For the third year, I am happy to be bringing to PL readers my Yahoo ADP values for 2026. Last year was a sophomore slump of sorts; I was unable to build on the success of my rookie campaign with my five recommendations. Two of the three whiffs can be partially blamed on injury (looking at you, Wyatt Langford’s obliques and Spencer Schwellenbach’s elbow), while the twice-featured Spencer Strider never regained his 2023 form. One pick was a push, as Willson Contreras had a solid yet unspectacular year in his final season as a catcher-eligible player. Last but certainly not least among the featured players was Cristopher Sánchez, who was pushing inside the top 10 rounds on the National Fantasy Baseball Championship (NFBC) platform. Despite that, he continued to languish at 175 both in Yahoo ranks and drafts. Regardless of where you took Sánchez last year, he delivered, going 13-5 with a 2.50 ERA and 1.06 WHIP over 202 IP. I only wish I had more shares!
Yahoo is a popular site for more casual players looking for 10-team and 12-team leagues. I enjoy playing a couple of Yahoo leagues in addition to my NFBC ones because my introduction to fantasy baseball came in the form of a daily league, which is a common format on Yahoo. Those who hope to take home some cash winnings may also like Yahoo, as they typically only charge a 2% management fee to join their prize leagues.
While Yahoo is a good place to play, its in-house rankings and ADP data often diverge noticeably from what you see on NFBC or what projection systems might recommend. As usual, I will compare Yahoo’s rankings and ADP data to NFBC ADP data from RotoWire Online Championship (12-team) leagues (OCs). My OC sample is 34 leagues drafted from March 8 to March 15. This year, I’ve added another data point: FantasyPros’ Expert Consensus Ranking (ECR) ADP. Their ECR ADP averages rankings from six sites: Yahoo, CBS, RT Sports, NFBC, Fantrax, and ESPN.
1. Ronald Acuña Jr. (Yahoo rank 11, Yahoo ADP 10.8, ECR ADP 6.8, OC ADP 4.9)
Despite missing on both Atlanta players I included last year, and on Spencer Strider in 2024, I’m going back to the well here on Ronald Acuña Jr. He clearly stands out to me as the first round’s biggest bargain on Yahoo. Acuña returned from his second ACL tear last May, slashing .290/.417/.518 with 21 homers and nine steals in 95 games. The steals weren’t nearly what owners were expecting, but Acuña delivered everywhere else. I am of the belief that his reticence to run isn’t going to last. Acuña is known for playing with his hair on fire, and he swiped double-digit bags with a 100% success rate in winter ball this offseason, plus four more across fewer than 10 spring training and WBC games. His insane 40-HR, 70-SB season in 2023 is always going to be an outlier, but I would pencil him in for 30-30 with a boatload of runs atop a strong Atlanta lineup. I see Acuña’s profile being similar to Julio Rodríguez with a slightly better batting average, higher stolen base upside, and elevated injury risk. That’s enough for him to get a half-round boost over J-Rod.
Players who steal a lot of bases are going to get pushed up the board in leagues like the OC that have an overall component, but even still, I’m in on Acuña in the middle third of the first round. I took him eighth in an NFBC 50 that drafted at the end of January, but he can’t be had at that price anymore in most places. If you’re averse to taking a pitcher in the first round, I would consider Acuña as early as the fifth pick. He’s an even bigger asset in OBP leagues, as he was second only to Aaron Judge last season among hitters with at least 400 PA.
2. Wyatt Langford (38, 60.2, 46.4, 39.9)
They say insanity is doing the same thing over and over again and expecting different results. Here goes nothing! Yahoo drafters aren’t giving Langford enough respect despite him being ranked aggressively on the platform. What’s even crazier to me is that on ESPN, he’s going 84th overall with a 98.5 ADP. Wake up, guys! I acknowledge that Langford hasn’t quite put it all together yet at this level, but he’s already established a high floor despite being aggressively promoted to the big leagues.
Langford posted a 22/22 season while hitting .241 across 134 games last year. The overall numbers were slightly disappointing given his draft cost, but even more maddening were the three oblique strains that prevented him from playing a full season. I’m not in on Langford at his 40 ADP at the NFBC, but he’s a guy who should absolutely be going inside the top 60. Aside from striking out slightly above the league-average rate (23.5% career, 26.4% in 2025), Langford does everything else right offensively. He doesn’t chase, makes a ton of hard contact, pulls the ball in the air consistently, and has a high success rate on the base paths. The only thing capping Langford’s ceiling aside from health is that Globe Life Field was one of the most pitcher-friendly ballparks in 2025, and the Rangers were a bottom-10 offense as a result. While the park might prevent Langford from ever threatening 35 homers on his current team, his profile is well-rounded enough to merit going ahead of positional counterparts like Cody Bellinger, Riley Greene, Jackson Merrill, Jarren Duran, and Roman Anthony, all of whom Yahoo drafters have liked better.
3. Cade Smith (66, 77.6, 64, 39.5)
The new closer in Cleveland after the banishment of Emmanuel Clase, Cade Smith has been one of the best relievers in the game since he debuted with the Guardians in 2024. In 149 career innings, he has a 2.43 ERA, 0.95 WHIP, and an elite 29% K-BB%. Smith leans heavily on a 96-mph fastball (70% usage, 5.17 PLV, 34.1% CSW% in 2025) to mow down hitters and is a rare high-leverage reliever whose command is just as good as his stuff.
