“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 2025 fantasy baseball rankings for updates on projections, rankings and just other little fun bits of tid.
Before we get into the top 10 for 2025 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 Bluesky. Here’s us on Instagram. Here’s us on TikTok. Here’s our fantasy baseball player rater. Here’s our fantasy baseball team name generator. Here are all of our 2025 fantasy baseball rankings. Here’s the position eligibility chart for 2025 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 2025 Fantasy Baseball Projections for Hitters and 2025 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. Subscribe now, snitches!
Now my expositional half insists I breakdown some generalizations about these 2025 fantasy baseball rankings. The 2025 fantasy baseball rankings will be an ever-evolving mass like the blob. This fantasy baseball top 10 for 2025 list is as of right now and could potentially change with a big injury or Bobby Witt Jr. quitting baseball because he’s bored with being the best and wants to play competitive Cornhole. (I’m not sure yet where Witt would rank in my Cornhole Top 10.) So while it is the 2025 fantasy baseball gospel, take it with a tablet of salt. Tomorrow we will cover the rest of the top 20 for 2025 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 2025 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 2025 fantasy baseball rankings, I will be mentioning where I see tiers start and stop. I look at tiers like this, if Bobby Witt Jr. and Shohei Ohtani are in the same tier, it doesn’t matter if one guy is ranked 2nd and one guy is ranked first, they’re both very close. It comes down to personal preference. I would prefer the guy at number one over the guy at two, but you do you, I’ll do me and let’s hope we don’t go blind. Anyway, here’s the top 10 for 2025 fantasy baseball:
NOTE: All my 2025 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.
NOTE II: Watch us discuss the top 20 players:
1. Bobby Witt Jr. – This is the 1st tier of the 2025 fantasy baseball rankings. (Woo hoo!) This tier goes from here until Ohtani. I call this tier, “Jobu, leave me the eff alone.” This tier name is referring to the curse that has been placed on the 1st tier in fantasy baseball, dating back a millennial. Or at least a year or three. I use the same lede every year. Pardon me, if I write only 50,000 words for the rankings and not 50,000 words plus the intros. This year, I changed “Ronald Acuña Jr. quitting baseball because he’s bored with being the best and wants to play competitive Cornhole” to Bobby Witt Jr. and it all clicked. The first tier is cursed! Yes, things click that fast for me. I went back looked at the last three years of numbers ones and it was Acuña, Trea Turner and Bo Bichette (was I literally drunk ranking Bichette number one?). Now you can say, “Okay, you had literal crackers in your head,” but I promise you, I was more or less near-consensus. I don’t go far outside the box on the tippy-top ranks. They’re obvious! Also, Fantasy Pros said I had the best fantasy baseball rankings last year, so Trea was the best that year, Acuña was clearcut last year and Bichette…Well, he was coming off a 2021 season when he was number one on the Player Rater, so number one couldn’t have been far off, as unlikely as it seems now. Last year people were like, “If I don’t have the number one pick and get Acuña, should I just quit the league and sign up for a new league until I get the 1st pick?” What I’m saying is, this top tier feels cursed before we even start the season. To try to offset The Curse, I put Bobby Witt Jr. at number one over Ohtani, even though Ohtani feels like, well, if not the best player ever in baseball in his prime, then close to it. His stats will be better than Witt’s, but Witt just feels a tad safer. More on Ohtani in his blurb.
