With the top 40 outfielders for 2025 fantasy baseball, we’ve finished all the hitter recaps. We meaning me, but I’ll include you. No, that’s not a cue to try to hold my hand. Why are you now patting my butt? Don’t muss my hair! The pitching recap will begin next. You can hardly wait. No, you! To recap, the end of the season rankings are based on our Fantasy Baseball Player Rater. I felt the easiest way to keep it objective would be to go this route. This way when I say a player finished 30th and I ranked them 23rd in the preseason, it carries more weight than Cal Raleigh’s backside. Anyway, here’s the top 40 outfielders for 2025 fantasy baseball and how they compare to where I originally ranked them:
21. Andy Pages – Went to the Dodgers’ clinching game vs. the Phils in the NLDS and I’m still sad about Orion Kerkering, but I’ll get over it. Actually, [thinks for a second] I’m over it now. What also stood out is how Andy Pages was nearly a top 20 outfielder in MLB and he’s so under-appreciated that his own manager bats him 9th in some games. At 24, he went 27/14/.272 with a 21.6 K% and a 14.1 HR/FB%, i.e., repeatable/repeatable with a could-get-better% and HR/could-get-better%. I’m under the hood, and it looks good! Teoscar is infectiously fun to watch, as long as you don’t have him in fantasy. He should be hitting 9th and Pages up at cleanup. No, that’ll never happen. Preseason Rank #124, 2025 Projections: 28/8/26/.259/3 in 245 ABs, Final Numbers: 74/27/86/.272/14 in 581 ABs
22. Tyler Soderstrom – Already went over him in the top 20 1st basemen for 2025 fantasy baseball.
23. Seiya Suzuki – I preseason ranked him at 22 and he ended up at 23. Don’t look at anything I projected him for! I nailed it! That’s your takeaway! Move on! No? Okay. I couldn’t have been more wrong on Seiya, while being right on his ranking. I don’t understand who this guy was at all this year. Insane power, no speed; his BABIP flatlined and I would’ve thought all that meant a ton more fly balls, but that rate was almost identical year over year. If I had to guess, Seiya was a bit unlucky last year on average, while also being a tad lucky on power. By the way, I look at how many homers a guy would hit in other parks, and everyone is freakin’ hilarious when I see Bing Bong Stadium. 44 homers for Seiya! Totally normal stadium in SacTown. Preseason Rank #22, 2025 Projections: 75/23/81/.281/15 in 519 ABs, Final Numbers: 75/32/103/.245/5 in 571 ABs
24. Jarren Duran – Mentioned this at some point during the season, but ya know how I have the Lifetime ADP? You don’t know my greatest contribution to fantasy sports? JFC. Get with it! Anyway, my thought on Duran is he’s actually more of a 25th best outfielder and we (me too) overrated him this last preseason, putting him in the top 10 outfielders and top 20 overall. Preseason Rank #9, 2025 Projections: 116/23/74/.291/36 in 617 ABs, Final Numbers: 86/16/84/.256/24 in 620 ABs
25. Jo Adell – Imagine two little kids spinning a jump rope, but instead of a nursery rhyme, they’re saying the word “post” over and over again, and Jo Adell is standing just outside the ropes waiting for the 27th “post” before hopping in. It finally came together for Adell, and, in retrospect, signs were there when he cut his Ks in 2024 and upped his walks. He also made a lot better contact this year and made better contact on better pitches. One note of hilarity, I projected him for 63 runs and he had 63 runs, but his homer projection is insanely off. Nice offense around him, Angels! Preseason Rank #68, 2025 Projections: 63/24/72/.227/15 in 477 ABs, Final Numbers: 63/37/98/.236/5 in 526 ABs
