It’s time once again for a new set of rankings for a new season! As with prior years, you’ll get 300 ranked players with insights on every single one of them.
Not only that, but this year comes with a new feature: Nate’s Notes! Our own Nate Schwartz will be providing additional analysis – sometimes supporting, sometimes providing a counterpoint – throughout the ranks.
We hope that these rankings and the notes throughout give you something to think about as draft day approaches and help you feel as prepared as possible when it comes to hitters in your 2026 drafts.
As a reminder, these rankings are geared toward a standard, daily, 12-team H2H redraft league, which is typically the most popular fantasy baseball format. They will only factor in the five standard categories: runs, RBI, home runs, batting average, and stolen bases.
These are not best ball or draft and hold rankings. The 12-team redraft format with daily moves is the fundamental opposite of that. Pure volume plays are not valued as much here as in those no-move formats.
I take rankings like this more as art than science. Every person’s rankings are influenced by their biases, strategic philosophies, risk assessments, and projections. It’s why no two rankings are ever exactly alike. My way of evaluating and ranking players has worked well for me, but it might not be an excellent fit for you. I can’t possibly predict your team’s specific needs, your leaguemates’ player evaluations, or your current waiver wire, and if I could, it’d be weird in a bad way.
This is a safe space for me where I answer to no one but myself…and you if you leave a comment.
I’m doing my best to use five starts or 10 appearances as the threshold for positional eligibility. I have not included presumed eligibilities based on likely new positions, but I’ll add them once those eligibilities are earned. This is just a maintenance thing, and we will update eligibility throughout the season. Feel free to let me know if I’m missing any!
Ranking Philosophy
To keep things in the same ilk, here are a couple of notes on how I generally evaluate hitters before we dive in:
In 12-team formats, I don’t see much value in guys who only provide stolen bases. It’s an important category, especially in Roto, but in shallower formats, there are too many other (and better) ways to get the steals you need without sacrificing production in the other categories.
No stat is an island, and they should all be taken in proper context. For ranking purposes, the primary starting points I use are plate discipline, wRC+, quality of contact metrics (also known as Statcast batted ball data), lineup context, and the skills we can measure using tools such as our PLV Hitter Attributes (available for PL Pro members). I also use various projections (some free, some I buy) and dollar value generators.
Positional eligibility, specifically multi-eligibility, is neat but isn’t a huge factor in many 10- and 12-team leagues anymore due to the prevalence of multi-eligible players. It’s of more value in deeper contests like the NFBC or in leagues with limited roster moves (draft and hold leagues, transaction limits/costs, extremely short benches, etc.). Still, the value is fairly situational and context-dependent.
Similarly, I don’t penalize players for only qualifying in the utility slot. At most, it is a mild inconvenience if a DH-only player is available at a great value and you already have filled your utility spots.
Regardless of true talent, anyone talented enough to make it to the big leagues can be brilliant or putrid for 50 to 100 at-bats. It could even last over a month with no change in potential or skill. It also could be wildly meaningful. We can’t and don’t know which will be valid until it’s over, though track record, scouting, and trends can give us hints.
One of the most difficult things to account for in these rankings is the dynamic between low-ceiling players who have clear roles and players who could have higher ceilings but are without a clear path to playing time. I try to note this in the blurbs as much as I can. NOTE: PROJECTIONS AND AUCTION CALCULATORS WILL ALWAYS FAVOR THE FORMER OVER THE LATTER.
Ranking Insights
A few things I noticed while cobbling this together:
The first six tiers are EXTREMELY deep, and I will be using at least four of my first five picks on hitters (with the caveat that one of the Big Three of Tarik Skubal, Paul Skenes, and Garrett Crochet at the right spot could make me pause). I want as many of these guys as I can get.
Catcher has grown deeper and deeper, and there will be viable (or at the very least, interesting) starting catchers left undrafted in your single-catcher leagues. While I am still a HUGE fan of Cal Raleigh, you’ll find the other catchers ranked a bit lower than you might have expected based on the values you might see in various auction calculators and site ADPs.
After the top 150, I’d much rather take a shot on a high upside guy than bank on one of the many slap-hitting volume guys you can find later on.
Second base and third base should be a priority in your draft prep. Have targets in a few different phases of the draft. You do NOT want to be without a plan halfway through your draft, as there are some steep drop-offs.
You can find speed outside of the top 100, but power and runs scored are considerably rarer.
At this point in the offseason, ADP is heavily skewed towards deep formats, like NFBC’s Draft Champions. These formats tend to push catchers’ and steals’ numbers way up. This will be corrected as we go, but if you’re in a standard head-to-head categories league, you should be aware of this bias in the early ADP and plan accordingly.
Read The Notes
If you’d like input on a player or have any feedback, your best bet is to contact me on Bluesky (@scottchu.pitcherlist.com), X (@ifthechufits), or Reddit (u/ChusephEsquire)
I also host an AMA in the r/fantasybaseball subreddit every Friday (starting sometime in late March) with Nate, starting around noon ET that lasts through the rest of the day and into the weekend, so feel free to join the fun and ask questions or make comments.
For additional insight, also check out the Hacks & Jacks podcast! This is a hitter-focused pod with myself, Brett Ford, and occasional special guests. We will soon be releasing episodes breaking down these rankings.
Lastly, but certainly not least, these rankings have insights from the great Nate Schwartz! I view rankings as more of a conversation than a monologue, so you’ll see Nate’s Notes throughout the ranks to get an alternative viewpoint. Want more from Nate? Check out The Approach Angle podcast, his weekly articles, or jump into our Reddit AMAs during the season! You can also find him on Bluesky (@nschwartz.bsky.social), X (@_nateschwartz), or Reddit (u/NateSchwartzPL).
Tier 1
1. Shohei Ohtani (DH, LAD) — I’m sure someone will complain that he’s an injury risk, but that’s only an issue for the pitching side, not the hitting side. Ohtani has back-to-back seasons with 50 home runs, and while he didn’t come close to the 59 steals from 2024, 20 steals is nothing to scoff at. He’s the perennial NL MVP favorite and is in the prime of his career.
2. Aaron Judge (OF, NYY) — Judge appeared in 148+ games for the fourth time in five seasons, shedding the “injury-prone” label, which was the only real knock we had against him. If you prefer to list him first, go for it. I did two months ago.
Nate’s Note: Hard to go wrong with either of these two. I would also go with Ohtani if I had the first pick in my drafts, but that’s just a preference to get a few more steals. Judge more than makes up for that with everything else, though.
Tier 2
3. Juan Soto (OF, NYM) —It doesn’t matter what stadium he is in, what team is around him, or whatever. The batting average should bump back up 10-20 points in 2026 to get his OBP back over .400, and he should blast another 40 home runs.
4. José Ramírez (3B, CLE) — Thirty home runs, 40 steals, and a strong batting average are just par for the course at this point. He’s the top third baseman in the game. Imagine how great he’d be if this team had someone else, or God forbid, TWO someones at the same time to thicken this lineup a bit.
5. Bobby Witt Jr. (SS, KCR) — Thirty home runs is a tough ask when you play half your games in Kauffman and have a spray-hitting approach. He should hit around 25, though, and Witt will provide elite ratios with 35-40 steals. The counting stats could improve as well if the Royals find one or two more pieces (not that I necessarily expect this to happen).
6. Julio Rodríguez (OF, SEA) — I’m going to resist the “slow starter” narrative, though his career numbers have shown it has been the case in three of his first four seasons. The biggest thing we learned about Rodríguez is that the guy we saw in 2022 and 2023 was the real J-Rod, and the 2024 version was not. We know 30 home runs, 30 steals, and 200 combined runs and RBI are on the way; it’s just a matter of when and how. The return of Naylor helps to keep this lineup a little heavier at the top of a lineup that does get thin in a hurry with the loss of Jorge Polanco and Eugenio Suárez.
7. Kyle Tucker (OF/DH, LAD) — I’ve always been a huge Kyle Tucker fan, and seeing his greatness on full display to start 2025 was a lot of fun. The drop-off for the rest of the season was much less fun. Injury narratives are challenging to grasp, as they often oversimplify complex, multifaceted issues. In this case, though, I’m willing to give Tucker a mulligan and say the injury sapped his productivity in 2025 and that we will see a rejuvenated Tucker come spring.
Landing in LA certainly gives Tucker a boost to his counting stats, which hopefully offsets the lower stolen base totals that we should expect with the Dodgers, as they were much less aggressive in 2025 than the Cubs, and I don’t expect that to change. Something like 30-35 home runs and 20 steals should be there, though, and over 200 combined runs and RBI with a .280 or better batting average…assuming he stays healthy.
8. Corbin Carroll (OF, ARI) — The power can be a bit uneven, but we saw a healthy Corbin Carroll hit 30 home runs and swipe 30 bases. The only genuine concern heading into 2026 I have is the counting stats, as the D-Backs got rid of two of their best hitters at the deadline, and their top prospect hasn’t looked ready to join the heart of a lineup. As of this moment, this lineup is three hitters deep, and unless they are aggressive in free agency, Carroll’s ceiling might be just a tad lower than others in this tier, but his floor is as good as anyone’s.
News that Carroll will have surgery on his hamate bone may scare some into dropping him in their ranks, but the limited data available suggests there isn’t a long-term impact on power or overall performance. At most, you can drop him to the top of the next tier, but I’m not going any farther.
9. Fernando Tatis Jr. (OF, SDP) — Tatis Jr. endured a three-month power outage over the summer, hitting just five bombs in all of June, July, and August combined, though he rebounded in September to hit seven to close out the year. More importantly, he played in 150 games for the first time in his career and in at least 140 for the second time in three seasons. With a bit more confidence in his health and the hope that we don’t see another extended loss of power, Tatis could break into Tier 1.
Nate’s Note: I really like Bobby Witt Jr. as the fourth-ranked hitter. His average will be a significant boon at the top of the first round while still providing similar home run and steal totals to José Ramírez. I feel more confident about the upper floor of Witt than about the potential age regression from Ramírez, and the new Kauffman Park factors should help, too. Not to say Ramírez is a bad option at all, but, to me, I believe Witt can give more upper-first round production compared to just standard first round floor.
Tier 3
10. Kyle Schwarber (OF/DH, PHI) — Schwarber is back in Philly, and hit the ball harder than ever in 2025. He also put up another season hitting .240 or better, and I think that should continue with how hard he hits the ball, how often he pulls it, and how often it’s in the air. In standard roto leagues or in formats where he’s only DH-eligible, I could see an argument for Schwarber to be lower in this tier, but in head-to-head categories or any league that rewards walks, Schwarber is as safe a player as you’ll find.
11. Junior Caminero (3B, TBR) — When you hit 45 home runs in your first full season, you get noticed. The most common narrative about Caminero this offseason will be the home/road splits, as his OPS at home was over 200 points better than his road OPS, but it’s worth noting that he hit more dingers on the road than he did in his home park (by one, but still!). The real difference came from a huge spike in infield flies when on the road, which feels more like a random distribution than it does a predictable pattern. You can look for 30-35 home runs, if not more, as well as 100 RBI, though the ratios might fluctuate a bit. Being eligible at third base helps, too, as it’s a position where there will be the haves and the have-nots.
12. Francisco Lindor (SS, NYM) — Lindor is averaging over 30 home runs and 30 steals over the last three seasons, with well over 100 runs scored. He’s also among the most durable players in the game over the course of his career, missing more than 20 games just once since his first full year in the majors back in 2016. Sure, we’ve seen some extended slumps in each of the last two seasons, but the end results are fantastic, and there’s no reason to believe that will change in 2026.
News that Lindor may have surgery on his hamate bone may scare some into dropping him in their ranks, but the limited data available suggests there isn’t a long-term impact on power or overall performance. If you want to move him down a few spots in this tier, that’s fine, but I’m not doing it quite yet.
13. Pete Alonso (1B, BAL) — A new home for Alonso might be just what the doctor ordered. For what it’s worth, Statcast indicates that if he had played all of his games in Camden Yards, he’d have hit 45 home runs. Had he played all his games in Citi Field, it would have been just 36. The new dimensions certainly played nicer with right-handed hitters in 2025, and Alonso should be able to take advantage of that (plus whatever he gained by getting a fresh start) to hit .250 or better with 40 home runs.
14. Cal Raleigh (C/DH, SEA) — Considering that there’s a legitimate improvement in his fly-ball rate, pulled-fly-ball rate, and barrel rate, we should assume Cal Raleigh’s power is legit, even if 60 home runs is improbable. We aren’t too sure about what the rest of the offense will look like with Polanco and Suárez all hitting the market in the offseason, but Raleigh is a threat to hit 50 home runs and drive in 100 runs as long as there’s a league-average offense around him. Many of you will have Raleigh lower on your board due to wanting to play the back-end of the catching pool, but per the FanGraphs Player Rater, Raleigh out-earned the second, third, and fourth-best catchers combined in 2025 ($47.7 to $46.0). That’s a huge advantage.
15. Nick Kurtz (1B, ATH) — Despite a slow start and playing in just 117 games in the big leagues, Kurtz finished as a top-30 hitter on the FanGraphs Player Rater and as the fifth-best first baseman. To put that in more perspective, every other first baseman in the top 10 had at least 150 more plate appearances, and while he tied Lindor, Pages, Harris II, and Elly De La Cruz in RBI with 86, each of them played in at least 156 games. Sophomore slumps have bitten players with an even shinier prospect pedigree than Kurtz, though those guys presumably didn’t have the benefit of hitting in a minor league ballpark. It might be a bumpy ride due to the strikeout rate that has a tendency to spike, but few players have hot streaks that burn as brightly as Kurtz’s.
16. Gunnar Henderson (SS/DH, BAL) — One of the most frustrating things about trying to evaluate players in-season is that we just don’t know everything that’s going on. Earlier in January, Henderson admitted that he played with a shoulder issue for most of the season, which may very well explain the 4.2 drop in his average fly ball velocity in 2025. That’s why he jumped from 28th in my “too early” rankings from October to 16th today. It is worth noting, though, that the power outage we saw really started in the second half of 2024 (see charts below), and there’s still risk that he won’t get back to the 30+ home run guy we fell in love with in 2024. Still, with an improved lineup around him and a boatload of talent, Henderson is well worth the gamble.
17. Elly De La Cruz (SS, CIN) — The Reds were far less aggressive on the base paths in 2025 than in 2024 (when they were one of the most aggressive teams in the league) under Terry Francona, and it’s hard to imagine that changing too much in 2026. That puts a lower ceiling on the steals, though the rest of the package is as promising as ever. Elly will likely never be an elite decision-maker, but if he can just be below average like he was in the first half instead of abysmal like he was in the second half, there’s a chance he’s at the top of this tier early into 2026. The more likely outcome, though, is more of the rollercoaster ride we’ve seen from him throughout his career so far, albeit with a bit higher floor thanks to the reduced strikeout rate.
18. Vladimir Guerrero Jr. (1B/DH, TOR) — Thanks to his propensity to hit liners and grounders, 30 home runs feels more like a ceiling than a floor for Vlad Jr. these days, despite his elite exit velocities. However, that lower home run ceiling comes with excellent ratios and counting stats (though it’s insane he only drove in 84 runners while hitting second or third on the fourth-highest scoring offense in the land). Vladito presents one of the highest floors in the game, as he’s never missed 10 games in a season since being activated to the major league roster and in the top 15 in both runs and RBI since the start of 2022 (which means I’ve excluded his incredible 48-home run 2021) and is an excellent pick to anchor a team that either already has or soon plans to get risky.
It feels a little crazy to rank Guerrero lower than Kurtz, especially with projections loving Guerrero, but my philosophy in 12-teamers is usually to chase that ceiling early, and that’s something Guerrero just can’t deliver to the same degree as the rest of the players in this tier. If you’re more of a floor person, you can bump him to 14th or 15th.
Nate’s Note: Generally speaking, I think the first basemen in this tier are ranked aggressively. I’m the most hesitant about Pete Alonso: a 30-year-old slugger who just got the big payday and could see a step back in year one of a new deal. Kurtz is a super enticing option here, but he does run the risk of being a second-year player. While I like Vlad Jr. a bunch, the upper limit on power will direct me to other options for topline hitters. Three great bats to me, but I prefer to target five category contributors or hitters in shallower positions in this range.
Tier 4
19. Yordan Alvarez (OF/DH, HOU) — If it wasn’t for the injury risk, he would be a Tier 2 hitter. Alvarez had a slow start to 2025 when healthy, posting just a .646 OPS before hitting the IL, but was his usual self when he returned later in the season, evidenced by the 1.031 OPS. Obviously, injuries have been a major bummer throughout his career, but he did play in at least 135 games in ’21, ’22, and ’24, and hit 31 home runs with 97 RBI in his 114-game ’23. Yordan remains one of the best hitters in all of baseball, and those who feel a little light on power early in the draft should be aggressively circling this name on their board. If you’re risk-averse, you might want to push Alvarez down with the first basemen later on in this tier.
20. Ronald Acuña Jr. (OF, ATL) — The plus-plus contact ability we saw from Acuña in 2023 remains a complete anomaly, and without it, the incredible highs of that season feel more like a pipe dream, though we all know the real issue is whether he’s going to play in 140 games. This was the third time in five seasons he’s missed at least 60 games, and the fourth time in those five years he’s missed at least 40 games.
While we did see the power stroke come back with 21 dingers (he had just four in 49 games in 2024), the speed was absent. With a healthy offseason, we should see some of that speed come back, making Acuña a 30-30 threat with strong ratios (think more like a .280-.290 average, though, instead of that insane .337).
21. Jackson Chourio (OF, MIL) — Chourio’s career has started with back-to-back 20-20 seasons and a cumulative batting average of .272, and yet somehow we are all a little disappointed because we know he has the potential to give us even more. It didn’t help that Chourio missed 32 games in 2025, in large part due to a hamstring injury in the second half, and given a full season, I think we will see Chourio take that step forward to be more of a 25-25 player while keeping that solid batting average and providing plenty of counting stats.
22. Jazz Chisholm Jr. (2B/3B, NYY) — Jazz’s struggles with contact make him a volatile player. Still, his dynamic skillset and eligibility at two critical positions make that easy enough to gloss over. Sure, he’ll have months where he hits .180, but in between, you’ll get a 30-30 season (or even 35-35). I’m also encouraged by a second straight season with at least 130 games (just barely) and the improved walk rate we saw this season, which helped Chisholm finish with a wRC+ above 100 in every single month in 2025. His streakiness will drive you crazy, but the juice is worth the squeeze to get all that power and speed with solid counting stats.
23. Manny Machado (3B, SDP) — Steady ol’ Manny Machado continues to be the guy you expected when you drafted him. In every non-COVID season since 2015, Machado has at least 27 home runs, 75 runs scored, and 85 RBI with a batting average no lower than .258. Those numbers alone would be a borderline top-60 hitter, but that’s the worst of each category that we’ve seen from him over a decade. The only thing to really keep in mind here is that Machado suffers a four-to-six week slump every year where people finally think his age is catching up to him. It’s a small price to pay for the hot streaks and year-over-year consistency we get from Machado.
The other thing to keep in mind is that Machado’s ceiling may be slightly capped, at least from a counting stat perspective, because this lineup is a Ramón Laureano regression away from being just three hitters deep. It’s possible things break right with Laureano and Xander Bogaerts and maybe even Gavin Sheets, but runs scored might be a struggle with the lack of dangerous hitters behind him.
24. Zach Neto (SS, LAA) — Neto’s season started and ended on the IL, but in the 128 games in between, we saw an excellent fantasy shortstop. His average exit velocity, barrel rate, and hard-hit rate were all up significantly, with no real loss in contact ability and a minimal uptick in strikeouts. Neto is a threat for a 30-30 season if he stays healthy in 2026, especially if the across-the-board improvements to his quality of contact stick around.
25. Ketel Marte (2B, ARI) — Ketel Marte missed about a month with a foot injury and hurt his hand late in the season, but none of that stopped him from hitting for a high average and smacking 28 home runs, though he wasn’t as explosive as his 36 home runs in 2024. There are plenty of questions about the state of the Diamondbacks’ offense heading into 2026 (albeit mainly in the second half of the lineup). Still, Marte should be a consistent contributor at second base who can hit 25 or more home runs and rack up counting stats in the heart of the order with a batting average north of .280.
Marte gets a big boost from my October ranks in large part because many trusted projection systems (including our own) think Marte is in for another excellent season, and while injuries have been an issue these last few seasons, being a second baseman with elite upside makes Marte a rare commodity.
26. Brent Rooker (OF/DH, ATH) — Rooker fell a bit short of my expectations in 2025 as I hoped the high batting average and gawdy home run totals would continue as he played half his games in a minor league park, but alas, it was not to be. That said, we did see a meaningful drop in his strikeout rate (from 28.8% in 2024 to 22.2% in 2025), and with his raw power, there’s a very good chance he improves upon his home power numbers with a second season in Sacramento. The healthy floor is 30 home runs with strong counting stats and a decent batting average, and I still believe there’s another 38-40 home run campaign in his bat.
27. Bryce Harper (1B/DH, PHI) — Harper missed a decent chunk of the summer on the IL with inflammation in his wrist, and it was something he dealt with for at least a large portion of the season. I’m treating 2025 as more of a floor than the new norm, and even if I expect him to miss 15-20 games for whatever reason (he hasn’t played in more than 145 games since 2019), Harper should still be able to hit 30 home runs with excellent ratios. The path to something like a top-20 finish for Harper is all about staying healthy, as thanks to his routine absences from the lineup, he’s failed to reach 90 runs or 90 RBI in any of the last four seasons. Still, it’s hard to ignore the upside of a healthy Harper, and it’s not as though the remainder of this tier is without risk.
Why does Harper get a big bump from my October ranks? Well, because I was simply far too low on him. That description above is the same as the one from October, and makes just as much sense with this ranking.
28. Josh Naylor (1B/DH, SEA) — How do you not love Josh Naylor? This 5’10” ball of effort not only drove in at least 90 runners for the third straight season, but he took a second percentile sprint speed and turned it into 30 stolen bases in 2025 while getting caught just twice. He actually led the Mariners in steals from the day he joined up, beating out Julio Rodríguez. A return to Seattle was an ideal outcome for all, as it makes a return to 20-25 steals (or more) become a lot more likely. Naylor’s skillset is contact-driven and very safe, and while elite home run numbers aren’t likely, I truly believe in his ability to be a plus in all five categories once again.
29. Trea Turner (SS, PHI) — It was great to see Turner return to the land of 30 stolen bases and a .300 batting average, even if he fell short of 20 home runs for the first time since 2020. Turner will be the veteran leadoff man on a Phillies team that knows the clock is ticking, and if he can play in at least 140 games (which he has done in four of the last 5 seasons), he should be good for at least another 15 home runs, 30 stolen bases, 90-100 runs scored, and a batting average north of .290.
