Sport: MLB
Fantasy baseball is a six-month marathon—a daily lineup check, injury pivot, and stat-tracking grind that can feel relentless for even the most dedicated managers. It’s one of the most rewarding formats in fantasy sports, but it also demands a level of commitment that simply isn’t for everyone. If you love drafting and competition but don’t want to live the daily roster life from April to September, MLB Best Ball offers the perfect alternative.
While there are some subtle differences in best ball rules depending on the site you are playing on, we will be concentrating on the FanTrax settings, rules, and scoring for this article. Let’s get started.
Your first step… Well, okay, your second step, right after reading this article, is to head over and devour our updated Top 500 Dynasty Baseball Rankings for 2026.
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2026 Fantasy Baseball: Best Ball Strategy
Fantrax MLB Best Ball League Options
Fantrax offers a wide range of options to fit your needs, starting with entry fees as low as $10 and as high as $1000. From there, you have a choice between two different payout formats. Option one is similar to a double up(if familiar with DFS) and pays the top five managers 2x, with the sixth-place finisher getting their money back. The second option pays first place 10x, and second place gets their money back.
MLB Best Ball Explained: Where the Draft Is the Season
Like traditional fantasy baseball leagues, everything gets started with the draft. That, however, is where the similarities end as Best Ball formats remove the in-season management. No lineup changes, no waiver wire, and no trades.
Leagues are set up with 12 teams, with each draft consisting of 40 rounds. The only restrictions are how many at each position you can draft on your team. All infield positions (C, 1B, 2B, 3B, SS) have a limit of five, while you can draft up to 13 outfielders and 22 pitchers.
In best ball, there is no multi-position eligibility, and the position given to each player at the draft is what they stick with all season. Your starting lineup each week will consist of one infielder player at each position(C, 1B, 2B, 3B, SS), five outfielders, three flex spots, and nine pitchers. These players are automatically selected by the computer based on their scoring for that period.
At the end of the season(as determined by FanTrax), prizes are awarded to the teams with the most points for the season. There are tons of different payout structures, so be sure to check your league settings before you draft.
Scoring
The following is the scoring for all Fantrax MLB Best Ball leagues:
Scoring Group
Scoring Category
Points
Hitting
Hits (H)
1
Hitting
Home Runs (HR)
3
Hitting
Runs Batted In (RBI)
1
Hitting
Run Scored (R)
1
Hitting
Stolen Base (SB)
3
Hitting
Walks (BB)
1
Pitching
Earned Run (ER)
-1.5
Pitching
Inning Pitched (IP)
1.5
Pitching
Quality Start (QS)
3
Pitching
Win (W)
3
Pitching
Save (SV)
6
Pitching
Strikeout (K)
1.5
Pitching
Hits + Walks Allowed (H+BB)
-.5
Forming a Draft Plan
Draft prep matters in every fantasy baseball format, but in Best Ball, where the draft is the entire game, your preparation becomes the edge that defines your season. That preparation includes studying previous seasons, stats, and trends to help identify positional scarcity, optimal builds, and overall league-winning roster construction. Let’s dive deeper into some of those now.
Build Around Power and Speed
As we see from the scoring chart above, home runs and stolen bases offer three times the points as all other hitting categories. Building around that power and speed can pay off, especially if you can draft multiple players who have upside in both categories.
This strategy has been much more viable since 2023, when the base size was expanded. In 2021 and 2022 combined, there was only one player who tallied a 30/30 season. There were seven players who hit that mark in 2023 and 2024 combined, and in 2025 alone, we saw seven more players hit the mark. Of those seven, four finished Top 10 in overall best ball scoring, six finished in the Top 20 in scoring, and all seven finished with over 500 fantasy points. Drafting multiple players with this upside can carry your team to a championship.
Hitters vs Pitchers
While pitching is always important in fantasy baseball, MLB Best Ball is fundamentally a hitter-driven format, and the scoring distribution makes that clear. Over the last three seasons, hitters have overwhelmingly dominated the upper tiers of total fantasy production.
When using the Fantrax scoring system, there were 11 hitters to eclipse 600 fantasy points in 2025 compared to just one pitcher. That trend is not an outlier either, as there have been 31 hitters to eclipse that threshold over the last three seasons combined, with just that one pitcher accomplishing the feat. Lowering that bar further, we have seen 110 hitters top 500 fantasy points over the last three seasons, while there have only been 20 pitchers to hit that number.
This doesn’t mean that we forget about pitching altogether, but for me, it means we load up early in drafts with high-ceiling hitters. Pitching is much more risky, but I would still want to get 2-3 high-ceiling pitchers in the first 10 rounds.
Pitcher Strategy
In today’s baseball, it’s more about organizations protecting arms than giving them a leash to go deep into games. That ties in directly to our “load up on hitters early” narrative, but there is still a strategy to choosing your pitchers. The way points are set up on Fantrax, I target two main things, and that is innings pitched and strikeouts. Both are worth 1.5 points and correlate heavily to overall fantasy points every season. With that said, the elite of the elite are those who provide value in both categories, and I am consistently trying to get 1-2 of these pitchers in the first 10 rounds of the draft.
As we get deeper into the draft, we can get away with pitchers who may lack upside in either of those categories. For example, a pitcher who is only providing 120-150 IP on the season can still be valuable with an elite K rate. An example from last season would be Zack Wheeler, who only pitched 149.2 innings, but with his elite 11.7 K/9, finished 14th in fantasy points among pitchers. The same can be said for a pitcher who has an average or even below-average K rate but pitches 150+ innings in a season. Examples of this would be Merrill Kelly, Matthew Boyd, and Luis Castillo, who had below-average K/9 rates but still finished in the Top 30 in pitcher scoring due to their ability to eat up innings.
Another thing I am looking for when evaluating pitchers is the team. I know it sounds obvious, but I am targeting pitchers on good teams more often than not. It provides a much better opportunity to get wins. With best ball scoring vs. category fantasy baseball, ERA is much less important, but does correlate with quality start(6 IP & 3 or fewer ER) upside, so I will also make sure to include that in my pitching draft plan.
When it comes to closers, they are valued at a much lower rate in best ball due to not having to control your ratios across multiple categories. While I won’t go out of my way to draft a closer, when I do, I make sure he is on a projected above-average team and with a high K/9 rate. I want my closer/relief pitcher to get 3-4 appearances in a week, raising the upside for saves and strikeouts.
Depth is Key
In best ball, with no roster adjustments throughout the season, having depth at each position is extremely important. I generally try to get three players for each infield position and then 9-10 outfielders. This build leads to a 24 hitters/16 pitchers setup. I am flexible with this and will often go 22 and 18, as well. It all depends on how the draft plays out.
Avoid Prospects
Being ahead of the curve on prospects is a rewarding endeavour but should be left for dynasty leagues and deeper roster redraft leagues. There is just too much risk in best ball to draft a player who may take up a valuable bench spot while sitting in the minors.
Final Thoughts
MLB Best Ball rewards preparation, upside, and a willingness to embrace variance, making it the ideal format for drafters who want a competitive edge without the daily grind. Build hitter-first, chase ceiling, and let a well-constructed roster do the work for you all season long.
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