“Today is a day that will live in infinity,” as FDRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRR….said. It will also live in your hearts and minds for the next few months as you constantly check the 2024 fantasy baseball rankings for updates on projections, rankings and just other little fun bits of tid.
Before we get into the top 10 for 2024 fantasy baseball (though I imagine every single one of you has skipped this intro), I’m gonna lay down some exposition. Here’s where you follow us on Twitter. Here’s where you follow us on Facebook. Here’s us on Youtube. Here’s us on TikTok. Here’s us on Bluesky. Here’s our fantasy baseball player rater. Here’s our fantasy baseball team name generator. Here are all of our 2024 fantasy baseball rankings. Here’s the position eligibility chart for 2024 fantasy baseball. And here is a picture of my son. What a punim! You may not get all of those links in such a handy, easy-to-use format again this year, so make proper note. (Unless you just go to the top menu on this page that says “Rankings” and click it, but semantics, my over-the-internet friend, semantics.) Also, here’s Steamer’s 2024 Fantasy Baseball Projections for Hitters and 2024 Fantasy Baseball Projections for Pitchers. Rudy’s on top of it this year! Sorta, he says to note it’s Version 1.0, and tweaks will happen over the course of the next few weeks. Also, Rudy’s Draft War Room is ready for all subscribers.
Now my expositional half insists I breakdown some generalizations about these 2024 fantasy baseball rankings. The 2024 fantasy baseball rankings will be an ever-evolving mass like the blob. This fantasy baseball top 10 for 2024 list is as of right now and could potentially change with a big injury or Ronald Acuña Jr. quitting baseball because he’s bored with being the best and wants to play competitive Cornhole. (I’m not sure yet where Acuña would rank in my Cornhole Top 10.) So while it is the 2024 fantasy baseball gospel, take it with a tablet of salt. Tomorrow we will cover the rest of the top 20 for 2024 fantasy baseball, then we will go around the horn with a top 20 (more like 50) list for every position. Then for pitchers and outfielders, I’ll turn the dial to 100 (more like 120). Listed with each player are my 2024 projections. Did I consult with anyone else who does projections? It would be ignorant not to, but, in the end, these are my projections. Players need 5 games started at a position to get included in the positional rankings. If I put someone in a position, that is why. Well, that is whyahoo, actually.
Finally, as with each list in the 2024 fantasy baseball rankings, I will be mentioning where I see tiers start and stop. I look at tiers like this, if Corbin Carroll and Julio Rodriguez are in the same tier, it doesn’t matter if one guy is ranked 2nd and one guy is ranked fourth, they’re both very close. It comes down to personal preference. I would prefer the guy at number two over the guy at four, but you do you, I’ll do me and let’s hope we don’t go blind. Anyway, here’s the top 10 for 2024 fantasy baseball:
NOTE: All my 2024 fantasy baseball rankings are currently available on Patreon for the price of a Starbucks coffee, if you get one of those extra grande frappuccino jobbers. Don’t wait for the rankings to come out over the next month, and get them all now.
1. Ronald Acuña Jr. – This is the first tier. This tier goes from here until here. I call this tier, “Airport sushi in Tokyo.” This offseason I went on a trip with Cougs to Tokyo. It was one of the best trips of my life. The people were incredibly kind, helpful — thesaurus, give me another one — welcoming. The city itself was unreal in its cleaniness. Ten days in a city of 40 million people and I didn’t see any litter. And there’s no garbage cans! I think they’re magicians. Also, I didn’t hear one horn honk. How is that possible? It doesn’t seem it, but I promise you, it is. The food? My God! The food! It was a fantastic time. From beginning to end. Speaking of the end, we were flying out around dinner time, so we decided to grab one final bite at the airport. Honestly, it was against my better judgment, but I figured why not, let’s try the airport sushi. Airport sushi in the states and you may as well lick a buffet of botulism. Well, as you can imagine where this is going, it turns out the airport sushi in Tokyo isn’t just good, it’s good for Tokyo! We get good sushi in Los Angeles, and Tokyo’s airport sushi blows away Los Angeles sushi. When I got back, I told my dad about our trip — he’d been to Japan about 50 times for business — and he said he meant to tell us, airport sushi in Tokyo is widely known as being some of the best sushi in the world. It’s like they want you to remember your time as being great from beginning to end. Come back and visit us again, they’re saying, the airport sushi was even great. So, here’s Ronald Acuña Jr. aka Tildaddy being great from beginning to end — again. He is Tokyo’s airport sushi.