30. Matt Olson (1B, ATL) — Olson looked much the same in 2025 as he did in 2024, albeit with a better batting average. Olson’s true strength, apart from the 30-ish home run power, is his durability. He’s played in all 162 games for four straight seasons and has only missed more than six games one time since his first full season in 2018. His incredible 54 home runs in 2023 are unlikely to be repeated, but 28-30 home runs and decent (or possibly even good) ratios will be there in 2026, and if the Atlanta offense is even just slightly better and/or healthier than it was in 2025, we should see 200 combined runs and RBI as well.
31. Rafael Devers (1B, SFG) — Devers finished 2025 with 35 home runs and 109 RBI, though the story of his season is less about numbers and more about the absolute circus he endured to start the season. Boston signed a third baseman and relegated him to DH duties, followed by a stretch of struggling with strikeouts in April. He was then traded to the Giants just two years into a 10-year contract. Devers was a slightly worse hitter by the Bay than he was in Boston, though the stats under the hood were quite similar outside of an elevated pull rate that was likely more random than anything else.
The one worry I have for Devers is how well his historically poor contact ability will play out over time. He’s never been excellent at making contact, but his 73.8% zone-contact rate in 2025 was a new low and made him the only player to get 500 or more plate appearances while having a zone-contact rate below 75% (Chisholm’s 76.8% was the next lowest). His old zone contact floors have turned into his rolling average, and his floors (especially from early in the season) are TERRIFYING. This makes me believe the .250 batting average and elevated strikeout rates are here to stay, making him more of a three-to-three-and-a-half category guy than four, almost like a poor man’s Kyle Schwarber. If he can rebound to something closer to his 2023-2024, then he’d move closer to the top of this tier.
Nate’s Note: I have no real qualms with this tier. If anything, I would bump Brent Rooker up a few spots. The improvement in strikeout rate and decision value is going to set him up for a big 2026 in a great park.
Tier 5
32. Pete Crow-Armstrong (OF, CHC) — It was a tale of two halves for Pete Crow-Armstrong, going from one of the best hitters in the game through July to one of the worst from August to the end of the season. Oddly enough, plate discipline didn’t seem to play a massive role in his demise, as his second-half strikeout rate of 25.6% wasn’t that much higher than it was in the first half (22.9%).
There’s obviously a dynamic player in here who can hit 30 home runs and steal 30 bases, even if it comes with poor ratios. The question is whether he can tap into that explosion of power and hit ability again, and whether he can pick himself out of the horrible slumps a bit quicker. If either is true, he may come close to matching his 2025 numbers. It’s a gamble, but not a stupid one.
33. Mookie Betts (SS, LAD) — Through his first 453 plate appearances of 2025 (103 games), Mookie Betts was objectively a disappointment. He was slashing just .231/.302/.355 with just 11 home runs, and for quite some time, we openly questioned whether Betts was in the twilight of his career. He must have heard us, because for the remaining 47 games, he hit nine home runs with a fantastic .317/.376/.516 line. Our metrics certainly caught this spike as well.
If Betts can avoid the horrifying lows in 2026, he should clear 100 runs scored without an issue, and his elite decision-making and contact ability give him multiple paths back to a batting average above .265 and an OBP above .350.
34. Brice Turang (2B, MIL) — Folks drafted Turang in 2025 to hold down the stolen base category after he swiped 50 bags in 2024, but unfortunately, that number fell all the way to 24 in 2025. On the bright side, Turang had a bit of a power breakout, going from seven homers in ’24 to 18 in ’25 (including 10 in August), and became a fixture in the heart of the order, boosting his counting stats in a big way.
Turang is only 26 and may well have a new level of power in him that sticks around, but projecting more than 15 is a dangerous game, as his power is more likely to translate into more hits than it is more home runs due to his low fly-ball rates and how often he hits the ball up the middle and the opposite way. Still, 15 home runs, 90+ runs scored, 25-30 steals, and a high batting average are more than enough to make him one of the premier second basemen in fantasy.
35. Riley Greene (OF/DH, DET) — If you’re familiar with my work, you know I’m a huge Riley Greene fan. Being a Tigers fan is part of it, and the other part is that a 25-year-old Greene makes very loud contact and has developed an extreme uppercut swing that can get balls out of the yard in a hurry, even in spacious Comerica Park.
That uppercut swing has a downside, though, and it’s the pesky holes it puts in his plate coverage. Greene made adjustments throughout the year, but the high strikeout rates persisted. He’s managed to keep the strikeouts to reasonable levels in years past, and I believe he can make the necessary adjustments in 2026, either as quickly or more quickly than he did in 2025. I expect 30+ home runs and 100 RBI, and should he find a little more patience and cover those holes a little better, Riley will be in the top 20 before you know it.
36. Cody Bellinger (1B, NYY) — Despite hitting the most home runs he’s had since 2019, Bellinger’s barrel rate and hard-hit rate remained consistently below average. On the plus side, Bellinger will return to the Bronx and play in a park where he doesn’t really need the elite quality of contact to do a lot of damage.
Due to the crazy fluctuations in production for Bellinger over the last several years, Bellinger is a rather difficult player to project. It’s safe to assume he’ll keep hitting a ton of fly balls (the vast majority of which go up the middle or the opposite way), and the BABIP Gods will likely ensure he has two crappy months (like April and September last season). Still, he should hit 25 home runs with excellent counting stats, though I wonder how he can keep hitting close to .270 with the batted ball profile of a .240-.250 hitter.
37. Freddie Freeman (1B, LAD) — For the first time in seemingly forever, Freddie Freeman did not finish as a top-five first baseman. An injury slowed him down over the summer, and it’s also possible that Father Time has started to come for Freeman. That all being said, this was still a top-40 hitter in 2025 thanks to a .295 average, 24 home runs, and 171 combined runs and RBI hitting in the heart of the most dangerous lineup in the National League. Freeman should keep that role for one more season at least. With the Dodgers’ hitting core of Ohtani, Betts, the newly acquired Kyle Tucker, Freeman, and Will Smith remaining intact for 2026, another season with elite ratios, 20+ home runs, and well over 100 RBI seems likely.
38. Jackson Merrill (OF, SDP) — Merrill hit the IL early on in April, and never really found his power stroke prior to hitting the IL again in August. It was quite a disappointment for the second-year outfielder, as his impressive 2024 had given us high hopes for the future. Merrill finished outside the top-120 hitters due to missed time and an underwhelming performance, but he finds himself ranked this high thanks to the return to form we saw following that second IL stint. Merrill smashed seven home runs in September, and also hit well in his tiny postseason sample, giving us a ray of hope that perhaps the downturn in production was more injury-related than anything else. If that’s the case, Merrill will easily outperform this ranking, though there’s still a risk that Merrill won’t consistently find power (it wasn’t really part of his scouting profile, and he didn’t show much of it in the minors).
39. Byron Buxton (OF, MIN) — Buxton was a top-20 hitter in 2025, which is precisely what we’d expect if we knew Buxton would play in more than 125 games (he appeared in 126 games last season). Of course, this was the first time since his first full season in 2017 that he played in more than 125 games, and just the second time he played in over 100 games.
Picking Buxton is all about risk management. If you’ve played it safe in the first several rounds, you can even consider moving him up your board a tier or two. If you’ve already taken on some health risks (Acuña, Alvarez, Seager, etc.), you might need to take him off your board.
As a final note, I think Buxton should still get stolen bases, if only because the Twins will want to score runs somehow, and there aren’t many paths to scoring runs for this team if Buxton isn’t getting as close to home plate as possible.
40. James Wood (OF/DH, WSN) — Wood was a top-10 player for me until the great cratering that happened after the All-Star Break. Strikeouts were the obvious issue, and the best explanation I’ve been able to come up with relates to his decision-making against breakers, as you can see below.
On the bright side, Wood has demonstrated his ability to make good decisions against breaking balls and hit any type of pitch with extreme power. He’s even pretty good at laying off breakers that are out of the zone. The problem is his extreme passiveness against breakers in the zone, and if you can’t hit a breaker for a strike, then you’re gonna have a bad time. This isn’t an easy fix, by any means, but the mountain Wood needs to climb to find his early-season form isn’t as high as his raw numbers suggest, and his ceiling is that of a top-10 player.
Wood takes a tumble in these ranks for two reasons: I may have underestimated how hard it can be for players to fix the issues he is facing (breakers are the bane of young power hitters everywhere), and this scary dip in home run power (a new metric we have for our PL Pros!). While it did start to rebound, there’s no guarantee that he picks back up there, especially with his struggles with making good contact.
41. Wyatt Langford (OF/DH, TEX) — On one hand, Langford hit more home runs and stole more bases in his sophomore season while taking more walks. He also improved his average exit velocity by almost two ticks and added about five points to his hard-hit and barrel rates. Sadly, he also added 5.8 points to his strikeout rate and finished outside the top-75 hitters, thanks in large part to inconsistency, as he gave us two months with a wRC+ above 160 and two other months with a wRC+ below 75. He also had three months where he slugged under .400.
Still, we did see signs that the tools we got excited about when he was a top-three prospect are in there, and his steadily improving plate discipline throughout the season suggests that maybe the consistency is coming soon. Langford has plus power, plus speed, and tons of upside heading into his age-24 season, and that’s more than enough to consider scooping him as a second or third outfielder.
42. Bo Bichette (SS/DH, NYM) — After years of declining production, Bichette finally reversed the trend and improved as the season went on. Sure, the stolen bases are likely never to return, and he fell short of 20 home runs, but he did manage to hit .311 and drive in 94 runners thanks to the Blue Jays’ offense finding its groove. Bichette did miss over 20 games for the third straight season, but there’s no reason he couldn’t pitch in a full one in 2026 with another .300 batting average, 17-20 homers, and plenty of runs and RBI.
Bichette actually bumped up a whole tier with the news he’d be a Met. Not because of the landing spot itself, mind you, but because he’ll be the primary third baseman for the Mets. Adding that eligibility is a big deal in my book, as it adds another safe piece in a position dying for more of them. He would have gotten this bump if he had gone somewhere to play second base as well, but third base is just as nice.
Nate’s Note: This is a tier of incredibly streaky hitters whose highs are going to make you feel invincible, and lows make you want to rebuild in a redraft league. I’m continually becoming a PCA believer for fantasy, as the floor of home runs and stolen bases should set him up for success. Additionally, I’m still buying in on Wyatt Langford. He had the second-highest barrel rate of anyone to not hit 25+ home runs (behind Oneil Cruz), and his exceptional pull-air rate should pay off soon.
Tier 6
43. Hunter Goodman (C/DH, COL) — The only ray of sunshine that pierced through the cold, hostile mountains of Colorado, at least from a baseball perspective. Goodman started 2025 hot and stayed productive the entire season, playing 144 games (104 at catcher) and producing both at home and on the road – a rare feat for a Rockies hitter. Goodman’s power plays in every park, evidenced by the 18 home runs he hit on the road, though the thin air and spacious outfield grass in Colorado allows Goodman to hit over .300 on the road (59 points higher than how he hit on the road).
44. Shea Langeliers (C/DH, ATH) — I definitely believe in the improved batting average for Langeliers due to the much-improved strikeout rate (just 19.7%, a full 7.5 points lower than his previous career-best rate), but the question is how much we believe in the absolutely insane run Langeliers went on following the All-Star Break. In 36 games following the break, Langeliers hit 17 home runs, drove in 34 runners, and slashed .331/.360/.748. He returned to earth a bit after that run, hitting just two home runs and driving in just seven baserunners in his final 21 games, though the batting average remained strong.
Langeliers should hit 25-30 home runs again in 2026, though the batting average may dip just a bit due to normal variance, and the counting stats will be dependent on how much offense can happen around him. Also, while the strikeout rate improvement was consistent over the season, there’s still a risk he reverts to something closer to his old self, which could shave even more off his batting average. If he can keep up the plus decision-making skills he started to show at the end of the season, though, this rank will be far too low.
45. Eugenio Suárez (3B/DH, CIN) — Suárez is coming off a 49 home run season, and back-to-back campaigns with at least 100 RBI and 90 runs scored. Suárez is an extreme pull hitter and puts a lot of balls in the air, so hitting 40+ once again is very much in play with a return to Great American Ballpark. The supporting cast around him is volatile, but this is a solid power source with a very high floor, even if it comes with painful ratios.
46. Maikel Garcia (2B/3B/SS/OF/DH, KCR) — Garcia’s 16 home runs in 2025 were five more than he had in all of 2023-2024 combined, and he did it with a better batting average than ever before. Garcia doesn’t have a gawdy barrel rate thanks to his propensity to hit ground balls, but his average exit velocity of 91.3 mph shows he does have some thunder in his bat if he can get it up in the air to the pull side, which is precisely what he improved on in 2025. These changes can sometimes be fluky, but with a guy who can play several premium positions, enough raw power to make it believable, and the ability to steal over 20 bases in his back pocket, Garcia is a solid choice for managers who need speed and batting average boosts without sacrificing power entirely.
47. Austin Riley (3B, ATL) — It’s been back-to-back disappointing and injury-shortened seasons for Riley, who from 2021 to 2023 hit at least 33 home runs each year with a high batting average and boatloads of counting stats. There are plenty of reasons to be hopeful: Riley will only be 29 next season and showed high barrel rates and strong quality of contact despite the less-than-expected outputs for the last two seasons.
Still, it’s tough to shake two straight seasons finishing outside the top-150 hitters. Mild-to-moderate injury and performance risk have pushed Riley down draft rankings, but there’s still top-25 potential if he finds his old form. I’m a little nervous about investing in such a risky third baseman, especially considering how low the replacement level will be, so it would behoove you to grab someone else either before or after Riley with third base eligibility.
48. Vinnie Pasquantino (1B/DH, KCR) — I never thought Vinnie Pasquantino would be a 30-home run hitter after seeing what he brought to the table in his first three seasons, but here we are. Vinnie P’s power appeared in full force over a relatively short time frame, where he hit nine home runs in a 14-game stretch in mid-August. Outside of that stretch, the Pasquantino we saw was more like the 20-25 home run guy we expected. I’m not bringing that up to say that it was all a fluke and that we should ignore the power uptick, but I do want to recommend caution on projecting another 30 home runs for a player who didn’t really hit the ball harder or in the air or to the pull side much more than he did in past years.
Twenty-five homers feels like a more reasonable projection with 90-100 RBI if he can stay healthy, though notably, he missed significant time in 2023 and 2024 due to injury, which can’t be ignored. For points leaguers, and particularly those dealing with a strikeout penalty, go ahead and boost Pasquantino up a tier, as he is excellent at avoiding strikeouts, especially when compared to his first base peers.
49. Corey Seager (SS, TEX) — As per usual, the question for Seager is health. When healthy, we see elite production and elite quality of contact. Seager hasn’t played in 120 games since 2022, though that didn’t stop him from hitting 30 home runs in three consecutive seasons prior to 2025. If you haven’t taken on too much injury risk by this stage of the draft, Seager represents an opportunity to get a player with the potential to vastly outproduce his cost. If you’ve already taken on a lot of risk (such as Yordan Alvarez or Ronald Acuña Jr.), then you probably need to shove Seager down a tier (which will effectively remove him from your board).
50. Ben Rice (C/1B/DH, NYY) — He’s got to be a fixture in the lineup in 2026. Right? RIGHT?! Ben Rice is a Statcast darling, finishing as a top-five hitter in terms of xwOBA and hard-hit rate with a 99th percentile xSLG. In addition, he’s above average at taking walks and avoiding strikeouts and does a good job making contact. That said, the Yankees have shown an easy willingness to sit Rice against many lefties (he can hit them for power, but not for average, while striking out much more often and walking less), there’s some risk that he’ll get capped at 135-140 games. Still, with Paul Goldschmidt off the roster and no other obvious competition for first base at-bats, Rice ought to get the full-season chance he deserved.
One quick quirk to point out, though: in back-to-back seasons, Rice has seen a prolonged slump despite consistently strong batted-ball quality. I’m not sure if it’s because he enjoys walking under ladders or gets a kick out of spilling salt at meals, but it’s happened twice now, and in both cases, it’s led to reduced playing time for a while.
As a final note, Rice’s ADP on sites like NFBC will be surprisingly high, but I suspect it will be much more reasonable in single-catcher formats where many managers choose to wait on the position due to the depth. This is true of all the catchers in this tier, but Rice has been the most highlighted example in conversations I’ve had.
51. William Contreras (C/DH, MIL) — Contreras dealt with an injury in his left hand all season, though he looked a bit more like his old self as the season wore on (as you can see below in the rolling Power chart). It’s not easy to determine precisely how much this sort of injury impacted a hitter, but even with the injury, Contreras finished as a top-five catcher and as a top-40 hitter, so it feels silly to rank him any lower than that heading into what will presumably be a healthy 2026. Despite his power, Contreras has never hit more than 23 home runs due to his high ground-ball and low fly-ball rates, though he did make some improvements in that regard in 2025 (they turned into liners instead of fly balls, though, so it may have merely been a bit of a fluke).
Nate’s Note: I’m avoiding the two catchers at the top of this tier because of their streakiness and the depth of the catcher position. There are a lot of other great options later in the draft, in my opinion. On the other hand, this is a great spot to target third base before the positional cliff. Maikel Garcia showed significant improvement across the board and is the premier stolen base option after José Ramírez at third. Projections love Austin Riley, and, even though there’s injury concern, that 30 home runs with solid average potential is very enticing.
Tier 7
52. Christian Yelich (OF/DH, MIL) — Yelich isn’t getting younger (he’ll be 34 when we kick off the 2026 season), but he did just manage to play in over 140 games for the third time in four seasons while putting up the most home runs he’s had since the rabbit-ball era. Banking on Yelich to be fully healthy and fully productive for back-to-back seasons is an aggressive gambit, but it was nice to see Yelich put everything together. He still has a propensity to hit too many grounders, and he lost his outfield eligibility in leagues that require 20 appearances (he fell one short). The Brewers should be a potent offense again in 2026, and Yelich will be a central part of it, giving him ample opportunities to pile up counting stats while hitting at least 20 home runs (if not 25+) and swiping 15-20 bags with good ratios.
53. Trevor Story (SS, BOS) — 2025 was Story’s first full-ish season since 2021, when he was still with the Rockies, and he did not disappoint, hitting 35 homers and swiping 31 bases with a .263 average and 187 combined runs and RBI. Story is under contract for one more season, and if anyone had any faith he’d be healthy for more than 120-130 games, I’d probably have Story ranked higher. Unfortunately, even with a full season to add to the math, Story is averaging just 80 games per season for the Red Sox, and we have to take that into consideration.
Furthermore, Story’s plate discipline screams streaky profile. It’s worth wondering whether he can make this kind of magic (he finished as a top-25 hitter in 2025) again in his age-33 season, considering all of the things working against him. There will be plenty of hemming and hawing in the offseason, trying to figure out exactly when is the right time to call his name at the draft. Still, projections I trust seem to trust Story, so that gives me a little less pause.
54. Geraldo Perdomo (SS, ARI) — Perdomo finished as a top-15 hitter in most formats (even higher in many points leagues), which is a challenge for a player like Perdomo who rarely hits the ball hard. In fact, Perdomo had only 14 home runs in 401 games in the majors coming into 2025, and never more than six in any single season in the minors or majors. His home runs weren’t cheap either, as Statcast credited him with 19.2 expected home runs. Perdomo’s success stems entirely from his elite contact and decision-making, making him a player with a very high floor and a ceiling closely tied to his ability to get the ball out of the yard. The high ratios, excellent plate discipline, and buckets of runs scored will be there in 2026, as will 25-30 stolen bases. That’s a good player, even if it only comes with 10-12 home runs.
I definitely over-ranked Perdomo in October, as I forgot to take into account that the counting stats will likely come down in a big way from 98 runs and 100 RBI. Something more like 90 runs and 60 RBI is a lot more likely.
55. Salvador Perez (C/1B/DH, KCR) — It’s insane how this guy keeps catching over 80 games a season, isn’t it? Sal got off to a slow start in 2025, hitting just four total home runs over the first two months, but for the rest of the season, he hit at least five home runs per month, including a nine-dinger July. Perez still swings at everything and manages to barrel more than his fair share of baseballs, though the ratios tend to suffer because he puts bad pitches in play a lot and wasn’t fast even in his prime. He will hit 25 home runs and drive in 100 again, somehow, though the slumps will likely be just as brutal as they were in 2025.
56. Jeremy Peña (SS, HOU) — Peña missed about 30 games due to injury, costing him all of July, and also lost some time at the end of the season, but when healthy, we saw a new level of production from Peña as he locked himself into the leadoff role in Houston. He was on track to clear 20 home runs and 25 steals had he played a full season, and a career-high hard-hit rate helped him achieve a .304 batting average. Even this improved form of Peña isn’t going to hit .300 for a full season (probably), but there’s a very real chance he hits 20 home runs, scores 85 runs, and swipes over 20 bags if he can stay healthy and if the Astros offense can find its groove with the return of Yordan.
57. Willy Adames (SS, SFG) — At the end of May, Adames was slashing .210/.297/.339, had sunk to the bottom half of the order, and was looking like a bust by the Bay outside of an outstanding series in Colorado. In shallow leagues, Adames had hit the wire all over the place, but July changed all that as he posted a 1.096 OPS that month with seven home runs and as many RBI as he’d driven in for all of May and June combined (21). While the batting average was ugly for the rest of the season (as it had been before July), the power stuck around as he hit a total of 18 home runs in the second half, as many as Aaron Judge, Eugenio Suárez, teammate Rafael Devers, and Julio Rodríguez (and others).
I gave Adames a big boost since the October ranks, if only because I can’t ignore that he consistently finishes as a top 50-75 hitter even if the start is brutally slow.
58. Seiya Suzuki (OF/DH, CHC) — Crow-Armstrong wasn’t the only Cubs hitter to have a hot start followed by a disappointing second-half, as Seiya Suzuki was the 16th-best hitter for fantasy in the first half per the FanGraphs Player Rater, thanks to a whopping 25 home runs and 77 RBI. Unfortunately, his second half was very pedestrian as he slashed .213/.336/.351 with just seven home runs (and five of those seven came in the last four games of the season, meaning many head-to-head managers did not get to benefit from them). Even with that bummer of a second half, Suzuki set or tied career highs in home runs (32), runs scored (75), and RBI (103). I don’t think there’s another gear in Suzuki’s bat in terms of power, but his .245 batting average was well below his norm, and there’s plenty of potential to see that number go up, which would also lead to better runs scored totals, likely a more consistent season.
