Top 150 Hitters For Fantasy Baseball 2024: Week 1 – 4/3

No one has 40 plate appearances yet, but that doesn’t mean I can’t move some guys around! Lineups and opportunities have changed and players have been injured, meaning we have a few shakeups on the list.

• As a reminder, these rankings are geared toward a standard, daily, 12-team H2H redraft league, as that is typically the most popular fantasy baseball format. They will only factor in the five standard categories: Runs, RBI, Home Runs, Batting Average, and Stolen Bases.

• I would recommend not paying super close attention to the specific ranks of each player, and honing in more on the respective tiers that they’re in. Each tier represents a grouping of players that I think could arguably perform at a similar level, and/or carry similar levels of risk in terms of injury concerns or playing time obstacles. If Player X is ranked at #55 and Player Y is ranked at #65, but they’re in the same tier, it means that I personally like Player X a lot better, but think there’s a valid argument to be made for Player Y performing just as well.

• I take rankings like this as more of an art than a science. Every person’s rankings are influenced by their own biases, strategic philosophies, determinations of risk, and projections. It’s why no two rankings are ever exactly alike. My way of evaluating and ranking players has worked out well for me over the years, but it might not be a great fit for you. I can’t possibly predict your team’s specific needs, your league mates’ player evaluations, or your current waiver wire, and if I could it’d be weird. In a bad way.

• Yes, these ranks vary from the official PL positional rankings that I also developed in the off-season. That’s because these are only mine—no input from others. This is a safe space for me where I answer to no one but myself…and you if you leave a comment.

• I’m doing my best to use five starts or 10 appearances as the threshold for positional eligibility. I have not included presumed eligibilities based on likely new positions, but once those eligibilities are earned I’ll add them in. This is just a maintenance thing and we will update eligibility throughout the season. Feel free to let me know if I’m missing any!

 

Ranking Philosophy

 

To keep things in the same ilk, here are a couple of notes on how I generally evaluate hitters before we dive in:

 

• In 12-team formats, I just don’t see much value in guys who only provide stolen bases. It’s an important category, especially in Roto, but in shallower formats, there are too many other (and better) ways to get the steals you need without sacrificing production in the other categories.

 

• If I want to get some insight on whether what I’m seeing is new or if it’s just normal fluctuation, I’d use my favorite tool—the rolling chart, which I’ll also reference as appropriate. You can also get rolling charts from sources like FanGraphs or Baseball Savant. If you have any questions about how to do that or how to read these charts, reach out to me!

 

• No stat is an island and they should all be taken in proper context. For ranking purposes, the primary starting points I use are plate discipline, wRC+, quality of contact metrics (also known as Statcast batted ball data), lineup context, and the skills we can measure using tools such as our PLV Hitter Attributes. I also use various projections (some free, some I buy) and dollar value generators.

 

• Positional eligibility, and specifically multi-eligibility, is neat but also isn’t a huge factor in many 10- and 12-team leagues anymore due to the prevalence of multi-eligible players. It’s of more value in deeper contests like the NFBC, or in leagues with limited roster moves (draft and hold leagues, transaction limits/costs, extremely short benches, etc.), but even then the value is fairly situational and context-dependent.

 

• On a similar note, I don’t penalize players for only qualifying in the utility slot. At most, it is a mild inconvenience if a DH-only player is available at a great value and you already have filled your utility spots.

 

• Anyone talented enough to make it to the big leagues can be brilliant or putrid for 50 to 100 at-bats—regardless of true talent. Heck, it could even last a month with no change in potential or skill. It also could be wildly meaningful. We can’t and don’t know which of these will be true until it’s over, though track record, scouting, and trends give us hints.

 

• If you’d like input on a player or have any feedback, your best bet is to reach out to me on the website formerly known as Twitter (@ifthechufits) or in the comments!

 

Read The Notes

 

• These rankings talk about what I generally project for a player, but these rankings are not projections. They include projections but also take into account performance risk, injury risk, team context, ceiling, and floor.

 

Check out the Hacks & Jacks podcast featuring Scott Chu and Joe Gallina, which also happened to be a finalist for Best Baseball Podcast of 2021 by the Fantasy Sports Writers Association (FSWA)!

I also host an AMA in the r/fantasybaseball subreddit every Friday (starting sometime in late March) starting around noon ET that lasts through the rest of the day and into the weekend, so feel free to join the fun and ask questions or make comments.

