2026 Fantasy baseball rankings and strategies

Imagn Images

78 days until Opening Day …

Let's get this out of the way at the top: Rankings are not the primary way you should be thinking about or preparing for your Fantasy Baseball draft. They're a tool – and, given their prominence in draft rooms, a popular one – but they shouldn't be the tool.

An ordinal ranking – that is, a ranking where every item in a list is given a number in order – just doesn't allow for the kind of nuance you actually need when building a Fantasy team. The gap between Garrett Crochet and Paul Skenes is the same in my starting pitcher rankings as the gap between Skenes and Chris Sale; in my overall rankings, Crochet and Skenes are back-to-back to close out the top 12, while Sale comes in nearly 20 spots later. Sale is closer in my overall rankings to my No. 13 SP, Cole Ragans, by comparison.

And then there's the fact that these rankings can't be dynamic in the way you actually need to be when drafting. If you take Skubal in the first round and Paul Skenes is the clear top player left on your board by the time you pick in the second round, you might just double-dip on the SP position – something I did in a mock draft earlier in the offseason – but that's going to dramatically change how you approach the rest of your draft. Is Yoshinobu Yamamoto still sitting there unexpectedly in the third round as your clear top player? Too bad, you can't take him!

Conversely, if you took Elly De La Cruz in the first round, you probably shouldn't be taking another shortstop whose strongest skill is stolen bases in the second round, even if you really like Trea Turner. But if you took Aaron Judge in the first, you might want to consider moving some of those stolen base specialists up a bit.

And then there's just … personal preference! If you prioritize upside in your drafts, you might be a lot more bullish on pushing the likes of Trey Yesavage and Cameron Schlittler way up your draft boards. If you want to avoid injury risk at all costs, your best bet might be taking Tyler Glasnow and Hunter Greene off your boards entirely.

I'm ranking based on my preferences, but I'll also grant that I'm pretty loose with my rankings – just because I have Spencer Schwellenbach ranked 55th overall doesn't mean I wouldn't ever consider taking him ahead of Joe Ryan, the SP directly ahead of him, let alone C.J. Abrams or Freddie Freeman, the two position players directly ahead of both. In each of those instances, who I take will come down to team context and, if we're being honest, the intellectual equivalent of an in-the-moment coin flip.

There might be some Fantasy analysts who will pound the table that their order is the one correct one, and if you're looking for that kind of certainty, I'm not the analyst for you. We embrace nuance and uncertainty here at FBT, so if your response to any of the following rankings is, "Why don't you have Player Y ahead of Player X?" My response very well may be, "I could; ask me again tomorrow!"

That's all to say: Rankings are a starting point. They weren't handed down from on high to be taken as gospel in all circumstances. It says, "I prefer this player to that player, absent all of the context that actually goes into drafting and building a team." Drafting based just on ADP would be a mistake, but drafting just based on any individual's rankings – even an individual as smart and clever and, frankly, handsome as I am – would be a mistake too. There are lessons to be learned here for sure – I'm higher on some players than the consensus and lower on some than others, which should raise your antenna, at least – but the truth is, rankings are always only ever a starting point.

In the next few weeks, the FBT team will be unveiling our full rankings for both Roto and H2H leagues, with Auction/Salary Cap Draft values, and we'll have sleepers, breakouts, and busts picks, tiers, and a whole bunch more to get you ready for Draft Day. With 2026 officially here, this is where I'm starting, with my position-by-position top-12 rankings and an overall top-250 for Rotisserie leagues:

Chris Towers' 2026 Rankings

Catchers

It's usually a chore to fill in a top-12 at catcher. This year, I'm leaving out names like Samuel Basallo, Adley Rutschman, and Kyle Teel, among others. I think you can genuinely go 17 names deep before I'd stop feeling at least pretty good about my No. 1 catcher, and that's not including Ivan Herrera, who should gain catcher eligibility at some point and might challenge for a top-six spot if he did qualify for the position. The gaps between No. 2-6 here is razor thin, and at least seven should go inside the top 100 of most drafts.