Another quick point on that second half: our metrics suggest he was still making contact, still making good decisions, and still putting some thunder on the ball despite the poor results, so the poor results may have been more of a mirage than a real change.
59. Ivan Herrera (C/DH, STL) — Iván Herrera is one of the few hitters who, by our PLV metrics, is consistently above average in Contact Ability, Power, and Decision Value, which makes his breakout 2025 campaign feel legitimate. Injuries have been a bit of an issue, as he hit the IL twice in 2025 with left leg issues (knee and hamstring) and also spent almost a month on the IL in 2024 with back tightness. Sure, he doesn’t have the track record of a guy like Salvador Perez, but everything under the hood suggests Iván Herrera is a 25-home run bat with plus ratios if he stays healthy all season, though he’s struggled to do just that, and of course, he’ll have to keep the ball in the air, which also was an issue at times in 2025 and in the minors.
A reminder that Herrera will only be eligible at catcher in leagues that require 10 starts. If your league needs 15 or more, he’ll miss the cut and be DH-only. That isn’t a huge deal, as I expect a ton of playing time (if healthy) and the bat is very promising in its own right, but he’d still fall about two tiers without the eligibility.
Still, there’s a lot to be excited about. I’ll show you the rolling Power+ below, and you should also keep in mind that he consistently has shown 75th percentile (or better) decision-making skills and contact ability.
60. Jordan Westburg (2B/3B/DH, BAL) — Injuries limited Westburg to just 85 games in 2025, and while we didn’t see a ton of consistency in his time on the field, we did see similar (though slightly muted) results to his breakout 2024 season, suggesting that a healthy Westburg can be a 23-25 home run hitter with a .265 average with plus counting stats.
Unfortunately, this was the second straight season that injuries cost Westburg more than 50 games, and his ceiling isn’t so high that you can easily brush that aside. It’s also worth noting that Westburg is one of the most aggressive hitters in the league early in the count, and that approach, while successful for him, does lead to those inconsistencies in production as he will often go through stretches where he swings at too many bad pitches and puts them in play. That aspect of his game, combined with the injury risk, makes Westburg a risk-reward play that isn’t compatible with some roster constructions, though if you can take that risk on, you could get excellent value on a guy who can cover two key positions.
Also, I put him over Bregman due to the additional eligibility at second base, but he won’t have that in leagues that require 20 appearances. In those formats, I’d swap him with Bregman.
61. Alex Bregman (3B, CHC) — Bregman was stuck on the IL for a large portion of the summer, but he did manage to hit 18 home runs in 114 games (roughly a 24 home run pace) while getting back to his double-digit walk rate ways. Bregman is an extreme pull hitter, particularly on fly balls, and while a similar profile was not a huge success in the past (Isaac Paredes), Bregman’s historical home run spray chart suggests that Wrigley won’t rob very many home runs from him. In fact, Wrigley should be better for home runs than Fenway was, though Fenway had the potential to boost his batting average in ways Wrigley simply cannot.
62. Jose Altuve (2B/OF, HOU) — Altuve apparently played through a painful injury on his right foot this season, though it didn’t stop him from a top-70 hitter finish with 26 home runs, 157 combined runs and RBI, and solid (if lower than we expected) ratios. Altuve will turn 36 next May and will be entering his 15th full season in the big leagues, so it’s more than fair to wonder how much tread is left on these tires. Since turning 30, Altuve has become a pull-heavy hitter who gets his home runs by targeting the shortest part of the field, so as long as he has his timing and swing, he should be able to hit 23-25 home runs with plenty of counting stats (especially if the Stros can get the offensive wheels turning more effectively than they did in 2025).
Also noteworthy is that this was his second-straight season with over 150 games played, which, for now, makes me think of him as less of an injury risk than we previously believed.
Nate’s Note: Seiya Suzuki is my favorite in this tier. The second-half struggles came with similar Process+ numbers, and he’s primed to be in a great spot in a great lineup. I’m buying an output from him somewhere in the middle of 2024 and 2025: upper-20s home run total, .260 average, and great counting stats. He’s a dependable outfield option with fewer question marks than the rest of the group here.
Tier 8
63. Roman Anthony (OF/DH, BOS) — Roman Anthony got off to a slow start, but when he found his groove, we saw why he was considered one of the top prospects in the game. The growth in power was especially noticeable, and our stats confirm it was no mere fluke. We’ve noticed some fluctuation in his ability to make contact, which is typical for a young player, but the tools are all there, and it’s time to start getting excited. In 2026, as a regular at or near the top of the order for Boston, we could be looking at a player who hits 22-25 home runs, swipes 10-12 bags, and scores 100 runs with elite ratios.
This ranking is a lot lower than the one I gave him in October, largely because most projection systems that I trust are a bit less rosy on the home run totals, so while the numbers I put in above are certainly possible, it is equally likely we see a guy who hits 18-19 home runs with more like 85-90 runs scored and ratios that are more good than they are great.
64. George Springer (OF, TOR) — Springer finished as a top-10 hitter in most formats in 2025, and while few expect him to find that kind of power again (he hadn’t hit more than 25 home runs since 2019 before his 32 last season), it’s not as though his results were based on luck. Springer had the best barrel rate, hard-hit rate, and average exit velocity of his career in his age-35 season, a rare feat in baseball history. I don’t think Springer will go entirely back to his 2021-2024 form, and he should continue to be an excellent source of runs scored at the top of the order, but some regression to his career norms has to be baked in, as does the fact that he’s played in more than 145 games just once since 2016.
The primary value statement here is simple, though: he’s the everyday leadoff man for an excellent offense who has power, a bit of speed, and a long track record of plus ratios.
65. Taylor Ward (OF/DH, BAL) — Taylor Ward stayed healthy for a full season for a second consecutive year, and while the .228 batting average and streakiness were a bit annoying, it was a small price to pay for 36 home runs, 86 runs scored, and 103 RBI. As an extreme fly-ball hitter, Ward’s batting average is never going to be high, but the power is more than real enough to get him back to 30+ home runs in 2026, and if he can make those slumps just a little less painful by managing the strikeout spikes, he could certainly repeat his 2025 totals for his new team.
66. Jarren Duran (OF, BOS) — Duran predictably fell short of his breakout 2024 season, but hitting 16 home runs with 24 steals is nothing to sneeze at, and there were plenty of counting stats to go around. Duran finished as a top-60 hitter in 2025, and that feels about right for what he brings to the table. There’s some upside for more runs scored and batting average, and even more importantly, the floor should be something like a top-75 hitter.
67. Will Smith (C, LAD) — Smith only appeared in 110 games in 2025, leading to suppressed counting stat totals, and he also struggled mightily in the second half before he hit the IL, hitting just .237 over 36 games. That being said, Smith showed the best ratios of his career last season, slashing an impressive .296/.404/.497, and should he remain healthy in 2026 while carrying over his improved hard-hit and barrel rates, Smith should finish as a top-seven catcher with way more than the 64 runs scored and 61 RBI he gathered this season. The only reason he ranks a bit lower than you may expect is that catcher is very deep.
68. Kyle Stowers (OF, MIA) — Stowers was one of the best hitters in baseball back in July, smacking 10 home runs in 24 games and slashing .364/.451/.818 with an impressive blend of discipline, contact, and power. There’s no question that Stowers has the thump to slug over .500 for a season, but issues with contact in the zone and strikeouts have popped up over his short career, and those issues often spell volatility for power hitters. If he maintains the double-digit walk rate we saw in 2025 and keeps that zone contact rate north of 80% more often than he doesn’t, this is a guy who can hit .260-.270 with 30-35 home runs. If he can’t do those things, he’s more like a 30-35 home run guy that hits .220-.230.
69. Jo Adell (OF, LAA) — We’ve held on to hope for a Jo Adell breakout because we knew 37 home runs and 98 RBI were a real possibility, and lo and behold, we finally got it. Yes, it came with a .236 average and some deep slumps, but the light finally shone through the clouds on Adell’s upside. He’ll likely always be a batting average drag due to his contact and discipline issues, and the counting stats might be tough to repeat in a streaky-at-best Angels offense, but you won’t find a lot of guys after the first two or three rounds who could hit 40 home runs, and if you’ve fallen behind in the category, this is the premier place to catch up.
Just for giggles, here’s the least surprising chart in this article.
70. Tyler Soderstrom (1B/OF, ATH) — Soderstrom is the type of hitter who produces in large spikes with long lulls in between (two separate 25+ game stretches with no home runs, for example), but because he burns so hot when he’s on, the final numbers work out in his favor. Soderstrom’s strikeout rate improvement was a significant positive and helped him post a .276 batting average, though the high ground-ball rates force me to hesitate on his power ceiling, as hitting 30 home runs with so few fly balls is difficult even when your home park is a bandbox. Soderstrom is a solid back-end first baseman in 12-teamers, but make sure you’re aware of his particularly volatile on-again, off-again nature and are ready to deal with that emotionally.
71. Andy Pages (OF, LAD) — It was an impressive breakout for Pages, who hit 27 dingers with 14 steals and a .272 batting average in his first full season in the majors. Pages is not the type of hitter who takes walks, and that .272 batting average is not likely to be repeated (.250-.260 is more realistic). Also, the 14 steals were a shock, as he had never stolen more than 10 in a single season in the minors (and that was in rookie ball back in 2018 as a 17-year-old), and he wasn’t particularly efficient in his attempts, getting caught seven times in 21 attempts. Even if we accept that the batting average will take a dip and the stolen bases will be cut in half, Page’s pop and the fact that he plays for a high-powered offense mean he should be a valuable source of home runs and RBI without hurting you in other places.
72. Michael Harris II (OF, ATL) — Harris was dropped in just about every standard 12-team league by the start of June, and even the most patient fans were ready to bail when he was hitting a .205/.229/.310 line after play ended on July 10. Starting on July 11, though, Harris was a new man, as he clubbed 14 home runs and slashed .302/.317/.531 from then on. If you’ll recall, this late-season resurgence was also his story in 2024, though that one came even later. Maybe Harris turned a more permanent corner this time and is something resembling the top-20 hitter we saw in the second half. I just can’t shake the fact that we’ve seen three-month slumps in back-to-back seasons where he’s nearly the worst-hitting regular in the league, though, as there is just no way you can hold that in a 12-teamer.
Still, Harris is one of the younger players in the league (still just the age of most rookies), so there’s always a chance he finds more stability in 2026.
73. Jakob Marsee (OF, MIA) — Marsee exploded on the scene when the Marlins promoted him late in the summer, and his 189 wRC+ in August was the second best in the majors among qualified hitters. Marsee excels at making contact, and unlike many contact-oriented hitters, he does a great job avoiding offerings out of the zone. I’m skeptical of the power, as he never slugged better than .428 in any full season in the minors, but the hit tool and speed are for real, and Marsee showed that he’s more than capable of handling same-sided pitching.
Marsee will hit at or near the top of the order in Miami this season. Fifteen home runs is probably the ceiling for his power (and under 10 is a very realistic possibility based on the issues he’s had with popping out). The counting stats might be less than desirable, but he could also steal 40 bases with a solid OBP. In those OBP formats or in cases where you need a significant boost in steals, you can move Marsee to the top of this tier or even the bottom of the next one.
Nate’s Note: Will Smith’s best per-plate-appearance season of his career and an iconic postseason moment don’t seem to be giving him the boost in drafts that we normally see. Smith’s 131 Process+ last year was the best among catchers, and, in a 12-team format, I’m less concerned about the playing time with what’s available. Additionally, I like Jakob Marsee in this group of outfielders. A swing change last year propelled him to a new max exit velocity (by almost 3 MPH!), and the true bat-to-ball ability looks more stable than projections are giving him credit for.
Tier 9
74. CJ Abrams (SS, WSN) — You’ll get about 20 home runs, 30 steals (they’ll come in bunches, then disappear), a mediocre average, a bad OBP, and 80-90 runs scored. I feel confident that the guy we’ve seen is the guy we will continue to get, and whether he flirts with the top 50 or just misses the top 75 will be mainly based on how lucky he gets spinning the BABIP wheel. I really don’t have much more to say here.
75. Nico Hoerner (2B/SS, CHC) — Hoerner’s ceiling and floor aren’t that far apart, which can be a bit boring. He’s going to hit fewer than 10 home runs, and he’s going to steal more than 25 bases while batting something close to .280. At this stage in the draft, you should have a good idea of whether Hoerner is a good fit for your roster: if you need a second baseman and/or steals and/or batting average, and have plenty of power already plugged in, then he makes a lot of sense. Alternatively, if you’re in a points league that penalizes strikeouts and gives more than one point for a stolen base, Hoerner is also a good fit. If these don’t apply, then he can be pushed down your board.
76. Drake Baldwin (C/DH, ATL) — Drake Baldwin had an incredibly successful rookie campaign, hitting 19 homers with just a 15.2% strikeout rate and a .274 batting average while driving in 80 runners. Baldwin should have an easier time getting to 500 plate appearances in 2026, assuming Ozuna is out of the picture, and if he can continue to fight off the ground-ball issues he had at times in 2026, he has a chance to be a top-six catcher.
I suspect many folks will be waiting on catcher and do a lot of “Player A vs. Player B” comps on Baldwin based on his second half, and I totally agree that he’s an exciting catcher for fantasy. That said, a great outcome would be repeating his excellent 2025. Wanting more than that is, in this guy’s opinion, a bit aggressive.
77. Randy Arozarena (OF/DH, SEA) — Arozarena set a new career-high in home runs in his age-30 season with 27 while also stealing 31 bases and scoring 95 runs, finishing inside the top-50 hitters in most formats. Arozarena’s career-long struggles with making contact in the zone (career rate of 77.9%) cause him to be particularly streaky, making it tough to trust Arozarena to consistently be more than the baseline we’ve seen over his career, which is a 20 home run, 20 stolen base guy with plenty of runs scored due to his place at the top of the order and a batting average that can fluctuate anywhere between .230 and .250. There’s upside for more, of course, but the floor can be pretty disappointing, especially in head-to-head leagues when you’re trying to endure his brutal slumps.
78. Brandon Nimmo (OF/DH, TEX) — The final season totals give the impression of a steady, consistent player, but on a week-to-week basis, Nimmo is quite the opposite, showing dizzying highs and terrifying lows throughout the season, with multiple weeks providing deeply negative values and about as many with hugely positive values. Still, he’ll play a full season and get to 23-25 home runs and double-digit steals with decent ratios at the end of it all and earn a value inside the top 75 with a ceiling of a top-40 to top-50 guy.
His move to Texas doesn’t really change a ton for Nimmo, other than maybe lowering his runs scored ceiling due to the weaker lineup.
79. Oneil Cruz (OF/DH, PIT) — At the end of play on August 1, Cruz had 18 home runs and 34 steals thanks to a much-improved walk rate and, of course, the fact that he’s one of the hardest hitters in baseball. The end of the season was unfortunately much more sour, as he hit just two more home runs and stole just four more bases over his final 37 games with a soul-crushing .140/.234/.228 line. While Cruz still hit the ball hard and his plate discipline was essentially the same as it was in the first several months, his ground-ball rate spiked to 56.2%. His weakness against lefties was also entirely on display as he hit just .102 against them on the season with a single home run in 125 plate appearances.
The poor finish pulled him out of the top-100 hitters on the season, but I’m still not ready to give up on a guy who can hit the ball 122.9 mph and has 93rd percentile sprint speed. If he can keep that walk rate in the double-digits and find a way to keep the ball off the ground, he can still tap into the 30 home run, 30 stolen base upside, and even if he can’t, he could still crack the top-50 hitters. The floor is depressingly low, though the ceiling is as tantalizing as just about anyone in the league.
If Cruz can make better decisions outside the zone, watch out. That was the fuel of his first half fire.
80. Jackson Holliday (2B/SS/DH, BAL) — Not every top prospect breaks out immediately, and Holliday represents one of those guys who has flopped a bit but who might still find success over a slower burn. While Holliday’s power faded hard at the end of the season, there was a light at the end of the tunnel in that his decision-making and contact numbers dramatically improved, and critically, an improvement across the board against breaking pitches (see below). If he can maintain even half of these improvements in 2026, we should be looking at an excellent leadoff hitter who can hit 20 home runs, swipe 20 bags, and score 85+ runs with good ratios; however, it’s a tall order that is as likely to produce varying results in 2026 as it is to work out.
Holliday is now in danger of missing Opening Day due to a hamate bone injury. I haven’t changed his ranking yet because missing a week or two wouldn’t affect my rankings. If you’re injury-averse, bump him down a tier, but I won’t go further than that unless he’s going to miss all of April.
81. Ceddanne Rafaela (2B/OF, BOS) — Rafaela was the second-best second baseman in the first half as he hit 14 home runs, swiped 13 bags, and hit a robust .271 with much-improved metrics under the hood. Unfortunately, following the All-Star Break, things fell apart for Rafaela. He hit just two more home runs the rest of the way with a .218 average. It was encouraging that we didn’t see a spike in strikeout rate, as his contact ability remained strong (as it needs to be due to his aggressive nature), but his power fell off a cliff, particularly against fastballs.
Rafaela is a classic low-floor/high-ceiling sort of play, and to me, it hinges on whether he can punish fastballs. If Rafaela can bring back even average power against heaters, he’ll outperform this ranking and have a shot to be in the top 75. If he doesn’t, his floor is unfortunately very low, and he may not even be roster-worthy in 12-teamers.
82. Ian Happ (OF/DH, CHC) — For a third consecutive season, Ian Happ hit at least 20 home runs while scoring at least 85 runs and driving in at least 79 runners with a batting average between .240 and .250 and an OBP between .340 and .360. His ceiling is something like a top-60 hitter, and his floor is something like a top-100 hitter. Happ is a very bankable contributor, and if you’re in an OBP or points league, feel free to bump him up to somewhere in Tier 8.
83. Steven Kwan (OF/DH, CLE) — Steven Kwan’s hit tool is the story here, as he’s one of the best in the league at making contact. He doesn’t walk a ton, so the OBP isn’t as valuable as his batting average, but even on a subpar offense like Cleveland, Kwan should score 80-90 runs with double-digit home runs and about 20 steals with a batting average that could be as high as .300. In points leagues, he can be bumped a tier, but in OBP, he should be dropped a tier.
84. Yandy Díaz (1B/DH, TBR) — Yandy Díaz took full advantage of his temporary home park, hitting 18 of his 25 home runs at home. A return to the Trop is likely to suppress a lot of those numbers (he’s never hit more than 12 home runs in that park in any single season), but Díaz should remain an incredibly consistent producer of ratios and counting stats as an everyday player for the Rays. He’ll hit around .290 to .300 with 150 or more combined runs and RBI, though those home run totals will be closer to 16-18 than 23-25. Díaz gets a boost in points leagues due to his low strikeout rate and the fact he hits high in the order on a daily basis, but his boost in OBP leagues isn’t what it was earlier in his career (though he walked nearly 20% of the time at the end of the season, so perhaps a return to double-digit walk rates is on the horizon).
85. Brandon Lowe (2B/DH, PIT) — Lowe’s injury issues and struggles against lefties persist, but despite that, he managed to hit 31 home runs with 161 combined runs and RBI with a .256 average. Landing in Pittsburgh wasn’t ideal for his home runs or counting stats, but it does make it much less likely he’ll be platooned. You’ll get one of the top power hitters and run producers at second base, who will likely also spend time on the IL and on the bench during the season due to the injury and platoon risk (he’s missed at least 50 games due to these troubles in three of the last four seasons).
86. Matt Chapman (3B, SFG) — Chapman hit the IL twice in 2025, spraining a bunch of fingers in June and then again in August for discomfort in the same hand. Perhaps that’s the reason the power output was lower than we hoped, as the chart below suggests his power was sapped and did not improve. If it were merely the hand injury, then this ranking likely has Chapman about a tier too low. Still, Chapman hasn’t driven in 80 runners in a season since 2019, and while his runs scored totals used to be a strength, it’s unlikely the Giants will have him hitting second as he did in prior seasons.
IMPORTANT NOTE: This is the last of the “safe-ish” third basemen. After this, you run into a lot more unknowns, and if possible, you should make sure you have at least one third baseman by this point.
Nate’s (slightly less important) Note: I don’t like a lot of the “upside” hitters in this tier, with guys like Oneil Cruz and Randy Arozarena having concerningly low floors relative to others. The consistency of Ian Happ or Steven Kwan feels like good value in that you know what you’re getting, and likely filling a categorical hole of some sort at this point. I also believe Matt Chapman can come into spring training fully healthy and return to a form that would be higher than in Tier 9.
Tier 10
87. Jonathan Aranda (1B/DH, TBR) — Aranda was everything we hoped for and more when he was healthy, posting a robust 93.0 mph average exit velocity and hitting well against both righties and lefties (which is especially critical in Tampa, where they love to platoon their hitters). Injuries have been an issue in back-to-back seasons, though, and strikeouts became an issue as pitchers got more looks at Aranda (31.8% over his last 288 games). Our PLV metrics also found him to be a merely average decision-maker and subpar at making contact. Those risks force me to rank Aranda just a little lower than I’d like based on the quality of his contact skills, but if he can make some minor adjustments, we could see him rise through the ranks quickly. As a final note, moving back to the Trop shouldn’t change his power output, as he hit most of his home runs on the road.
88. Dansby Swanson (SS, CHC) — If you didn’t get a shortstop earlier in the draft, Dansby Swanson is here to be your perfectly cromulent placeholder. He’s durable and hasn’t finished outside the top 20 at the position since 2019, usually finishing somewhere between 12th and 15th. You can pretty much bank 20 home runs, 80 runs, 75 RBI, and 15 steals with a .240-ish batting average with a ceiling that is only slightly better across the board and a floor that’s only marginally worse. He’s a great addition to teams that have taken on a ton of risk and need at least one position they can set-and-forget for a while.
89. Luke Keaschall (2B/DH, MIN) — Keaschall exploded onto the scene, swiping five bases in seven games with three doubles and an almost instant promotion to batting third before hitting the IL for the next three months. On his return, he again exploded, notching 10 hits in five games with two home runs and 10 RBI. While the speed and batting average stayed strong over the rest of the season, the power evaporated as he put up just an 85.1 mph average exit velocity and 3.4% barrel rate over his final 37 games. Power has never really been a big part of Keaschall’s game as he’s more of a hit tool and speed guy, and I think he can make some positive steps forward in 2026.
Keaschall should steal at least 20-25 bags next season and have excellent plate discipline and ratios, but whether he can hit more than 10 home runs remains up in the air. The risk associated with a player who has just 49 games in the majors (and who struggled more and more as he got more reps) has me hesitant to push Keaschall higher in these ranks.
