Ranking every player in Rangers vs. Diamondbacks World Series - ESPN

The Texas Rangers and Arizona Diamondbacks didn't clinch playoff spots until the final weekend of the regular season — and now they're meeting in the 2023 World Series.

But just because this is a surprising matchup doesn't mean there aren't stars on both sides, so let's look at the top players taking the field starting with Friday's Game 1 in Arlington.

Here's how we're looking at both rosters for the sake of this exercise: If MLB embraced fantasy draft mechanics and had the Rangers and Diamondbacks re-draft their teams for the World Series, which players would go first?

Given how sample sizes and projections work in baseball, you'd generally rather have the best overall player than one who is hot right now — but recent performance is a clear factor and usually serves as a tiebreaker.

Now, let's rank all 52 players in this World Series — from a group of elite sluggers to the backups for both squads.

1. Corey Seager, SS, Rangers
Seager is a superstar who just had his best regular season by posting 6.1 fWAR and hitting 69% better than league average. He is performing even better than that in the postseason this year, hitting 102% above league average. He's also a lefty hitter and average defensive shortstop: the complete package.

2. Corbin Carroll, RF, Diamondbacks
Corbin narrowly misses out on the top spot in a rookie season for the ages. He posted 6.0 WAR, contributing in all phases with his electric, plus-plus tools producing 25 homers, 54 stolen bases and a .285 batting average. Carroll also blew away the league in FanGraphs' baserunning metric, encompassing all actions on the basepaths, at least doubling the runs produced of all but three players in the league.

3. Adolis Garcia, RF, Rangers
Garcia was a tools-heavy