Last year, Tildaddy had the best fantasy baseball season ever. This was the 2nd season in a row a top 10 season of all-time has happened, and Acuña was the best. Z’best! Who will have a best season ever this year? Nicky Lopez? Don’t count him out! So, last year Aaron Judge was coming off a top 10 best season ever, but I didn’t rank him 1st the year after. He was/is a big power bat, but you need five categories to make that 1st ranking overall stick. Well, call Tildaddy flypaper because he’s about to make it stick. With the pitch clock, Tildaddy seems all but a lock for 50 steals as the over/under, which is absurd. He has 40-homer power. A 40/50 baseline? To misquote Humpty Hump, let me hear a bit of that baseline groove right here! A’doooooo-reer, a’doo-rit, a’doooooo-reer, a’doo-rit. [calmly at first then screaming] A 40/50 baseline! Are you freakin’ kidding me! Tildaddy tells you about Tokyo’s airport sushi! 2024 Projections: 127/42/104/.316/54 in 611 ABs
2. Julio Rodriguez – This is a new tier. This tier goes from here until Tucker. I call this tier, “Sung like Billy Joel’s We Didn’t Start The Fire,”
HoJo, Eric Davis, Jose, before Tampa Bay,
ARod, Al-So, Barry B., Vladdy Sr. what more do I have to say?!
Am I saying 40/40 a lot this preseason? Not yet? Oh, you just wait! This entire tier has an outside chance for a 40/40 season. Not since the late 80’s and the era of Eric Davis, Howard Johnson (the player, not motel) and Jose Canseco or late-90’s, early-00’s with A-Rod, Alfonso Soriano, Barry Bonds and Vlad Sr. has a 40/40 felt attainable by so many guys. We could have five players get 40/40 this year with Acuña and this tier.
As for Jul-Rod, can we get an April-thru-September-Rod and not a May-thru-September-Rod? If we get that, Julio Rodriguez will easily be the 2nd best player in fantasy baseball. If J-Rod gets off to a hot start, he might sneak into a 40/40 convo, and we love when our guys sneak into a 40/40 convo, don’t we fellers and five fellas? Could Jul-Rod go 50/50? That feels a bit too optimistic, but, if he were to do it, I will finally settle on one nickname for him and not fluctuate between J-Rod, Jul-Rod, Juli-Rod or Ju-Rod. 2024 Projections: 111/35/109/.283/32 in 607 ABs
3. Bobby Witt Jr. – Believe I mentioned in the top 25 for 2024 fantasy baseball podcast (embedded below) that I don’t hold grudges with players for last year, or try not to, but Alek Manoah might prove too high a hill to climb on Mt. Forgiveness. (A word of warning, this podcast was done during the final week of last year, and some of my thoughts might’ve changed, and since I’m drafting with BDon, that top 25 might not look anything like my top 25 now).
I mention how I, uh, mention that I don’t hold grudges or try not to, because last year I hated Bobby Witt Jr. and this year I don’t care what Last Year Grey had to say. I was young, dumb and full of “Bobby Witt Jr’s a bum.” He is not. He made incredible gains from his rookie to last year, and, like I tell Girl Scouts with Samosas, I’m sold! He lowered his K%, upped his walk rate, has some of the best speed in baseball, and swings with a nice home run swing. Last year’s 13.1% HR/FB actually seems low and, much like Jules-Rod, and the next two guys, I think Bobby Witt Jr. could have a 40/40 season in him. Seriously spent more time than I care to admit (27 seconds), deciding who I wanted 2nd between Bobby or Julio, which is a good problem to have. Bobby and Julio sounds like someone misremembering a Paul Simon song. 2024 Projections: 103/34/107/.280/47 in 606 ABs
