Points Leagues: Wildly Premature 2027 Top-100(ish) Rankings

Here in September, I don’t feel like there’s a lot of advice I can offer that isn’t covered by others. We’ve got folks out here drawing your attention to who to add for crunch time. Are you looking for advice on which pitchers to stream? We’ve got you covered. And if you’re looking to maximize your innings, the two-start specific options are laid out for you. What’s a lowly scribe to do? Well, why not look forward to next season? So let’s go ahead and pretend that the 2027 year starts on time. Or that it happens at all. Hey, it could happen!

I hope this doesn’t need to be said, but I’ll say it anyway: This is an extremely preliminary ranking of the top 100(ish) players for next season. Injury and performance over the next few weeks could sway things. The opportunity to dig into results, both good and bad, will present itself during the offseason. And projections from people smarter than me (Hi, Rudy!) will jumble this up. But, still, it’s fun to prognosticate a bit and start thinking about how guys might be valued whenever the season rolls around.

As you take in the rankings below, it’s important that you keep a couple things in mind. First, these are for points leagues. That means plate discipline, be it positive or horrendous, plays more of a factor than it will in other, more standard rankings. Second, I don’t like taking starting pitchers early. That doesn’t exactly put me on an island here at Razzball, but it does mean I’m never drafting a pitcher in the first round, and probably not the second or third, either. As a result, you’ll find that position in particular lower here than in other places. Also, I hate trying to guess whose elbows will actually survive the rest of September and the postseason intact. Elbows are the worst. But since I can’t just ignore such a key position entirely, there are a bunch of them listed below. Let’s get to it.

The First Couple Rounds

These guys are the studs. The foundation of your team. The dudes you’re counting on to carry your club. Sure, this year most of the first round fell flat on their faces. Things happen! Next year is their, and your, year.

Yordan Alvarez, HOU
Bobby Witt Jr., KC
Aaron Judge, NYY
Pete Crow-Armstrong, CHC
Juan Soto, NYM
Shohei Ohtani, LAD
Junior Caminero, TB
James Wood, WSH
C.J. Abrams, WSH
Ronald Acuña Jr. ATL
Fernando Tatis Jr., SD
Jose Ramirez, CLE

The top-6 could really go in just about any order, I think. Injury and age introduce just a little more doubt about Judge and Ohtani than has been there the last couple seasons. PCA is having an absolutely ridiculous season, but can you just assume this season is just who he’s going to be going forward? Even with those questions, I would be thrilled to come out of the draft with any of those guys.

Acuña and FTJ have both had rough stretches this season, but have also shown enough that I’m going to trust the talent and track records toward the back end of the first round.

If you want to be skeptical of Ramirez based on the fact he had a down year and will be 34 next season, I get it. However, I’m willing to chalk most of it up to the broken bone he suffered in June.

Jackson Chourio, MIL
Nick Kurtz, ATH
Elly De La Cruz, CIN
Jordan Walker, STL
Matt Olson, ATL
Kyle Schwarber, PHI
Pete Alonso, BAL
Jacob Misiorowski, MIL
Tarik Skubal, FA
Ben Rice, NYY
Corbin Carroll, ARI
Miguel Vargas, CHW

Kurtz losing so much time due to injury this year was a bummer, but his production when he was healthy didn’t make me regret taking him where he went this spring, and so I won’t be worried about him next spring.

In a lot of leagues, Miz will go in the first round. I can’t say that will be the wrong move, it’s just not one I’ll be making. And since these are my rankings, he goes here. (I wouldn’t take him here, either, but that’s me not liking early pitchers.)

I’ll be interested to see where Skubal ends up. I think everyone assumed it would be with the Dodgers, but will that be affected by the issues with their owners along with the new CBA? I’d actually prefer if he went somewhere else, and not just for the reasons everyone else does. Rather, going to the Dodgers would almost guarantee fewer starts, meaning fewer two-start weeks, and that’s especially annoying in weekly points leagues.

Ben Rice losing C eligibility is a bummer. He should be good enough to still be worth drafting highly next season, especially assuming Judge is back in the order giving pitchers that giant problem to worry about.

Am I overly bullish on Vargas? Possibly. But I liked him coming into the season, and he paid off spectacularly. And he plays for my favorite team. This is me admitting my bias and acknowledging I might need the winter to get my view of him calibrated properly. Or, maybe not. I’ll let you know in March!

More Early Rounders

Cristopher Sanchez, PHI
Cam Schlittler, NYY
Julio Rodriguez, SEA
Sal Stewart, CIN
Brice Turang, MIL
Kevin McGonigle, DET
Francisco Lindor, NYM
Bryce Harper, PHI
Yoshinobu Yamamoto, LAD
JJ Wetherholt, STL
Randy Arozarena, FA
Chris Sale, ATL

I feel like I’m too low on Stewart and Lindor, but I don’t feel like I can move them much higher, either. Yamamoto suffers from the Dodgers Tax on pitchers from their tendency to use 6-man rotations. And for as good as Chris Sale is, I don’t see the Braves becoming less cautious with his innings as he gets another year older.