90. Teoscar Hernández (OF, LAD) — Heading into Hernández’s age-33 season, we have a pretty good idea of what he is and what to expect. He’ll have at least one month where he carries your roster, like his March and April, where he was tied for the league lead in RBI with 32 to go with his nine homers, and at least one month where he’s one of the worst guys on it, like his June when he slashed .189/.243/.347.
Still, despite his inconsistency (which stems from his struggles with making contact), Hernández piles up RBI because he gets to bat in the middle of the order for the Dodgers, and the last time the Dodgers were not a top-five offense in RBI was 2018 (they were sixth). You’ll be desperate to cut him at times in 2026, but if you hold firm, you’ll get 25 home runs and 90-100 RBI, though he won’t score that many runs, and the ratios will be a bit painful (especially in OBP). Still, when it comes to high-end RBI production at this point in the draft, you won’t find a better bet.
91. Trent Grisham (OF/DH, NYY) — Grisham is coming off a late-career breakout season, hitting 34 home runs in 143 games while scoring 87 runs with a career-best 14.1% walk rate and 23.6% strikeout rate. Under the hood, everything looks kosher as the home runs came from pulling more fly balls and hitting the ball harder while making excellent swing decisions. It’s a perfect time to hit free agency, though it does add a level of uncertainty to his fantasy profile.
Grisham returning to the Yankees was an excellent outcome for his fantasy outlook, as he should start the season as the everyday leadoff man with very little competition for that job. He’s still not good against lefties, mind you, but he takes a ton of walks against pitchers from both sides, and as long as he gets on base, there’s a pretty darn good chance he’ll end up scoring.
92. Luis Robert Jr. (OF/DH, NYM) — Will he hit for a low average? Yes. Will he have weeks where you wonder how he’s an everyday player? Yes. Will he miss time with an injury? Yes. But hear me out…he’s also super talented. Those 14 home runs and 33 steals in 110 games (in a full season, that’s nearly 20 home runs and 50 steals) were no fluke, and it’s worth noting that for the final month of the season, he had been posting sub-20% strikeout rates for a month. If you can survive the roller coaster and squeeze 140 games out of him, you’ll have a shot at a top-60 hitter despite his flaws. Of course, the floor is pretty awful between the injuries and poor performance, and if you don’t need stolen bases, it’s not an attractive package.
Joining the Mets will rob Robert of a premium spot in a lineup, but he should still get a chance to steal bases despite batting eighth, and a new home may be exactly what the doctor ordered to help Robert find a bit of consistency with a lot of players to look up to and/or emulate.
93. Bryan Reynolds (OF/DH, PIT) — Reynolds was pretty awful in the first half, but performed more like the guy we thought he was in the second half, hitting for a solid average with a decent number of home runs. He doesn’t run, and the Pirates don’t have a strong enough offense to provide good runs scored or RBI totals consistently, but if Reynolds can be the guy we saw in the second half more often than he isn’t, this is a top-80 hitter. Unfortunately, the floor is quite awful even if he stays healthy, as we just saw him finish as the 139th-best hitter in fantasy. A trade likely boosts his fantasy value, but we’ve expected that to come for years, and it’s never been more than an “ought to” rumor, and with the Pirates pretending to build a competent roster, it’s even less likely for the time being.
94. Michael Busch (1B/DH, CHC) — Michael Busch got a full season of action, including starts against lefties, and the results were overwhelmingly positive as he slashed .261/.343/.523 with 34 home runs and 90 RBI. He also hit at least five home runs in five of six months and consistently drove in runners. Busch also ended the season on quite a heater, hitting eight home runs over his last 15 games, and then carried that heat right into the playoffs to hit four more in his eight playoff starts.
Busch fell over 40 spots since my October ranks, largely because of a projected drop in ratios and home runs from the vast majority of projection systems I trust.
95. Alec Burleson (1B/OF/DH, STL) — Burleson is best deployed in points leagues due to his low strikeout rate and his role in the middle of the order, and his ability to make contact keeps his floor very high when healthy. He should hit at least .280 in 2026, and there’s a chance he boosts his power a bit to something like 23-25 home runs. The lack of depth in the Cardinals’ lineup makes him a liability in runs scored, though, and his RBI totals will be more decent than good, but this is a good hitter who will help your bottom line.
96. Christian Walker (1B, HOU) — Walker got off to an incredibly slow start as an Astro, winding up on many waiver wires by the All-Star Break as he hit just .229/.286/.374. He looked much more like himself in the second half, though, especially in the power department, as his .488 slugging was 114 points higher than it was in the first half. While that strong finish helped Walker squeeze into the top-100 hitters on the FanGraphs Player Rater for 2025, I can’t shake the concerns that volatility and extended slumps may be more common for Walker than in the past as he enters his age-35 season, especially with the below-average walk rate he showed throughout the season. Walker could be a 30-home run hitter with 85+ RBI in 2026, though, between the falling walk rate and rising strikeout rate, the floor for Walker is a guy who finishes outside the top-200.
97. Colson Montgomery (SS, CHW) — Montgomery was one of the best power hitters in the second half, whacking 21 home runs in 71 games by yanking a bunch of fly balls down the right field line. Pulling the ball is definitely part of Montgomery’s profile. Still, I’m struggling to understand how Montgomery took such a massive leap forward when making it to the big leagues on a team that, let’s be honest, has shown no real ability to develop players at the major-league level. The most home runs Montgomery had ever hit in a full season were 18, and it took 130 games for him to do it. Then, in 2025, he hits 32 total dingers by completely selling out for power (lowered his walk rate, raised his strikeout rate, and popped out a ton in Triple-A).
Is there a chance this is all real, and that he could hit 30 home runs with crummy ratios? Yes. Is there a chance that teams use the offseason to figure out how to stop Montgomery, and we have to drop him by May? Also yes. If you’re chasing power upside, you should star Montgomery on your board. If you need stability and scooped plenty of power early, you can let someone else take the risk.
Still, I did move Montgomery up 30 spots or so since October, largely because projections confirmed that they also believe in the power. If there’s any kind of gain in decision-making or contact ability, we could see even more excitement behind this guy.
98. Jurickson Profar (OF/DH, ATL) — Profar missed half the season with a suspension, and in the half-season we saw, we got a very inconsistent performance. In July and September, Profar wasn’t really worth mentioning in 12-team leagues as he hit below .240 and slugged below .400 in both months with just a handful of home runs and steals and sub-par counting stats. In August, though, Profar was a star, hitting nine home runs, swiping six bags, and putting up a 1.026 OPS.
That one month basically made his entire stat line look like the late-season breakout from 2024, but I can’t shake that it was just one month, and I’m not convinced he can go back to the well and bring out that version of himself all that often. Points leaguers will likely get more mileage out of Profar due to his low strikeout and high walk rates, but those in standard leagues should see him as a high-risk, high-reward play in the outfield as opposed to a steady contributor.
99. Ramón Laureano (OF/DH, SDP) — Laureano was remarkable in 2025, setting new career highs in exit velocity, barrel rate, and hard-hit rate by considerable margins, especially considering it was his age-30 season and already had more than 600 games in the majors when the season began. I’m often skeptical of late-career out-of-nowhere breakouts, though the strong expected stats and consistency he showed in 2025 make this one slightly more believable.
Injuries have always been an issue for Laureano, as he hadn’t played in more than 105 games since 2019 and averaged just 96.5 games played per season from 2021-2024. Asking Laureano to repeat a career year in both performance and health is a tall order, though if he does, this ranking would be 30 spots too low.
100. Lawrence Butler (OF, ATH) — Butler was a second-half breakout in 2024 and can’t be considered a total bust in 2025 as he did finish with 21 homers and 22 steals along with 83 runs scored. Still, Butler was basically unusable for fantasy against lefties (.570 OPS) and on the road (.633 OPS), and those limitations cap Butler’s ceiling in a big way. The road woes were likely just a bit of a random sample, but the plate discipline against lefties was atrocious with nearly ten strikeouts per walk (4.9% BB%, 39.8% K%). Butler should have better ratios and production in 2026 as he gets more experience, but unless he figures out how to tame left-handed pitching, he might wind up in a platoon.
101. Daulton Varsho (OF, TOR) — When healthy, Varsho was hitting better than we’d ever seen him hit, smacking 20 dingers in just 71 games, albeit with his typical poor batting average and even worse OBP. Varsho has always been a streaky hitter, though this spike was even hotter than any of his prior ones, and they did well to prevent the steep slumps that have often come with those spikes. Steals aren’t a big part of Varsho’s game anymore, but if he can keep flashing power and continue to hit fifth for the Blue Jays heading into 2026, we could be looking at a solid fantasy outfielder.
Again, this performance was well outside of the norm for Varsho, and it’s not as though we can reasonably expect a guy who hits this many fly balls to keep a 21.3% home-run-to-fly-ball rate, but even keeping just some of these improvements would be a big win. Otherwise, he goes back to being a low-end streamer.
Nate’s Note: I’m still not really sold on Colson Montgomery. The power is exceptional, but below-average contact and decision value could quickly make him prone to a sophomore slump. A questionable average and fringe counting stats put him in a tough spot at a really strong shortstop. On the other hand, I still like Teoscar Hernández. His only downside to his 106 Process+ is below-average contact, but the zone contact was actually up from 2024, and the power peripherals still look good. His BABIP also dropped from .344 to .283, which also seems like an overcorrection to his .326 career figure.
Tier 11
102. Munetaka Murakami (3B, CWS) — Murakami is a high-risk, high-reward import from Japan who brings a ton of power and a ton of swing and miss to a team that, frankly, has done a poor job developing this type of player. Still, he’s definitely their first baseman for 2026 and should be eligible at third base in most leagues, as it was his primary position in Japan. I’m expecting a strikeout rate well over 30%, though he should also take some walks and hit 30 home runs in a full season. He could be ranked even higher in OBP formats, but in standard leagues, we’ll be lucky if he hits his weight (currently listed as 213).
In deeper formats, I would move Murakami close to where Kazuma Okamoto ended up, as he is the risky option with Okamoto being the safer option with lower upside, but in shallow formats, gimme the upside over the floor at this stage of the draft.
103. Luis Arraez (1B/2B/DH, SFG) — You should know all about what Luis Arraez is and what he can do by this point: he has a highly compact swing that he uses to pepper line drives all over the field. He’s had the lowest strikeout rate among qualified hitters for four straight seasons, and his worst single-season batting average is .292 (which is what he hit in 2025).
Landing in San Francisco is rather ideal because they have a place for him to play in the infield, and they also need a full-time leadoff man. He wasn’t going to hit home runs anyway, so the park factors don’t matter.
104. Jacob Wilson (SS, ATH) — Wilson was on a collision course with the ROY award before a slump and an injury took him out of consideration. Wilson is a slap hitter through and through, as you can tell from his sub-30% hard-hit rate in the majors and minors, so expecting 20 home runs from him is likely to bring disappointment. If you’re asking for a .290-.300 batting average with solid counting stats, though, it should be there.
Wilson dropped over 40 spots from October as I got more and more worried that his hot start was a fluke and that he was really more of a Luis Arraez-type on a bad team. Still, there’s a chance there’s more upside than that, so he ranks slightly higher than Arraez.
105. Ezequiel Tovar (SS, COL) — On the bright side, Tovar cleaned up the strikeout rate a bit and improved in most batted ball quality metrics when healthy in 2025. Unfortunately, Tovar wasn’t healthy all that often, appearing in just 95 games, and his actual production lagged behind the improved expected stats. Tovar’s ceiling is a top-80 hitter in standard leagues, who despite a sub-.300 OBP and playing for the worst team in the league can pile up 23-25 home runs with decent counting stats and a .260-.270 batting average (or in other words, what he did in 2024 but with a better strikeout rate to balance out the good luck he had that season), but the floor is much lower due to the at times ugly plate discipline and horrendous team around him.
106. Agustín Ramírez (C/DH, MIA) — The ratios were uglier than Baldwin’s, but Ramírez had quite the rookie year himself, hitting 21 home runs and swiping 16 bases, albeit with a .231 batting average and .287 OBP. Despite missing the first few weeks of the season, Ramírez finished with 136 games (585 plate appearances) under his belt and is poised to get to 150 games in 2026, assuming he stays healthy. Ramírez’s spotty decision-making will likely keep his batting average somewhat low. Still, if he adds just a touch of patience (he posted double-digit walk rates in the majors), he could find a bit more consistency and provide solid value as an everyday player eligible at catcher.
107. Heliot Ramos (OF/DH, SFG) — Ramos ended the season as the leadoff man for the Giants despite a very pedestrian second half, and if I felt like he would keep that role, he would likely be ranked higher. Most of Ramos’s good times came in May and June, and for the rest of the season, he was mostly average or worse. If he were to find more consistency, this would be a top-75 bat with 25 home runs, 160 combined runs and RBI, and ratios that don’t hurt you, but I get the feeling he’ll be more of a top-50 player for two or three months and outside the top 150 the rest of the time. In roto, that works out just fine, but in head-to-head, it causes a bit of heartburn.
108. Spencer Torkelson (1B/DH, DET) — Tork was much better in the first half than the second half, but he remained a functional back-end first baseman and corner infielder for the whole season, and he should return to a full-time role and hit another 30 home runs for the Tigers in 2026. I’m a bit concerned about the strikeout rate spikes and overall volatility, and I’m not convinced he’ll ever truly buck those trends, but the elevated walk rate helps a little. If you need plus power and not-bad counting stats and don’t care about a low batting average, Torkelson is your guy.
109. Jorge Polanco (2B/3B/DH, NYM) — The injury risk is the primary concern, as he spent time on the IL in 2025 and hasn’t played at least 140 games in a season since 2021, and he’s only played close to a full season three times in his career (with one of those being the shortened 2020 season). From 2022 to 2024, he missed over 40 games each year, though when he was healthy, he did hit for power. A healthy Polanco can be a top-75ish player with power who can cover at least one tricky position (he had five starts at third base, which qualifies him for the position in Yahoo leagues and almost nowhere else), but there remains significant risk that he misses a large chunk of the season at a spot where the replacement level is far from ideal.
Also, for what it’s worth, he’ll gain first base eligibility in April, but that’s not really where you’re likely to use him.
110. Willson Contreras (1B/DH, BOS) — Historically, when Willson Contreras plays more than 100 games, he finishes as a top-seven catcher, and 2025 was no exception. Contreras set a career-high mark in plate appearances, runs, and RBI, though the real story here is that he’s no longer a catcher. As purely a first baseman, Contreras fills a role when healthy by hitting near the heart of a lineup and probably driving in 70-80 runners if he gets into 130 games with decent ratios (for a guy in this portion of the player pool). Contreras is a floor guy for deeper leagues and might even spend some time on your roster if you get hit with injuries or are chasing ribbies.
Contreras gets a massive boost from the October ranks because he’s on a better team, plain and simple. And because I was just way too low on him.
111. Ozzie Albies (2B, ATL) — Albies was an enormous dud, based on his draft position, in the first half, finishing as the 34th-best second baseman, and it made even more devastating by the fact he had the second-most volume at the position, being out-earned by players with at least 100 fewer plate appearances, and in some cases 150+ fewer. Like his teammate Harris, though, Albies found a groove at the All-Star Break and then some, going on to be the third-best second baseman in the second half and looking almost like the unstoppable force we saw back in 2021 and 2023 (though not quite).
That said, our PLV metrics still think he has below-average pop even at his best, and his decision-making skills are bad far more often than they are good. It’s hard to get too excited about a guy whose profile suggests he’ll finish with fewer than 18 home runs and 15 steals with a middling batting average and counting stats with a floor a tier lower than that. Still, Albies was once much more than that and looked, if only for a moment, like he might be more than that again.
Nate’s Note: This is a great spot to chase an infielder with upside, likely fitting into a corner or middle infield slot. Munetaka Murakami will be a boom-or-bust player who is worth the risk this late. Spencer Torkelson and Jorge Polanco also represent late power options that are riskier profiles. While not as risky, Willson Contreras also fits into this group of players for a corner-infield spot. He’s been a consistent contributor with 25 home run potential and is expected to be in the heart of the Red Sox lineup, which is great value this late among hitters.
Tier 12
112. Alejandro Kirk (C/DH, TOR) — Kirk set a new career high in home runs with 15, edging out his original breakout in 2022 when he hit 14, and this version is a bit more believable than the first. In his 2022 campaign, Kirk exploded with power for about a month and a half, then reverted to being a line-drive machine who hit for average and no power. In 2025, showed above-average power at several points in the season. For a catcher, 15 home runs isn’t too bad a ceiling, and the floor, thanks to the contact ability and decision-making, is high. Throw in plenty of RBI (again, for a catcher), and you’ve got a solid back-end piece.
113. Giancarlo Stanton (OF/DH, NYY) — Stanton missed half the season due to injury, which was even more than usual, but sure enough, he hit his way to 24 home runs and 66 RBI with a .273 batting average. Stanton is going to miss time, that much is certain, but when healthy, he’s an elite power contributor and was even a top-20 hitter overall in the second half. Given more plate appearances, the bad side of Giancarlo would likely have reared its ugly head (tons of strikeouts, too many pop-ups) to level out his numbers a bit, but if you’ve got space to take on some risk in 12-teamers, this is not a bad lotto ticket to pick up. In deeper leagues, though, the certainty of missed time due to injury has a much greater impact, and you might drop him a tier or so.
114. Xavier Edwards (2B/SS, MIA) — Edwards only stole bases at about half the rate he did in his electric 2024, but he did all the other things we expected, hitting very few home runs, showing solid plate discipline, and providing a strong batting average. I expect those things again in 2026, as he should steal 30-35 bases and hit fewer than five home runs while hitting .280-.290. Not everyone will require his services, but he’s a locked-in, everyday player with speed and solid ratios that can fill both middle-infield roles.
115. Kerry Carpenter (OF/DH, DET) — Carpenter has missed time throughout his career due to injury and being platooned against lefties, and both of those things are likely to happen again in 2026. Still, when healthy and in the lineup, Carpenter has 30-35 home run pop and will be in a prime lineup position to take advantage of it. He’s a frustrating player at times, but if you need power and can afford to use a bench spot on a hitter, Carpenter, plus a replacement-level outfielder, can be a strong combination. In those scenarios, I’d bump Kerry Bonds up a tier, but recognize that in many 12-teamers, your bench is mostly reserved for streaming pitchers.
116. Yainer Diaz (C/1B/DH, HOU) — Like most of the Astros offense, Diaz got off to a miserably slow start, but did manage to hit 20 home runs in 2025. The batting average took a 43-point step backward, though under the hood, it looks like he was more a victim of bad luck than skill regression. Between the volume and counting stats, Diaz should finish as a top-10 catcher as long as he doesn’t bottom out for a month as he did in 2025.
117. Gleyber Torres (2B/DH, DET) — Torres faded in the second half due to a sports hernia, but put together solid counting stats with excellent plate discipline thanks to his role hitting second for the Tigers. The Torres we saw in 2024 and 2025, who can hit 15-16 home runs and bat .255-.260, is likely the one we see again in 2026.
A return to the Tigers was a good fit for both teams, and it also benefits Torres’s fantasy value, as he should return to a spot at or near the top of the lineup and put in yeoman’s work with counting stats and a little bit of everything. He’s not an exciting player, but he is a valuable one.
118. Adley Rutschman (C/DH, BAL) — In what has been roughly a full season for Rutschman since July 1, 2024, he’s hit .209/.294/.332 with just 13 home runs and 114 combined runs and RBI. In contrast, in the 346 games before July 1, 2024, Rutschman was an elite hitter at his position, with a 130 wRC+ and an average of 22 home runs, 91 runs scored, and 82 RBI over 160 games. I couldn’t tell you why or how he fell off so steeply, but it’s the reality we’ve faced for over a year now. I rank Rutschman because I do think he could bounce back and be a top-five catcher again, though the path to that outcome isn’t very clear to me.
119. Marcus Semien (2B, NYM) — For the first time since 2017, Semien missed more than seven games in a season. Semien has immense mileage on his tires, and now has back-to-back seasons with a batting average below .240 and a slugging percentage below .400. While Semien did show sparks of life at times in the summer, he only managed a single month with a wRC+ above 100. I’m not too excited about jumping back in on a player who, since the middle of 2024, has a single good month of baseball to his name. Still, I won’t deny that the career track record is fantastic, and that he was legitimately excellent in June of 2025.
Joining the Mets is an interesting move for Semien, though it’s not the only reason he jumped over 50 spots since my October ranks. Part of the jump is just a little more time to see how projections handle Semien’s down year, but the other is indeed his new home. Semien will likely hit near the middle of this lineup, and while that means a potentially lower ceiling on runs scored, it should provide better overall totals than he saw in Texas as he’ll hit behind Lindor, Soto, Bichette, and Polanco. The floor is still fairly low, as we saw throughout 2025, but it should be a touch higher on a more potent offense, and if Semien does, in fact, regain his prior form, he’ll be a very solid second baseman.
120. Chandler Simpson (OF, TBR) — Simpson came to the bigs with a lot of fanfare about stealing 104 bases in 110 games across Low-A and Double-A last season, and his 44 steals in 104 games put him on a pace to fall just short of 70 steals in a full season. Simpson is all speed and batting average, to put it mildly, as he did not have a single barrel across his 376 batted-ball events and ranked dead last in the majors in average exit velocity.
There’s some risk with a platoon, because despite Simpson hitting .299 against lefties, all 32 of his hits were singles, and despite his speed, he’s been quite bad in the field; but even with 120-130 starts, he should get to 70 steals (with the upside for 80+) and continue to hit .290 with some runs scored. Just keep in mind that he will likely sit once or twice a week and that he’ll be a big negative in RBI and power. I’d drop him a tier in points and OBP leagues, too.
121. Sal Stewart (1B/3B, CIN) — Stewart doesn’t have nearly the same prospect pedigree as the others in this tier, but he does have an exceptional minor league track record, including a 152 wRC+ across Double-A and Triple-A in 2025 and five home runs in his first 18 major league games with a bunch of balls that he hit really hard.
Projections love what Sal Stewart brings to the table, with most major systems projecting him for 20+ home runs if he wins a full-time role. Even if he doesn’t, he could still threaten that mark with solid ratios. As of now, the Reds don’t have any real threat to Stewart’s chances at being a regular in the lineup, but they are known to do weird things in Cincy, and resigning a guy like Hays could cause Sal to drop hard in the ranks.
