Top 40 outfielders for 2026 fantasy baseball are here and they’re purdy like your little mouth! Sorry, been wanting to watch Deliverance, but can’t find it streaming, so been reenacting it from my memories with some toys I bought at a yard sale. *holds up Miss Piggy plushie* Squeal, Piggy! So, here’s Steamer’s 2026 Fantasy Baseball Projections for Hitters and 2026 Fantasy Baseball Projections for Pitchers. Subscriptions are up and running, and you can already get Rudy’s Draft War Room. Anyway, here’s the top 40 outfielders 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.
NOTE II: Free agents are marked as such and not yet projected. They are ranked for where they’re currently worth drafting.
TO GO BACK TO THE TOP 20 OUTFIELDERS FOR 2026 FANTASY BASEBALL
21. Randy Arozarena – This tier started in the top 20 outfielders for 2026 fantasy baseball. I called this tier, “A quote from Confucius about being realistic.” This tier ends at Altuve.
As for The Rice Bowl, he seems rejuvenated in Seattle. Ya know, one of the worst parks in baseball for hitting. Ya know, Part 2: Ya Knows More, a park that produced a massive year from Cal Raleigh, and solid one from JRod and The Rice Bowl. I’m hinting that I’m worried about Rice repeating, but maybe my fear of the park isn’t all that dire. Plus, if he wants to steal, he could sustain fantasy value realistically. 20/20 is okay, but 20/30 is legit so it’s fine if we lose some power, potentially. 2026 Projections: 91/21/64/.230/28 in 577 ABs
22. Jarren Duran – Mentioned this at one point during last year, Duran was a collective mistake by everyone in the fantasy baseball world. He was not a top 20 player coming off 2024 when he went 21/34/.285. He was always a 15/30/.250 hitter who exceeded expectations. As his steals last year show, a 30-steal guy becomes a 20-steal guy quickly if he just doesn’t want to run. That’s an incredibly hard guy to be bullish on. It might be odd to hear that a 20-25 homer guy with 30-steal speed is that much better than a 15-20 homer, 30-steal guy, but it’s true. The 25 homers has its sights on 30 homers if things go right, and the 15-homer guy is 12 homers if things go poorly, and 12/20 is brutal, nearly unownable. Is it me or do I feel down on a lot of early outfielders? It’s not me. It’s them. Wait, it’s not down as in pessimistic, it’s being realistic. That’s right. Thank you, Confucius. 2026 Projections: 79/17/71/.259/25 in 596 ABs
23. Tyler Soderstrom – Went over him in the 1st basemen rankings.
24. Kyle Stowers – Already gave you my Kyle Stowers sleeper. It was written while riding the log flume. 2026 Projections: 86/33/104/.272/7 in 588 ABs
25. Jose Altuve – Went over him in the 2nd basemen rankings.
26. Byron Buxton – This is a new tier. This tier goes from here until Springer. I call this tier, “Sagebrush.” Went to an allergist this offseason and I was told I’m allergic to sagebrush. I was like, “All right, doc, tell me what I need to do to alleviate my stuffies!” And he was like, “There’s nothing you can do. It’s all over the place in SoCal and it doesn’t have a season.” I said, “Are you sure? [itching arm]” That’s this tier. Out of nowhere you might start itching and there’s nothing you can do.
As for Buxton, last year was a dream year. He went 35/24/.264 in 488 ABs. That’s right, he still couldn’t stay on the field, but at least he made good on production when he was. Can you get another dream year? Close your eyes real tight and think about it. Are they closed? Are you itching? Do you see a field of sagebrush with a path through the middle that is lined with a box of tissues? I do. 2026 Projections: 72/25/61/.253/15 in 441 ABs
27. Oneil Cruz – I will have a special place in my heart for Oneil Cruz, and it would be fitting that he finally put it together when I’m finally out on him, but I just can’t. Not this year. We’ve been invested for so many years now and he’s returned about the same as Nadir Bupkis some years and other years he left us longing for a Nadir Bupkis-type year. He’s become such a mess vs. lefties he was actually being platooned last year. Prolly the best thing that happened to him, tee be aitch. He hit .102 vs. lefties in 108 ABs! He can’t make contact vs. lefties and is only slightly better vs. righties. You hit the ball as hard as him and he will have great stretches. We will regret not rostering him for a week or two here and there. You don’t hit the ball 115 MPH and not make people regret not rostering you. But the slumps? Oh, man, the slumps. He hit .177 in the 2nd half last year with four homers. He does that in the first half this year, and he might actually be traded for a nickel on the dollar and you never want to hope you’re getting some Nickelback. 2026 Projections: 66/22/67/.206/25 in 471 ABs