I Have Questions

Vladimir Guerrero Jr., TOR
Paul Skenes, PIT
Garrett Crochet, BOS
Jackson Merrill, SD
Logan Gilbert, SEA
Gunnar Henderson, BAL
Kyle Tucker, LAD
Ketel Marte, ARI
Hunter Goodman, COL
Ivan Herrera, STL
Drake Baldwin, ATL
Chase Burns, CIN

These guys would constitute the 4th round based on these ranks. And yet, I have questions about basically all of them. Some are based on disappointing or inconsistent production this season. Others are related to injuries. In the case of Skenes, I can’t help but wonder if his dip in performance is due to an undisclosed injury. Nevertheless, surely Vlad and Gunnar and Tucker haven’t just completely forgotten how to hit, right?

Yes, that’s three catchers all together in a row. Why? Why not? They’re all good hitters, and all play a lot. Herrera had a rough period in the middle of the year, but his full-season numbers still put him near the top of the position.

The Fifties

Zack Wheeler, PHI
Trea Turner, PHI
Munetaka Murakami, CHW
Mason Miller, SD
Zach Neto, LAA
Konnor Griffin, PIT
Dylan Cease, TOR
Jesus Luzardo, PHI
Andy Pages, LAD
Otto Lopez, MIA
Alec Burleson, STL
Drew Rasmussen, TB

I’m interested to see how others rate Murakami. His batting average is terrible, but that doesn’t matter for our purposes. He strikes out a ton, which is a problem, but he also takes a lot of walks, which is good. And when he does hit the ball, it goes far. He’s a player with flaws, for sure, but they’re easier to work around than in category leagues where the batting average is a real big problem.

I’m sure I’ll be lower than Mason Miller than other places. The first mock drafts we see come out will certainly have him taken before this, as those tend to be 15-team roto deals where closers always get pushed up. It’s not that they don’t matter in points leagues, but in general they aren’t as much of a priority. Thus, they don’t rate particularly highly here.

The Sixties

Wyatt Langford, TEX
Freddie Freeman, LAD
Bryan Woo, SEA
Max Freid, NYY
Gavin Williams, CLE
Roman Anthony, BOS
Jeremy Pena, HOU
Riley Greene, DET
Michael Harris II, ATL
Cade Smith, CLE
Dillon Dingler, DET
Parker Messick, CLE

Among the things I want to see in September is if Wyatt Langford can actually stay on the field and how he performs while he is.

Roman Anthony looked terrible before getting hurt and missing most of the season. Since returning, though, he’s looked a lot more like the guy he was expected to be when the year started. A strong closing month and postseason could see him force his way up the board.

Harris is someone who really depends on your scoring system, but he’s going to be less appealing than in roto leagues regardless. That’s mostly because he simply doesn’t walk. At all. Ever. That means if his average falls back to where it’s been previously in his career, it’ll cost him a fair bit of value.

The Seventies

Jazz Chisholm Jr., FA
Jac Caglianone, KC
Seiya Suzuki, FA
Gerritt Cole, NYY
Xavier Edwards, MIA
Joe Ryan, MIN
Shea Langeliers, ATH
Josh Hader, HOU
Jacob deGrom, TEX
Brandon Lowe, FA
Nolan McLean, NYM
Rafael Devers, SF

Some guys play out of their minds in contract years, setting themselves up for a nice, big payday in free agency. Jazz, for whatever reason, chose to…not do that. His power is not entirely a product of the short porch in the Bronx, but it is worth keeping an eye on where he signs to play his home games.

This is the second year in a row that deGrom has stayed healthy enough to make 30 starts (27 so far this year). The problem is that it seems as though age might be catching up to him. We’ve seen definite regression from him this season, and he’ll be 39 next year. His decline year was still very good, because he was starting from a higher peak than a lot of guys, but it does seem like the time has come for him to be discounted because of performance, not (just) injury fears.

Approaching 100

Manny Machado, SD
Wilyer Abreu, BOS
Jhoan Duran, PHI
Oneil Cruz, PIT
Hunter Brown, HOU
Jake McCarthy, COL
Luis Arraez, FA
Yandy Diaz, TB
Nico Hoerner, CHC
Byron Buxton, MIN
Tyler Soderstrom, ATH
Ian Seymour, TB

There’s a little of everything in this group. The one name in particular I want to highlight is Ian Seymour. My guess is that in other places he won’t be rated this highly in general, or among SP specifically. However, he is the standout SPARP going into next season. Maybe this is still overly aggressive, but if I’m in a league where guys like that are valued, he will be a target for me, for sure.

A Few More For Fun

Payton Tolle, BOS
Logan Henderson, MIL
Luis Garcia Jr., NYY
Alex Bregman, CHC
Cal Raleigh, SEA
Ceddanne Rafaela, BOS
Cody Bellinger, NYY
Eury Perez, MIA
Troy Melton, DET

Most of these guys are young SP. Let’s see how they close out the season. Maybe next year the Brewers will actually trust Henderson with a rotation spot from the get-go. I don’t know what else he needs to do to show he deserves it.

Bregman has turned his season around in a big way. He’s not going to be the early round standout he was in his Houston prime, but he’s making it so he’s not the afterthought last resort he’d been looking like early on.

It would be a stretch to say Raleigh has turned his season around recently, but at the very least he’s shown signs of life. His 2025 is likely to be a significant outlier in his career, but if he can get back to being the hitter he was before that, he can still be a solid contributor.