122. Dylan Crews (OF, WSN) — In his first 116 major league appearances, Dylan Crews has shown some power (13 home runs), speed (29 steals), and major struggles with getting the ball in the air (52.7% ground-ball rate). Injuries cut his 2025 much shorter than we hoped, and likely played a role in his volatility last season, but assuming he can stay healthy, Crews could hit 15 home runs with 35 steals (but poor ratios and counting stats). That’s an exciting ceiling, but keep in mind that the Nationals may not be entirely willing to give Crews everyday work for long if he continues to slash .211/.282/.352, even if his glove is strong. This is a clear ceiling over floor play, and you should only be scooping Crews if you already feel good about your outfield.
123. Xander Bogaerts (SS/DH, SDP) — Xander Bogaerts has appeared in 1,666 games in his career, and all of that mileage means his best days are behind him. At this stage of his career, Bogaerts can reliably keep a strikeout rate below 20%, steal 15 bases, and hit double-digit home runs with a .260 average. I don’t think the ceiling is much higher than that, and the floor is much lower, but in deep leagues, there’s comfort in bankable stats, and that’s something Xander does provide.
124. Wilyer Abreu (OF/DH, BOS) — Injuries and platoons cut Abreu’s season short, which is a bummer because when we saw flashes of a solid player, especially in his first 42 games, where he hit .281/.375/.555 with 11 home runs and four steals. Injuries and strikeout issues plagued him over the rest of the season, though, and over his final 73 games, he hit just .225 with a .278 OBP, though he did manage to hit another 11 home runs. Abreu is likely to find himself on the large side of another platoon this season, though the upside if he can find a full-time role is that of a streaky top-75 hitter who provides plus power and counting stats and inconsistent ratios.
125. Brenton Doyle (OF/DH, COL) — Doyle didn’t give us the season we hoped for after his strong 2024, but he picked it up in the second half, slashing .282/.307/.462 with power and speed. The slumps are horrible, and he’s impossible to trust away from Coors, but Doyle should be a bit stronger in 2026 and could provide 20 home runs and 25 steals. The ratios will be poison, and he’s not an automatic start even when he’s hot if he’s away from home, but there is production and upside to be had from Doyle.
Nate’s Note: I am all in on Sal Stewart. The hit tool is really strong, and his immediate ability to tap into power at the big league level excited me. The strikeout rate took a hit against MLB pitching (15.6% MiLB ->25.9% MLB), but that’s not a debilitating number if he’s able to reach his power. The Gavin Lux trade should open up full-time playing time for Stewart, and that’s where the excitement lies. His PLV projection for 600 plate appearances: .272 average and 31 home runs, ranking as the 21st overall hitter. Count me in.
Tier 13
126. Alec Bohm (1B/3B, PHI) — After back-to-back seasons of 97 RBI, Bohm disappointed by delivering just 59 in 2026 due to a combination of injury and poor performance throughout the season. He had been carved into the cleanup role for the last few seasons, but due to a slow start and never really finding his groove until late in the year, Bohm spent quite a bit of time hitting in the bottom half of the order, and it showed us that his value is tied to his lineup position. Bohm doesn’t have the power or speed to make an impact unless there is a steady stream of runners on base for him to drive home with singles and doubles (and the occasional home run). If he returns to the four-spot (as he did by the end of the year), he can outperform this rank, but the risk if Bohm doesn’t hold that spot is a hitter who can’t quite crack the top 100 even on his good days.
127. Ryan O’Hearn (1B/OF, PIT) — Surprisingly, O’Hearn is a Pirate! That means he’s likely to be a mostly everyday player simply due to the lack of options and competition in Pittsburgh. PNC Park is quite spacious, but O’Hearn should still be a decent bet for 15-17 home runs and solid ratios, plus as many counting stats as the Pirates can muster (which isn’t a lot unless a few guys find a new level). The ceiling isn’t terribly high, but the floor is as good as it gets in the later rounds.
128. Gabriel Moreno (C/DH, ARI) — Moreno missed about two months over the summer due to injury, and injuries have been a common occurrence for the young catcher. When healthy, Moreno excels at hitting for average and providing excellent ratios for his position, and in 2025, we saw Moreno get more balls in the air, leading to a career high of nine home runs in 83 games. If he can keep up the fly balls and stay healthy, Moreno will be a steal at a pick anywhere close to these rankings, but to date, we’ve never really seen him sustain either of those things. Even if he doesn’t, though, the ratios and counting stats should make him a useful backend backstop.
129. Mike Trout (OF/DH, LAA) — Mike Trout played in 130 games for the first time since 2019, and unfortunately, the results weren’t quite what we hoped for as he finished outside the top-120 hitters in standard leagues due to a career-high 32% strikeout rate and a career-low .439 slug. Trout’s strikeout rate really spun out of control at the end of the season, and while an elevated strikeout rate and lower batting average aren’t a huge surprise, I expect Trout to clean this up a bit heading into 2026. Obviously, this is still Mike Trout, a guy with 87.2 fWAR over his career and who still can put up excellent barrel and hard-hit rates, so there’s still a ceiling that a 120+ game season provides a top-80 hitter, and if you’re going to take a shot, why not in the outfield and why not with one of the best hitters of this generation?
130. Otto Lopez (2B/SS, MIA) — Lopez is a jack-of-all-trades as a fantasy contributor, evidenced by his 2025, where he provided mostly neutral values in all five categories. While he doesn’t give you a big boost anywhere, he also doesn’t really hurt you anywhere, and that’s more valuable than you might think. Lopez’s batted ball quality and distribution suggest he should hit better than .246 in 2026 (more like .260-.270), and I expect the rest of his stats to be more or less repeated next season as the Marlins’ starting shortstop (though in fantasy, he’ll more likely be your second baseman).
131. Bryson Stott (2B/SS, PHI) — Stott struggles to break his slumps, and in 2025, that led to a miserable 63-game stretch where he slashed .196/.266/.274 and was not rosterable in mixed leagues. Annoyingly, Stott was quite excellent in the month leading up to that slump and in the two months that followed, and it’s not the first time Stott has performed in this manner. The final results of the 2026 season will likely have him somewhere in the top-80 to top-120 hitters, depending on how long the inevitable slump lasts, and if you need a second baseman and/or speed, Stott is a fine gamble to take in the late rounds.
132. Luis García Jr. (2B/DH, WSN) — The Nats seem to prefer to platoon García, which makes sense given his career 59 wRC+ against same-sided pitching. We know what García brings to the table at this point: 16-18 homers, double-digit steals, and a decent batting average with a low strikeout rate. Points leaguers probably appreciate what García can do more than anyone else, and OBP leaguers likely appreciate him the least, as he has a career .299 OBP. He’s a replacement-level second baseman, though one with a fairly solid floor.
133. Caleb Durbin (2B/3B, MIL) — Durbin is a line-drive focused hitter who puts a ton of balls in play while hitting in the bottom third of the Brewers’ lineup. Durbin should return to a similar role in 2026, and what we saw in those 136 games is more or less what I’d expect from a player with his tools. There will be times that the BABIP wheel spins in his favor more than usual and gets folks talking about him, but ultimately, this is a guy who will just barely clear 10 home runs per year, steal 16-20 bases, and have poor counting stats and a slightly positive batting average (but a poor OBP). You can bump him up in points leagues, though, as he rarely strikes out.
134. Kazuma Okamoto (3B, TOR) — Okamoto looks like the third baseman for the Blue Jays in 2026, and while he doesn’t bring the explosive power of Murakami, he does bring a very safe floor as a guy who can hit 20 home runs, hopefully hit .260, and play most of the time. He may well end up being a better player in fantasy than Murakami due to Murakami’s potential to crash and burn due to the strikeout issues, but he’s also unlikely to be more than a decent backend option at third.
I wouldn’t love leaving my draft with Okamoto as my starting third baseman due to the risk that he struggles to adapt quickly (as has been the case with many players from Japan for a variety of reasons), but as a bench guy, he makes a ton of sense.
135. Royce Lewis (3B/DH, MIN) — You know the drill: Lewis is a player with explosive upside and who has never stayed healthy. He missed the first month of 2025 due to injury and struggled for the entire first half before finding a groove mid-way through August, hitting eight home runs and stealing 11 bases in his final 38 games – a 33 home run, 46 steal pace if he somehow played a full season. Odds are this won’t be the case, but third base is a challenging position to fill, and if you want to play the upside game, there are few players this far down the list who have flashed the skills we’ve seen from a healthy Royce Lewis.
136. Daylen Lile (OF/DH, WSN) — What a debut for Daylen Lile, who crushed his way through the high minors and earned a spot in the Nationals’ plans by hitting .299/.346/.498 in his rookie season and being a top-40 hitter in the second half. Lile brings a line-drive heavy approach with fantastic contact ability, and while that approach and swing plane limit his home run upside, it provides a path to repeating that .299 batting average, and he should have enough pop and speed to get to double digits in both categories. Lile wasn’t a very efficient base stealer, converting just 8 of 14 attempts, but that could improve a bit with experience. Counting stats will be a question mark, as this offense is not exactly high-octane, but Lile could quickly become one of the premier batting average contributors by the end of 2026. Those in OBP leagues, though, should probably drop him due to his below-average walk rate.
137. Noelvi Marte (3B/OF/DH, CIN) — When Marte is good, he’s excellent. He was raking before being slapped with an 80-game PED suspension (three home runs and four steals in 14 games with 16 RBI) and also showed his upside when he returned, slashing .288/.328/.508 for 48 games in July and August. When Marte is bad, though, he’s horrendous. For the final 23 games of the season, Marte had a .502 OPS with 32 strikeouts to just three walks and five total extra-base hits. We’ve seen this narrative throughout his career, from his exciting 2023 debut to his incredibly disappointing 2024 and what I just described in 2025.
If we were talking about upside alone, this is a guy who could hit 25 home runs, steal 15 bases (it would have been higher, but Francona is much less aggressive than the prior manager), and hit .270 (albeit with a crummy OBP because he doesn’t walk). Unfortunately, the floor is especially low based on what we’ve seen, and he’s not yet shown he can break out of those slumps in-season.
Nate’s Note: I think Alec Bohm’s value is flying quite under the radar as a batting average producer with good counting stats in Philly. It’s a relatively unexciting pick, but he could be a great third baseman to pair with a riskier play at a thin position. I don’t have any issues with the rest of the tier, though, as I like the upside plays in Trout, Lewis, and Lile, along with the group of replacement-level second basemen.
Tier 14
138. Austin Hays (OF/DH, CWS) — Hays landed on one of the teams that won’t actively try to platoon him, as they don’t actually have a left-handed outfielder to platoon him with unless Tristan Peters or Jared Kelenic somehow find a way onto the roster (which does not seem likely at all). Hays has struggled badly against right-handed pitching for the last two seasons, though it wasn’t a problem for him prior to 2024. Hays is an aggressive swinger who can be streaky due to his tendency to put bad pitches in play, and he ends up on the IL a fair amount, but despite that, Hays managed to be a top-100 hitter (barely) in the second half last season. Hays has just enough power to be relevant, as he could hit 20 home runs if he stays a full-time player, but the upside is limited by the team context and his approach.
139. Carlos Correa (3B/SS, HOU) — It’s all too easy to look at the numbers Correa had when he returned to Houston and feel like he’s going to have a much better season in 2026; however, the truth is rarely so simple. Correa actually hit the ball harder in Minnesota (by about 1.5 mph, on average), and the other batted ball quality metrics were not different enough to explain the big difference in production.
So where did this success come from? His line drive rate. In Minnesota, he had a line drive rate of 20.7%, which is roughly in line with his career norms. In Houston? 27.1%. That gave him the eighth-best line drive rate among qualified hitters from August 1 to the end of the season. That is very unlikely to continue in 2026, though he can still be a very useful contributor at two critical positions while batting fourth for this top-heavy offense. In deeper formats that require a middle infielder and corner infielder, you might consider moving Correa into the previous tier.
140. Colton Cowser (OF, BAL) — Cowser had a miserable second half, which may very well be because he apparently played through two fractured ribs. Cowser could still give us a repeat of his 2024, where he finished as a top-30 outfielder with plus power and counting stats, but the strikeout issues have gotten worse over his career and threaten to keep him stuck in a platoon. If you’re chasing some power late in the draft, Cowser can provide that for you, and I’m willing to believe that the ribs were the real cause of his problems, but if he can’t get that strikeout rate below 30% in short order, he’ll be a streamer.
It’s also worth noting that Cowser is unlikely to win back the leadoff role he had at times in 2024 and 2025, and is more likely to hit near the bottom of the order. I think he’s safe from being platooned at the moment, but if he should struggle again, it could get ugly.
141. Brendan Donovan (2B/SS/OF, SEA) — Brendan Donovan faded hard down the stretch, mostly due to injury, but when healthy, he was a solid, if unspectacular, hitter who could hit .280 or better and score runs while leading off due to an elite ability to make contact. He doesn’t do much else, though, and injuries have been an issue in two of the last three years.
A move to Seattle probably boosts his run-scoring opportunities a bit, though the fact that his power is quite limited, combined with his durability issues, still apply so his overall outlook doesn’t really change.
When healthy, look for 13-15 home runs, decent counting stats, and excellent ratios from a guy who can cover second base in all formats and shortstop in some others, and in points leagues, Donovan should be moved up a tier.
142. Matt McLain (2B/SS, CIN) — Expectations were high for McLain coming into 2025, but unfortunately, he fell quite short of them despite staying healthy. McLain was unable to overcome his high strikeout rate, saw his line-drive rate drop significantly, and saw his home-run-to-fly-ball ratio nearly cut in half. Put those things together, and you get a .220 hitter who failed to reach 20 home runs or 20 steals. The ink isn’t totally dry on McLain quite yet, as an offseason to adjust could help him find the consistency he needs to hit 20 homers, steal 20 bags, and get out of the bottom of the order, and the Reds will give him every chance to make that happen. I wouldn’t be banking on a McLain resurgence to power my team, but in the late rounds of a draft where you need some upside and support in the middle infield, McLain might make sense.
143. Jordan Beck (OF/DH, COL) — If Beck didn’t play half his games in Coors, he might not be on this list (though in fairness, had a better organization developed him, he might be a more well-rounded hitter). Beck has the power to reach 20 home runs if he plays his cards right and the wheels to swipe 20 bases, though, like most Rockies hitters, he’s more or less unusable on the road. He also struggles with strikeouts, and it got worse as the season wore on, as he was called out on strikes 31.9% of the time in the second half, with an average walk rate. Limiting the strikeouts would make Beck more interesting as he’d be less prone to volatility, but either way, he’ll be a very streamable outfielder who provides power and speed with decent ratios as long as you don’t start him on the road.
144. Isaac Paredes (3B/DH, HOU) — Paredes’ season was limited to 102 games due to an injury over the summer, but what we saw from him appeared to be a return to his 31-home run form from 2023 as he smacked 20 home runs with excellent plate discipline. Paredes isn’t going to jump off the page with his batted ball quality, but the master of the pulled fly ball should find a way back to 30 home runs, should he stay healthy in 2026 (though he’s missed 19 or more games in three of the last four seasons) AND find a way into the normal lineup.
Paredes dropped over 50 spots from his October ranks, and that’s entirely because the Astros may be content to let Paredes sit on the bench against righties and let Correa be the starting third baseman. I feel this is a depressing outcome for a guy who absolutely has what it takes to be an everyday bat, but we will have to see how this all plays out. There are several teams that could use his services if he were made available, though with his uncertain health, teams may wait until the spring to see if he’s ready to play before thinking about a trade.
145. Willi Castro (2B/3B/OF, COL) — Willi Castro is interesting because he’s in Coors. He doesn’t hit the ball hard, nor does he force himself into most lineups every day, but in Coors Field, his limited power and willingness to spray the ball should turn into something like 15 home runs and a .260 batting average as an everyday player (which he can be for the talent-starved Rockies). He might even steal 15 bases, too.
146. Chase Meidroth (2B/SS, CWS) — Meidroth doesn’t have much power, but he does have strong plate discipline and upside to hit north of .270 with 15 steals and double-digit home runs, plus he should be the everyday leadoff man for the White Sox on Opening Day. There’s more ceiling than his projections suggest, but don’t confuse that for a high ceiling, as Meidroth is still mostly a slap-hitter. He’s a floor player in the middle infield.
147. Samuel Basallo (C, BAL) — Basallo will start the season with the big league club as a second catcher and DH, though a platoon looks pretty likely (at least to start the year). There’s upside for 30 home runs (his average exit velocity in Triple-A was 94.2 mph), though he’ll need to figure out how to chase a lot less in the majors and avoid falling behind in the count so often. If you choose to skip a catcher until the end of the draft, Basallo’s big power makes him an enticing lottery ticket.
148. Jake Burger (1B, TEX) — Burger still has home run power and what appears to be a starting role at first base for the Rangers. He should hit near the middle of the order, too. The ratios will probably hurt you, and he could bottom out entirely, but 25 home runs should be there.
149. J.T. Realmuto (C, PHI) — Realmuto was fine in 2025, though the dropoff in power was significant as he popped just 12 home runs in 134 games (for reference, he had 14 in 99 games in 2024). In deeper formats where volume is a premium, Realmuto might be a tier higher, but for standard leagues, the declining Realmuto is more of a backend option than a safe starter, and you may find yourself looking to stream if other catchers come storming out of the gate.
150. Kyle Manzardo (1B/DH, CLE) — Manzardo has one last opportunity to establish himself as an everyday first baseman coming off a 27 home run season. Sure, it was marred with inconsistency and he has a heck of a time trying to make contact against lefties (though when he does, he hits it hard), but the Guardians desperately need their young slugger to add pop and depth to this offense to continue to compete for playoff spots, and I think they’ll head into the year hoping 162 games of Manzardo creates that lift. The ratios won’t be useful in any format, but a repeat of his 27 home runs plus 85 RBI is in the cards if he can earn that role, and the runs scored should be better than the insanely low 43 he picked up in 2025.
Nate’s Note: I’m still hunting for Isaac Paredes, who could easily put up 25 home runs in a full-time role. Projections will never like him for the extreme pulled fly-ball approach, but it should be working too well to ignore.
Tier 15
151. Andrew Vaughn (1B/DH, MIL) — Vaughn’s stunning demotion and move to Milwaukee are the story of his 2025, but there are reasons to believe his 2026 could be a little less bumpy. Vaughn should get the chance to win an everyday role next spring (despite his fairly poor showing to end the season and in the playoffs) with Rhys Hoskins out of the picture, and an offseason with the Brewers could help him take a step forward in a way the White Sox never could. To really unlock his power, Vaughn would need to get a lot better at pulling balls in the air (or even just pulling the ball at all), and I don’t expect that to happen, but if it did, he’d be a very solid fantasy first baseman.
152. Francisco Alvarez (C, NYM) — So you waited on catcher and want to chase upside? Well, here it is. Alvarez has serious power, evidenced by his 54.3% hard-hit rate in 2025, but injuries, contact issues, and ground balls have kept him from blossoming into the home run hitter we think he can be. A healthy Alvarez has the upside to be a top-six catcher who hits 27+ home runs with a .250 batting average, but it does require several planets to align to realize that potential. If it doesn’t work out, go ahead and cut him for one of the many other cromulent catchers on the wire.
153. Lars Nootbaar (OF, STL) — Nootbaar finally played in more than 120 games, and while he was excellent to start the season, posting a 140 wRC+ in April with more walks than strikeouts and 21 runs scored, he faded as the season wore on, slumping a bit in May and June before hitting the IL for several weeks and then completely falling off the wagon, hitting just .216/.304/.270 over his final 30 games with just five extra-base hits and zero home runs.
Nootbaar has flashed the tools of a top-100 hitter at times in his injury-marred career, and it wouldn’t be much of a shock to see him make his way back to the top of the Cardinals’ lineup and hit 16-18 home runs with a strong OBP and plenty of runs scored. It’s an uphill climb to that relatively unexciting ceiling, though, especially in standard leagues. In points and OBP leagues, though, he’s a solid late-round flyer.
154. Max Muncy (3B, LAD) — Muncy returns to LA for one more round, and when on the field, he should continue to be a power-hitting third baseman with a poor batting average and a strong OBP. The only issue, really, is the “on the field” bit. Muncy has never been known as durable, but he has played in just over half of his team’s games over the last two seasons combined, and it’s hard to imagine that at age 35, he’s going to be less of a risk. He’s a nice add if you’re light on power late, just be careful in deeper leagues as he’s almost certain to miss 40-50 games (if not more).
155. Spencer Horwitz (1B/DH, PIT) — It took a while for Horwitz to turn it on after missing the first few months with injury, but he gave a strong performance in the second half, finishing as the sixth-best second baseman for the half and showing he can provide some pop and strong ratios, albeit on a bad offense. Horwitz loses his second-base eligibility in 2026, though, and while he was the sixth-best second baseman, he was only the 15th-best first baseman. Horwitz is a solid addition late in drafts if you need a corner infielder who boosts your ratios, or if you’re in a points or OBP league, but otherwise, you might want to chase upside elsewhere.
156. Jung Hoo Lee (OF, SFG) — Lee started strong, but was more mediocre than good for the majority of the season in standard leagues. He should get another shot to establish himself as a leadoff man due to his contact-oriented approach. Lee is at his best in points leagues as he puts a ton of balls in play, and the batting average should be closer to .270 or .280 next season, but he won’t offer much in the way of homers or steals, and while he was bumped down the order from first to fifth, he should have a shot at close to the same total value he had last season, albeit with fewer runs and a few more RBI.
157. Addison Barger (3B/OF, TOR) — Barger was a revelation over the summer, hitting 15 home runs with a 133 wRC+ over 76 games across May, June, and July. That promise faded, though, as he posted just a 75 wRC+ over the remaining 49 games. It remains to be seen if Barger can find that power he displayed in the middle of the season again, and he’ll open the season locked into a platoon that will be quite difficult to break out of.
158. Adolis García (OF, PHI) — García looks poised to play a (mostly) everyday role in Philly, and while 2025 was a nightmare in many ways (including a demotion to Triple-A for a time), the 33-year-old slugger still drove in 75 runs for the Rangers with double-digit steals and a bit of power, plus the strikeout rate hasn’t collapsed yet. He should accumulate slightly better stats in Philly, and perhaps the change of locations helps him find just a little more of his old self in 2026.
159. Gavin Sheets (1B/OF/DH, SDP) — Sheets is a streaky lefty with power who will give us one or two good months and three or four bad ones. Keep him on your streaming radar, but don’t fool yourself into thinking this is a full-season option. On the bright side, O’Hearn’s departure gives Sheets a clear path to regular playing time, though remember that you don’t want his games against lefties.
160. Colt Keith (1B/2B/3B/DH, DET) — Colt Keith will be a utilityman for the Tigers on Opening Day all over in the infield, and that versatility is his primary asset for fantasy. As a prospect, we expected Keith to blossom into 22-25 home run power if things broke right, but Keith has clubbed just 13 in each of his two first mostly full seasons. Keith’s improved walk rate and batted-ball quality were nice to see, and he’s only 24 years old, but unless Keith shows he can hit 20 or more home runs, he’ll be a replacement-level contributor to fantasy squads. On the bright side, if he DOES do those things, he’ll be a solid infielder who can cover a lot of positions with decent counting stats to boot.
