Fantasy Baseball 2026 Preview! Draft Strategy & How I Rank Players
Hello!
Here is the place where I shall be recording my notes in preparation for my fantasy baseball draft sometime in March 2026. Join me, won’t you!
My Weird-Ass League Format (Why My Rankings Look Different)
I am glad that you asked. It’s a bit unusual, in that we have 13 teams instead of an even-number twelve or fourteen, but that’s how many friends I have that enjoy fantasy baseball as much as I do. It’s a typical 5×5 league otherwise, except we have on-base percentage instead of batting average.
We roster 26 players so our breakdown is:
Catcher 1
Catcher 2
1B
2B
SS
3B
Middle Infielder
Corner Infielder
OF1
OF2
OF3
OF4
OF5
Utility
And nine slots for for either kind of pitcher, starter or reliever, with a cap of 1,300 innings. There’s no extra advantage slotting a failed starter who was awarded the closing job into SP in this league.
We set lineups daily and we have a Free Agent Acquisition Budget (FAAB) of $1000 three times a week. With 338 or so players rostered at any given time, the waiver wire can run pretty dry, and the bidding competition for hot rookies or newly-minted closers can be fierce. Nick Kurtz was the obvious prize in 2025.
What’s your draft strategy?
Again, I am glad that you asked, for very little is more interesting to me than my fantasy baseball team, even though very little bores me more than listening to you talk about yours. For offense, I prioritize home run hitters with good walk rates (BB%) and for pitchers, I like as many strikeouts as possible with as few walks as possible, just like a real actual major league baseball team prefers their pitchers!
My go-to under-the-hood stat is the BB% for both pitchers and hitters. I love hitters who have double-digit walk rates (DDBB%) and I really dislike pitchers with DDBB%. Nothing annoys me more day-to-day than ratio blowups so I try to mitigate that as much as possible and look for strong OBP and WHIP anchors. That means a hell yes on Juan Soto and George Kirby and a hard no on Michael Harris II and Blake Snell.
Starting five outfielders means I prioritize the ones that play full-time a bit more, and I dislike drafting platoon bats. Though our league has daily lineups and certainly allows for maximizing platoon productions, I find that carrying platoon bats can hamper roster flexibility. Sure, we have a bench and a utility slot but carrying a bat like Kerry Carpenter means making sure I always have a bat to slot in when the Detroit Tigers face a left-handed starter, and there are some days when I need that bat to fill in another slot. As many full-time players as possible is ideal.
Why are your rankings different than the other guys?
Because I’m trying to win this weird-ass league and I need to account for on-base percentage and deep outfields and catcher scarcity and the irrational behavior that happens in my weird-ass league when it comes to closers. We’ve had this league for more than a decade at this point and have acquired tendencies and habits and zigging when I think they will zag — like prioritizing WHIP because I am suspecting no one else does by eliminating DDBB% starting pitchers from my rankings and putting them in their own tier.
This means being a bit more aggressive with hitters with full-time roles and having less patience for injury-prone guys and platoon bats, as well as any pitcher who has even a whiff of recent forearm strain and/or elbow inflammation issues.
Where are your Fantasy Baseball 2026 rankings by position?
UPDATE LOG
- November 14, 2025: Published
- November 16, 2025: Top 23 starting pitchers posted with commentary.
- November 16, 2025: Top designated hitters posted with commentary.
- November 18, 2025: Top 13 first basemen posted with commentary.
- November 18, 2025. Tier 6 added. Top 32 starting pitchers with commentary.
- November 19, 2025: Top 8 outfielders posted with commentary.
- November 21, 2025: Top 13 shortstops posted with commentary.
- November 22, 2025: Tier 7 added. Top 41 starting pitchers with commentary.
- November 29, 2025: Tier 8 added. Top 49 starting pitchers with commentary.
- November 30, 2025: Top 13 second basemen posted with commentary.
- December 4, 2025: Top 14 catchers posted with commentary.
- December 5, 2025: Top 11 relief pitchers posted with commentary.
- December 10, 2025: Top 13 third basemen posted with commentary.
- December 13, 2025: Tier 2 added. Top 15 outfielders posted with commentary.
- December 14, 2025: Tier 3 added. Top 19 outfielders with commentary.
- December 17, 2025: Tier 2 added. Top 26 catchers with commentary.
- December 19, 2025: Added two designated hitters. Top 7 DHs with commentary. Tier 4 also added to outfield. Top 23 outfielders with commentary.
- December 23, 2025: Tier 5 and Tier 6 added. Top 37 outfielders with commentary.
- December 26, 2025: Tier 7 and Tier 8 and Tier 9 added. Top 55 outfielders with commentary.
- December 30, 2025: Tier 9 added. Top 54 starting pitchers with commentary.
- January 3, 2026: Tiers 10 and 11 and 12 added. Top 81 starting pitchers with commentary.
- January 4, 2026. Top 26 first basemen (1B) with commentary.
- January 5, 2026: Top 29 third basemen (3B) with commentary.
- January 6, 2026: Top 26 second basemen (2B) and Top 24 shortstops (SS) with commentary.
- January 8, 2026. Top 41 catchers with commentary.
- January 12, 2026: Top 31 second basemen with commentary.
- January 13, 2026: Top 35 third basemen with commentary.
- January 14, 2026: Top 30 shortstops with commentary.
- January 15, 2026: Tier 12 added. Top 81 outfielders with commentary.
Cover Image Author: Brandie via Wikimedia Commons
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