26. Jose Altuve – See his recap at the top 20 2nd basemen for 2025 fantasy baseball.
27. Mookie Betts – See his recap at the top 20 shortstops for 2025 fantasy baseball.
28. Trent Grisham – Grisham and Laureano (just below) both suffered in my preseason ranks of Unclear Playing Time. There’s only one known cure for UPT, but to list the side effects would take longer than the time allotted in the commercial. He had a 21.5% HR/FB. Does that make sense? No, why do you ask? Oh, because I’m going over his year. His fly balls were actually down from ’24 and, a career .218 hitter, had a .253 BABIP for a .235 average, and it all kinda makes no sense. The only thing that sorta explains things is he saw 64% in the zone on fastballs. Preseason Unranked, Final Numbers: 87/34/74/.235/3 in 494 ABs
29. Ramon Laureano – As mentioned above, he had the UPT, which only sounds sexually transmitted. This is the first outfielder ranked outside the top 100 overall on the year-end Player Rater (Grisham was 100th on the dot). If you’re curious (and if you’re not curious and reading a top 40 outfielders recap in October, I wonder if you can’t use your time better), Moniak, the 40th outfielder down below is 140th overall, and $9 in fantasy value. That would be the 12th best catcher, 19th best 1B, 10th best 2B, 17th best shortstop and 8th best 3B. Outfielders are deep, and I think this is a bounce back from previous years. Preseason Unranked, Final Numbers: 72/24/76/.281/7 in 441 ABs
30. Sal Frelick – He was a sleeper for me in 2024, and–I’m sorry, can you hold on? I’m the phone with this stupid Magic Eight Ball company. “Yes, I just don’t think it’s too much to ask to know what year this future ball is talking about!” Frelick did exactly what I expected of him — last year! I still had him in a favorable tier to draft this preseason, but I clearly didn’t expect him to finally connect to this extent. He had a 13.5 K%, 7.9% BB, and 30+ steal speed, if he’d just run, i.e., that’s a leadoff hitter. Preseason Rank #82, 2025 Projections: 57/3/31/.254/15 in 403 ABs, Final Numbers: 76/12/63/.288/19 in 528 ABs
31. Ian Happ – No one respects what Ian Happ gives you but he is pound-for-pound the easiest guy to project and rank every year. There’s something valuable to that. Roughly equal in value to the 30th best outfielder. Preseason Rank #27, 2025 Projections: 86/24/69/.247/12 in 571 ABs, Final Numbers: 87/23/79/.243/6 in 569 ABs
32. Lawrence Butler – There’s some covert lies happening in this post. Butler ranked 21st in the preseason and ending up at 32? That doesn’t sound that bad. It’s nowhere near accurate. He was roughly 100 slots difference overall. Think if you drafted Ohtani 1st overall and he ended up around 100th, you wouldn’t like it much. Just as you didn’t like Butler much! His saving grace was you can only go so wrong with a 20/20 year. He went about as wrong as that can go, though. Preseason Rank #21, 2025 Projections: 84/27/67/.269/23 in 581 ABs, Final Numbers: 83/21/63/.234/22 in 569 ABs
33. Kyle Stowers – Shame he hurt himself and missed so many ABs, because he could’ve had a top 20 outfielder year otherwise. Stowers officially broke out this year. Top 2% xwOBA, top 6% HardHit%, top 4% xSLG, with a perfect 14-degree Launch Angle. Stowers looks like the prototypical corner outfielder, 35+ homer, .280 hitter. In related news, the Orioles have no idea what they’re doing, do they? Okay, that’s harsh, they did get Trevor Rogers, who was very valuable. Preseason Unranked, Final Numbers: 61/25/73/.288/5 in 399 ABs