161. Nolan Schanuel (1B, LAA) — Schanuel can be bumped up a tier or two in points leagues, as his contact skills and control of the strike zone are fantastic. His upside in categories leagues is minimal due to the poor run environment around him and his swing dynamics (which resemble hitters like Jung Hoo Lee, Nico Hoerner, and Ernie Clement), but the floor is more or less what we’ve seen so far in his career, and that’s not without its uses.
Nate’s Note: I’m a believer in two second-half surgers: Andrew Vaughn and Max Muncy. Vaughn’s miracle run with the Brewers might’ve been a mirage, but I believe the plate discipline gains he made in a new organization are real. He’s .250/20 HR bat right in the middle of the Brewers lineup, which is good value down here. For Muncy, was it just as simple as wearing glasses? That change made him more viable than ever in average leagues, as he hit .264 from May 1st and on. I think he’s worth the shot because you’ll know within the first few weeks if the batting average is real or not. Lars Nootbaar still might be garnering more hype than he’s worth. Despite the peripherals looking great, he struggled to find rhythm over prolonged stretches that weren’t split by IL stints. Even if it works out, it’s a relatively fine ceiling for average leagues, and there are better options to chase. Garcia should get everyday plate appearances in Philly, with potential to go 25 home runs and 10 stolen bases. If you have the ability to eat a poor batting average, he is a strong counting stat option late.
Tier 16
162. J.P. Crawford (SS, SEA) — Crawford should have at least one more season as the Opening Day shortstop for the Mariners, and while the production is far from exciting, the volume and solid ratios will likely see him finish as a top-150 hitter again. You probably don’t need to draft him in a 12-teamer unless you forgot to get a shortstop in the first 10 rounds, but at the very least, make sure he’s on your radar if you ever need a fill-in.
163. Cedric Mullins (OF, TBR) — Landing with the Rays all but ensures Mullins will be in a platoon at times, but it also means he’ll be on an aggressive baserunning team. Mullins isn’t getting any younger or any faster, but he shouldn’t have any issues swiping at least 20 bags and hitting another 15-17 home runs. The ratios will stink, but there’s value in what Mullins can do.
164. Jasson Domínguez (OF/DH, NYY) — Is this the year Domínguez breaks through? We hoped it would be 2025, but inconsistency and a poor second half dashed those dreams. Domínguez can absolutely clear 20 home runs and 25 steals with an everyday role, but as of today, he doesn’t have anything close to a clear path to even half a season, much less a full one.
Lefties present a problem to Domínguez, as he has a paltry .530 OPS against them so far in his brief career, with a strikeout rate over 30%. However, we saw him take a meaningful step forward in his decision-making against southpaws, which could be the path to staying in the lineup every day as a switch-hitter.
165. TJ Friedl (OF, CIN) — Friedl put up a full healthy season for the first time in his career, and while the runs scored, plate discipline, and ratios were solid, we were left a bit disappointed with the overall output based on what we had seen from him in the past. Under their new manager, Terry Francona, the Reds were much less aggressive on the basepaths than in years past, which suggests that a return to 20 steals may not be in the cards for Friedl. However, it seems clear that Friedl is the locked-in leadoff man for the Reds, meaning a ton of plate appearances in one of the most hitter-friendly parks in the league.
166. Miguel Vargas (1B/3B, CHW) — Miguel Vargas doesn’t have the plus power or OBP we thought he could achieve back in his prospect days, but he does have an everyday role in the middle of a lineup (a bad one), and he offers eligibility at both corner infield positions. There’s potential for Vargas to find a little more power in his second full season and push for 20 home runs, and the counting stats should be decent. Still, the batting average and OBP will be pretty low, and his extreme patience at the dish might drive you nuts when he lets too many hittable pitches pass him by.
167. Jeff McNeil (2B/OF, ATH) — McNeil moves into one of the few parks that his power can handle, and due to the overall state of the A’s roster, McNeil will also bat fifth behind four strong hitters. If healthy, he should accumulate counting stats with streaky ratios and good plate discipline, but there’s really no ceiling to be found, as even in the small park with 130 games, he’ll struggle to clear 15 home runs, and he doesn’t steal bases. The average isn’t all that good either, or at least it hasn’t been since 2023.
168. Tommy Edman (2B/3B/OF, LAD) — Injuries and poor performance quickly took the shine off Edman’s incredibly hot start in 2025, though by the end, he managed to tie a career high in home runs (13) in just 97 games. Edman enters 2026 with what appears to be an everyday job at second base once healthy (which may not be on Opening Day), and even batting last for the Dodgers can help a guy pile up runs and RBI. He doesn’t run anymore, but when healthy, Edman should be useful to fantasy managers thanks to his positional flexibility, and based on the Statcast data, I anticipate much better ratios than he provided in 2025.
169. Marcell Ozuna (DH, PIT) — If you believe the 2025 struggles were entirely related to his core injury (which is not an unreasonable belief), you could justify him two tiers higher than this. That being said, Ozuna was mostly terrible in 2025, save for a few brief moments in May and early August, and turns 35 in a few weeks.
Ozuna makes for an odd fit in Pittsburgh, as he forces O’Hearn into the outfield (he’s excellent at first and not excellent out there), and neither the park nor the lineup is ideal. Still, he had moments of showing plus power last season and has always been a strong decision-maker, so maybe there’s one more year in this bat. If nothing else, he should get mostly full-time work to start the season.
170. Sal Frelick (OF, MIL) — Frelick improved dramatically in 2025, adding 10 home runs, 31 RBI, and 39 points of batting average to his 2024 totals to finish as a top-75 hitter. Oddly, Frelick basically stopped running in the second half, and almost all of his production came when he was leading off (except, weirdly, the steals). If Frelick were to be the leadoff man on Opening Day, I’d move him up a tier or so, but unfortunately, I think he’s destined to return to the bottom half (or even bottom third) of the order, which will push his counting stats down in a big way. That, combined with my suspicion that 12 home runs were more fluky than real, pushes Frelick down these rankings, though points leaguers can bump him up a bit.
This ranking is 50 points lower than where I had him in October and 100 points lower than where he finished in 2025, but many projections also rank Frelick here likely because he’ll have many fewer plate appearances in 2026 as he may get platooned at times, and his 2025 performance feels like a 90th percentile outcome for Frelick, with most outcomes being a replacement-level outfielder or worse.
171. Jake Mangum (OF, PIT) — Mangum is a slap-hitting speedster who plays excellent defense and can hit from both sides of the plate. The skills are there for him to win an everyday role for a Pirates team that’s trying to find its footing with a plethora of new outfielders, and if that happens, look for a guy who hits .280-.290 with 35 steals, though the counting stats and home runs won’t really be there. If you’re in a points league, Mangum should be in your top 150. If you don’t need speed or ratios, you can essentially remove him from your board.
172. Spencer Steer (1B/OF/DH, CIN) — Steer might be the big loser in the Eugenio Suárez signing, as he may get moved to a utility role and not have enough plate appearances to be interesting. He can hit 20 home runs with a full-time role, but he doesn’t run well, and his overall skillset is uninspiring. If anyone at any corner infield or outfield position goes down or slumps badly, Steer can jump in and take over a role, which gives him a boxer’s chance to be relevant in March.
173. Masyn Winn (SS, STL) — Winn has low upside and lost his grip on the leadoff role, leaving very little to get excited about. Double-digit homers and steals will be there by a hair, but the counting stats will be bad, and the ratios will be mediocre at best. Still, he should play every day, and volume has value.
Nate’s Note: The hitter that is interesting to me here is Miguel Vargas. Vargas ran a 108 Process+ last year, built off strong decision-making and contact ability that was streaky. His .261 BABIP is quite low due to a high fly-ball rate. However, he makes 97th percentile solid contact, so any bit of added power could lead to a breakout.
Tier 17
174. Josh Jung (3B/DH, TEX) — Jung managed to keep the strikeout rate below 30% for the full season, which is good, but the power hasn’t been the same since his 2023 breakout, and injuries have kept Jung out of the lineup for significant chunks of the season throughout his career. Jung was somewhat useful at times in 2025, particularly in July and August, and there’s still a non-zero chance that a fully healthy Jung is a difference-maker in 2026. At a position as challenging as third base, it’s not the worst bet to make, but it’s definitely a bit of a long shot.
175. Ernie Clement (1B/2B/3B/SS, TOR) — Clement finished inside the top-100 hitters in the second half of 2025 and was a sneaky stabilizing presence on many fantasy rosters that had to deal with injuries in the infield. In many formats, he’ll retain eligibility at all infield positions (he loses first base in 20-game formats), which is quite useful as he enters 2025 with a starting role for the Jays. Still, Clement’s soft-hitting ways are brutal to bank on for fantasy value, and repeating his 83 runs scored while hitting in the bottom third of the order seems like an impossible task. He should provide favorable ratios and flexibility, but being a counting stat producer doesn’t seem likely, and double-digit steals and homers aren’t a given either (he fell short on both counts in 2025).
176. Brandon Marsh (OF, PHI) — Brandon Marsh is only 28? It feels like he’s 35. Anyway, he’s currently slated to hit fifth for the Phillies, which would be a lot more interesting if he didn’t have a 38.4% strikeout rate against lefties with a 61 wRC+ in his career. It’s hard to imagine him playing more than the 130ish games he’s played the last few seasons. Those in deeper leagues will likely appreciate the steady role, but the upside here is very limited, especially considering he didn’t run like he did in 2024. Think something like 15 home runs, 10 steals, and a batting average between .240 and .260 (due to a wide BABIP variance).
177. Matt Wallner (OF/DH, MIN) — Big power and big contact issues combined with an inability to hit lefties means that Wallner is likely someone you’ll scoop on the wire when he’s hot and dream about what he’d do with a full season, and then be given a reminder as to why he hasn’t been given that opportunity when he goes 0-20 in a week with 15 strikeouts.
178. Konnor Griffin (OF, PIT) — If your league allows you to stash players with a minor league spot or a deep bench, move Griffin up a tier or two, as he’s the premier stash in the game. There’s incredibly little chance he breaks camp with the big club, which isn’t the worst thing in the world (he only notched 98 plate appearances in AA).
Griffin has exceptional power and lightning speed, along with a maturing (but not yet mature) hit tool, and will be the talk of the time when he makes the big leagues. The only real question is when that will happen. I’d take the slight under on 100 games played for Griffin in 2026, and it may be rough going upon initial callup, but make no mistake: this is baseball’s best prospect.
179. Brooks Lee (2B/3B/SS, MIN) — Brooks can play a lot of positions, hit 15 home runs, and possibly hit slightly better than he did last season. Unfortunately, he doesn’t run, and bats last for an offense that projects to be quite awful. He’s a floor guy in deep leagues who will get volume and little else, but guaranteed plate appearances are worth something at this point in the ranks.
180. José Caballero (2B/3B/SS/OF, NYY) — Caballero will be a popular name during draft season for his speed and versatility late in the draft, but it’s hard to see how he stays fantasy relevant once Volpe returns. I also can’t ignore that the Yankees also signed another right-handed utilityman (Amed Rosario) to keep around, and I am not sure why they’d do that if they already had Caballero and planned a long-term role for him.
Caballero fell 40ish spots since my October rankings, but in reality, Caballero is either going to be higher on your board at this point or totally off of it based on whether you need steals, since he is a sandbag in all the other categories.
181. Kyle Teel (C/DH, CWS) — Kyle Teel had a strong second half for the White Sox, showing the potential to hit 16-18 home runs with good ratios for a catcher. I’m pretty concerned about the strikeout rate spike at the end of the season and the fact that the White Sox have shown no ability to develop talent in the bigs. Still, those in OBP leagues could bump Teel up a tier or two and/or tag him as their last round catcher (if you’re into that sort of thing).
182. Austin Wells (C, NYY) — Wells hit 21 home runs with 71 RBI as a primary catcher, though in true catcher fashion, it came with poisonous ratios and just 51 runs scored in 126 games. The vast majority of that production came in the first half, though, and his .208/.259/.403 line in the second half, with a 30.8% strikeout rate, was a tough pill to swallow and likely sent many managers running to the wire. If he can find some consistency, Wells could be a sneaky backend starting catcher in 12-teamers, though even a more consistent Wells would likely post bad ratios.
183. Anthony Volpe (SS, NYY) — Volpe will miss the start of the season due to injury, but should be back sometime in May. Assuming he fully takes over the shortstop role again, he’ll be a guy who can hit 12-15 homers and steal close to 20 bases with mediocre counting stats and painful ratios.
To unlock his potential (once considered very high), Volpe needs to demonstrate consistency in several areas. His performance is incredibly erratic, oscillating between great and terrible in terms of power and contact ability, though he does manage to make decent decisions at the plate more often than not. The tools are still there, they’re just buried behind a lot of inconsistency that leads to a lot of frustrating moments.
184. Nolan Gorman (2B/3B, STL) — It appears the Cardinals are giving Gorman one more chance to be a part of their future, and while he’s clearly shown that he has power and will take walks, he strikes out way too much due to severe contact issues. If he somehow finds a way to correct that, he’ll have moments of usefulness at multiple positions. It’s more likely that he doesn’t, though, which is a bummer. It’s a power-hitting lottery ticket that will likely end in a few streaks here and there and a lot of sadness, but the good times are awfully good.
185. JJ Wetherholt (SS, STL) — Wetherholt has a real chance to be the second baseman when the season begins, and if he does, he’ll break into the top 150. Wetherholt hit the ball well in Triple-A and should hit for a high average with 17-20 home runs and 15-20 steals with that kind of opportunity.
186. Jac Caglianone (1B/OF/DH, KCR) — Caglianone has as much (or more) upside as anyone in this part of the ranks, though he was positively miserable in his 232 plate appearances in 2025. While Cags avoided strikeouts, he hit far too many grounders and wasn’t able to really tap into any of his prodigious power.
187. Josh Lowe (OF, LAA) — Lowe has mostly been a streaky platoon bat in Tampa for the last two seasons after a strong 2023, providing mostly speed and a little pop. Landing in Anaheim gives Lowe a better chance to play 130+ games than he had in Tampa, though there is some chance that the Angels still platoon him with a righty, considering his career .504 OPS line against same-sided pitching in 265 plate appearances. If you need 20 steals and don’t mind playing around the platoon or the bad ratios, Lowe can do that.
188. Chase DeLauter (OF, CLE) — Injuries have made it tough for the top Cleveland prospect, though in the 42 games he did manage to play in the minors this season, he showed excellent plate discipline and plenty of pop (51.9% hard-hit rate). In his brief playoff debut, DeLauter did show us the plate discipline, though he struggled to do much else.
DeLauter has the potential to be a 20+ home run hitter as early as 2026, though the batting average might be a challenge based on his minor league stats. Grounders were elevated in 2025, which is something to watch, as it could keep him from reaching his power potential. Still, the opportunity to be an everyday hitter near the middle of the order is there for him, even if it comes with some significant platoon risk if he struggles.
189. Joey Ortiz (SS, MIL) — Joey Ortiz plays a lot and puts the ball in play while batting near the bottom of the order for the Brewers. He can steal a few bases (12-15 or so) and maybe slap his way to double-digit home runs with a .230ish batting average. His primary value is that he’ll definitely get to 500 plate appearances, which is far from guaranteed for many in this tier. If you’re chasing upside, remove him from your board.
190. Dylan Beavers (OF, BAL) — Beavers should be on the larger side of a platoon in Baltimore’s outfield, and while he wasn’t as explosive in the majors as he was last season in the minors, we did see him bring that fat, juicy walk rate (19%!) to the bigs. Assuming Beavers finds a way to keep hitting, he could spot something like 12 homers and 12 steals with a bad batting average and a decent OBP, but I won’t be that interested unless he can find a way to be a little more aggressive, as major league pitchers started Beavers off at 0-1 in 57.7% of his plate appearances just by throwing half-decent strikes.
191. Jared Triolo (1B/2B/3B/SS, PIT) — With the Pirates losing out on Eugenio Suárez, Triolo appears to have secured a job at third base in 2026. Triolo will bat on the bottom half of the lineup and will likely need everything he’s got to hit 10 homers and steal 15 bases, but he will have eligibility all over the infield, along with playing time all season long.
192. Mark Vientos (1B/3B/DH, NYM) — We saw a flash of the 2024 Vientos for a few weeks late in the summer, but otherwise, we saw a guy who struggled to make quality contact and who could not keep a hold on the third base job. If he looks strong in spring and has a secure role, he could break into the top 150, but right now it feels like that’s not in the cards.
193. Jesús Sánchez (OF/DH, TOR) — Despite a few moments of showing promise, Jesús Sánchez finished yet another season as a replacement-level outfielder both in fantasy and reality. He could hit 15 home runs and steal 15 bases with a large side of a platoon, but he’ll do it with mediocre-to-bad ratios thanks to a high groundball rate that limits how much he can tap into his power.
A trade to Toronto, at this moment, looks like a bad scene for Sanchez as the Blue Jays already had three left-handed outfielders slated to start in Varsho, Barger, and Lukes. Sanchez will need to show something this sprint to give Toronto a reason to give him 100 games.
194. Mickey Moniak (OF, COL) — Moniak had the best zone contact rate of his career in 2025 (it helps when the ball doesn’t move as much in your home park), but he remains a very streaky power hitter who you can’t start on the road and who will sit against nearly all lefties. He’ll be on streamer lists all season when he’s at home against righties, and cut the moment either one of those conditions is no longer met.
195. Colt Emerson (SS, SEA) — The trade for Brendan Donovan will make it tough for Emerson to break camp with the Mariners, but hope is not entirely lost, as Donovan is not known for his durability, and there’s also a chance to overtake Cole Young at second base.
Emerson doesn’t have a single stand-out tool, like Basallo’s power or McGonigle’s plate discipline. Still, Emerson is very well-rounded, and based on the 17 batted-ball events tracked in Triple-A, perhaps the 20-year-old infielder is growing into more power.
196. Kevin McGonigle (2B, DET) — As of this writing, there’s no opening in the Tigers’ infield, but McGonigle was a revelation in the Arizona Fall League and has a chance to impress at big league camp. While he may not win a job immediately, the Tigers have a closing window with Skubal likely leaving, and if guys like McKinstry or Vierling struggle, the door will swing open quickly.
McGonigle will be a stud in points leagues right away, as he has walked more than he’s struck out at every level in the minor leagues, but his contributions in category leagues will be up to how often he can pull fly balls. There’s 20+ home run upside if he gets to that quickly.
197. Josh Bell (1B, MIN) — Bell has been a mostly replacement-level first baseman for deep leagues over the last few seasons, and there’s no reason to expect anything different in 2026. He’s durable, walks plenty, hits too many grounders, and will hit third for a bad offense. If you need some pop (18-20 home runs) and RBI (70ish), he will do that. He’s particularly useful in points and OBP leagues where his poor batting average is cancelled out by his walk rate and low strikeout rate.
The only real risk is that he’s turning 34 this season and is coming off the worst year of his career against southpaws, two compelling reasons for the Twins to let Bell hit the bench against lefties in favor of the players who might be part of this team long-term.
Nate’s Note: I think JJ Wetherholt and Konnor Griffin are significantly ahead of the rest of the prospect field. Both have significantly higher chances of being in the big leagues than the rest and arguably have both the highest ceiling (Griffin) and floor (Wetherholt).
Tier 18
198. Harrison Bader (OF, SFG) — I wasn’t sure we’d ever see back-to-back 140-game seasons from Bader, but here we are. Bader should hit somewhere around 15 home runs and steal 15 bases in 2025, though I cannot imagine he repeats a .359 BABIP (his career BABIP is .305), so the ratios will likely fall more in line with his career line of .247/.301/.401. Counting stats may be tough to come by as well, as the bottom third of the Giants’ lineup could be a tough place to score.
199. Mike Yastrzemski (OF, ATL) — Yaz is a left-handed platoon bat at this stage of his career, though he’s coming off the best strikeout rate of his career by far (19.4%) and a strong walk rate. If all goes well, he could approach 20 home runs with a bad batting average and usable OBP, plus a fair number of RBI if he plays most days, hitting behind Drake Baldwin and Austin Riley.
Most projections have Yaz falling short of 110 games in 2026, but Atlanta doesn’t have much in the way of exciting prospects behind him to push for playing time. I think he’ll play quite a bit more than people expect, and if the strikeout rate stays down, he could be a pleasant surprise as a bench outfielder in deeper leagues.
200. Zach McKinstry (3B/SS/OF, DET) — McKinstry had a much better first half than second half in 2025, but even though he faded down the stretch, he managed to set a career high in virtually every stat. I’d say 10 home runs and 15 steals sound about right with a .250 average, though the counting stats will likely come down as the bulk of the run scoring came in the first two months of the season when the Tigers were one of the best teams in baseball.
201. Ryan Jeffers (C, MIN) — Jeffers doesn’t do anything special as a hitter, but he should have no issue hitting 15 or more home runs with a .245 average while getting plenty of plate appearances for the hapless Twins. Volume and reliability are there, even if the upside is firmly capped.
202. Romy Gonzalez (1B/2B/DH, BOS) — Gonzalez was quite good when on the lineup card in 2025, hitting .305 and slugging .483 in 96 games with nine homers and six steals. It’s a huge improvement over anything we had seen from Gonzalez over parts of five seasons prior to 2025, which begs the question of whether it’s at all repeatable. It’s also unclear what role Gonzalez will play for the Red Sox in 2025, as there’s no obvious place for him to start. I can’t endorse him as a draft pick in most 12-teamers for that reason, but he’s a name to keep an eye on if something were to open up this spring, or if the team decides it has seen enough of David Hamilton.
203. Carlos Narváez (C, BOS) — Narváez should bat sixth for the Red Sox in 2026 and should play as much as his body lets him behind the dish. He has a bit of pop, though most projection systems don’t buy the idea he’ll repeat the 15 home runs he hit last season. I think it’s quite possible, though, as he posted surprisingly decent exit velocities with a barrel rate just short of 10%. He’ll be a streamable catcher who outperforms his projections.
204. Andrés Giménez (2B, TOR) — Giménez had a nightmare season in 2025, but should return to being a guy who just barely hits 9-10 home runs, swipes 15-20 bags, and hits between .240-.250 if given a full season of work. That’s a streaming second baseman, I guess, though I imagine the Blue Jays will want to explore more exciting options when facing southpaws (or just in general), which will limit his playing time a bit.
