Yesterday, I went over the top 10 for 2026 fantasy baseball. Today, I throw out preconceived notions, drink some potions and lather up my body with lotions, as I sloppily slip and slide my way through a very precarious top 20 for 2026 fantasy baseball. This top twenty is a blind man playing Twister. Half the time, I’m grabbing for things not knowing if they’re there or not. This top 20 could go countless other ways. Is countless a widowed Countess? No, it’s not, it’s a confusing AF top 20 for fantasy baseball. All the positional rankings will live under the 2026 fantasy baseball rankings. Here’s Steamer’s 2026 Fantasy Baseball Projections for Hitters and 2026 Fantasy Baseball Projections for Pitchers. The projections in this post are, as always, mine. (But if you click on a player’s name, you see Steamer’s projections for that specific player. It’s magic!) Subscriptions are up and running, and you can already get Rudy’s Draft War Room. Anyway, here’s the top 20 for 2026 fantasy baseball:
NOTE: All my 2026 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.
11. Gunnar Henderson – This tier started in the top 10 for 2026 fantasy baseball. This tier goes until Schwarber. I called this tier, “Drafting On A Prayer.” As for Gunnar, what kind of Richie Sambora-sized prayer could you need here? I can’t imagine what I was thinking putting Gunnar in this tier. He should be five tiers above! He’s perfect, he has never disappointed! Oh, by the way, I should point out, prior to doing my rankings for 2026 fantasy baseball, I have a sizable chunk removed from my brain. The part of my brain that is labeled, “Which players destroyed my desire to live last year?” that is gone. Excised. Vamos! That’s what I say because I still have the part of my brain that is labeled, “Took 13 years of Spanish, but has the worst pronunciation possible.” I’d love to stay mad at players, but that’s a good way to get madder when the player who disappointed you last year bounces back and disappoints you even more because you avoided him. So, to recap stuff I wrote down about Gunnar from last year prior to my brain extraction, the Orioles moved in their fences and Gunnar started hitting like Adam Frazier. Being unlucky as a hitter is a misnomer, methinks, and metalks like a leprechaun. Gunnar was unlucky though as in he hurt his side going into the season, and then recently said he had a shoulder impingement all season. That’s pretty unlucky! As far as unlucky on homers? If he called Fenway home, he would’ve only hit nine total homers, which is a big HA! from me, and he hit 17 homers total, but 30 steals and .274 with a .329 BABIP. He just needs some of his power to return and a year removed from his side and shoulder injuries, and I think he’ll be primed for a bounce back. A bounce back from what? I don’t know, literally no idea what he did last year. I’d have to check my notes again. That part of the brain is gone. Did I tell you that already? The information about what I told you previously was removed too. Did I tell you that yet? Wait, did I tell you that yet? Hold up, was that something I told you? 2026 Projections: 103/27/89/.280/26 in 584 ABs
12. Fernando Tatis Jr. – Drafting On A Prayer Tatis sounds like I’m an insect using the wind generated from a Praying Mantis to move faster in a race like Tom Cruise in Days of Thunder. Last year, Tatis went 111/25/71/.268/32 and that was only good for 27th best on the Player Rater, and now I’m starting to think FTJ aka Fun The Jewels might be a tad overrated since the year before it was 21/11/.276 and the PEDs suspension. That’s where I was, and ranked Fun at 21st overall. Then I started digging in. His walk rate was up to 12.9%, Ks down to 18.7%, and look at this:
Statcast defines this as WTF. Wait, sorry, they define the Sweet Spot as, “A player who hits the ball solidly is said to have gotten the “sweet spot” of the bat on the ball. The sweet spot classification quantifies that as a batted-ball event with a launch angle ranging from 8 to 32 degrees. A player’s sweet spot percentage — or how often he produces a batted-ball event in the launch angle sweet-spot zone of 8-32 degrees — is presented on Statcast leaderboards under LA SwSp%.”
