Rolling In The Deep… And The Party’s Over

Well friends, we’ve come to the end of the line, and by suppertime on Sunday we’ll have wrapped up the 2026 regular MLB season. Actually, we’re not quite at the end of the line, since the four days of games remaining as I type this could be a very, very big deal when it comes to both real-life and fantasy standings to close out the year. Here’s to hoping you are either sitting pretty at the top of your league just waiting for your first place finish to be official, or at least have an exciting weekend of box score watching ahead in an attempt to clinch a money spot.

Congratulations to those of you in the winner’s circle. But really, congratulations to all of us who’ve made it through another year of legit fantasy baseball. One thing I love about the writers, commenters, and readers here at Razzball is that we truly are our own little community. I just don’t feel like there are too many people out there who truly “get it”… even when it comes to our own partners, best friends, parents, or children. You really can’t explain what it takes to commit to a season long league like one of our RCLs unless you’ve done it. Honestly, I don’t think the experience of a high-maintenance fantasy league compares as similarly to things like fantasy football or daily sports betting as it does to endeavors like climbing a giant mountain, writing a doctoral thesis, or growing a human being inside yourself and then giving birth to it. I’m not exaggerating as much as you might think. I’m gonna have to pull rank and consider myself uniquely qualified to make that last comparison, as someone who’s done that growing a human thing twice, but only won the overall RCL title once.

As we head into what we all hope will be a relatively normal offseason, this week we’ll take a few more moments of reflection by looking at which players finished the final third of the season as the leaders in each individual 5×5 fantasy category. While I’ll have a few wrap-up thoughts, this is less about analysis and more about just finding and processing information now that we can store away, and then decide as we ramp up for the 2027 season what it all means. I’m using Fantrax 5×5 value over the last 60 days through Wednesday’s games, without separating by league. I have some ideas in my head of which players have been delivering the fantasy goods and will populate this list before I create it, but I’m also prepared to see a few names that surprise me.

Hitters:

Runs: Pete Crow-Armstong (49), Randy Arozarena (44), Fernando Tatis Jr. (42)

PCA has been a one-man wrecking crew this year (spoiler alert: this isn’t his only appearance on this list), and I was watching a game the other day where someone mentioned that his numbers are comparable to prime Mike Trout. Obviously, you’re going to need to get lucky with your draft position next year if you have an interest in rostering him in any standard, snake format re-draft league.

HR: Pete Crow-Armstong (22), Pete Alonso (19), Fernando Tatis Jr. (17)

What an odd year for Tatis. Remember when it was like June and he’d completely forgotten how to homer? He’s going to end the season with pretty gaudy numbers overall, and it’s going to be very interesting to see if this year’s first half power outage impacts his ADP next season. If it does, I’m probably gonna buy in if there’s any discount at all.

RBI: Pete Crow-Armstong (47), Alex Bregman (45), Pete Alonso (43)

No surprise to see Alonso here as well as in the blurb above, but the recently-injured Bregman is probably the interesting name here when thinking ahead to 2026 value. How far his late season burst of production bumps him up next year’s rankings will be something to watch… I won’t want to overpay for a long 2026 hot schmotato streak, but maybe he’ll end up being a relative value pick?

SB: Chandler Simpson (20), C.J. Abrams (15), Jake McCarthy (15)

Simpson landing here and in the next entry almost makes it seem like fantasy baseball sometimes works out the way it’s “supposed” to. Next year he’ll cost more, and we’ll all still need to decide how much a player who may not hit a single homer can possibly be worth. My question is where McCarthy lands in 2026’s rankings… he’s really the only player on this entire list of hitters that was a fantasy afterthought/true deep leaguer heading into this season.

AVG (minimum 150 at bats): Jac Caglianone (.355), Steven Kwan (.338), Chandler Simpson (.333)

Kwan is one of the players whose inclusion here surprised me a bit; where was this average help months ago when I finally gave up and left him for good on the waiver wire? I can’t imagine him being useful in anything resembling a standard league next year, regardless. Caglianone is having a sneaky great year, or maybe it’s not so sneaky at all. He feels like one of those fellows that could be a major Razzball darling come spring.

Pitchers:

ERA (minimum 50 innings pitched): Cam Schlittler (1.64 ERA in 60.1 innings), Cal Quantrill (1.75 ERA in 56.2 innings), Tyler Mahle (1.77 in 61 innings). Huh. The AL Cy Young frontrunner, and a guy whose NFBC was around 450, and another guy, whose NFBC ADP was around 350. It’s been clear for a while that Schlittler would vault up draft boards next year, but is Mahle someone we’ll want to be thinking about seriously?

WHIP (minimum 50 innings pitched): Cal Quantrill (0.776 WHIP in 56.2 innings), Yoshinobu Yamamoto (0.809 WHIP in 59.1 innings), Chris Sale (0.832 WHIP in 51.2 innings).

Okay, the now-hurt Quantrill’s ERA/WHIP dominance is, I suppose, the part of this list that qualifies as a legitimate shock to me. Maybe I was just not paying attention? He’s been the epitome of showing us how a low walk rate can be incredibly useful even without a solid K rate, and I’m assuming this is mostly smoke and mirrors, but it’ll be difficult to fully ignore Quantrill’s final-third numbers next year.

Ks: Gavin Williams (88 Ks in 54.2 innings), Cam Schlittler (77 Ks in 60.1 innings), Taj Bradley (76 Ks in 63.2 innings). Bradley 1.225 whip

Wins: (Three-way tie for first) — Gerrit Cole (7), Logan Henderson (7), Drew Rasmussen (7).

Ah, the category from hell. I guess there’s some justice in that the three players here are legitimately talented pitchers, and not Aaron “The Vulture” Ashby types. (By the way, Ashby himself even has gone on record saying that he thinks the way wins are awarded is ridiculous and should be changed).

Saves: David Bednar (15), (three-way tie for second) — Josh Hader (14), Mason Montgomery (14), Emilio Pagan (14).

Closers seem so simple when you look in the rearview mirror, no? A Yankee, a stud with an injury discount, a guy to grab off the waiver wire who’ll emerge as a ninth inning stud, and a pitcher on a bad team who’s been outperforming peripherals for a while now. Easy peasy.

Okay, that’s it for now, as we all watch the sun set on 2026. Best of luck to everyone still fighting for fantasy glory, and thanks to everyone who read and commented this year!