Rolling In The Deep: Hitters I’ve Drafted Outside The Top 300

Happy 2026, Razzball friends and family! That thing happened again, where the weeks and months kept going by, and finally it was time to write about baseball, so here we are. Yay! As I’ve done the last few years, we’ll kick off the preseason here at RITD with some early thoughts about the draft landscape, player values, and how the rest of the fantasy baseball community appears to be pricing players.

I did something a little wacky this season for the first time in years, which was that I waited until — gasp! —  the end of November to start drafting. The last several years, I’ve wanted to go into drafts completely blind when it comes to ADP, preferring to help set the early rankings myself rather than reacting to them. But this year, I went back to thinking ‘the more information the better,’ as long as I use it to my advantage, or at least don’t let it change my decisions, because I’m realizing others’ rankings may be shaping up differently than mine. As long as you don’t use it as a crutch, I think perusing ADP can be helpful… if I’m deep in a draft and have a couple players I really want over the next few rounds that I’ve ranked more or less equally, may as well grab the more “popular” guy first to give myself a shot at getting the second player with a later pick.

I started this off-season with a couple 15-team NFBC 50-round draft and hold leagues. This is a pretty specific format, so it’s good to remember that when thinking about ADP. With zero free agent pickups or waiver wire throughout the season, certain players like closers will shoot up the rankings to an almost comical degree. (In one of my drafts, Mason Miller went 15th overall, making him, by definition a first round pick!) Even when all types of NFBC drafts are factored in to ADP, these leagues can really skew the overall numbers. It’s also interesting to check the highest vs. lowest drafted columns, as the discrepancy can be very eye-opening. It really shows you how relying on posted ADP can send things off the rails in a hurry if you are expecting correlation in your own drafts. I often like to go back through the master ADP list and pull position-specific lists of players out, to get a little more information about how folks are ranking, say, starting pitchers or shortstops versus each other, rather than amongst the entire player pool.

Okay! All that being said, let’s finally get to some actual names. There is not a ton of rhyme or reason to this list, just my initial thoughts on players who stood out as guys I was relatively happy to draft where I could get them at the time. Each one is outside the top 300 based on their NFBC ADP over the last one month of drafts, which is a clean 20 rounds in a 15-teamer. Next week, I think we’ll look at players I haven’t drafted at similar price points but wish I had or may now by targeting in my remaining drafts, but for now, these are all guys I’m already rostering for 2026.

Zach McKinstry (ADP 329). This might actually be a little higher than it should be for a player who likely had a career year in counting stats (12 HR and 19 SB last season), as well as an average (.259) that is likely to come down in 2026. I think this is one of those situations where the draft and hold format probably boosted his value not only for me, but his overall ADP as well, since having a player who qualifies at short, third, and outfield that can at least potentially give you a little help across all categories isn’t exactly easy to find these days.

Jake Mangum (ADP 334). At this point in a draft, you can’t expect to find everyday players who’ll help in five categories; you’re really looking for guys who will play some of the time and help in some of the categories. Time will tell if Pittsburgh ends up being a solid landing spot for Mangum in terms of both playing time and production, but he can play all three outfield positions at least, plus I’m always a sucker for a fellow with impressive bat to ball skills. If things break right, Mangum could be a two-and-a-half category player, I think, since the steals and average should be there, and I can see him scoring enough runs to help a fantasy team in the right situation. He is turning 30 this year, which is never a good thing for a player who relies largely on speed translating into infield hits translating into a little fantasy value, but we’ll see if he can at least deliver a later-round stolen base boost.

Jesus Sanchez (ADP 335). Sanchez is one of those players where the on-field production just never seems to catch up with the metrics, and things were not particularly pretty for him after he arrived in Houston last year. He seems fated to a strong-sided platoon role at best from here on out, which brings up a note about league format. Most of the leagues I play in, including the NFBC draft and holds, have at least bi-weekly changes for hitters (if not daily changes like our beloved Razzball RCLs). This can affect roster construction a bit and can go at least a little ways towards making a platoon type player more useful if you can stay on top of schedule and matchups. (Yes, I realize that what this also can lead to is setting your lineup perfectly ‘by the book,’ and then son-of-a-benching two pinch-hit homers over a Friday-to-Sunday lineup period or some such travesty. We must all be reminded from time to time that fantasy baseball is not an exact science, no matter how hard we work at it, I suppose). Anyhow, while I’ve given up on a true breakout with Sanchez, I’m still intrigued enough by the power/speed combo and his declining strikeout rate. There’s a non-zero chance that even in part-time duty, he can get that average back up around .250 where it won’t hurt you, and contribute just enough to help a deep leaguer in the other four 5×5 hitting categories.

Isaac Collins (ADP 336). Collins is the second player on this list (along with Mangum) who changed teams mid-draft, which can, of course, affect a player’s value, especially when the new landing spot is perceived as a desirable one. I’ve noticed that it can even raise a player’s value in the dead of winter just because any news at all tends to push the player higher into the collective fantasy mindset when it comes to rankings, so maybe that’s one of the reasons I ended up with both Mangum and Collins on a team. I may be way too optimistic with Collins, but I suspect I’ll end up with at least a few shares by the end of March. I think he could be a fairly solid across-the-board player if he can earn the at bats, and he’s a switch hitter, which can’t hurt. With the Brewers last year, he had a poor April and May, a great June and July, a good August, and a fairly disastrous September. If September was the league catching up to him and the start of extended regression, 2026 may not go so well. But if he can tap into whatever skills he was flexing mid-summer and fight Lane Thomas, among others, for playing time in Kansas City, I think there could be some value here.

Nick Castellanos (ADP 343). Don’t laugh! Actually, you can laugh a little; I think I probably did when I drafted him, perhaps to keep from crying. I kid, sort of. This is clearly not an upside pick, but when I was rounding out my bench, and Castellanos was sitting there at what was pick 391 in my particular draft, I figured, why not? It’s a complete mystery to me as I type this where he’ll play this year, let alone how much. Perhaps I was ever-so-slightly swayed by the faint prospect of multi-positional eligibility, given that he’s gone on record saying he’s willing to play first base… at least it’s a more interesting tidbit of information than hearing he’s in the best shape of his life, no? It’s not like I’m going to be counting on production from him, but if he ends up in even a halfway decent situation, he doesn’t even need a true bounce back season to justify this price point. He did have 17 HRs and 72 RBI last year after all, which starts to look pretty darn good this deep in a draft.

Connor Norby (ADP 356). For what it’s worth, Norby has gone earlier than this in each of my drafts (I got him with pick 345), including as high as #285 in one. The strikeout rate is bad. The injury history is bad (he missed time last year with a wrist issue, an oblique, and a quad problem). Still, this late in a draft, I’m willing to take the flyer for a guy on a rebuilding team who should get a chance to play, pending that whole health thing. Third base gets ugly in a hurry, and a little pop plus a little speed with an average that won’t hurt you (he managed to go 8/8 and hit .251 last year in 88 games/311 at bats between all those injuries) is a profile I don’t mind at all.

Thanks for reading, and as always, I’d love to hear from you all, whether it’s about the ADP of a deep league player or just to check in about the upcoming season!