34. Michael Harris II – Some time during the preseason Rudy empties out the comments because the site starts lagging in speed if it’s carrying around hundreds of comments on a random post in January, so you’re gonna have to take my word for it but I guarantee you people were saying things in the preseason like, “Grey, handsome face, but are you stupid ranking Harris that low? That must be a mistake right? There’s no way a guy who is being drafted around the 15th outfielder can really be ranked at 34 for you, right?” Yeah, and yes. I nailed his fall-off, and even I didn’t think it would be this bad. Preseason Rank #34, 2025 Projections: 74/18/62/.282/18 in 523 ABs, Final Numbers: 55/20/86/.249/20 in 611 ABs
35. Wyatt Langford – “Lawrence Butler had the worst 20/20 season.” Hold up, Grey Three Blurbs Ago, don’t be an idiot! Okay, in fairness to Grey Three Blurbs Ago, Wyatt had 80 less at-bats. Assumption is Wyatt would’ve done at least something in those 80 ABs. I didn’t like Wyatt the last two years (price was not good), but I’m thinking he’s finally going to be affordable and I’m about to get my heart broken every time his oblique breaks. Preseason Rank #16, 2025 Projections: 86/22/83/.267/26 in 553 ABs, Final Numbers: 73/22/62/.241/22 in 489 ABs
36. Teoscar Hernandez – If I would’ve projected him for 65 runs in 511 ABs in that Dodgers’ lineup, you would’ve said I was the dumbest em-effer. Okay, you might say that anyway, but that’s an absurdly low number of runs in that lineup. That’s almost Sal Perez-type shizz. Can Teoscar score from third on a drive to center? [remembers the playoffs series vs. Brewers where Sal Frelick threw him out at home] Oh, no, he can’t. Preseason Rank #20, 2025 Projections: 81/34/94/.261/7 in 576 ABs, Final Numbers: 65/25/89/.247/5 in 511 ABs
37. Ceddanne Rafaela – See his recap at the top 20 2nd basemen for 2025 fantasy baseball.
38. Heliot Ramos – Member what I was saying about Teoscar two seconds ago? Heliot had 620 ABs and 85 runs, with 342 ABs as a leadoff man. That’s also kinda absurd. So, Heliot was a preseason sleeper and he came pretty close to returning value. Basically I nailed it. Yet, he felt like a disappointment. Maybe it was the everyday at-bats at the top of the order, maybe it was the hot/cold nature of his season. His May? Amazing! 6 HRs, .347. His July? Hideous: 1 HR, .239. Preseason Rank #32, 2025 Projections: 79/26/78/.266/10 in 549 ABs, Final Numbers: 85/21/69/.256/6 in 620 ABs
39. Steven Kwan – In one league, I had Heliot and Kwan, and that team’s hitting was not good and my outfield was boringly painful. Maybe it was the lack of power and speed. There’s something psychological about this Kwan-ish statline of 11/21/.272 feeling more boring than these make-believe lines of 11/40/.230 or 40/10/.230 or if it’s just in less at-bats. More in Moniak’s blurb. Preseason Rank #41, 2025 Projections: 91/11/51/.291/16 in 572 ABs, Final Numbers: 81/11/56/.272/21 in 625 ABs
40. Mickey Moniak – Here’s a good example of what I was saying in Kwan’s blurb. Moniak’s 24/9/.270 felt better because it was in 434 ABs. The condensed nature of it feels better, but it’s not if you’re in a weekly league and have to start Moniak for all the games he didn’t play. It’s only better if you’re moving Moniak in and out of your lineup in a daily league, but then you’re using a bench spot. Is he worth it? What an incredibly profound question. Ask the Sphinx! Preseason Unranked, Final Numbers: 62/24/68/.270/9 in 434 ABs
I drafted Happ for exactly what you said. He is predictable or even boring, but very under appreciated. I was looking for 80/25/80/10 with above average obp.
I didn’t think he was going to come close to those numbers. He was sitting on 3 hr over his first 52 games through june 4. He ended up hitting 9 hr and driving in 22 runs in june, but only hit .208. So he basically got about 40% of his homers and 30% of his rbi in one month. He literally stole 1 base per month which was a letdown.
He made up for that letdown by having a better 2nd half. He was also one of the few guys on my team who didn’t completely pack it in during Sep.