The 2026 MLB season is almost here and that means you’re likely prepping for your fantasy baseball draft. One of the best ways to prepare is to do as many mock drafts as possible. Of course, sometimes it’s tough to find an accurate representation of your league settings by using the public mock draft lobby.

Not to fear! If you’re a Yahoo Fantasy+ subscriber, you have access to the Instant Mock Draft tool, allowing you to practice your draft in seconds. You can test different strategies, pick from various draft slots and experiment with roster construction as many times as you want, anytime, instantly. Now is a great time to subscribe to Yahoo Fantasy+, so you can use the wealth of tools for your draft prep.

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In this series, we’re going to be using the Instant Mock Draft tool to pick from each of the 12 slots in a 12-team fantasy baseball league. In this piece, we’ll be drafting from the No. 11 pick. We’re almost to the finish line!

More Mock DraftsFull Roster

C: Salvador Pérez, Royals
1B: Vladimir Guerrero Jr., Blue Jays
2B: Cedanne Rafaela, Red Sox
SS: Willy Adames, Giants
3B: Matt Chapman, Giants
OF: Bryan Reynolds, Pirates
OF: Mike Trout, Angels
OF: Ramon Laureano, Padres
UTIL: Munetaka Murakami, White Sox
UTIL: Ezequiel Tovar, Rockies
SP: Garrett Crochet, Red Sox
SP: Bryan Woo, Mariners
RP: Edwin Díaz, Dodgers
RP: David Bednar, Yankees
P: Hunter Brown, Astros
P: Dylan Cease, Blue Jays
P: Jack Leiter, Rangers
P: Mike Burrows, Astros
Bench: Adolis García, Phillies
Bench: Brandon Lowe, Pirates
Bench: Matt McLain, Reds
Bench: Austin Wells, Yankees
Bench: Gerrit Cole, Yankees

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The Right Stuff

Let’s go over our approach a bit to start things out. If you’ve been following my series of mock drafts the past couple of weeks, you’ve probably noticed that I generally don’t prioritize pitching much. In points leagues, bats are just more valuable … or are they? For this draft, we went heavy on pitching in the early rounds and waited to fill out the position players.

As you can see above, the staff is looking pretty, pretty good. Crochet was arguably the best pitcher in baseball last season despite having to throw in Fenway Park half the time. He’s in the middle of his prime, set to turn 27 years old during the season. I have no reason to believe he won’t be a top-five fantasy pitcher this season. Woo, I’m a bit more worried about but opted for him over teammate Logan Gilbert based on upside. Brown and Cease round up an elite top-four starters to pair with two of the top closers in baseball in Díaz and Bednar.

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There’s some solace in knowing that I likely won’t have to do much work with my pitchers during the season. Sure, injuries can pop up but if all goes well, those six hurlers should be in “set it and forget it” territory all season. With that, I don’t have to worry as much about streaming pitchers and can focus on targeting bats on the waiver wire. That should give me a slight advantage over the other managers in my league, not having to worry as much about a whole pool of players.

Cole World, No Blanket

Plus, if you’ll quickly observe that last pick of Cole, who could add even more punch to an already stacked fake rotation. The Yankees ace is still recovering from Tommy John surgery that cost him all of 2025. But he’s got a shot to pitch this spring, which would put him in a great place to return sooner rather than later. That target date looks to be around the end of May, early June. You’re sacrificing the first few months, but who cares? The worst case is Cole takes up an IL spot for most of the season and I work around it. With the pitching staff I’ve assembled, adding a healthy Cole is simply a luxury. The best case is he returns to form and I’ve got another ace on the roster. It feels like a low-risk, high-reward move late in drafts.

But What About the Bats?

The lineup is admittedly a bit concerning. Vlad Jr. I like to bounce back this season. I think he got a bit unlucky last season and we should see positive regression. Same can be said for Pérez, plus the Royals are bringing in the fences. Trout, Laureano, Reynolds, Chapman and Adames are unsexy veterans who are being overlooked in drafts. I should get some value out of at least a few of those picks. Murakami and Tovar are sleepers I like. In a perfect world, Murakami gets to 30+ homers. Tovar gets the Coors bump and injuries really held him back last season, otherwise his draft stock would be higher.

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McLain is a player we’ve written about a bit to start this week as his ADP has risen during his power surge this spring. Garcia and Lowe are in a group of soon-to-be free agents who are playing for new contracts this season. And that just about does it.

Takeaways from the 11th pick

I may be coming around on the idea of targeting pitching more frequently early in drafts. Bats will always project for more points but you still need to fill out those pitcher roster slots. If I have that advantage over my opponent all season long, I really just need to do my best work to make sure the lineup gives me enough. And I think it’s important to play the waiver wire aggressively early in the fantasy baseball season (and in general).

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Fantasy baseball is a marathon and a half. You need to stay engaged, on top of your game. This type of roster allows you to have fun trying to work the lineup kinks out early on. You can also deal from a position of strength within the staff. If I really need a bat and the Cole pick pans out, I have the option of trading a starter or two to shore up my lineup. You could even package a few arms for an elite bat early on. The flexibility with this build feels endless.