As for Bobby Witt Jr., barring a fluke injury, he feels like a lock for a top five season. I just wrote this was a cursed tier, then said “barring injury.” I really said that? Am I stupid? Am I literal rock of dumb? So, I say he’s a lock for a top five season and not a lock for a number one ranked season because flukey guys come out of everywhere (and non-flukey flukes). Aaron Judge, for unstints, if he stays healthy, he’s going to hit 55+ HRs and .310, and be better than Witt as he was last year. Or Ohtani, if he goes 50/50 with 20+ wins? He’s gonna be the top guy overall. Or someone more flukey, like, say Mookie Betts goes 30/30 with 130 runs and 110 RBIs? That might be the top guy. Or Captain Woo Cubano finally hits 50 HRs. Or, well, the possibilities are endless for top of the Player Rater. All right, not endless. Kevin Newman isn’t going to be the top fantasy player. I say Witt is a lock for top five because he’s neutrally a 30/30/.300 hitter with great counting stats. That’s a top five year. He also feels incredibly safe for a year that good. Barring injury or The Curse or Jobu or anything else the Fantasy Baseball Overlord has in store. 2025 Projections: 112/33/102/.314/37 in 611 ABs
2. Shohei Ohtani – A guy who just went 54/59/.310 with a chance for a 20-win, 3.30 ERA and 200 Ks? The best hitter and a top five starter? In one player? That sounds pretty good! What if I told you Ohtani could also save 50 games as a lights-out closer? What if I told you he could juggle dwarves while riding a unicycle? What if I told you he deferred all his stats from last year to this year and he was about to go 100/100/1.000? What if I told you he transfused all his blood out for Nutter Butter creme and Nuttani would melt in the summer sun into a puddle but the Guggenheims would do a giveaway where everyone in attendance received a cookie biscuit that they could dip into an Nuttani puddle of creme? Sounds pretty good, huh? What if none of these things matter? What if the only thing that mattered was: How is his shoulder? He slid in the World Series and tore his labrum. He had surgery and the Dodgers say he’ll be fine for Spring Training. Honestly, if that makes him fine for hitting but not pitching, it might be better for fantasy. That’s not even considering weekly leagues, where you almost assuredly will never pitch him, until you get halfway through May, are falling behind in pitching categories and are absolutely pitching him. The injured shoulder was not his throwing shoulder, so he should be all systems go for everything. Because of the shoulder injury and surgery, I put him 2nd instead of 1st overall.
Let’s be realistic, if he’s pitching, he’s not stealing anywhere close to 50 bags. He had a high of 26 steals previous years while pitching. Even if his return to the mound is delayed, as the Dodgers are saying, he’s not going to be running anywhere near as much. After he just hurt himself, he might not steal more than 12. The power doesn’t seem overly affected by his pitching every sixth (seventh?) day. But he’s almost human and Almost Humans hit 45-ish homers when they’re pitching vs. 55 HRs when they’re not. I hate to say it, but I think we just saw the best hitter year we’re ever seeing from him. Then again, anything is possible. He’s 99% Nutter Butter! 2025 Projections: 107/45/118/.294/20 in 576 ABs, 8-4/2.96/1.08/134 in 103 IP
3. Elly De La Cruz – This is a new tier. This tier goes from here until Judge. I call this tier, “That’s a Dub Route.” I’ll touch on what the tier name means at the end of this blurb. The first tier of fantasy baseball has been cursed, as mentioned in the 1st tier. This number two tier feels about as stacked as we’ve had it in some time. As clearcut as the first tier is, this 2nd tier has so many guys who are interchangeable, who have no set way they need to be ranked. By which I mean, if you wanted to put E! at five and Gunnar at three, then I’m fine with it. Or Judge at three and Gunnar at four and E! at five, then cool. Or–Well, you get the point. I say this in every tier in the rankings, “These guys are interchangeable, but this is how I would draft them.” For this tier, it feels less like how I would draft them and more like how I would draft them for one draft, then flip the script for the next. Meaning: If I drafted E! already, I might take Gunnar third in my next draft. Whereas, if I had the 1st pick of the draft, I’m taking Witt every time. I will go down with Witt, and now I sound like an AI trying to order a cheesesteak. “I will go down with Witt.” Shut up, AI, you don’t eat human food!