Cal Raleigh
William Contreras
Hunter Goodman
Shea Langeliers
Ben Rice
Agustin Ramirez
Salvador Perez
Will Smith
Yainer Diaz
Drake Baldwin
Francisco Alvarez
Alejandro Kirk

First basemen

The state of first base is … fine. You probably don't actually want to use either Rice or Perez as your 1B, which means Michael Busch and Yandy Diaz will slide in to close out the real top 12, and you probably feel pretty good about any of those 12 as your starter. Beyond that, it's names like Jonathan Aranda, Spencer Torkelson, and Kyle Manzardo, who are decent but have enough real limitations that they are probably best left for that CI spot if you can manage – though Aranda is the one name who makes me worry I may be too low on him.

Nick Kurtz
Vladimir Guerrero
Pete Alonso
Bryce Harper
Rafael Devers
Matt Olson
Freddie Freeman
Ben Rice
Josh Naylor
Vinnie Pasquantino
Tyler Soderstrom
Salvador Perez

Second basemen

Yeah, it's weak. Probably the weakest position in the sport at this point. You feel pretty good about the top five, maybe, and then there's plenty of upside with the next group of five or so. After that? It's pretty wide open, especially depending on your scoring format – Rafaela might not even be worth rostering in a points league with his poor plate discipline. The best hope here is that big prospect names like JJ Wetherholt and Kevin McGonigle play enough second base to gain eligibility there.

Jazz Chisholm
Ketel Marte
Brice Turang
Luke Keaschall
Nico Hoerner
Jose Altuve
Jackson Holliday
Ozzie Albies
Brandon Lowe
Jorge Polanco
Ceddanne Rafaela
Marcus Semien

Third basemen

There are still some questions here. Most notably: Will Isaac Paredes actually be on the Astros in 2026? If so, I think he's an obvious top-10 guy at the position and one of the very best values in early drafts. But if he's traded to the wrong place, his value can collapse, as we saw with the Cubs in 2024. Outside of the top 12, there are some interesting names like Royce Lewis and the recently signed Kazuma Okamoto, but no sure things. Probably the second-weakest position in the game at this point, and very few guys you'd feel good about as your CI, even in a 12-team league.

Jose Ramirez
Junior Caminero
Jazz Chisholm
Manny Machado
Austin Riley
Maikel Garcia
Jordan Westburg
Eugenio Suarez
Alex Bregman
Isaac Paredes
Noelvi Marte
Matt Chapman

Shortstops

"Where are all the good second and third basemen?"

They're at shortstop. 20 years ago, Corey Seager is probably playing third base at this point in his career – instead, in our reality, he had one of his best defensive seasons ever! MLB teams care more about defense than ever before, but they're also better at maximizing the defensive value of otherwise fringe defenders than ever, and the primary effect here appears to be that talent is pooling at shortstop to the detriment of the other positions. That's how we have a situation where guys like Jeremy Pena, Willy Adames, Dansby Swanson, or Jacob Wilson, who would be must-start options at 2B, aren't even in the top 12 at shortstop. Heck, if Colson Montgomery had managed to retain 3B eligibility, he might have ended up a top-12 player there; he's my SS18 for 2025!

Bobby Witt
Elly De La Cruz
Francisco Lindor
Gunnar Henderson
Trea Turner
Zach Neto
Mookie Betts
Geraldo Perdomo
CJ Abrams
Corey Seager
Trevor Story
Bo Bichette

Outfielders

The strength of recent years is still here, even if the likes of Jackson Merrill and Wyatt Langford haven't quite taken the leap toward superstardom some expected. I remain pretty bullish on both, though notably, I am significantly higher on Merrill relative to expectations than almost any other player in the pool. There could be plenty of room for profit at the outfield if you buy unlikely breakouts from the likes of George Springer and Kyle Stowers, especially since the Market is keeping both at arm's length.

