Way-too-early look at the 2026 rankings: First Look at baseball's next crop of Fantasy stars, and more

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The baseball season is often described as a marathon. But by the time it's finally over, I'm always a little bit shocked that we're at the end. In the moment, it seems to take forever; once it's over, you're like, "Wait, was that it?"

There's a metaphor for life here, as with so many things in baseball.

For some of us, the season could have been longer -- the Mets sure would have liked an extra day to try to get one more chance at the playoffs, though with how badly they collapsed, I'm not sure an extra day would have really changed this. For others, the end of the season is a welcomed, temporary respite -- your beloved Fantasy Baseball Today crew could use a day off or two dozen at the end of the season.

I hope we were able to help you take home the title this season. That's what we do all this for, after all. I came close in our Roto Salary Cap league, with my team's batting average issues and low-end win totals being too much to overcome as I came up four points short of the title. Those are the toughest individual categories to project, and can be among the toughest to make up ground in once you fall behind. I got huge performances from the likes of Cal Raleigh and Eugenio Suarez, Steven Kwan, and Luis Arraez's relatively uninspiring performances held me back in average, and getting only 23 combined wins from George Kirby and Tarik Skubal was hard to overcome.

It happens, and we move on. To 2026, in fact -- even though I'm still not actually used to typing "2026" just yet, and likely won't be for another, oh, three months. And that's what we're doing today, with my first rough draft round of rankings. These are subject to change, and likely will once I start to get feedback on them, so if you see something you disagree with, or something that just doesn't look right, send me an email at Chris.Towers@Paramount.com with your questions or comments. It'll help me refine my thoughts over the next few months before we really start to lock in rankings early next year. It's an ongoing process, but this is where my baseline is starting.

Scott White has already begun the process of ranking 2026 as well, touching on catcher, first base, and third base here, and he goes deeper on each position and gives his thoughts on each player, so you should make sure to check that out. I'm not going as deep yet, though if you want my thoughts on the state of each position and the toughest players to rank, you can check out these articles below:

The toughest players to rank at catcher, first base, second base, third base, shortstop, outfield, and starting pitcher.

And I'll be here all offseason long, whether you're getting ready to make some moves in your Dynasty league or just getting a head start on the competition for 2026, the FBT Newsletter and podcast will be here to help all offseason.

Now, let's get to those way-too-early rankings:

Way-too-early 2026 Rankings

We're six months out from the start of next season, so don't hold me to any of these. There's a lot of offseason left and a lot of research to do between now and next February when draft season really starts to kick off -- and, of course, there will be trades and free agency moves that can shake things up. Over the next few weeks, I'll be taking a look at the state of each position heading into the offseason, and things will surely change even between now and then. So, while I stand by these rankings for now, consider pretty much all of them to be relatively weakly held positions. I reserve the right to change my mind!

One other thing to add is, as always, we'll have a few players losing position eligibility. There are a few fantasy-relevant names at catcher who will open next season as DH/Util-only players in Fantasy, which I've highlighted below. But before we get to that, these are some of the names you won't find on the rankings lists below: Shohei Ohtani, Kyle Schwarber, Christian Yelich, Yordan Alvarez, and Marcell Ozuna. Ozuna is going to be pretty fringy no matter what as he enters free agency, but Ohtani, Schwarber, Yelich, and Alvarez could all be early-round picks.

Ohtani is going to be the No. 2 pick in most leagues, no matter where he's eligible, but Schwarber, Yelich, and Alvarez might all reasonably be discounted by a round or so because they won't have any eligibility beyond that DH spot. Schwarber could end up signing somewhere where he'll be asked to play first base or the outfield more often, but Yelich and Alvarez seem likely to be more or less full-time designated hitters next season. You don't need to discount any of them too much, but you do have to keep that in mind.

Catcher

We're usually stretching to come up with 12 catchers we like. This year, we're leaving names like Adley Rutschman, Samuel Basallo, Francisco Alvarez, Alejandro Kirk, and JT Realmuto (among others!) out of the top 12. Attrition is always high at catcher, so it won't end up quite as strong as we expect once the games actually start. But then there's this: Ivan Herrera, Moises Ballesteros, and Carter Jensen should gain catcher eligibility fairly early next season and will only strengthen the position. Herrera, especially, would probably be a top-six player if he qualified there.