Hmm…Interesting…[going through a stack of baseball books]…The Art of Hitting by Ted Williams, The Art of Hitting Flat by Charley Lau, The Art of Hitting Everything Hard But Just Missing by Tatis. Previous year Tatis’s LA Sweet Spot% was 42%, which is still low, but better than this abomination. This is how I came to this ranking. Fun can’t be *this* good at everything and *this* bad at connecting at the perfect spot for better results. Oh, and the results were still great. Further bolstering of the point, his Chase Rate was way down and his Z-Contact% was up. His legitimately solid season was also unlucky. It’s no surprise to see Steamer project him for a 32/26/.274 season. Fun isn’t just back, there’s a case to be made he never left. 2026 Projections: 103/31/83/.273/27 in 567 ABs
13. Kyle Schwarber – Re-signed with the Phillies, as everyone expected. Though, the Pirates made a strong effort to get him, offering twenty whole dollars. So, I’m praying here that I’m not overcorrecting for Schwarber, after years of not being high enough on him, i.e., now I’m at a dispensary called High On Kyle’s Supply and I’m rolling blunts filled with Schwarbombs, but let’s take me out of the equation: Steamer projections have him down for 40/7/.228. So, Schwarber minus Me = Still great, but low average. I’d argue like a RAB (Real Arguing Boy) that he’s hit .248 and .240 the last two years and hits the ball harder than just about everyone. That’s not hyperbole. He literally hits the ball harder than all but four other guys on average. Two have been mentioned already — Judge and Ohtani. Said like Buckwheat, “Otay!” — and there’s Oneil Cruz who has other issues that hitting the ball hard can’t fix, and James Wood, who I talk about in Jazz’s blurb. Schwarber also has the highest percentage of Hard Hits at 59.6%. I guess that could just end after he signed a big deal and suddenly he gets old, but that’s you just guessing at something. There’s nothing in his profile that says he should now be old and washed. Also, you know when his .248 and .240 averages happened? After the shift died a noble death between the 2nd baseman and right fielder as a duck snort. The stat xBA has so many problems with it that it drives me nuts, but there is something to be said that Schwarber’s xBA the last year of the shift was .220 and the last two years it was .256 and .255. His Barrels/plate appearance percentage is 11.7, that’s 4th best behind Judge, Ohtani, and Alonso. Schwarber is a beast. The Schwarbeast, if you will. Last year on the Player Rater, he was the 5th most valuable player. This ranking feels like a steal. 2026 Projections: 103/47/123/.244/8 in 581 ABs
14. Junior Caminero – This is a new tier. This tier goes from here until Chourio. I call this tier, “The TikTok Algorithm.” If you’re under the age of 23, your brain has been codified by the TikTok algorithm. If the TikTok algorithm tells you to walk into a Panera Bread clucking like a chicken while screaming, “I’m a chicken!” then you will be chickened. If the TikTok algorithm tells you to head over to Washington Square Park and play chess for money with only a scant knowledge of what a bishop does, then you will be out a few thousand by sundown. If the TikTok algorithm tells Caminero and Chourio to become ungovernable by not swinging their bat all season, then we are especially screwed, so I love both of these guys, but they are at the mercy of the socials because they’re so freakin’ young.