4. Corbin Carroll – Another guy with a shot for 40/40 is also the guy who might go more like 30/70 but is also a guy who I think could swing and miss, throw out his shoulder and miss two months of the season and still go 15/50, which would’ve been the best hitter in baseball only a handful of years ago. Woo-hoo, baby, hitting is back! Speed is back! I love it! If you can’t legally give out amphetamines anymore like it’s the go-go 1980’s and everyone was on greenies and coke, we have figured out how to bring back the steal and I love it. No thanks to Rob Manfred! Remember, we can’t ever, never, ever give Rob Manfred credit for anything. The number one Baseball Rule is don’t say anything nice about Rob Manfred, but, well, moving on before I slip up and say something nice about the pitch clock. Corbin Carroll is built in a lab to take advantage of the pitch clock. Bobby Witt Jr. is “run into the room and muss your hair without you knowing” fast, and Corbin Carroll is faster. Corbin Carroll could run into your room, muss your hair, restyle it with a crimping iron and run out before you know. That’s why your hair is crimped! No, not crikey. It looks nice. Crimpy. That’s you. With an 11 Launch Angle and easy pop, well, 40/40 is possible, but his shoulder also worries me, which is why he’s 4th here and not 2nd. 2024 Projections: 114/28/83/.291/58 in 591 ABs
5. Kyle Tucker – Our final realistic shot at 40/40 unless you want to talk Fun The Jewels. I couldn’t, which is why I ended the tier here. Are you thinking it’s actually unrealistic for Tucker to go 40/40? Fair, but that’s because you’ve seen him. He looks like he has 12-steal speed. If you never saw him, you’d see 14 steals, followed by 25 steals, followed by 30 steals, and think, “Hey, Grey’s smart and handsome! And Tucker could steal 40 bags.” Mr. H2H also is the most dependable guy, who feels like the most realistic lock for 30/30, while being the least likely 40/40. He’s only 27 (just turned it. Capricorn, baby, like yours truly, HBD, Mr. H2H!). What makes everyone think we can’t see more from Tucker? Rhetorical! Seriously, don’t answer it. 2024 Projections: 105/33/110/.291/30 in 571 ABs
6. Mookie Betts – This is a new tier. This tier goes from here until Judge. I call this tier, “Betting on snake eyes, and I’m not Nic Cage.” Craps, a game I enjoy, is played by — well, it is complicated to explain. Buy a book by, like, John Patrick, or someone. The gist is you can bet on yourself (or someone else) rolling a number. Snake eyes is the number two. I am betting on these guys being the number two best fantasy player. I am not Nic Cage betting on Snake Eyes, the Brian DePalma film.
Side note alert! There’s numerous permutations of rankings across every site. You can go to other sites (and lose! I kid.) and find different rankings. And other sites. And other rankings. And other sites. And rankings. And, go crazy, if you like. I haven’t looked at anyone else’s ranks for about 15 years, prior to writing my own, and, even after I write them, I only look at Yahoo or ESPN rankings to razz. If I look, I worry I might be wrongly influenced. I already look at Steamer Projections and fight myself to not take it as gospel. My point though (do I have one?) is there’s a ton of rankings, and I don’t know what any of them say, and that’s what makes this great. It’s great to have something I don’t look at? Yes! Because, with the numerous permutations, that I don’t look at, I’m going out on a very strong limb and say, there’s one number one this year — Acuña — and everyone else as possible number twos. I’m sure the next few after Acuña are ranked differently elsewhere, without looking I can tell you that, but no matter how they’re ranked, there’s Acuña and everyone else. There’s Acuña, We Didn’t Start The Fire and Betting on Snake Eyes. I separated the 2nd tier from the third, because it felt like possible 40/40 guys and this tier were separatable (totally a word!), but this tier and the 2nd tier are splitting hairs. 40/40 is alluring and this tier, well, I think has a few more caveats. It’s not bad, it’s just not at the previous tier’s level. The tier name is not lying though. I do think this tier has all guys who could fall right behind Acuña for value.