As for E!, his K% went from 33.7 to 31.3 from the ages of 21 to 22. I know, this is gonna sound crazy, but at one point Bobby Witt Jr. was considered a candidate to hit .220, and now he’s a .320 hitter. Witt never struggled with Ks (which makes it even odder we all thought he was going to hit .220 his whole career), but guys get better. I know! This is a brand new concept! I hope I didn’t shock you too much when I dropped that nugget of smarts on you. In Triple-A, E! hit .297 with a 26.9%. If E! gets his K% down to 26% in the majors, he’s going to hit .280. No way, right? You know what he hit last year? Oh, he just hit .259. Of course, people are expecting him to hit lower, because projections never look at a 22-year-old and think he can be better. Even is he does hit .250 or lower, he’s going to hit 25+ HRs and steal 50+ bags. That’s the easiest route to the best hitter in baseball from this tier, so I ranked him at the top of it. An easy route to the best hitter? An easy route for a win? That’s a Dub Route. A Dub Route is the route a player could take to being the best hitter in baseball, and they’re ranked how hard it will be for them to Dub Route. 2025 Projections: 111/30/72/.267/51 in 602 ABs
4. Aaron Judge – He’s got a Dub Route that he ran once already in 2022, but he didn’t Dub Route last year (just behind Ohtani) and he wasn’t close to a Dub Route in 2023 or 2021. That’s sorta this whole tier though. They all have Dub Routes, whether they’ve Dub Route’d before. What would stop Judge from a Dub Route? An injury, which I hate to project for because there’s no way of knowing. A guy who is 7-feet four-inches, weighing in at 520 pounds and hailing from Grenoble, France who goes by the name Aaron The Giant will be more prone to injuries. I don’t think that’s a stretch (something he doesn’t need to do to get down the cereal, by the by). It’s gonna suck when Aaron the Giant starts having back pains. They’re never going to go away. We haven’t seen any nagging injuries yet from him though, so I don’t want to put that on him. He has battled quote-unquote flukey injuries though. When you have appendages that extend fifteen feet from your body, you are more prone to acquire injuries, I think. This is a long way of saying, Aaron The Giant will be a 50-homer, 120-RBI guy or a 35-homer guy in 120 games. Here’s to splitting the difference: 2025 Projections: 104/46/112/.307/10 in 509 ABs
5. Juan Soto – This is a new tier. This tier goes from here until Tucker. I call this tier, “Justin B. and Norm L. Schplease.” All these guys in this tier need is to dial up their friends Justin B., who goes by Just, and Norm L. Schplease, then all they have to do is ask Justin B. and Norm L. Schplease, “What is the secret to Just B., Norm L., I need to know, Schplease? I want you to tell me the secret to Just B., Norm L., I need to know, Schplease.” There’s no reason to think any of the guys in this tier can’t return solid fantasy value. Have all of these guys failed in the past? Yes, as recently as last year for Tucker. But to succeed they Just B., Norm L. Schplease.
As for Soto, here’s what I said this offseason, “The year is 2045. All the years after 2038 have been a blur because, seven years prior, I was hit by a flying car, and now my frozen head is in a jar, and the visibility is very poor through formaldehyde. Something no one talks about! “Hey, Charlie, how well can you see in that glass jar your head is in?” That’s what you don’t hear! But guess what, it’s not great! Don’t fret; I’m way ahead of Ted Williams in line to get another body, because it’s alphabetical. Haha, eat a D, Ted! Taking a summer vacation this year for the 1st time in forty years as my 100-something-year-old Cougar drives my head to see Juan Soto get inducted into the Baseball Hall of Fame, which she keeps saying in its entirety and I keep gurgling into the formaldehyde jar, “You can just say, ‘Hall of Fame.’ You don’t have to say ‘Baseball Hall of Fame,’ we know where we’re going.” On the trip, I begin to recount all of Juan Soto’s achievements — his 600+ homers, his .295 career average, his .415 career OBP, which tied fellow inductee, Jordan Walker, who became a huge star the year after I stopped drafting him in every league. A head trip better than any Dennis Hopper ever went on.
So, the Mets signing Juan Soto now means we can sit back and see if the Mets can curse one of the best players in baseball. This truly will be a test. My money’s on Sexy Dr. Pepper, but I’m not counting the Mets out. There’s at least a 20% chance the Mets turn Soto into Bobby Bonilla, part two. Call him Mo’nilla. Actually, don’t, do not put that on him. So, the power and average are easy, and the counting stats won’t suffer more than, say, his year in San Diego when he had 97 runs and 109 RBIs. The one bugaboo in his game? 12 steals is his top mark. So, 95/35/110/.290/12? Sounds like Gunnar Henderson minus 10 steals. Look at these numbers: 9, 6, 12, 7. Juan Soto’s bank password? No, his steal totals over the last four years. Though, could that be his bank password too? I suppose, which is why I’m glad he didn’t defer any of his $765 million. ‘Member when we thought he would be a 600 million-dollar man? Haha, silly us.