205. Marcelo Mayer (3B, BOS) — Marcelo Mayer was a highly touted prospect with draft-day hype in 2025, though much of that shine has worn off after what was an ugly 44-game sample in the majors in 2026. Mayer did hit the ball hard in his 136 plate appearances, but struggled to get the ball in the air and had major whiff problems against breakers and off-speed pitches. Injuries have also plagued him throughout his career, and he missed the final month and a half of the season with a wrist sprain.
Mayer should get a chance to run away with the third base job over uninspiring utilityman Isiah Kiner-Falefa, but he’ll have to find ways to deal with non-fastballs and also get the ball in the air to have any kind of impact. The most likely result is a platoon and very up-and-down performances throughout the season, but we shouldn’t discount his pedigree quite yet.
206. Evan Carter (OF, TEX) — Injuries have devastated the once-promising young outfielder, who went bonkers in 2023 during the Rangers’ World Series run. Carter doesn’t have much power to speak of, though his hit tool and speed could still make for an intriguing play in deep leagues if he is ever able to stay healthy. He could legitimately steal 25-30 bases if he played 150 games, though Carter is very unlikely to provide any positive value in any other category.
207. Dominic Canzone (OF, SEA) — Canzone was shockingly good in 2025, playing 82 games and slashing .300/.358/.481 with 11 home runs and a 14.5% barrel rate. His exit velocity was up 2.5 points from 2023-2024, and it’s not impossible that Canzone has unlocked something that could make him a viable backend outfielder in standard leagues.
Unfortunately, it appears that Canzone will be starting the season in a platoon at DH with the arrival of journeyman lefty-smasher Rob Refsnyder (.281/.383/.443 against lefties in his career). If he earns more playing time, he might be on your streaming radar in standard leagues, but for now, he is more of a bench option in deep formats.
208. Jordan Walker (OF, STL) — Cue the hype train as Jordan Walker went to Driveline over the winter. While Walker has a plus exit velocity (92.3 mph in 2025) thanks to some elite bat speed (99th percentile), he still hits far too many grounders and has major contact issues. If this winter learning experience helps resolve either of those issues, Walker will be on my radar, and if it somehow resolves both and lives up to his pedigree as a one-time top-five prospect in baseball, he could be a viable starter in many leagues; however, that’s an extremely tall order and not one I am going to try and chase too much.
209. Victor Robles (OF, SEA) — Robles was dynamite in 2024 for the Mariners but was unable to recapture any of that magic in 2025, playing in just 32 games and hitting just .245 with a .330 slugging percentage. Injuries played a major role (when haven’t they for Robles?), and at this point, it seems like Robles will be on the small side of a platoon to start the season. There’s still a high batting average basestealer in there somewhere, but until a lot more opportunity opens up, it’s hard to get too excited. If he does find a way into regular time, he’d be an interesting scoop off the wire to see if he can do his Victor Robles thing of hitting .300 and stealing 30 bases.
210. Jorge Soler (OF, LAA) — Soler will be 34 when the season starts, and while he has shown flashes during his career of being a guy who can hit 30 home runs, he’s only hit more than 25 three times in 11 162-game seasons due to a ton of injuries and a lot of inconsistency. Maybe Soler gets to 20 dingers for the Angels with a .320 OBP, but it looks like he’ll be buried in the bottom third of this lineup. Between the injury risk, low counting stats, and miserable batting average, Soler is best left to deep leagues where a manager needs a guy who will be a starter when healthy.
211. Isaac Collins (OF, KCR) — Collins broke out as a 27-year-old rookie, posting a 122 wRC+ for the Brewers with strong plate discipline while stealing 16 bases. Collins has since been traded to the Royals, and it appears he’ll be a starter for them in left field and hit at the bottom of the order.
While Collins had a strong line to end the season, it was slightly misleading, as Collins went on a three-month hot streak in June, July, and August, but was quite awful in April, May, and September to the point where he was only starting against some lefties by the end of the season. If Collins can hold the starting job all year, maybe he hits 8-10 homers with 15-17 steals with a decent OBP, but the batting average will likely be .230 or so, and the counting stats will be nonexistent.
212. Cam Smith (OF, HOU) — Smith did not break out the way his fans hoped in his first full season, and just to be clear, that’s a completely reasonable outcome for a guy who had just 20 plate appearances in the high minors. I’d be shocked if the Astros give Smith 134 games again in 2026, but he should be able to fight for playing time against Zach Cole. Should he win 100 games or so, Smith should get to double-digit home runs, and of course, there’s still upside to be a plus regular at some point, because we don’t give up on 21-year-old hitters who had only 20 plate appearances in the high minors before they debuted.
The trade of Sanchez to Toronto, for the time being, gives him a slightly more solid chance to at least be on the big side of a platoon, which moves him up the ranks a bit.
Nate’s Note: There’s the obvious injury risk for Evan Carter, but we continued to see signs of life from him when healthy: he was still running and plans to run more. I also think the Rangers are going to rely on him if he’s on the roster, since a bench of Ezequiel Duran, Sam Haggerty, and Michael Helman doesn’t exactly have him worrying about a role.
Tier 19
213. Dillon Dingler (C, DET) — Dingler finished as a top-12 catcher last season, taking a huge step forward in strikeout rate by laying off many more pitches outside of the zone and turning on the stuff he did hit. It’s highly unlikely Dingler repeats his 28.2% line-drive rate, which will pull the average down considerably. He should be a .250 hitter who could hit 10 home runs with 50 RBI, though there’s also a chance Dingler’s inconsistent decision-making and contact ability lead to slightly more depressing totals.
214. Edgar Quero (C, CWS) — Quero made his debut in 2025, and overall, it was an admirable performance for a rookie catcher. Quero has more hit tool than power, and should be appreciated in deep points leagues that have a strikeout penalty. He went to Driveline to work on his launch angle and power, which would be a help as Quero hit a ton of balls on the ground, but he’d benefit just as much from pulling the balls in the air that he does hit. It’s not a huge ceiling here, but double-digit home runs and a .250 average should be there even if the improvements are mild.
215. Tyler Stephenson (C/DH, CIN) — The bottom fell out for Stephenson in 2025 after a promising 2026. He struck out a painful 33.8% of the time and hit just .231. He also missed a chunk of the season due to injuries. I guess it’s possible Stephenson stays healthy and hits 15 home runs with 50 RBI, but the eroded contact ability, combined with his average decision-making and injury history, leaves little room for upside.
216. Logan O’Hoppe (C, LAA) — Through May 22, O’Hoppe was one of the most productive fantasy catchers in the game, having swatted 14 homes in 43 games while slashing .275/.309/.556. Unfortunately, his terrible plate discipline (33.3% strikeout rate, 4.3% walk rate) caught up with him. O’Hoppe’s 36 wRC+ from May 23 to the end of the season was the worst among all MLB players with at least 200 plate appearances in that time.
O’Hoppe’s power is legitimate, but his terrible contact ability and decision-making skills leave you with an incredibly streaky hitter who is best left as a streamer in deep leagues when the bat is hot and the matchups are good. The season-long line will probably have close to 20 home runs and 50 RBI, but all that production will happen in a short time, and he’ll be a sandbag the rest of the way.
217. Brett Baty (2B/3B, NYM) — Baty showed flashes last season of finally breaking through, though his ground-ball rate was once again well over 50%. The path to a full-time role relies on Baty getting more balls in the air and also staving off Vientos, but it’s just hard for me to envision anyone locking down that DH role for the Mets. My guess is that both Vientos and Baty struggle to get to 100 games played, and the inconsistent playing time will make it that much harder for Baty to work through his launch angle problem.
If you believe he can play 120+ games, Baty should be a full tier higher.
218. Connor Norby (3B, MIA) — Norby’s 2025 was limited by injury to just 88 games, and what we saw in those 88 games was…fine. Norby can once again be a guy who hits about 15 home runs and maybe even steals 10 bases with a .250 average and 50-60 RBI if he maintains the improved plate discipline from 2025 and finds some more success against lefties. As he is now, though, he’s a low-upside volume play at the bottom of a bad lineup.
219. Andrew Benintendi (OF, CWS) — Benintendi will likely miss some time due to injury at some point, but when healthy, he can hit like 15-17 home runs while batting .250 (I don’t buy the 20 he hit in 116 games last year). The healthy floor is rather decent, but there’s no real upside here. Still, he’ll play every day when healthy, and the final numbers are useful in very deep formats.
220. Bryce Eldridge (DH, SFG) — The 6’7″ first baseman has some of the biggest power among all prospect-eligible players, though it comes with huge contact issues that led to a 30.8% strikeout rate in Triple-A last year. Eldridge should have the inside track to DH at-bats for the Giants early on in a platoon with oft-injured Jerar Encarnacion, and if he can keep that strikeout rate close to 30% with a double-digit walk rate, he could play 110 games or more with 20-25 home runs. It is equally likely that he’s back in Triple-A by May to work on the whiffs.
221. Jake Cronenworth (1B/2B/SS, SDP) — A pure volume play. Cronenworth has at least 500 plate appearances in all five of his full seasons in the majors. He also keeps the strikeouts down and takes a fair number of walks. Outside of that, though, the 32-year-old infielder can’t do a lot for you in mixed leagues as he now hits near the bottom of the order, doesn’t run, and doesn’t hit the ball terribly hard. In deep OBP leagues, his volume is worth something, but his poor batting average makes that volume a bit of a burden as a full-season player in standard leagues.
Feel free to bump him up a tier or so in those deep leagues where volume is hard to come by (though in those formats he’s likely only eligible at 2B), but in shallow leagues, he’s a short-term fill-in until something more exciting pops up.
222. Moisés Ballesteros (DH, CHC) — Ballesteros had a fancy little 20-game stretch in his MLB debut last season, posting a 143 wRC+ with fantastic plate discipline and a bit of pop. Ballesteros doesn’t have the home run power you’d expect from a DH, as I doubt he’d clear 15 home runs given 140 games, but the batting average could be fine (think something close to .260) with a slightly more useful OBP. Points leaguers can bump him up a tier or so if they want to see how it goes, but there’s not enough ceiling here to think too hard about this part-time DH-only bat at the moment.
223. Nick Gonzales (2B, PIT) — To his credit, Nick Gonzales’s strikeout rate in the majors has turned out to be substantially better than we expected based on his minor league track record, which has helped him be a .257 hitter so far in his career. He’s also a plus defender at second base who will gain shortstop eligibility at some point early in the season. The bad news is that his aggressive approach leads to a ton of bad contact, and he’s dealt with injury issues in each of the last two seasons. In a full campaign where several things break right, Gonzales could be a guy who hits 13-15 home runs with a .265 average. More likely, though, is a guy who plays 100-120 games with 8-10 homers.
224. Bo Naylor (C, CLE) — Naylor will be the primary catcher for the Guardians, and it was great to see the strikeout rate normalize after a scary 2024 spike. Naylor’s extreme fly-ball approach helps him hit a few extra home runs (he set a career-high with 14 last year), but it also keeps his average down (.205 in 318 career games). If you don’t care at all about ratios, he’s probably worth grouping with the guys at the top of the tier because of the durability and volume, but his ceiling is a bit lower.
225. Victor Scott II (OF, STL) — The glove gives Scott a decent shot at playing 130 games or more again if he stays healthy and also a shot at 30 steals, but the weak-hitting outfielder will be a fairly severe negative in every other category. If you only want speed, go ahead and take Scott. If you need anything else, you need to avoid, as there’s nothing in his profile to suggest that there’s another level here.
226. Jonathan India (2B/3B/OF, KCR) — India should play in 130 or more games if he stays healthy (which has been an issue in his career), and it’s hard to imagine he puts up another goose egg in the stolen base volume. I expect something like 10-12 homers, just under 10 steals, and a .240 batting average with mediocre-to-bad counting stats. His volume and positional flexibility are his greatest and only-est fantasy tools.
227. Trevor Larnach (OF, MIN) — Larnach is a platoon outfielder with slightly plus power who keeps his strikeout rate reasonable. He’s unlikely to get 142 games again for the Twins, despite the poor state of their roster, but when he is in the lineup against righties, he should hit like .250/.330/.420. It’s not flashy, but it’s honest work.
228. Lane Thomas (OF, KCR) — Thomas has struggled to stay off the IL in the last two seasons, and outside of that fantastic first half with the Nationals in 2024, he’s been incredibly pedestrian when healthy. He’s probably still a 15-15 kind of guy if he plays 120 games, but the rising strikeout rate and poor batting average of late make Thomas a sandbag outside of those two categories.
229. Owen Caissie (OF, MIA) — Caissie consistently hit for a high average in the minors while taking a ton of walks, though he also consistently struck out 28-30% of the time. I’m not sure that’s going to translate to the majors very well, but the Marlins should at least give him a platoon job out of camp. If Caissie keeps the strikeout rate near 30% with a double-digit walk rate, he could carve out a bigger role and hit 15+ home runs with upside for more as he taps into his power. That’s a big ask for a guy with high strikeout rates in the minors, though, as most guys add about 5% to that rate when they face major league pitching.
230. Wenceel Pérez (OF, DET) — Pérez won’t be platooned by the Tigers, but between injuries and wanting to get other guys in, he’ll still likely miss 30-40 games. When playing, expect a .240 average and a bit of pop and speed, though not quite 15 of either homers or steals. The floor is fairly high for a player this late, but the ceiling is not much different from the floor.
231. Ke’Bryan Hayes (3B, CIN) — Hayes remains a good defender at third, and it gets him all the volume his body can handle. There’s no power to speak of due to the high groundball rates, and he doesn’t run like he did in 2022, so outside of that volume and 10-12 steals, there isn’t much to write home about. It’s possible he can hit double-digit homers in Cincy (he hit three in 52 games with the Reds last year), which I guess gives him enough ceiling and floor to be considered in deep formats.
232. Ryan McMahon (3B, NYY) — McMahon has five consecutive seasons with over 150 games played and at least 20 home runs, though that’s very much in jeopardy in 2026 as the Yankees have a lot of infielders they seem ready to rotate in and out. McMahon can’t really hit lefties at all anymore, either, and a lot of those records come from being the only available option and playing for the Rockies. Fifteen home runs is still in play, though it likely comes with a .210 batting average and low counting stats from the bottom of the lineup.
233. Parker Meadows (OF, DET) — Hopes were high for Meadows in 2025, but injuries and inconsistency turned his season into a disappointment. Meadows has the pop and speed to hit 15+ homers and swipe 15+ bags with something resembling a full-time role, but he’s likely stuck in a platoon and at the bottom of the order for the Tigers, capping his upside significantly.
234. Vaughn Grissom (2B, LAA) — It’s been a while since anyone has been excited about Grissom as a fantasy contributor, and it feels like an eternity since he was a key piece in a trade for Chris Sale. Grissom looks like he’ll be fighting for a starting job with Christian Moore or a platoon role with Moncada, and if he were to win a decent-sized role, he could put up 10 homers and 8-10 steals with a .250 batting average, with the upside for something like 15 homers and 12 steals if he were a full-time player. Without that kind of role, though, he’s hard to think much of with his very limited power and groundball tendencies.
235. Tyler O’Neill (OF, BAL) —Not a TON to say here, folks: O’Neill remains incredibly volatile as he still has plus power and speed, but is also prone to deep slumps and has as much injury risk as anyone in the league. He’s a deep-league lottery ticket who will be very relevant for a few weeks this season and either hurt or bad for many weeks.
236. Carson Kelly (C, CHC) — Kelly was phenomenal in April last season, hitting seven home runs in 17 games with a .360 average and a whopping 21 RBI, though the rest of the season was decidedly more lackluster. Kelly’s solid plate discipline and modest (but not absent) power should lead to 12 home runs and maybe 90 combined runs and RBI with a .240 average, which screams backend C2 to anyone in a format that has two catchers.
237. Carter Jensen (C, KCR) — Jensen should get plenty of time behind the plate as the Royals give Sal more days as a DH, and Jensen’s minor league track record is hard to ignore, especially the 20 homers and 166 wRC+ he had in Triple-A last season. With 100 games or so, Jensen can hit 12-15 homers with a .250 average and a solid OBP if the plate discipline stays strong, though Sal’s legendary durability makes it hard to see a path to more than those 100 games for Jensen in 2026.
238. Victor Caratini (C, MIN) — Caratini’s average and OBP over the last three seasons have been stronger than other catchers you’d see at this stage, though he doesn’t often get quite as much volume. Caratini should rotate at DH and catcher with Ryan Jeffers, and if Jeffers were to lose time with injury (as he is known to do), the volume could be closer to 110 games or so. As long as he plays 90-110 games, 10 homers, and a .260 average should be there.
Nate’s Note: Brett Baty is quite low after we finally saw what kind of player he could be last year. While it’s likely in a strong-side platoon, the batted ball peripherals still look excellent, and he started making much better decisions down the stretch last year. With the skills and lineup he’s in, he’s worth the flier for upside and hope that a full-time role could appear if he keeps it up. The other helium name I’m looking at here is Carter Jensen. The 2025 sample isn’t going to stick, but it looks like the bat-to-ball will play at the big league level. Jensen has 20 HR/10 SB potential from the catcher position (as a likely primary DH), which is very enticing this late.
Tier 20
239. Carson Williams (SS, TBR) — The 41.5% strikeout rate in 106 plate appearances was ugly, but the glove should give him some staying power in this lineup. His zone-contact rates in the minors and majors are terrifying and deeply threaten his long-term outlook. In the event he figures out a way to hit .220 with a double-digit walk rate, he could hit 20 home runs and steal 30 bases.
240. Aidan Miller (SS, PHI) — The Phillies’ top prospect doesn’t have a clear path while Trea Turner is still around, but should the Phillies find a way to get him on the roster, Miller could steal 30 bags in as few as 100 games and hit double-digit home runs. The power may take some time to develop, though, and of course, the path the majors is well blocked by a solid player. Keep Miller on your radar, though, if Turner should get hurt or they start giving him reps at second base.
241. Max Clark (OF, DET) — Clark may be the ultimate solution to the Tigers’ issue with finding a leadoff man, though his chance to win that role may not appear until the second half. Clark has fantastic plate discipline, slaps the ball around, and runs fast, and while the Tigers don’t steal bases much, he’d have the chance to be a high-level run scorer thanks to their extreme aggression when running the bases and his ability to get on base often using his bat or his eyes.
242. Josh Smith (1B/3B/SS, TEX) — Another 140-game season feels like a stretch, but 120 feels about right for the versatile Smith. He can get to barely double-digit home run and stolen base totals with that many games, probably, and maybe even hit .250 again. The counting stats will be bad, though, and the numbers I just gave are more of a ceiling than a floor.
243. Nolan Arenado (3B, ARI) — Arenado has a clearer path to 140 games than anyone else in this tier, and with that amount of time, he should hit 15-17 homers and drive in 60-70 runners. That said, the long-time stalwart at the hot corner looked like a shell of himself at many points in 2025, and there’s more than a small chance the bottom falls out. He’s worth a look if you need a deep league backup who will be in the lineup whenever healthy, but he’s not really a play for upside.
244. Ha-Seong Kim (SS, ATL) — We won’t see Kim until the summer, but Atlanta clearly sees him as an everyday player when he returns. Kim won’t have enough time to get to 10 home runs or 20 steals, but when healthy, he should offer a smattering of home runs and decent stolen base totals with a .240 average. I’ll be curious to see where in the lineup Kim lands when healthy, as there are a few ways he could find himself hitting sixth or so, which wouldn’t be terrible if this offense is clicking like it should.
245. Kristian Campbell (2B, BOS) — I was a little shocked Campbell didn’t get any chances to return to the majors last season, but the BoSox seem committed to converting Campbell to a corner outfielder. There’s no obvious path to playing time for Campbell, and even if he wins a job out of camp, it’s likely on the small side of a platoon with Wilyer Abreu or something. Still, Campbell was a top-10 prospect at this time last year, and it wouldn’t be a huge surprise if he regained some of his 2024 form while in the minors and forces his way into playing time.
246. Mauricio Dubón (2B/3B/SS/OF, ATL) — Until Kim is back, Dubón should be an everyday player for Atlanta. It’s not a terribly exciting profile, mind you, but Dubón puts a ton of balls in play and should hit close to .260 when active, albeit with low power. He’s especially useful in points leagues due to the low strikeout rate, and there is a chance Dubón gets a larger role (basically, if any player not named Matt Olson gets hurt).
Dubón is considerably more interesting when facing lefties, as he has a career .762 OPS against them in his career. Keep that in mind in those deep leagues when one of your backend starters has a rough matchup.
247. Lourdes Gurriel Jr. (OF, ARI) — Gurriel was a top-120 hitter last year and has three straight seasons with at least 18 home runs and 75 RBI. Unfortunately, doing that a fourth time will be nigh impossible, as Gurriel Jr. tore his ACL last September and likely won’t see the field until late summer at the earliest (he’s reportedly well ahead of schedule). When he returns, we will likely see him hitting fourth or fifth, though Gurriel Jr. is famously inconsistent in-season, so it’s hard to know exactly what version we will get. You can’t stash him unless you have unlimited spots, but keep him on your watchlist when summer hits, and we get some more updates on his timeline.
248. Walker Jenkins (OF, MIN) — Minnesota has a poor track record of developing left-handed corner guys, though Jenkins has a better shot to break out than the last batch. Jenkins struggled in 23 games at Triple-A last season and hasn’t quite developed the power folks hoped for, but his hit tool should carry him to the majors and give him a shot in the middle of the order.
249. Travis Bazzana (2B, CLE) — The Guardians should realize they need offensive firepower in the worst way, and that their current middle infielders aren’t going to provide it. He has decent power, but his plate discipline and speed are the tools that are most likely to stand out in the majors.
250. Sean Murphy (C, ATL) — Murphy will be out until May, but on his return, he should play most days at either catcher or DH. He should play at least as much as he did last season, despite the injury, if he stays healthy otherwise, though, and the counting stats should be passable for a second catcher. He’s hit less than .200 for the last two seasons, and that’s likely to continue, but you may not care about that at this point.
251. Luisangel Acuña (2B, CWS) — Landing on the South Side gives Acuña a clear shot to play much more often than he would have for the Mets, though the middle infield for the White Sox actually isn’t bad with Chase Meidroth and Colson Montgomery manning the middle. If Acuña somehow works his way into 100 games, he could swipe 20 bases and hopefully clear five homers with a .260 average, which is playable at second base in deeper leagues. Spring will be a big litmus test for him, though, as he’ll need to perform to earn regular time.
252. Triston Casas (1B, BOS) — It feels like only yesterday we were calling for Casas to hit 30 bombs in the heart of the order for the Red Sox. Nowadays, we are trying to see where he fits on the roster with Contreras taking over 1B and plenty of competition for the DH spot. To make matters worse, Casas may miss the start of the season as he recovers from a knee injury.