Aaron Judge
Juan Soto
Ronald Acuna
Julio Rodriguez
Corbin Carroll
Fernando Tatis
Kyle Tucker
Jackson Chourio
Pete Crow-Armstrong
James Wood
Roman Anthony
Wyatt Langford
Jackson Merrill
Hunter Goodman
Brent Rooker
Cody Bellinger
Riley Greene
George Springer
Seiya Suzuki
Jarren Duran
Byron Buxton
Michael Harris
Randy Arozarena
Tyler Soderstrom
Kyle Stowers
Jose Altuve
Brandon Nimmo
Jo Adell
Jakob Marsee
Andy Pages
Lawrence Butler
Jurickson Profar
Oneil Cruz
Steven Kwan
Ian Happ
Taylor Ward

Starting pitchers

Quibble with the order. It's okay, I don't mind. I won't take it personally. The truth is, there is very little separating players within most of the tiers at starting pitcher this season. I have a few stances I'm willing to argue for – "Yoshinobu Yamamoto shouldn't be the No. 4 SP" and "Freddy Peralta is being overrated" most notably – but for the most part, I'm viewing the SP rankings as especially fluid this season. Which means I'm not really planning on reaching for many guys this year. There's just so much more parity at the position these days than I'm used to that I really think you could take just about anyone from 30 to 50 or so and put them in any order you want, and I wouldn't argue too strenuously.

Tarik Skubal
Garrett Crochet
Paul Skenes
Chris Sale
Logan Gilbert
Yoshinobu Yamamoto
Cristopher Sanchez
Hunter Brown
Bryan Woo
Hunter Greene
Jacob deGrom
Max Fried
Cole Ragans
Joe Ryan
Spencer Schwellenbach
Dylan Cease
Logan Webb
George Kirby
Kyle Bradish
Jesus Luzardo
Freddy Peralta
Nick Pivetta
Framber Valdez
Blake Snell
Tyler Glasnow
Shohei Ohtani
Chase Burns
Eury Perez
Brandon Woodruff
Kevin Gausman
Sandy Alcantara
Trevor Rogers
Emmet Sheehan
Zack Wheeler
Spencer Strider
Nolan McLean
Jacob Misiorowski
Cam Schlittler
Bubba Chandler
Trey Yesavage
Ryan Pepiot
Gavin Williams
Robbie Ray
Tatsuya Imai
Pablo Lopez
Nick Lodolo
Kris Bubic
MacKenzie Gore
Ranger Suarez
Sonny Gray

Relief pitchers

Relievers are the most flexible position for rankings purposes by default. We aren't just ranking who the best players at the position, like we are everywhere, but also how likely we think each pitcher is to become and remain the closer on their respective team. The top 12 right now features multiple pitchers who flat-out lost their jobs in 2025, so I can't say this is a particularly great period in time for the RP position, though further signings and spring training battles will bring some clarity and make it look better than it currently does. For now, much outside of the top 10 or so deserves an incomplete grade.

Mason Miller
Edwin Diaz
Josh Hader
Andres Munoz
Jhoan Duran
Cade Smith
David Bednar
Aroldis Chapman
Devin Williams
Ryan Helsley
Raisel Iglesias
Trevor Megill

Top 250

I suppose I should address why I have Aaron Judge ahead of Shohei Ohtani here. It mostly comes down to Judge's specialty being more projectable than Ohtani's. That means I feel more confident in Judge being a batting average standout than Ohtani being a stolen base standout now that he's entering the season as a full-time starting pitcher again. From the point Ohtani returned to the rotation in mid-June last season, he stole just nine bases. If he's just a 15-ish steal guy, I don't think he can overcome Judge's dominance as a hitter. Remember, Judge has hit at least .311 in three of the past four seasons, while hitting .311 overall in that span. Combined with best-in-the-league power and run production, I just don't think Ohtani's steal edge is enough to overcome that.