Sorry, you got outbid
— Razzball (@razzball.bsky.social) December 8, 2024 at 7:21 PM
Actually, what’s really hilarious? The Six-Million Dollar Man TV show. Six million? What’s he a catcher for the Rays?” And that’s me quoting me! 2025 Projections: 93/37/111/.288/11 in 564 ABs
6. Jose Ramirez – Looking at the Historical Player Rater (and I skipped 2020 completely), but I think Jose Ramirez’s highest ranking at the end of the year was 4th overall (in 2018 and last year). That goes back to who might take a Dub Route. I don’t think JoJoRam’s going to take a Dub Route to the top. That’s why he’s not in that tier. That’s not to say JoJo sucks. Since 2017, he’s only missed two years where he didn’t appear in the top 10 overall. In 2019, he went 23/24/.255, and easily had his worst year. Funnily enough, that was the year I told you to avoid him. Natch, snitches! JoJo also missed in 2023 when he went 24/28/.282. Pretty obvious that he’s never awful, if those are his worst years. He’s also never the best, so you have to ask yourself how much you want a guy who should be solid, who just turned 32. No sign of slowing, clearly, but that has to come at some point, doesn’t it? Not to answer, but to squint your eyes like you’re either thinking very hard or taking a number two. Listen, JoJo, I need you to talk to my friends, and Just B., Norm L. Schplease. 2025 Projections: 103/36/111/.276/28 in 604 ABs
7. Gunnar Henderson – Projections are funny. Not mine — of course! I mean other people’s projections. Invariably, they take five to ten percent off a guy’s previous season. I genuinely get giddy when I see a guy with projections from some other source that are better than his previous season, especially when it’s someone who played a full season. Had to add that caveat, because there’s always gonna be guys who play, like, 50 games, then get projections for 162 games and they’re obviously going to be better. Try finding a guy who played a full season last year whose projections are better. It’s not easy. Projections expect Gunnar to fall in power, speed, runs and average, and basically same for RBIs. Why? He ain’t taking that Dub Route if he does. Let’s see…*looks at Gunnar’s Statcast*…so, he has some of the best stats in baseball. I guess things could go wrong for him, but he hits the ball as hard as anyone, has a near-perfect swing, is in a stacked lineup, that should be getting better, and his home stadium’s fences were moved in. My biggest issue with him is he’s hitting leadoff, instead of third, but that might keep his steals in the 20s vs. falling back to the teens or ten, as they were in 2023. He’s also 23 until June and looks like he’s headed straight for a Dub Route for many, many years. UPDATE: Orioles finally announced that Gunnar has an intercostal strain. Hate the intercostal. In ten years, there will be no more intercostal, due to climate change, and I welcome it. So, I did research as one does, and the average time for an intercostal strain is 27 days. This is very tricky. Players have missed anywhere from two weeks to two months with an intercostal strain. Taking the Orioles and Gunnar’s word for it that it is not severe, and he should be ready for Opening Day. This is based on trickery and voodoo that is unreliable (unless you’re about to bite the head off a chicken, then, well, let’s see…) Can’t possibly tell you to draft him 5th anymore though, so he was dropped in the rankings. This reminds me of when everyone dropped Ohtani in the rankings last March because he was returning from elbow surgery and we were unsure how that would affect his swing. Spoiler Alert: Not a lot! So, I dropped Gunnar a couple of spots, and shaved two weeks off his projections. 2025 Projections: 111/35/93/.289/17 in 569 ABs
8. Francisco Lindor – He’s averaged 32/30 over the last two years. One love for Sexy Dr. Pepper, because you know I love him, but if he did that, he would’ve ranked even higher. In fact (Grey’s got more!), Lindor had $31.4 in fantasy value in both 2022 and 2023. Soto had $29.5 in 2023 and a terrible year in 2022. So, if you were to average the last three years together (yes, Soto was a bit better last year), Lindor’s been better. This is me defending my Lindor ranking for the people who will invariably say, “Wow, that’s high for Lindor. Or rather, you are smoking reefer and clearly high while ranking Soto. Ha, I freakin’ got you, Grey, you giant idiot!” I was surprised to see Lindor being drafted below Tucker, Carroll, JRod and others and way after this ranking. Lindor gets no respect whatsoever. Lindor will easily return value worth this draft spot if–[phone rings] Just B., Norm L. Schplease? I was just thinking about you. 2025 Projections: 112/32/93/.276/30 in 603 ABs