Casas has big power and takes a ton of walks, but since the start of 2024, the contact ability has fallen off a cliff, and the exit velocity was a scary-low 87.6 mph in 2025, a full 2.5 mph dip from 2024. He’s an interesting stash in deep draft and hold leagues or dynasty to see if he finds any of that promise he once had (he’s barely 26), but counting on him for 2026 as anything more than a lottery ticket is not wise. Still, it’s a lotto ticket that has a bigger jackpot than others in this tier.
253. Sung-Mun Song (3B, SDP) — Song is a late-blooming player from Korea who isn’t walking into a full-time role for the Padres, but there are still some reasons to pay attention. His 26 home runs in the KBO would likely look more like 15 in a full season on this side of the Pacific based on his swing and the fact that pitchers may challenge him away until he proves can hit the ball with any kind of authority on that side of the plate, but he’s also got a bit of speed and a solid hit tool. Should injury or poor performance elsewhere on the roster open up space for Song, he’d be interesting in all 15-teamers and even deep 12s due to the state of third base.
254. Lenyn Sosa (1B/2B/DH, CHW) — Sosa had a solid second half, mostly powered by an eight home run August. The various signings by the White Sox likely make Sosa an infield utilityman and maybe a DH against lefties. In his current role, Sosa is probably only good for about 100 games, 10-12 homers, and 50 RBI to go with his .250 average, but an injury to anyone in the infield would make a path to 120-130 games more likely.
255. Justin Crawford (OF, PHI) — The young speedster has a chance to win at least a share of the starting centerfield job for the Phillies this spring, and while the power is extremely limited, it was great to see Crawford double his walk rate in Triple-A in 2025. Crawford has been a .300 or better hitter in the last three seasons in the minors, and the addition of a double-digit walk rate would make Crawford a viable candidate to steal 30 or more bases with solid ratios. The counting stats would likely be ugly in the bigs at the bottom of a rapidly aging lineup, but if you need speed and ratios and a bit of excitement, look Crawford’s way.
256. Jake McCarthy (OF, COL) — Well, if Jake McCarthy can’t hit here, he ain’t gonna hit anywhere. You know the drill by now: McCarthy has a ton of speed and an incredibly streaky hit tool that gets him benched for weeks at a time. The Rockies seem poised to mix and match with platoons all over the roster, and McCarthy is almost certainly a part of that, but don’t be shocked if we are all hyping McCarthy on a homestand or two, especially against teams susceptible to stolen bases.
257. Gavin Lux (2B/3B/OF, TBR) — Lux appears to be the everyday guy at the keystone for the Rays with Lowe’s departure, and there’s a non-zero chance the Rays use him to lead off due to his solid plate discipline. There’s no power or speed to speak of (he hit just five homers last year in 140 games for the Reds), but leading off and hitting .250-.260 has value.
258. Denzel Clarke (OF, ATH) — Clark should be the starting centerfielder for the Athletics in 2025, and while his plate discipline leaves a lot to be desired, he could find a way to swipe 20-25 bags with 10-12 homers if he can get the ball off the ground with such a friendly home park. There’s also a chance he strikes out too much to be viable and hits the pine.
259. Nasim Nuñez (SS, WSN) — Nuñez should be the starter at second for the Nationals on Opening Day, and at times the team toyed with leading him off. He likely won’t have that role in 2026 if things go the way the Nats plan, but it’s something to note if injuries or poor performance cause a lineup shakeup. Nuñez’s main tool is speed, as he stole 36 bags in 63 games in Triple-A last season. Even if he only plays 100-120 games, he’s a threat to steal 30 bases, though he’ll be a major negative in all other categories.
260. Miguel Andujar (3B/OF, SDP) — Andujar found a home in San Diego, and he’ll get a chance to earn plate appearances at DH over Sung-Mon Song and any other hot bat the Padres have. Andujar had a surprisingly strong second half in 2025, hitting seven home runs with a .970 OPS that drove his full-season stat line. While I think Andujar can hit .270 or so, it’s hard to imagine him playing in more than 100-110 games with 10-12 home runs. I’m sure he’ll be worth streaming here and there during the season, but injuries and streakiness have plagued Andujar his entire career, and he hasn’t appeared in 100 games in a season since 2018.
261. Rhys Hoskins (1B, FA) — It’s a little surprising that Hoskins remains a free agent, as when he was healthy last season, he was just fine, hitting 12 homers in 90 games with a .748 OPS. At this point, I don’t see anyone giving Hoskins anything close to full-time plate appearances, and even if they did, he’d likely still miss a bunch of games with injury. Should he find a team this spring that plays in a smaller park, Hoskins will become a power streamer. If he lands in a bigger, scarier park, then he still is a power streamer; you just won’t care in mixed leagues.
262. Tyler Freeman (OF, COL) — Freeman has enough speed to steal 15 bases even with a further diminished role in 2026 with a solid .275-.28- batting average, but his complete lack of power means he’s mostly limited to points leagues or NL-only formats. If he earns enough playing time to get into 120 games or so, he could steal 20 bags with a plus average and very few counting stats, and that’s just about his ceiling. He’s mostly notable at this stage of the ranks because his batting average is 40-60 points better than most guys in this tier.
Nate’s Note: I’m still in on Cam Smith. He played just 32 minor league games before making his MLB debut last year and learned a new position in the process. He flashed prolonged stretches of good decisions, good contact, and power, and I’ll take the gamble that he’s going to continue to evolve.
(With the recent trade, Cam Smith was bumped above this tier!)
Tier 21
264. Jordan Lawlar (3B, ARI) — This is a one-time top prospect who has seen the shine fade off almost entirely in the last few seasons due to injuries and poor performance in the big leagues. The trade of Blaze Alexander gives Lawlar a much better chance of making the roster on Opening Day, but with Perdomo and Marte blocking up the middle and the team signing Nolan Arenado to play the hot corner, Lawlar will be forced to try to learn a new position to carve out a role.
The biggest issue for his fantasy outlook, though, is that the 108 plate appearances we’ve seen in the majors were brutal, as he slashed just .165/.241/.237 with zero home runs. That, combined with his high injury risk, makes him little more than a dart throw in leagues that have a very deep bench, though if you were going to throw a dart at the end of a deep draft, a former top-20 prospect with power upside isn’t a bad target.
265. Carson Benge (OF, NYM) — Benge has solid plate discipline and a decent blend of pop and speed, and there’s a better-than-expected chance to win a role as a platoon bat in the corner outfield with the Mets. He struggled in 103 plate appearances in Triple-A, posting a wRC+ of just 53, though he did show a strong 92.1 mph average exit velocity.
Benge has enough raw power to hit 12-15 home runs in a part-time role, but he’ll need to find a way to get those balls in the air to the pull side, as he hits far too many the opposite way to find consistency. That tendency also could crush his batting average as well, though if you’re in an OBP league, you can bump him into the previous tier.
266. Kody Clemens (1B/2B/OF, MIN) — Clemens showed shocking power in 2025, hitting 19 home runs in 119 games for the Phillies and Twins. Sure, it came with a .213 batting average and a .281 OBP, but at least there was power. Still, it wasn’t enough for the Twins to hand over the reins to a starting spot in 2026, as the signing of Josh Bell likely puts Clemens in a platoon utility role. All 19 of those home runs came against righties last season, and while he can’t hit pitching from either side for average, he slugged .496 against righties. That’s streamable in the right circumstances, but nothing to get excited about.
267. Blaze Alexander (2B/3B, BAL) — Blaze Alexander doesn’t have a ton of power or speed to speak of, and he doesn’t hit for average, but one thing he does have that many in this tier don’t is a likely full-time starting gig on Opening Day. Granted, that opportunity will disappear once Jackson Holliday is ready to play, but it may be just enough time to earn a spot on the bench while he waits for another opening (like another injury to Jordan Westburg).
He’s eligible at third base in all formats and also at second in Yahoo leagues, so if you’re in a deep league and need someone to fill a hole for a little while as you look for something more exciting, Blaze should be there for you. If you’re looking for upside, though, he shouldn’t be on your board.
268. Luis Rengifo (2B/3B, FA) — Rengifo is only 29, and as recently as 2024, he showed flashes of being an impact player by swiping 24 bags in 78 games with a .300 average. Unfortunately, Rengifo was awful in 2025 (73 wRC+ over 147 games) and has yet to find a home this season. If he lands with a team that runs aggressively and has playing time to offer him, he’d be worth a last-round flier in deep leagues for steals.
269. Joc Pederson (UT, TEX) — The aging lefty masher hopefully still has a little left in the tank against right-handed pitchers, and Texas has little choice right now but to give him 100 or so games as a DH to inject a little power into their lineup. He could hit as many as 15 home runs in that time if he finds his 2024 form, and he’s always an attractive streamer against soft righties.
270. Brayan Rocchio (2B/SS, CLE) — Rocchio will hit under .235 and have an OBP south of .300, but he’ll get well over 500 plate appearances up the middle for the Guardians and might even hit double-digit home runs. It’s all volume here, but volume down here ain’t easy to find.
271. Brooks Baldwin (2B/3B/SS/OF, CWS) — Baldwin doesn’t have a plus tool he brings to the table, but he’s eligible everywhere and should claw his way to another 90-100 games for the rebuilding White Sox. The arrival of Luisangel Acuña gives Baldwin more exciting competition as a utilityman, but the fact that Baldwin can switch hit and has a little bit of power should keep plate appearances available to him.
272. Ryan Waldschmidt (OF, ARI) — Waldschmidt had a solid first full season in the minors, posting a 142 wRC+ with 18 total homers, 29 steals, and 114 runs scored thanks to a .289/.419/.473 slash line across three levels. Waldschmidt has an uphill battle to make this roster as the D-Backs seem committed to trying to find out what Jordan Lawlar and Tim Tawa can offer their organization, but if he were to win a job this spring or summer, Waldschmidt’s on-base skills would make him instantly interesting in all formats, particularly OBP.
273. Hyeseong Kim (2B, LAD) — Kim still doesn’t appear to have a path to an everyday role for the Dodgers, but he did manage to hit .280 with 13 steals over 71 games despite a 30.6% strikeout rate. It was concerning that the strikeout rate climbed throughout the season, as most of that strong performance was in the first two or three weeks of being called up, but Kim should at least be a platoon bat in 2026, and any part of this lineup is interesting if you squint hard enough.
274. Jake Meyers (OF, HOU) — The BABIP Gods gifted Meyers a .292 batting average in 2025, largely from an elevated line drive rate and good fortune on grounders. That aside, Meyers enters 2026 with decent plate discipline and enough speed to steal 12-15 bases in a part-time role with a batting average that won’t help or hurt you. There’s no real upside here, but those in AL-only formats will likely find some value late in the draft.
275. Zach Cole (OF, HOU) — Cole had an outstanding year in the minors last season, slashing .279/.377/.539 across Double-A and Triple-A, though it came with an alarmingly high 35.1% strikeout rate that unsurprisingly translated into a 38.5% strikeout rate in 52 major league plate appearances. Strikeouts will almost certainly dog Cole throughout his career in the majors just as they did in the minors, but given 100 games or so, he could hit 15 home runs and swipe 15 bags. Striking out over a third of the time will make it very difficult to get to that many games, mind you, but there are worse bets to make at this stage.
276. Gabriel Arias (2B/SS, CLE) — Arias should play in 100-110 games for the Guardians all over the infield in 2026, and what you’ll get is double-digit home runs, a handful of steals, and terrible ratios thanks to a poor walk rate and a strikeout rate consistently over 30%.
277. Jhostynxon Garcia (OF, PIT) — The Password won’t likely be a starter for the Pirates to start the season, but he has a decent shot to get playing time against left-handed pitching with which he can try to display enough of his power to win a larger role. Garcia has over 20 home runs in each of the last two seasons in the high minors, with not terrible plate discipline, and he could absolutely bring that kind of production to a full-time major league role if given the chance, though he’ll need to work through his somewhat severe zone contact issues to make that a reality.
278. Jake Fraley (OF, MIA) — Fraley is a platoon bat through and through, and while his power and speed are fairly limited, the Rays should be able to get the most out of what Fraley can do, which is get on base and smack righties around a little (career .776 OPS against them). He’s more of a short-term plug-n-play when you’ve lost a few outfielders due to the complete lack of real upside, but a decent floor has value, too.
279. Christian Moore (2B, LAA) — Moore will get the first crack at the starting second base job to open the season, and he has enough power and speed to post double-digit totals in both home runs and stolen bases. Moore does have a significant flaw, though: his hitting tool. Moore fell short of the magical 80% zone-contact rate in Triple-A, and in the small sample we saw in 2025 in the majors, it was a paltry 72.8%.
You’ll notice that I ranked Vaughn Grissom higher on this list despite Moore being projected to be the one to win a starting job instead of Grissom, and that’s because I think the Angels will tire of seeing Moore swing and miss at balls in the zone and give Grissom a chance.
280. Freddy Fermin (C, SDP) — In two catcher leagues, you’ll want Fermin way higher than this, but his lack of power and upside make him a bit of an afterthought in even the deepest single-catcher mixed leagues. Fermin will put plenty of balls in play and hit above .230 (though probably not the .250-.270 he’s hit the last two years, as there’s no reason he should be outperforming his expected averages as much as he does). He’ll play a lot, though, for a deep league catcher, and maybe he’ll hit seven to nine homers, too.
281. Joey Bart (C, PIT) — The once-touted prospect had a promising rebound in 2024 for the Pirates, but his 2025 was an utter disappointment by comparison. While he did manage to pump his walk rate up to 12%, the strikeout rate crept up a bit, and he failed to hit for any kind of power, knocking just four home runs and slugging .340 in 93 games thanks to an elevated ground ball rate. Bart should hit closer to eight or nine home runs in his 80-90 games this season with an OBP as high as .340 this season, but everything else will be ugly.
282. Danny Jansen (C, TEX) — Jansen ought to hit .210 and smack 13 home runs or so, though the career-high strikeout rate that stayed consistently above his career norms is a cause for concern. There’s a chance the bottom is going to fall out here, and he cedes more time to Higashioka than planned, but for now, he’s a 90-game catcher with a little pop.
283. Kyle Higashioka (C, TEX) — He’s the second-most likely of this group of catchers to hit double-digit home runs behind his teammate Jansen (a feat he’s accomplished for five consecutive seasons), but that’s about all we can get excited about here. Higashioka will have a low average and under 40 RBI due to his limited role, though if he finds extra playing time for whatever reason, he could approach 15 home runs (he had 17 in 2024).
284. Anthony Santander (OF/DH, TOR) — After three straight strong seasons for the Orioles, Santander gave us a huge dud in 2025. Injuries are the obvious culprit, though he was seemingly healthy for the first two months before hitting the IL. Santander is worth a scoop if you want to throw a dart and see if you can hit a top-60 caliber player (which is what a healthy Santander definitely can be) with tons of power, but if you’re looking for a stable presence with a clear role in 2026, it’s not here, as even a healthy Santander is a classically streaky power hitter.
Santander will miss the first several months of the season, making him viable only on draft day in draft-and-hold formats or if you have unlimited IL spots.
285. Casey Schmitt (1B/2B/3B, SFG) — Schmitt is the classic example of “anyone can be great for 50 plate appearances”, as back in June, he did just that. In 50 plate appearances from June 6-22, Schmitt hit four home runs with a .378/.44o/.667 line, making him a top-seven hitter during that stretch. In the remaining 244 plate appearances Schmitt had in 2025, he his just .217/.279/.376. I won’t be overly shocked if Schmitt finds his way to double-digit homers as a utility infielder off the bench, but I would be shocked if he did anything else of any note.
286. Joshua Baez (OF, STL) — Baez stole 54 bases in 117 games across High-A and Double-A last season while hitting .287 with 20 home runs and a double-digit walk rate, making it a breakout season for the young outfielder. If Baez were to win a job out of camp in 2026, he’d be someone worth looking at for stolen bases and to see if anything else happens that’s interesting, though the Cardinals are lousy with young outfielders that they want to get a longer look at, so it may be a while before Baez gets a shot.
287. C.J. Kayfus (OF, CLE) — Given 120 games or so, I could see Kayfus hitting 15 homers with a .245 average and 50 RBI, though Kayfus doesn’t have a clear position to play for the Guardians with fellow southpaw Kyle Manzardo already at first base and three other lefties already playing in the outfield. A safer projection would be closer to 90 games with a .235 batting average and barely double-digit homers. If a bigger role opens up, though, we can revisit his upside.
288. Nathan Lukes (OF, TOR) — Lukes can hit .250-.260 with a low strikeout rate in a platoon role, though his top-200 hitter finish in 2025 feels like an absolute ceiling given that he’s likely to play in 30-40 fewer games than last season and he doesn’t exactly do anything that stands out from a skills or approach perspective. He’s astreamable against bad righties (especially if the Blue Jays hit him near the top of the order in those games), but otherwise he’s just a low-to-mild power lefty who can provide some empty average.
289. Jacob Melton (OF, TBR) — Melton consistently hit the ball hard in Triple-A last season (56.1% hard-hit rate) in his 150 plate appearances there, and his strikeout rate in the majors should be significantly better than the 37.2% we saw in 32 games in the majors last year. Melton will need to work on pulling the ball to unlock more of his plus power at the major league level, and playing for the Rays means consistent playing time isn’t going to happen even if he does win a spot on the roster (which is quite unlikely given the depth of outfielders the Rays have), but there’s enough power here to keep an eye on if he gets the call.
290. Brady House (3B, WSN) — House’s unwillingness to walk is a tad concerning, considering he’s likely to strike out 25% of the time or more, and he doesn’t hit the ball in the air often enough to make use of his 46.3% hard-hit rate. House will likely have more volume than the vast majority of this tier due to a lack of options in Washington, and that raw volume could lead to 15 home runs and 60 RBI if things break right, but I imagine the poor plate discipline will lead to a bit of a revolving door at the hot corner for the Nats this season.
What I’d like most, probably, is to see the Nats shuffle around the infield in a way that gives Abimelec Ortiz a shot to see if that power has any chance at playing in the bigs, but the 22-year-old House is more likely to be relevant in deep leagues than Ortiz, so he’s the one who gets ranked.
291. Coby Mayo (1B, BAL) — Mayo was a much more highly regarded prospect in the low minors, but issues with breaking balls have held him back as the competition improved. Mayo has plenty of raw power and could hit 25 home runs or more in the majors if he gets over this issue with breakers, but we haven’t really seen any signs of that happening yet. Even worse, the O’s signed Alonso and still have Mountcastle on the roster, meaning Mayo likely starts the season in the minors unless they find a way to squeeze him into third base while Holliday is out. Even if that happens, though, I’m not interested unless he hits some breakers this spring.
292. Keibert Ruiz (C, WSN) — Ruiz will strikeout about 10% of the time and almost never take walks, leading to a highly variable batting average that should end up around .250-.260 by the end of the year. He’ll likely fall well short of 10 home runs, especially if he struggles with grounders again, but an empty average from a catcher isn’t the worst thing in the world.
293. Joey Loperfido (OF, HOU) — Loperfido makes his way back to the Astros and should have a chance to find some playing time against righties, even if a regular job is out of reach. Don’t buy the lofty batting average from his 104 plate appearances last season, as Loperfido’s propensity to hit balls on the ground or slightly above it will usually result in a much lower BABIP. There’s a bit of power and speed here given a larger role, but for now he’s more of a watchlist guy.
294. Ryan Mountcastle (1B, BAL) — Mountcastle will sub in when a lefty is on the mound, but that’s about it as long as Pete Alonso and Samuel Basallo are healthy. Mountcastle is a career .282 hitter against lefties who slugs .474, though a lot of that power came from earlier in his career. Still, he can provide some average when facing southpaws, and if he found a bigger role via trade or injury, he could hit .250 with double-digit homers.
295. Jake Bauers (1B/OF, MIL) — Bauers takes a lot of walks and showed better plate skills than he had in any of the years he’s spent kicking around the league. Between injuries and his on-base skills, Bauers should find 80-90 games with the Brewers and will likely pop up on your radar at times when he’s hot due to the walk rate. OBP players in deep leagues will know this name well from how often he was a possible waiver wire add in 2025, and 2026 is likely going to be a similar feel.
296. Javier Báez (2B/3B/SS/OF, DET) — Javy isn’t quite cooked yet as he posted his best batting average since 2021 (.257) while logging at least 10 games at four different positions. The versatility is the excuse that lands him at the back of this list, along with the ability to hit double-digit home runs and a .240 batting average. Don’t ask for more than that, though. It ain’t there.
297. Pavin Smith (1B, ARI) — Smith is a platoon bat who occasionally gets hot enough for a month or two to catch our attention. The power is limited (he hasn’t hit double-digit homers since 2021), and injuries have cut the last several seasons short, but he’ll be roster-worthy a few times this season and can do some damage against right-handed pitching when healthy.
298. Austin Martin (OF, MIN) — Martin ended last season hitting near the top of the Twins lineup thanks to strong plate discipline, a .282 batting average, and a .374 OBP. He hit just a single home run in 50 games in the majors and just 1 more in 35 games in the minors, though, so all you can hope for here are some empty ratios and maybe 10-12 steals.
299. Spencer Jones (OF, NYY) — Jones is a hulking 6’7″ lefty with big power and big contact issues who currently doesn’t have a path to playing time in the majors, considering that Jasson Domínguez might not even make the Opening Day roster. Should injuries or other moves open up space, you can expect some lazy comparisons to Judge due to his size, some towering home runs, and a bunch of strikeouts (he struck out in 35.4% of his plate appearances in the high minors last year).
300. Garrett Mitchell (OF/DH, MIL) — Garrett Mitchell technically has a part-time role lined up for Opening Day with the upside to hit 10 homers and steal 15 bags with a .220 average. The issue is that Mitchell has a history of crushing injuries and has missed significant time in each of the last three seasons. That, combined with a strikeout rate north of 30% in the majors and a ground-ball rate that often gets far too high, makes it hard to get too enticed by the power-and-speed blend.
Nate’s Note: Last one! I’ll call out one prospect and one current MLB as my names to monitor: Ryan Waldschmidt and Zach Cole. Waldschmidt looks like an all-around bat that runs a ton and doesn’t appear to be blocked in Arizona if he starts the year hot. Cole strikes out over 30% of the time, but he made that livable by taking advantage of his power. He’ll be an incredibly streaky bat with a poor batting average, but his potential for home runs and stolen bases is a good dart throw all the way down here.
Adapted by Kurt Wasemiller (@kurt_player02 on Instagram & Threads, @kuwasemiller.bksy.social on BlueSky)