On the NFBC platform, Smith typically goes as the third closer. He’s in a tier with Jhoan Duran and Andrés Muñoz but is comfortably behind Edwin Díaz and Mason Miller. While Cleveland won’t win nearly as many games as the Dodgers, and Smith doesn’t have the per-inning strikeout upside of Miller, he’s still cleared 100 strikeouts each of his MLB seasons. Muñoz has never been the picture of health, and Duran doesn’t have the same strikeout upside, so I’m not sure why Yahoo drafters are opting for those two 5-10 picks ahead of Smith. Closers will always be pushed up in NFBC drafts with an overall component like the OC, but I would feel comfortable taking Smith as soon as Miller and Díaz are off the board in your draft in a saves league. If you’re playing saves and holds, closers are likely to be overvalued, so it might make more sense to target elite setup men, like Jeremiah Estrada and Robert Suarez, in the middle or later rounds.
4. Eury Pérez (116, 123.4, 95.2, 79.6)
After he missed all of 2024 due to Tommy John surgery, it was a joy to see Eury Pérez back on the mound in 2025. The spindly right-hander went 7-6 with a 4.25 ERA and 1.05 WHIP across 95.1 IP (20 starts), fanning 105. I expect that Pérez will have some restrictions on his workload this season, but not enough to meaningfully impact my assessment of him since he covered almost 120 IP last year across all levels. When Pérez came back, his stuff was virtually the same as we remembered. His primary offering is a 97-mph four-seamer, and his go-to secondary is a gyro slider in the mid-80s to which he was able to add a couple inches of drop.
Pérez’s biggest issue is the long ball, as he has a career 1.3 HR/9 and is a flyball pitcher. While this aspect of his profile can hurt his ERA, it’s great for his WHIP, as he induces plenty of popups and weak contact in the air. Pérez is finishing up his best outing of the spring so far as I’m writing this, and his fastball velo continues to be right in line with last year as he stretches out, if not a half tick higher. I expect him to be a big plus in WHIP and Ks with an acceptable ERA and enough wins to not hurt you. Yahoo is nearly 20 picks lower on him than any other platform, so be sure to push him ahead of Luis Castillo, Tyler Glasnow, Jacob Misiorowski, Kevin Gausman, and Nolan McLean on your boards.
5. Luis Robert Jr. Jr. (122, 149.6, 120.8, 104.9)
Simply put, Luis Robert Jr. Jr. is one of the most maddening players in the game. If Yahoo drafters are passing on him in the interest of maintaining their sanity, it would be hard to fault them, but I can’t pass this value up. Robert badly burned anyone who drafted him in 2024 or 2025 hoping to get something similar to his 38 HRs, 20 SBs, and .264 AVG in the 2023 season. He has hit below .225 across 210 games with 28 homers and 56 steals in the last two years, while actively hurting you in runs and RBIs thanks to injuries and a putrid White Sox offense. This offseason, after several trade deadlines and offseasons of speculation, he was finally moved to the Mets. I don’t think the change of scenery is going to fix all of his issues, but this Mets offense can score runs. Even if Robert hits at the bottom of the order as expected, it’s still deep enough that this shouldn’t hurt him too much.
Even though Robert posted identical wRC+ marks of 84 in ’24 and ’25, he actually made some changes in terms of his approach at the plate last year. He had a career-high walk rate of 9.3% and slashed his strikeout rate more than seven percentage points to a tolerable 26%. As you can see in the rolling Process+ charts above from 2024 (left) and 2025 (right), Robert had consistently above-average power and below-average contact ability in both seasons, but his swing decisions were slightly net positive last season, which is new for him. He also finished stronger, with a 126 wRC+ in the second half compared to 66 in the first half. A .274 BABIP is also unlikely to repeat, as Robert has a career mark of .319 thanks to his speed and propensity to make hard contact. Robert Jr. is a great option for a team looking to take a risk on a power-speed bat as their second or third outfielder and should not be going behind the likes of Andy Pages and Jakob Marsee.
6. Drew Rasmussen (163, 187.6, 155.2, 131.4)
Rasmussen is the only guy on this list whose line last season (150 IP, 127 Ks, 2.76 ERA, 1.02 WHIP) would easily return value at his current Yahoo draft price. That’s why I was surprised to see him so low on the platform, as most of the other guys I see as values are coming off of slightly disappointing or incomplete campaigns. Though Rasmussen was healthy last year, volume remains my only concern with him. Rasmussen has finished with an ERA below 2.90 and a WHIP below 1.10 every season in the last five years. But, he’s only been a starter for about half that time, averaging 89 IP per season.
Rasmussen is a clone of prime Lance Lynn with a bit more velo, as he uses a three-fastball approach to efficiently move through lineups and stay off of hitters’ barrels. Even with some ERA regression expected, a return to Tropicana Field should help keep the floor high. I expect Rasmussen to pitch to an ERA below 3.60 and WHIP below 1.15 over around 160 IP with slightly under a strikeout per inning. As a result, pitchers like Carlos Rodón, Zac Gallen, Andrew Abbott, and Cade Horton have no business being drafted ahead of him in Yahoo leagues.