As for Caminero, I went into looking at his stats with this thought in mind, “He was playing in Big Stein Stadium last year, and the drunk Ghost of Billy Martin helped carry the ball out of the yard as a last bit of revenge against the Steinbrenners. Also, the park’s dimensions prolly didn’t hurt,” but there’s not a ton of evidence to that. Yes, he hit a few more homers than if he played in Trop all year (maybe three to seven), but he’s also 12 years old! The collective You doesn’t think he might get better? As a 21-year-old, Caminero went 45/7/.264. If he played in a major league park and went 37/7/.260, we’d be gushing, and that’s subtracting a lot more off his stats than perhaps is warranted to prove the point. He is likely one of the best bats in baseball as a mere baby. A toddler in a Rays jersey. Just stay away from the For You Page. 2026 Projections: 93/42/107/.274/8 in 593 ABs
15. Jackson Chourio – He’s even younger. They be making them young nowadays, don’t they? Yes, they do’s. I don’t know why I’m talking like I have a straw in my mouth now. I guess I’s learnin’ stuff that fills my head thing. So, Chourio went 21/21/.270 in only 131 games (540 ABs). The hamstring worries me, and for the first time in my rankings I am having a weird flash of the future where I have to lower Chourio in my ranks because he’s hurt his hammy yet again in the spring, but he’s also 21 until March! You can get away with a lot when you’re that young. When I was 21, I’d break my leg and be good by lunch, then I’d drink a glass boat filled with beer for lunch, ralph by 3 and be rallying by 6. Chourio has legit 40/40 upside and that doesn’t even feel like I’m saying anything that controversial. He is profoundly DID (Dripping In Damn). You don’t want to get too tied up in chasing upside this early in drafts, and I am particularly careful about avoiding that. To get ranked this high you need to have a baseline of stats that can be close to this valuable. A Seven Nation Army-like baseline. Then you need to have upside that is gorge. Chourio is in gorges. 2026 Projections: 109/28/91/.277/28 in 573 ABs
16. Tarik Skubal – This is a new tier. This tier goes from here until Skenes. I call this tier, “Fritos feet.” Fritos feet is when your dog’s feet smells like Fritos. This is a real thing. Google it, and you’ll see article after article about how to get rid of Fritos feet if your dog suffers from it. An article I am searching for is, “If your dog doesn’t have Fritos feet, how do you give it to them?” Because Fritos feet sounds wonderful. The tier name refers to me ignoring the draft while a pitcher gets drafted in the top 20, and googling “How To Give My Dog Fritos Feet.” If you’ve been following my rankings for a minute, and not an actual minute, but an Urban Dictionary minute, which is actually a long time, you know I’d never draft a starter in the top 20. So, yes, I’ve chosen to rank two starters in the top 20 this year, and this is more to point out how I would not draft them. If you want to bemoan my low ranking of these two starters, then bemoan away. Just remember, a bemoaner sounds a bit to me like, “U be a boner.”
Here’s what I’ve said previously about ranking starters in the top 20, “Before you say, ‘Grey, you’re handsome AF, and super smart. You rub-a-dub places I thought only ladies could rub and/or dub. Yet, you say you’d never draft a starter in the top 20, but you’ve ranked Skubal and Skenes in the top 20. Should I not draft either of them if they’re available? Thank you for your time, you are a real gentleman.’ This always drives me crazy. Not the compliments, those are nice. If you’re following my rankings, then Elly, Tatis, Gunnar, Schwarber and more are ranked higher than their ADP or where others are ranking them (for the most part; there’s exceptions, obviously). So how on earth did you get to pick 16, and have no one else available to you but Skubal or Skenes? As lovely as that sounds, you’re not in a league with 15 me’s. There’s guys available to draft I like more than Skubal or Skenes. A companion piece to this question is the guy (and, let’s be honest, it’s always a guy), who says, ‘Only players available were Skenes and Schwarber and I didn’t want to draft Schwarber, so I went with Skenes.’ So, you don’t want to listen to me on who to draft in regards to Schwarber, but you want me to say it’s okay to draft a guy I’ve ranked later who I’ve said not to draft? Okay…*places traffic cone on head, kneels down in driver’s ed course, gets slammed by pimple-faced teenager’s Sebring* So, why even rank Skubal or Skenes in the top 20 if I wouldn’t draft them here? I gotta rank them somewhere! What, I’m gonna rank him 450th overall next to Seth Lugo?” And that’s me quoting me! I changed some names and numbers from last year to this year, but that’s still completely applicable, so please appliqué! Few funny things in regards to the find and replace I did on that quote. My example where I say the starter who was ranked at 450th overall last year? It was Matthew Boyd. The year before? It was Sean Manaea. To repeat in context, the last two years I’ve said draft Sean Manaea in 2024 when he was excellent, and Matthew Boyd last year, and how good was he last year? The 17th best starter on the Player Rater! In fairness to Skenes and Skubal, last year I said you could’ve had Yordan or Bryce Harper instead of Skubal and Skenes, and those were misses, but they weren’t the only names I mentioned, JRod and Corbin Carroll were also mentioned. So, it was a bit hit or miss with Skubal and Skenes being excellent, but banking on starters staying healthy is a lot more fickle, according to history. We only have to go back two years to when Strider was the top starter. Or even last year’s consensus number three starter Zack Wheeler.
