By the time you read this, the 2026 MLB regular season will have entered its final weekend, signaling the end of another outstanding fantasy season. The landscape shifted a lot in 2026, as former stalwarts stepped back and the next crop of superstars emerged as new fantasy stars. This release is also extra special as it marks the end of an era. In the three years that I’ve done these rankings, only one has ever appeared at #1 overall: Shohei Ohtani. That reign ends now, but the writing has been on the wall all season, and I’ll break down my thought process behind moving him out of the #1 overall spot in dynasty later on. Here are the latest risers and fallers in the final regular season edition of the PL Dynasty 400 rankings!
Stats entering play on 9/23/2026
NOTABLE RISERS
Parker Messick, SP, CLE
Last month it was Payton Tolle; this month it’s Parker Messick (and Reid Detmers) as left-handed pitchers continue to shoot up the rankings as some of the biggest risers. Messick has quietly been one of baseball’s best and most consistent pitchers, posting an outstanding 2.55 ERA over 31 starts this season. The 25-year-old has 14 quality starts, but in today’s game he ranked Top 25 in baseball, and he had six more games where he finished either one or two outs away from adding more. Messick also had just two starts where he allowed at least four earned runs, meaning he didn’t blow up your week or ratios at all over 183 innings of work. Speaking of volume, only six pitchers have logged more innings than he did in 2026, and only one of them (Cam Schlittler) was better on a per-inning basis. Limited strikeout upside is the only thing keeping Messick down at this point. He is comfortably a Top 25 starting pitcher in dynasty and is now a Top 100 overall asset.
Alec Burleson, 1B, STL
I could give you a dozen guesses of who leads the Majors in RBI, but you’d be wrong if you omitted Alec Burleson, who has 111 at the time of writing, just one more than Sal Stewart. The 27-year-old first baseman is doing nearly everything right at the plate: making high-level contact, hitting the ball hard, hitting it at ideal launch angles, and mostly making good swing decisions (38% chase). Burleson can hit for average (.280) or for power (23 HR), and although he doesn’t run, his walk rates and lack of Ks make him even more valuable in points leagues. His 2026 production, specifically with RBI and runs, is an outlier, but Burleson is also a full-time player for just the third time in his five-year career. Burleson has settled in as a Top 10 player at his position and is just outside the Top 100 entering his age-28 season in 2027.
Ethan Salas, C, SDP
Salas became the second-youngest catcher ever to play in an MLB game when he debuted earlier this month. The barely-20-year-old trails only Pudge Rodriguez in that category, putting him in elite territory, if only temporarily. Salas has struggled a bit early, batting just .167 with a 26% strikeout rate, but he’s also hit two home runs and hit his first career walk-off. But his rise in 2026 has been truly remarkable. Remember, Salas debuted in pro ball as a 17-year-old in 2023 and made it to Double-A. He’s routinely been the youngest player at every level, yet has overcome the lofty expectations and is now an MLB regular. Defensively, he’s been MLB-ready for several years, but the bat has come along this season, fueling his rapid ascension. Before his promotion, Salas slashed .296/.374/.448 with 10 homers and 17 steals in 96 games across three levels. Given his gains with the bat, plus guaranteed playing time, Salas immediately becomes one of the Top 10 players at his position and should be viewed as such for at least the next decade.
Cam Smith, OF, HOU
Surface stats for Cam Smith won’t wow you, but when you think back to how his MLB journey started, it’s pretty impressive. His final season at Florida State is where he really learned how to hit at a high level, cutting his Ks and improving his swing decisions, which led to him being a first-round pick. Smith played 32 MiLB games after the 2024 draft, then promptly broke camp with the Astros in 2025 and has been a fixture in their lineup since. In his second pro season, Smith has a .209/.273/.389 slash line with 20 homers and 11 steals. He has cut his strikeout rate by 2% year over year while holding firm on his contact rates and universally improving his quality of contact. Smith is still just 23 but has already eclipsed 1000 MLB at-bats and is locked in as the primary right fielder in Houston. His underlying metrics and data point to him being a better overall hitter than the surface numbers suggest, which gives me high expectations for what he can be. Ranking Smith at #110 may seem aggressive to many, but I think he’s a star in the making and will easily become a Top 100 player in the near future.
NOTABLE FALLERS
Shohei Ohtani, SP/DH, LAD
Let the hate mail commence! For me, there’s no question that Ohtani is the greatest player I’ve ever seen. It’s rare for a player to be not only the best hitter in the game, but also to showcase the skills to be a Top 10 starting pitcher. That said, the production is down quite a bit in 2026. Yes, he’s been injured, but that’s nothing new for him either. Questions remain about whether he will ever pitch again, too. I personally have serious doubts that he will, leaving him only as a hitter. The power is legit, easily a 30+ homer bat annually with above-average to elite counting stats. But he’s running less, a trend that may continue considering he’s now 32 and has over 13 professional seasons on his body dating back to Japan. Ohtani should remain an elite player for at least a few more seasons. Still, in that upper tier of the rankings, only Juan Soto is within five years of age, meaning that by the time Ohtani hits that inevitable wall, the players around him will still be under 30. It’s been a great run for Shotime, but the torch has been passed.
Vladimir Guerrero, Jr., 1B, TOR
Guerrero’s 2026 has been well documented, including a homerless drought in Toronto that spanned from Opening Day to September 13th, when he finally went deep. The numbers are really bad. Guerrero has a respectable .263 average but just nine homers and 127 combined runs/RBI, a .359 SLG, and a 97 wRC+ despite hitting in the middle of a productive Blue Jays lineup. This is now the second straight season Vlad Jr. has finished outside the Top 7 at his position in fantasy, so why are we ranking him so high? Ranking him outside the Top 100 overall feels safe, since we don’t know what to expect from him year by year. Guerrero turns 28 in Spring Training next season, but his arrow in dynasty is definitely pointing downward.
Brandon Marsh, OF, PHI
The Brandon Marsh era inside the Top 125 overall has ended. Marsh was red hot early in the year, ending the first half with a .301/.339/.490 slash line, adding in 15 homers (one shy of his career high) and eight steals in 92 games. Since then, he owns a .508 OPS with just three homers and eight total extra-base hits. Oddly enough, Marsh made more contact in the second half, lowering his strikeout rate in the process. At the same time, the quality of his contact went south quickly. Marsh had just eight barrels (5.9%) with a 7% drop in hard-hit rate, a mile-per-hour dip in average EV, and a 5mph drop in max EV. I guess I bought in a little too much into what Marsh did early on. The underlying skills were always encouraging in years past, but with him finally seeing regular playing time in a great lineup, it was easy to jump the gun with a hot start. Marsh isn’t a bad player, nor is he invaluable in dynasty. At the same time, his place among the platoon bats and middle-of-the-road producers has been solidified. Lesson learned.
Nick Lodolo, SP, CIN
The idea of Nick Lodolo versus the results from Nick Lodolo have been wildly different. In year five, Lodolo put together arguably his worst season, pitching to a 5.04 ERA and 1.47 WHIP over 103 2/3 innings. He also posted career lows in strikeout rate, SwStr%, and CSW, while walking more hitters than ever and allowing more hits and homers per nine than in any other full season. According to PLV, his sinker is easily his best pitch, which is never a path to success at any level. Lodolo generates a 54% groundball rate with the pitch, which is just above the MLB average, while also rating well below average in quality of contact against it. But the underlying issue is that he allows nearly 60% air in GABP and has now allowed more than 20 HRs in back-to-back seasons. Unless something changes, Lodolo is a guy continually on the precipice of a blow-up, making him a very dangerous fantasy proposition.
