Dustin Pedroia -- when Pedroia is healthy, that is. But nobody knows how Hanley Ramirez will respond in his first year at first base, or if third baseman Pablo Sandoval can bounce back. … The Dodgers, perhaps, depending on how the various pieces and parts come together, with Corey Seager now installed as the everyday shortstop. … The Braves, who have Freddie Freeman at first, Jace Peterson and Gordon Beckham in a second base platoon, Erick Aybar at shortstop and the 30-year-old Adonis Garcia at third. Garcia has been thriving in winter ball. … And finally, the Nationals, who will shift Anthony Rendon back to third base. The key will be first baseman Ryan Zimmerman, who has been increasingly affected by injury.

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