First base is an easy position to evaluate for fantasy baseball, but every once in a while, the position sees a down year in offensive production across the league. That was the case in 2025, but it’s still the easiest position to find depth at whenever people are building out keeper or dynasty teams. There are plenty of talents who will have story lines to follow in 2026, so let’s check in on 10 first basemen that will be talked about plenty this offseason with their fantasy outlooks.
10 First Base Takeaways from 2025
1) Pete Alonso’s Future Will Be Outside of New York City
The New York Mets‘ season ended in bitter disappointment, being eliminated from postseason contention on the last day of the season, after holding a 95.1% odds to make the postseason on August 2. And to pour a little more salt into the wound of Mets fans, mourning their collapse, Pete Alonso wasted no time telling media members he wouldn’t pick up his player option and test the free agent market once again this offseason.
Alonso will likely have better luck seeking a long-term deal this off-season compared to last year, when he settled on a 1-year, $30 million deal, with a player option, resigning with the Mets. Alonso led all first basemen in MLB with 38 home runs, 126 RBI, and 80 extra base hits, along with a 144 OPS+ and .871 OPS, up 93 points from last season.
The upswing in Alonso’s numbers from 2024 to 2025 will help his free agency market, but he will be seeking a long-term deal lasting anywhere from 5-7 years, just like he did last off-season. The demand for a long-term deal did hurt Alonso’s market last offseason, but the improvement in his numbers should help him secure a deal much sooner than February 12.
And what team in need of a first baseman wouldn’t want the best power hitter in at the position in 2025? It’s down from a typical power season seen at first, even from Alonso, but wherever he lands, he should be a dangerous hitter for that team and any fantasy team looking to keep him on their dynasty team in 2026 and beyond.
2) Nick Kurtz is Just Getting Started
There is no better first baseman to build a dynasty around right now than Nicholas Kurtz. Kurtz will undoubtedly win the 2025 American League Rookie of the Year award unanimously, but the most encouraging sign for dynasty owners is how young Kurtz is and what he was able to accomplish at just 22 years old.
He was one of three players this season, and the first rookie ever, to have a four-home run game on July 25 on the road against the Astros. Add 36 home runs, 86 RBI, a .290/.383/.619 slash line and 173 OPS+ into the mix, and it makes the case for the perfect first baseman to build around for the future.
Kurtz did have some sizeable help with his home run numbers at the Athletics‘ current home ballpark in Sacramento (22), which is a part of the launching pad that is the Pacific Coast League. But given his four-home run game happened on the road, it should be a sign of encouragement to see what he can do with a full 162-game season next year.
3) Are Josh Naylor’s Steals a One-Year Wonder, or is there More to Come?
30 steals from a first baseman has been a rarity in the 21st century. Before Josh Naylor swiped 30 bags this year, Paul Goldschmidt was the only first baseman to swipe 30 or more bags since 2000, back in 2016 when he had 32.
It was a surprise to be sure, but a very welcome one for Naylor to put up 30 steals this season in his time between Arizona and Seattle, but replicating the same success with back-to-back 30-steal seasons at first base is much more challenging than dynasty owners can count on. The last time a first baseman stole 30 or more bases in back-to-back seasons was over 100 years ago, when Hall of Famer George Sisler stole 30 or more bases in three consecutive seasons (1920-1922) for the St. Louis Browns.
For a position that fantasy teams always build up with power, any first baseman who can provide 15-20 steals feels like a bonus to their expected production in home runs, RBI, and OBP. Naylor traded some power for steals, and the 30 steals will add some value to his free agent market as well.
But dynasty owners should not bank on him getting 30 steals again next year. 20-25 is much more realistic, and his power will not dip anywhere below 20 home runs either.
4) Vinnie Pasquatino Showed He’s Reliable in a Healthy Season
Vinnie Pasquatino has always looked the part of a Major League first baseman. Now that he’s played through a 160-game season in 2025 and put up .264/.323/.475 slash line with 32 home runs, 113 RBI, and a 120 OPS+.
The next step for Pasquatino is for him to show he can replicate the results in another fully healthy season. He came close to his first 20-home run season in 2024, but missed all of September following a right thumb fracture, ending the year with 19 home runs and 97 RBI.
The numbers Pasquatch put up this year are the type any fantasy team wants to have from their first baseman, and if he can replicate the same success in 2026. Pasquantino will be a player dynasty owners can put at first base in later draft rounds so they can build up stronger futures at positions with shorter player depth.
5) Christian Walker Falling Towards Backup Status
First, it was José Abreu who showed major regression with the Houston Astros after signing a multi-year deal to be their everyday first baseman. They thought signing Christian Walker would bode different results, but he, too, saw regression at the plate in his first year of a three-year deal with Houston.
Walker had his worst season since becoming an everyday first baseman in 2019. He only put up a 0.2 bWAR, a .238/.297/.421 slash line, 27 home runs, 88 RBI, and an OPS of .717, the first time it’s been below .803 since 2021. The biggest concern for Walker in all of this is the on-base percentage below .300, as he drew only 40 walks across 640 plate appearances.