28. Seiya Suzuki – It’s his 2nd half of 7/3/.213. From June 1st until end of the year, he hit .228. He was a great April and a solid May away from having an awful year last year. He’s so streaky that his last four games of five homers changed his whole 2nd half. That’s right, take away the final four games of the season and his 2nd half was two homers and three steals in a 189 ABs. Cherrypicking here obviously. If you wanna just say, Seiya hit 32/5/.245 last year and had the best year of his career and was the 23rd best outfielder year, by all means, go for it. All I’m saying is he has an April/May like his July/August, and you’re gonna be looking at your fantasy football keepers by June. 2026 Projections: 71/25/83/.256/6 in 543 ABs
29. George Springer – The good news is if you’re a believer in Springer’s previous year, and getting him here (and in early ADP), you’re getting one of the best bargains in the draft. Congratulations! Felicitous! You’ve won the draft in your Mind Palace. The hypothetical year you’re getting from Springer, according to your good intentions, are going to win you so many leagues. These fantasy fantasy leagues you’ve made up in your head are going to be glorious. You better clear the make-believe shelf where you put your make-believe trophies. The bad news is a career year at 35 doesn’t bode well for future years. Could he repeat last year? I suppose, and if candy were nuts, we’d all be diabetic squirrels. Sadly, I don’t have a hankering for an acorn, do you? He went from a .220 hitter to a .309. Eye roll headache. He went from 19 homers to 32? C’mon. He even went from 16 to 18 steals with only one caught stealing. At 35! All of this was in under 500 at-bats! I do not believe. 2026 Projections: 81/20/64/.262/15 in 481 ABs
30. Noelvi Marte – This is a new tier. This tier goes from here until Ceddanne. I call this tier, “Shaking off the stank.” This tier is me just moving out of that stank tier we were just in. Badly needing to get into some outfielders I would draft.
As for Marte, went over him in the 3rd basemen rankings.
31. Ian Happ – This whole tier could be considered sleepers, if I wasn’t scared of being run out of town calling Ian Happ, Nimmo or Ward a sleeper. They’re not the usual definition of “sleeper,” as in “player who gives you the Pookie-from-New Jack City scratches,” as in, “You need to draft this player otherwise you’re going to be begging someone to please give you this player in exchange for sexual favors.” These vets don’t elicit the “sleeper tingles.” This is true, but by the strict definition of a sleeper — player who is drafted late enough that he provides value — they are. Taking me out of the equation: Ian Happ’s projections from Steamer: 21/8/.240 in 541 ABs. Seiya’s projections: 24/7/.254 in 526 ABs. Seiya is currently being drafted around 90 overall, and Happ is around 184. 90 spots in ADP capital for three homers and .015 in average. Oh…[walks from Vancouver to Cape Horn]…kay. 2026 Projections: 88/23/82/.243/9 in 569 ABs
32. Taylor Ward – Here’s what I said this offseason, “Traded to the Orioles for Grayson Rodriguez. Orioles need pitching, so they trade for more outfielders. Angels need everything, so they trade for an excellent lottery ticket. Could this be a Rare Angels Fleece Job (trades as RAFJ on the NASDAQ), but if Grayson’s elbow is officially Cook City, then this trade for the Angels is only good in theory, and we don’t play baseball games in the Theory stores of the mall, so this trade is impossible to grade properly right now. Therefore, I will give the Angels a B and the Orioles a C-.” And that’s me quoting me! 2026 Projections: 81/32/96/.233/6 in 581 ABs
33. Brandon Nimmo – Here’s what I said this offseason, “Traded to the Rangers for Semien. Finally, a trade of “Meh? That’s harsh, but fair. How about I trade you our meh for your meh?” I like this trade more for Texas, because I don’t care about defense, but, if you care about this in reality, and Nimmo leaving opens a spot for another free agent bat for the Mets, and Semien is nothing but a nine-hole hitter, then, sure, I guess it’s fine for both teams. Texas was near-worst park last year and year before. (Curiously, near top the year it won the World Series. Hmm, indeed. By the way, Rangers winning the World Series is already a tough trivia question barely two years later.) Nimmo doesn’t have real power or speed, but can do enough of both to be worthwhile.” And that’s me copying and pasting me! 2026 Projections: 87/21/66/.257/10 in 561 ABs
34. Chandler Simpson – This guy is a steal! Sorry, sorry. Bad pun. I mean, this guy is a bargain if you can get him here. Sure, he’s a one-category guy, right? WRONG, SNITCHES! I roped you in good! You fell for that one, sucka! Okay, so imagine a guy went 45/50/83/.290/2, would you not be clamoring to draft him? If you don’t want to go “steals are equal to homers,” fine, but steals are actually less abundant than homers, so if anything, steals are worth more. But tell me how a 55/50/83/.290/2 is not worth this draft pick, please. If you think it is, then flip it to 83/2/45/.290/50 and how is this guy not a steal? Ugh, sorry, did it again, but you know what I’m saying. 2026 Projections: 83/2/45/.290/50 in 461 ABs