As for Betts, I will go over each position in the coming days, and this isn’t much of a spoiler, but if you like to remain spoiler free skip the next sentence. Betts has 2nd base eligibility and 2nd base is a mess. Welcome back to all of those who skipped the last sentence, I mentioned I just returned from the future and gave out lottery numbers in the previous sentence, but you didn’t want to know them, I guess. Betts is kinda the anti-Kyle Tucker. Tucker looks like he has 12-steal speed, and Betts actually does steal 12. Never trust a book by its cover, unless the book’s title is Betts Won’t Steal A Lot Of Bags, Tucker Should. That Betts hit 39 homers last year feels like such a trap, but you look at his numbers and you’re like, “He’s Mookie Best.” Maybe not 39 homers, but his numbers back up 33-35 homers and .285 and lots of counting stats and it’s hard to see why a healthy Betts would suddenly disappoint. 2024 Projections: 116/33/91/.286/15 in 577 ABs
7. Fernando Tatis Jr. – In 141 games and 575 ABs, Fun The Jewels went 25/29. Fun The Jewels fast! Fun The Jewels fast! If he had a few more big games, and got to 30/30, I wouldn’t have hesitated putting him in the previous tier with potential 40/40 guys. That shows you how fickle projections and rankings are. On the other hand, which, honestly, might be the other side of the same hand, FTJ’s ground balls went up — not literally! — and his fly balls went down — literally! His Hard Contact plummeted and he looks more like a 30-homer guy post-PEDS than the 42-homer guy the year before the injury and suspension when his career was hockey-sticking to heaven. The tricky thing about saying he can get back to who he was: Maybe this is who he was the whole time, only he was avoiding detection. Fun The Jewels needs to show us he can be who he was pre-PEDS again or get better, more undetectable drugs. 2024 Projections: 106/29/90/.266/35 in 604 ABs
8. Aaron Judge – He is a 45-homer hitter in 130 games. Do we see Judge for 130 games? Hold on, I will look into my crystal ball. Hmm…there’s a lot of hair…like a lot a lot of hair in this ball…not on the outside of the ball…I’m seeing the hair in the ball…like the hair is Cousin Itt from The Addams Family…the ball is now playing music…Oh, crap, this isn’t a crystal ball; I bought a ball of Crystal Gayle’s hair by accident. On that note, I wonder if Crystal Gayle ever went as Cousin Itt for Halloween. Would’ve been super easy! Any hoo! I don’t know what to tell you about Judge other than you have to hope he stays healthy. Will he? Haven’t the foggiest, but an 8′ 7″ person has a lot more room for injury. I’d put it at 50/50 that he stays healthy and has a 50-homer year or has a 105-game season and hits 35 homers. Not sure there’s any in-between, but I will project in-between: 2024 Projections: 88/44/101/.284/7 in 491 ABs
9. Juan Soto – This is a new tier. This tier goes from here until the top 20 for 2024 fantasy baseball. I call this tier, “The wistful eye glimmer of a child with a mustache.” As a much younger mustachioed man, I wasn’t naive. I didn’t believe in Santa or the Easter Bunny, mostly because neither had mustaches. How real could they be? I still held dreams in my hand. Not like I was grasping water from the ocean. I held tight to these dreams. Occasionally, someone would ask to see my dreams, so I slowly opened my hand like I was revealing a lightning bug. Showing it, it lit up my hand and glowed in my eyes. The person looking at me, and my hopeful eyes, smiled at me. Knowing that if they told me the truth, my dreams would be dashed, and I’d tighten my grip and kill that stupid insect. That’s this tier, a glimmer from a much younger Grey (as recent as last year) who thought these guys could be the best player in fantasy. All of these guys could be the top guy overall, in theory, still, I guess. Will they? No, hence the ranking and the “in theory,” and “I guess.”
Here’s what I said when Soto was traded to the Yankees, “Sexy Dr. Pepper is the biggest disconnect between “Grey who loves real baseball” and “Grey who loves fantasy baseball.” In real baseball, I’d start a team with Juan Soto. In fantasy, well, he’s not ranked number one. His Statcast page is ridunk beautiful, but he finished 16th overall on the Player Rater last year, and I understand why. Sexy Dr. Pepper is one of those guys who gives us fantasy baseball people a bad name, because real baseball fans will drool and be like, “Have you seen his walk rate?” And we’ll be like, “Meh, he’s going to only steal 12 bags and hit .285,” then we get noogied. The noogie is deserved, but we have to take that noogie for the game we love. I am more intrigued about him in Yankee Stadium with his power, but invariably you jack up a guy’s jacks because of his new park and he ends up basically the same as it ever was. Don’t let that sour you, I still love Sexy Dr. Pepper and am ready to drink up his caramel-colored-shake. I drink it up! Either way, excited for Juan Soto, he has a chance to play on a huge stage and show the world what he can do (get booed going 0-for-1 with three walks when the Yankees are only playing .550 ball in May).” And that’s me quoting me! 2024 Projections: 114/41/112/.286/12 in 559 ABs
10. Trea Turner – I have an idea. This is my idea and I don’t want anyone to steal it. Actually, roughly 50,000 people can steal it. On Opening Day, can Trea Turner please get a standing ovation? Don’t wait until August. I don’t want to criticize Phillies fans out of fear they will murder me, but how do you wait until August 4th to give Trea Turner a standing ovation? You’re lucky he didn’t take it as sarcastic, which it absolutely was, let’s be honest. Kinda shocked to rank Treat Urner this high again after his 1st half last year. Up until August 3rd, he had 10 homers and was hitting .235. He then hit in every game of August outside of one, and hit .299 in September, while hitting 16 homers in the final two months. He went from a bust to “clap for his sorry ass in his first at-bat of the year, Phillies fans!” 2024 Projections: 101/22/81/.273/28 in 621 ABs