If fantasy baseball put more points to defensive runs saved, then Walker would still be worth pursuing as a starter for some teams. But these days, his best use on any roster looks to be as a bench player to have ready for a hot streak over a few weeks.
6) The Curious Case of Luis Arráez
Luis Arráez is a rare one-of-one player in MLB right now. The downside for him is playing a position that usually doesn’t see the same value as a low-power, low-walk rate, and league minimum strikeout rate, as much as it does other statistical categories.
He had the fewest strikeouts (21) among qualified hitters this season and had eight home runs along with 61 RBI, but had a career low .292 batting average and .327 on-base percentage with just 34 walks over 675 plate appearances with the Padres in 2025. Arráez will be a free agent for the first time this offseason, and his market will be one of the most interesting to follow and see where he lands.
Dynasty owners who still want an old-school, pure contact hitter should still bank on keeping Arráez. His one-of-one skills in the league make him valuable to any team in need of them. But his free agency market could drag out longer than others, and dynasty owners should plan accordingly.
7) Will the Yankees Hand Over the Starting First Base Job to Ben Rice?
The Yankees have gotten plenty of value out of Ben Rice in 2025 from a defensive standpoint. He split time between catcher and first base, providing plenty of pop with 26 home runs, 65 RBI, and a .255/.337/.499 and 131 OPS+ over 138 games in 2025.
Now that he’s proven what he can do in a full season in the Yankees lineup, are they ready to hand him the keys to play first base every day in 2026? Goldschmidt held the position down this season, but is unlikely to be re-signed by them as they will take part in the Alonso sweepstakes. But if the Yankees miss out on Alonso, will their default first baseman within the org be Rice?
He played 50 games at first and caught 38 behind the plate. They’ll be unlikely to move him off catching altogether, as he can still play a valuable back-up role behind the plate and in the lineup, but the contingency plan could be for him to be at first in 2026 if the Yankees don’t land their top choice via trade or free agency.
8) Can Bryce Eldridge Give the Giants Lineup a Jolt to Contend in 2026?
The Giants gave their top prospect, Bryce Eldridge, his first taste in the Majors as the 2025 season came to a close. With only a 10-game sample size, Eldridge didn’t do much at the plate, going 3-for-28 (.107 batting average) with just four RBI. The sample size isn’t a dictate for what’s to come with him in 2026, but there are still heavy expectations for the 6’7 21-year-old next year.
The Giants added a superstar to their lineup in June when they surprisingly acquired Rafael Devers from the Red Sox. Now, they’ll have a homegrown talent in Eldridge, they hope can help a veteran lineup of Devers, Matt Chapman, Willy Adames, and Heliot Ramos, to get the Giants back into the postseason for the first time since 2021.
Eldridge has lofty expectations equal to those Kurtz had this season. Dynasty owners will have a toss-up trying to decide if they want to bank on Eldridge now or wait to see if he can produce at a consistent rate before he’s added to their roster.
9) Michael Busch and His Next Steps
The Chicago Cubs had a lot of must-see swings in their lineup over the first half, but no bat was more consistent for them all year than their first baseman, Michael Busch. Busch just finished his second season as the Cubs’ everyday first baseman and set new career highs in all slash line categories: .261 batting average, .343 on-base, .523 slugging, home runs 34, RBI 90, and OPS+ 147.
Now that he’s proven what he can do in back-to-back seasons at first, the next steps for Busch will be to draw more walks and strike out less. A 23.5% strikeout rate isn’t the worst for a first baseman, but the 9.5% walk rate is where he could use some room for improvement.
Busch is in a similar class of first basemen going into 2026 as Pasquantino. They’re both stable, all-star caliber players at their position that can stabilize any dynasty team at the position, so team owners can put more stock into different positions with not as strong of depth in fantasy as first base.
10) Does Spencer Torkelson Have Anything More to Show?
Spencer Torkelson has had an up-and-down career in the Majors to say the least. Just last year, the Tigers sent him down to Triple-A Toledo for two and a half months following a horrendous 54-game start to the 2024 season, where he hit .201/.266/.330 with just four home runs and 18 RBI over 230 plate appearances.
Things went much better for Torkelson in 2025, closer to his breakout performance in 2023, as he hit 31 home runs, 78 RBI, and a career high 117 OPS+ in 155 games. The Tigers and Torkelson believers needed to see this turnaround after a dismal 2024 season, but is this the only type of production we can see from him moving forward?
A 117 OPS+ is not a bad place to be, but at first base compared to other positions, he’s hitting just about average. Torkelson may be worth keeping on a dynasty team for some, but for others, he’s a question mark in the long term. He will need to prove he’s capable of producing this production in back-to-back seasons to ensure he’s a talent worth keeping for any fantasy player.
