Draft season is upon us! With that in mind, here’s my rankings for 2026 fantasy baseball season.
These are roto rankings that are primarily aimed at 12 team, 1 catcher leagues. What does that mean? How does that matter? Well, in a 10 or 12 team league, I’m much more likely to chase upside than consistent production. You need both to construct your roster, but the shallower the league, the more of that replacement level or boring production type is available on waivers or cheaply in a trade. I also tend to push down pitching and catching. Pitching is readily available for streaming, so more of an anchor ace strategy (term stolen from football). The rankings will keep changing, mostly in small moves, based on news, lineups, promotions (and demotions), general whims of the day, etcetera.
I don’t particularly love rankings in general, especially overall rankings, but I get it, it’s the easiest way to show how one thinks that players should be drafted. Some go with more of the, how they will finish approach, and that’s fine. I don’t think you should draft a pitcher in the first round of a snake, and I rank as such even though there will undoubtedly be a pitcher in the first round player rater values every season. I do prefer positional rankings as they more easily show drop offs and category limitations, but overall is a loose guide. Don’t become a slave to ADP or rankings. Draft based on what your roster needs from a statistical and positional standpoint.
Alright, time for some well earned company promotion. Check out Rudy’s War Room if you’ve never tried it. It’s an amazing tool that tracks and advises and does pretty much everything you need in a draft. And of course, listen to the Razzball Fantasy Baseball Podcast with Grey and I.
ADP – Average Draft Position
The following is my pitching staff
Logan Gilbert
Jacob deGrom
Framber Valdez
Cam Schlitter
MacKenzie Gore
Tatduya Imai
Shane Baz
Parker Messick
Mich Abel
Grant Holmes
Carlos Rodon DTD
RP: Griffen Jax
The following are on the waiver wire
Zack Gallen
Max Scherzer
Bryan Bello
Zack Littell
Cade Cavalli
Are there any must have?
If yes,who would you then drop?
Thanks!!!
I think you have the right ones on your roster. I could maybe see letting Mick Abel go, but he’s had an interesting enough spring training to see it through to the regular season.
Hey BDon,
Your pitcher rankings don’t seem to be loading for me
Why so low on Braxton Ashcraft? I am feeling a big breakout from him. Also, thoughts on Reynaldo Lopez? Thank you!
Sometimes guys are added at the bottom in the FantasyPros ranking system. I’ve placed Braxton Ashcraft where he belongs now. Thanks for the heads up!
Reynaldo is always solid when he’s healthy, and you never know when a pitcher might have a random healthy (or unhealthy) season. I have no issue taking him as a bench pitcher and seeing if this might be one of those years.
How come so low on Roman Anthony? I kinda feel like he should be up there by Langford and Wood. Convince me I’m wrong.
I love Romany Anthony as a real life baseball player. He’s in a tier where I’d have no problem moving him to 15th in the OF if you wanted him, which gets him closer to Langford/Wood. FWIW, I’m only 1 spot in ADP off on him, although I do see I’m a few spots in OF ranks behind. I don’t have any shares yet, so clearly others are buying into him before me.
I am just not convinced he’s an amazing player for the fantasy baseball side of things. I believe he’ll be an excellent average bat and he’ll score plenty of runs. He certainly hits the ball hard enough, but I just see more doubles into the wall than HRs. Plus, he’s not really fast. He’s closer to Wilyer Abreu speed (6 SBs last year) than Jarren Duran or Rafaela who were in the 20s in SBs.
I get it, he had a great August so you can pro-rate that out to a very nice season, but that’s a lot to take off one month. Before August, he was .279, 2 HRs, and 2 SBs. Sure, adjustment period, but what if it was just a hot August (across the league, there was the most HRs August vs any other month by a decent amount)?
To steal a line from Grey, remove me from the equation. The most aggressive projection line has him at 19/11/.266. Is that worth a top 30 pick?
Hey B_Don. I realize you bump catchers down a bit in your rankings but here goes. Keeper trade question. My JRam $31 for his Jackson Chourio $4 and Raleigh $20. JRam is still under priced but I’m thinking go young with Chourio at his salary is great. Plus I pick up HRs with Raleigh. I will miss Jrams average though. Your thoughts.
Yeah, JRam is amazing, but I’d definitely take the discount on Chourio plus Raleigh.
Hey b don. Henderson is battling an elbow issue and priester a wrist one. If Harrison gets a rotation spot where would you rank him?
I’d put Harrison around 275-300 overall, and it does seem as though he’ll have a rotation spot. I like to see the velo up, but not putting too much into that just yet.
Why is CJ Abram’s so high? 25 seems crazy to me. His savant page hitting is literally all blue and his speed is only 70 percentile. What am I missing?
He’s in a tier from him to Rooker. I’d be fine with just about any order of that tier. I know the savant page isn’t the most impressive thing, but hard to ignore back to back 20/30 seasons. His sprint speed ranking isn’t top end, but it’s good enough, and in 80 and 85ft splits, he’s 67 and 66. He’s also in an offense that lets him run.
Hey B Don,
I am trying to pick my last keeper in a 12 team roto league that has both avg and obp. 3OF, no CI or MI. I see you are really high on Abrams. My last keeper is between Abrams and Naylor. In this league structure, who do you prefer? Already have Soto, JRam, JRod, crochet, Gilbert and woo. Thanks!
Go with Naylor. First base is pretty shallow this year and I don’t get the love for Abram’s.
I think the age difference is enough for me to go with Abrams. Naylor always finds a way to provide value, but I don’t trust any particular part of it other than the counting numbers year to year.
What gives with Busch? Does your rankings reflect his new found *every day* status as opposed to his previous S/S platoon status? And I’m guessing you feel he will be able handle LHP well enough to give him that boost in the rankings?
He played 155 games last year, so he was already an every day 1B in my mind. Most lefty bats don’t hit left handed pitchers amazingly, so I’m not overly concerned about that. He’s also in a great division with only a few lefty starters projected.
I have him projected for 30 HRs, a few SBs and a .250 average. That’s pretty much the line I expect from other bats in his area.
hey man, if you were in a keeper….and you were keeping Soto already….would you keep Henderson with a 6th round value (lose the pick) or Nick Kurtz with your last round value (28th round or something)…6×6 with OPS…thanks!!!!
Keep Kurtz. It’s an easy decision with where you get to keep him.
Kurtz for sure!
I love Gunnar, but not enough for a 22 round cost difference.