First base

I waffled on the No. 1 spot, but ultimately went with who I think the consensus will coalesce around. It's a top-heavy position, but the names after those first two are all old enough or have enough questions that you can put them in basically any order you want. There's a bit more depth than in recent years thanks to the emergence of names like Spencer Torkelson, Michael Busch, and Kyle Manzardo, but if those older guys at the top take a step back, it could look pretty weak pretty quickly.

(By the way, I removed Ben Rice and Salvador Perez here to give a better sense of the actual strength of the position, since you're almost certainly going to use them as catchers.)

Second base

In points, you can slot Marte ahead of Chisholm. This is a position where you'd really like to see some of these young guys truly emerge in 2026 – Luke Keaschall and Jackson Holliday had their flashes, but neither is exactly proven. But Keaschall is one name I think could end up moving up quite a bit between now and the spring if enough people buy into the small-sample-size breakout. I have very little confidence in Semien as my No. 12 choice, and if you wanted to go with someone like Gleyber Torres or Xavier Edwards, I wouldn't really argue with you. Though neither has much upside, so I might even consider going back to the Matt McLain well, as bad as he's been. The point is, if you wait at second base, you probably won't be very happy.

Third base

On the whole, I think third base is a bit stronger than second, but it's pretty weak overall. Bregman and Suarez are both likely heading into free agency (Bregman has a player option), and the uncertainty inherent in that makes both tough to rank. Riley hasn't looked like a difference maker in a couple of years, and guys like Marte and Westburg haven't quite proven they can take that next step – though there's plenty to like about both. One player I'm worried I have ranked too low: Paredes, who proved to be as perfect a fit for Houston's short left-field porch as we hoped before a hamstring injury derailed his season. He could have had 30-plus homers fairly easily without the injury, though the counting stats were weirdly disappointing, which holds him back here.

Shortstop

We're betting on improvement from Henderson and De La Cruz coming off weird, injury-disrupted seasons. The biggest question for me is where Perdomo ends up. I think you can make a strong case for him belonging in the tier with Betts, but I wouldn't be surprised if the consensus has him near or even outside of the top-12 by the time drafts start. Despite the fact that he's been the No. 3 player at the position, he has the underlying stats to back it up and has gotten better as the season has gone on. If the consensus ends up wrong about Perdomo and his 2025 was real, he's going to be one of the best values in the league again.

Outfield

Outfield certainly seems to be in better shape than it was this time last season, though there are still plenty of question marks even inside this top 36. I'm worried I'll be out of step with the consensus on Merrill among the higher-end options, but I'm still willing to bet on a talented young player with his physical tools, especially when you remember he dealt with concussion, hamstring, and ankle injuries this season. Another player I have absolutely no idea what to do with: Oneil Cruz, who I gave a perfunctory top-36 ranking to on the strength of his 20 homers and 38 steals, but his .200 batting average and paltry counting stats otherwise make him an especially tough fit on a lot of Fantasy rosters. I may be overrating him here.

Starting pitcher

Starting pitcher is the position that is most up to personal interpretation. And, really, it comes down to your personal risk tolerance level. For some people, there's no ranking you could give someone like Hunter Greene that would be low enough, given his injury history; but then you look at the value the risk-tolerant were able to get out of Garrett Crochet or Jacob deGrom this season, and it starts to make sense. For me, the specific rankings at SP are less important than finding the right tiers to take your shots at. There are some pretty wide tiers, starting with the second one, between SP4 and SP14 or so. You could put those 11 in almost any order, and you wouldn't really get a strong disagreement from me. And I'll probably keep tinkering with the ordering there for a long time.

Relief pitcher

Man, I dunno. The high-end closers in 2025 were a disaster, with three of the first five drafted no longer even closing by the end of the season. We have no idea what Emmanuel Clase's status will be, but at this point, I'm not expecting him to be eligible to pitch amid MLB's ongoing gambling investigation. There's a chance Devin Williams ends up back in a closer role somewhere, but he has to prove himself after 2025. I am assuming Mason Miller will have some kind of value, whether that's because the Padres move on from Robert Suarez and give him the closer job, or if they let him start. Given the state of the position, keeping Suarez and letting Miller try to start would probably be the ideal situation, even if it introduces a lot of risk for Miller specifically. But this notoriously shaky position feels extra unstable heading into the offseason.