35. Ceddanne Rafaela – Went over him in the 2nd basemen rankings.
36. Teoscar Hernandez – This is a new tier. This tier goes from here until Pages. I call this tier, “Taking a magic marker to a moth to make a butterfly.” You can prettify these players up to make them seem attractive. “Ooh, they have good lineups!…Ooh, he’s got speed and power!…Ooh, did you see that two-month stretch when he was actually good and ignore that four-month stretch when he was bad?” Yeah, I get it. There’s ways these guys can be decent but I am not relying on them.
As for Teoscar, his BABIP fell off, his K% went down and he hit .247 while his HardHit% has hit a career low for a full season. This is what “aging vet no longer being useful” looks like. Then again, “aging vet no longer being useful but has a dead cat bounce; didn’t you see George Springer” still exists. Also, “aging vet who is no longer useful is more like Paul Goldschmidt or Arenado, Teoscar is still a little bit useful, no?” could be what we see this year. He was so bad after April, though, it’s pretty concerning. April: 9 HRs/.310. May thru September: 16/.224. Emoji that is in a rocking chair that another emoji talks to, then a third emoji realizes the rocking chair emoji is the 2nd emoji’s dead mother as Psycho horror stings play. 2026 Projections: 66/24/73/.242/6 in 493 ABs
37. Michael Harris II – This is not OBP ranks — we have those though: OBP rankings — but last year Megahertz’s OBP was .268 and that is the lowest OBP I can remember from an everyday player who people consider good. I’m like Elias Sports Bureau if it just recited subjective thoughts. Unlike a lot of players in these “I don’t want ’em” tiers, Megahertz had a good 2nd half. 14/.299, kinda funny that even with that, he still couldn’t put together a solid September (3/.237). He was really Mr. August (8/.311). If only there was a word that could properly express how impressive his August was. Sigh, guess we’ll have to settle for an August performance. If you really want to draft a guy based on six solid weeks (he was good in the 2nd half of July too), then go for it. 2026 Projections: 61/18/77/.257/20 in 546 ABs
38. Alec Burleson – Went over him in the 1st basemen rankings.
39. Andy Pages – It’s goofy to not want to draft a guy because of one pitch, but I don’t want to draft Pages because of one pitch. Backstory: Emmanuel Clase bet $4K that a pitch would be a ball. He threw the pitch in the dirt, and Pages still swung and missed. He still swung! That’s bad. It’s only one pitch but it tells me the book is out on Pages, not the sportsbook, apparently. To further illustrate this, when each pitch mattered, Pages couldn’t hit, i.e., he hit .078 in the postseason in 51 ABs, and became unstartable so quickly, that he was benched towards the end of the World Series. For a team who will always have options like the Dodgers, this is brutal. To those that don’t think Pages could actually lose a starting job, see James Outman going from 2023 to 2024. Dodgers are notoriously fickle about starting guys if they’re not producing and they’re not vets. Pages has a bad April? Oh, he’s done. 2026 Projections: 62/20/71/.247/9 in 431 ABs
40. Jo Adell – This is a new tier. This tier goes until the top 60 outfielders for 2026 fantasy baseball. I call this tier, “Let’s take a 17th, 18th, 19th, infinity look.” This tier name refers to how many times you look at these guys until you’re so cross-eyed that you finally like them again. I swear it’s like I’m wearing Opti-Grab glasses I looked at this guys so much. I honestly not sure if I looked at them so much that I just resigned myself to liking them just to stop looking at them, or if I actually liked them. No, I like them. I think. “Right?” I ask my reflection, and my reflection is like, “Don’t be looking at me…Wait, are you looking at me? It’s hard to tell because of the cross-eyed thing.” It’s not necessarily a bad thing to take infinity looks at a guy. Sometimes you just can’t believe how much you like a guy and have to look at again, and again and–well, you get it.
As for Adell, he went 37/6/.236 last year as he finally breaks out as a post-post-post-post-post-post-POST-post-post-hype sleeper. [counting “posts” in my head] Might’ve missed one post there. Truly remarkable that Adell finally got there. This gives you an idea when to expect Christian Moore to break out. Roughly in July of 2032. It did come together though: 37.8 HardHit%, 16.1 Launch Angle, 26.4 K% and still 26 until the start of the season. Jo Adell has arrived, seven years and infinity looks by me later. 2026 Projections: 74/33/86/.241/7 in 538 ABs