9. Kyle Tucker – Traded to the Cubs. Crazy how Alex Bregman reached free agency and Kyle Tucker approached it and the Astros decided to go into full punt/rebuild mode. Pretty pathetic of a dynasty dismantling when all the Astros needed to do was hit up the Lowe’s and get a louder trash can. Don’t boo me! Boo them! Wanna hear something even more pathetic? Going the other way was Hayden Wesneski, Isaac Paredes and Cam Smith. Wait, that’s not even the pathetic part yet! I heard Isaac Paredes was going to Houston and I thought about how that’s not bad for fantasy, because the Crawford Boxes are so good for his swing and Minute Maid, just in general. So, I started to craft a joke about how Isaac Paredes was gonna eat in Minute Maid, uh, drink? Eat oranges? Ya know what I mean, so I started to research Minute Maid and that’s when I found out the Astros are rebranding! Minute Maid is becoming Daikin Park, and I believe that was when I had my first boomer-screaming-at-kids-on-the-lawn moment. What the eff is a Daikin Park? Are you trying to say daikon? Like the effin’ radish? Did you go from the Juice Box to the Radish Box? What are we doing here?! I guess Isaac Paredes is gonna eat in his new home. Eat freakin’ radishes! Any hoo! With Kyle Tucker, there might not be a more Just B., Norm L. Schplease guy in this Just B., Norm L. Schplease tier. Calling up Just B., Norm L. Schplease for Tucker and staying on the phone to mention the other guys in this tier. Assuming Tucker doesn’t think what he did last year was the new Norm L. Schplease. If he didn’t return at the end of last year, I might’ve been lower on Tucker, but not only did he return, he hit well. Every other year Tucker’s Just B., Norm L. Schplease is 30/30 and he’s only 28, so I don’t see a reason to not expect the same. Last year, actually looks like Tucker was on pace for–[Mr. Prorater crashes through front door] “Did you call me?” Hey, Mr. Prorater, can you knock next time? “Knocking’s for sissies! Hey, you wanna know what Tucker would’ve done last year if not for the flukey injury?” Sure, okay, yes. “40/30/.290.” Yeah, maybe we want the new Norm L. Schplease but the new Norm L. Schplease is what Tucker was doing last year before the injury. 2025 Projections: 106/36/97/.296/23 in 569 ABs
10. Fernando Tatis Jr. – This is a new tier. This tier goes from here until the top 20 for 2025 fantasy baseball. I call this tier, “It’s The We’re Back Era.” Is there more We’re Back, then how Back we are when every guy is a 30/30 guy or Juan Soto, who is a 45/10/.300 hitter, or Judge, who is a 55/10/.300? That feels pretty Back. Capitalized We’re Back levels of being Back? Yeah, we’re big-time Back. This is as Back as I can remember in some time. We have legit power guys who can hit for average, and the Pitch Clock 12 adds 12 steals to everyone’s bottom line so all of those 30/20 statlines became 30/32’s. You don’t know the 30/32’s? They opened for Wilco. Welcome to the We’re Back Era. Hitting is Back. It’s the era, and we’re in it.
As for Fun The Jewels, it’s sweeps week for him. You may have heard of sweeps before. It’s when TV stations throw out all their stunts to try to get the most ratings ever. Like Matlock will have a guest appearance by Rod Carew and he’ll talk to Kathy Bates about Passover as they fall in love, but it’s not gonna work and Rod leaves her at the altar. Or the news will have a segment like, “Hot new casseroles for 2024,” just for the ratings, if casseroles were loved by everyone. Tatis has nothing to do with that kind of sweeps. This is all about a high floor that Tatis has that I want to sweeps onto my team. Not at all confusing! If Tatis were to have stayed healthy last year (he didn’t; stress reaction in his quad), he would’ve easily made the top overall tier. Tatis is easily worth this draft pick, and likely will give way more. It’s hot casseroles, it’s Rod Carew marrying Matlock, it’s the We’re Back Era, and, excuse me, while I Sweeps him onto my team. 2025 Projections: 93/34/96/.281/28 in 586 ABs
CONTINUE ONTO THE TOP 20 FOR 2025 FANTASY BASEBALL