As for Skubal, last year I had Skenes above him, and, honestly, I don’t care if you want Skenes first. Skubal is on a historic run, but so is Skenes. Skubal should be good for a few more wins and upped his Ks from last year, and that trend went the other way with Skenes, but you’re not going to find me badmouthing either. 2026 Projections: 15-4/2.38/0.91/238 in 196 IP
17. Paul Skenes – He has a career record of 21-13/1.96/0.95/386 in 320 2/3 IP. Not a bad season for Nolan Ryan! That was 55 games started for Skenes, and if he gets to 100 wins, it will be the year 2070 and we’ll all be robots. If you find this in google in 2070, say hello to yourself for me, Robot — If you can figure out how, you stupid pile of junk metal! Haha, I just snapped a robot in 2070 who is reading this. I rule! Ya know, some people come to me and say, “Grey, how is it that you can snap a 2070 robot in half 40+ years before they exist?” and it’s because I rule. That’s it. Skenes also rules (my segues are perfect). I will say this negatively about him (since everything else is positive):
Paul Skenes is having arguably the best start to a career ever for a starter, and also this is a reminder about how fickle this game can be longterm
— Razzball (@razzball.bsky.social) November 12, 2025 at 5:03 PM
In other words, baseball is a tough game, pardners and five pardneresses. No one in 1985 thought Dwight Gooden was gonna suck by 1990. Unless you knew he was sucking up copious amounts of coke, I guess. Neither of those pitchers came close to fulfilling their early promise. As for Skenes, well, he rocks. His Ks were down, but, as I’ve said numerous times during the season, I wouldn’t be shocked if his agent was like, “Just throw more strikes and don’t bother overpowering anyone, because I have a payday for you in four years.” Otherwise, he’s having the best start of a career I can remember. Almost as good as Gooden! 2026 Projections: 12-7/2.04/0.95/226 in 190 IP
18. Kyle Tucker – Here’s what I said when he signed, “Signed by the Dodgers. Marlins will enter the season with around a $60 million payroll, Dodgers’ 6-hole hitter Kyle Tucker with be making $60 million dollars. Good stuff! Okay, kidding with the six-hole thing for Kyle Tucker, but it’s not too far off. Andy Pages would be most teams three-hole hitter; he might platoon out of the nine hole. Hyeseong Kim could be a leadoff hitter in some lineups. For the Dodgers, he might start the year in the minors.
So, Kyle Tucker went 21/25/.266 last year in 500 ABs, and remained committed to “acquiring a random injury and keeping it hidden from the general public,” pulling that off now in back-to-back seasons. Elias Sports Bureau said the last person to pull this off was Scuds “Yellow Fever” McFeely in 1906 for the New York Highlanders. Who managed to get gout, then Yellow Fever the following year because of the leeches doctors used to cure the gout. Scuds managed to keep both a secret, even though he would routinely plotz in the middle of games. Tucker never plotzed, but he did putz around for months at a time on 75% of his ability, which was nearly as bad for everyone involved. I’ll admit to being bullish on Tucker this year, even though there is a good chance he will get a paper cut in April, leave it unattended and it will end up needing to be amputated because of his inattention. This feels all anecdotal though, and, at 29 years of age to start the season, he does not need to be washed, and those were incredibly fluky injuries. Honestly, I think he’ll likely be a steal if early ADP holds. He’s a 30/30/.270 hitter without the anecdotes, and hopefully he can avoid the Scuds comps.” And that’s me quoting me! 2026 Projections: 86/29/91/.271/23 in 511 ABs
19. Nick Kurtz – You can’t not hit in Bing Bong Stadium, double negatives be damned. You can’t not Bing Bong in Bing Bong Stadium. This is truth. Bing Bong is so drunk with “allowing homers” that Nick Kurtz hit 36 homers last year and, if he hit all those at home, he would’ve had 40 homers. Kurtz is a superstar. Bing Bong does not hurt. Bing Bong was better than even Coors for homers. (What’s completely odd and unrelated-ish, Comerica was the third best park last year. And if you’re wondering, then Dodger Stadium, Camden, Rogers Centre and Fenway.) If Kurtz called any other park home, I wouldn’t be quite this high on Kurtz. He likely would’ve fell just inside the top 25 for me, but he hit 36 homers last year and .290 in only 117 games or 420 ABs (Cody Bellinger’s favorite number). Give Kurtz another 40 games and he’s going to hit less homers? Maybe the average will come down a little, but 45/.260 is bad?
Narrator: No, it’s not.
Also, and this factoid is gonna blow your mind, Kurtz is not the only A’s hitter to play in Bing Bong. All of their offense is going to be Binging and/or Bonging. Last year in those 117 games, he had 90 runs and 86 RBIs. This is not your barely older brother’s A’s who played in Oakland. Kurtz will get counting stats in that park. Does his 30.9 K% scare me a bit? Yup. If he had a 25 K% or lower, I would’ve ranked him in the top 12. He hits the ball as hard as anyone. Please feast, ye old eyes:
That is .330 BABIP guy. Last year, he had a .364 BABIP, which is a tad high. So, it comes down thirty points, and he clocks in for another 140+ ABs, and he hits .260 and 10 more homers. Big whoop! Or Big Amish, as people have taken to calling him. Usually, I’m never one to use a nickname that players use for themselves, but Big Amish is a good one. Here’s to 45 home runspringas! 2026 Projections: 107/45/114/.261/3 in 562 ABs
20. Jazz Chisholm Jr. – I battled myself on ranking James Wood or Jazz Chisholm Jr. here. That was my one sole truly difficult battle that I did not come out of unscathed. I have scars. Look at my back. That’s from my Dan Brown-written-about-cat-o-nine-tails lashings I gave myself to get Jazz here and could Wood not, to flex my conjugation. I did not even consider Cal Raleigh, for him you will have to wait for my top 20 catchers rankings. I did not consider another starter — no Yoshinobu Yamamoto, no Garrett Crochet. I did not want Treat Urner or Albombso in the top 20, but it’s not because I don’t like them. That’s the main gist here — it’s not that I don’t like any of these guys who don’t appear in the top 20. There will be rankings for every position and a top 500 eventually, and everyone will be ranked. They will have their time. The Vlad Jrs., the Cal Raleighs, those without a giant back porch, all of them.
As for Jazz, he just went 31/31 in 462 ABs and 130 games. That’s coming off a year of 24/40 in 562 ABs. [galaxy brain expanding] …562 ABs to 462 ABs…Oh my God, he’s going to have 362 ABs this year. Crap. [galaxy brain expanding further] Oh my God, he had 352 ABs the year before, so now he’ll have 252 ABs or 652 ABs. [galaxy brain expanding until it explodes] Whew, I can think normally again. Jazz is a 40/40 guy who just needs to stay healthy. I don’t buy the Contract Year Narrative, but with Jazz I will make an exception. He’s about to go off. He’s also currently in the five hole, but that assumes Trent Grisham can turn a dream season into two dream seasons, and I have my doubts. Or Trent, Ben Rice or Giancarlo just get hurt, Jazz moves up, and Giancarlo just got hurt reading his name there. Also, Aaron Boone has never seen a vet he doesn’t love, so Jazz will get 600+ ABs if he stays on the field. Also, and this is incredibly anecdotal. Miguel Rojas was the most unlikely World Series hero since Bill Mazeroski. I still can’t believe he hit that homer. He had no business. You know who hates Miguel Rojas more than anyone inside the continental U.S.? Jazz from his time on the Marlins. They despised each other. There was articles written in The Athletic about their hate for each other it was so profound. Hate can fuel a man. A contract year can fuel a man. A contract year fueled on the lust of money and the hate of Miguel Rojas? Oh, Jazz is about to have the best year we’ve ever seen. LFG!!! 2026 Projections: 85/34/91/.252/30 in 541 ABs