 

Tier 1

 

• I still constantly flip-flop between Bobby Witt Jr. and Julio Rodríguez as the second overall player, and to be honest, there could be a point where Mookie Betts could sneak into that conversation.

 

Tier 2

 

• Juan Soto is in a great environment with a great opportunity, and there’s a clear path to the top tier if he shows us he can repeatedly get back to 33+ home runs each year.
• Fernando Tatis Jr. looks fresh and dynamic and that’s all I need to see to keep him in my second tier.

 

Tier 3

 

• No changes here, and that’s a good thing.

 

Tier 4

 

• Adolis García already has a stolen base to go along with the three home runs, and looks well on his way to another 30-35 home run season. He only stole nine bases last year, but I’m getting a good feeling about something closer to 15 this time around. The strikeouts and ratios won’t be helpful, but everything else will be so good that it doesn’t matter.

 

Tier 5

 

• Oneil Cruz is striking out more than I like, but I’m holding firm for a bit longer due to his out-of-this-world raw ability.
• Gunnar Henderson is the leadoff guy after all in Baltimore despite not always getting looks there in the spring. There was some thought that Mullins might step in at times, but Gunnar has been the guy in every game so far.
• Healthy Mike Trout is a lot of fun, isn’t he?
• Elly De La Cruz keeps striking out a lot, and there’s only so much power and speed matters when you’re not connecting. 30-32% is the magic number for strikeout rate, and if he can get at or below that mark (Elly’s growth in decision-making in 2023 suggests he can) he should be able to reach the heights we are hoping for. If he doesn’t, he’ll get moved to the bottom of the lineup, or worse, benched in tough matchups.

 

Tier 6

 

• CJ Abrams is the leadoff man and the Nationals have been quite aggressive on the base paths, meaning a return to 40 or more steals is more and more likely.
• Nolan Jones’s slow start doesn’t bother me nearly as much as how bad the Rockies look as a whole. It’s too early to overreact but goodness, how does this team win 50 games?

 

Tier 7

 

• Spencer Torkelson’s slow start isn’t coming with strikeouts, so I’m not overly worried about it at the moment. He’s getting the ball in the air and pulling it, so the home runs will come.
• The encouraging thing for Triston Casas is that he hit sixth against a lefty.

 

Tier 8

 

• Jake Burger had too many strikeouts in the spring but looks locked in so far now that the games matter. Burger’s rolling 20-game strikeout rate has been under 27% every single day since July 27, 2023, and it looks like whatever he unlocked in the middle of last year has stayed with him despite the ugly spring numbers.
• Nico Hoerner can regain the 12 spots he lost by being the everyday leadoff man. He’ll keep falling if he doesn’t. Hoerner’s skill set is maximized by hitting first, and hitting anywhere else is bad news for his fantasy value. He’ll still be a top-100 hitter batting lower in the order, but the only path to top-50 value is hitting first or second.

 

Tier 9

 

• Christopher Morel hasn’t hit the bench yet and that’s good. The fact he’s raking doesn’t really change anything as we already knew he was capable of getting incredibly hot. What we don’t know is how long he can keep it going and what he looks like during his slumps. Morel’s 2023 slumps were so bad that he needed to be cut in just about every 12-team league, and lasted so long that even the firmest believers couldn’t keep holding. If Morel can get those slumps corrected faster (more consistent decision-making would be a nice first step), then there’s top-50 hitter upside here.
• Isaac Paredes hit the shortest home run I’ve seen in a long time, and that’s exactly what Paredes is trying to do. The only distance he cares about is the distance down the pull-field foul line.

 

Tier 10

 

• Jarren Duran stayed in the leadoff spot against a lefty, which really opens the door to moving into the top-75 (or higher), especially if he keeps running like this.
• A healthy Taylor Ward can mash, no doubt about it. He’s just never healthy, and it’ll be a month of very good health and results or so before I get comfortable raising him out of this tier.
• Masataka Yoshida sat against the one lefty the Red Sox have seen so far, and if that becomes a true platoon then Yoshida probably falls 20-40 spots.

 

Tier 11

 

• Healthy Tyler O’Neill is worth getting excited about, even if history suggests that it’s unlikely we see O’Neill play in 140 games.
• J.D. Martinez should be up with the Mets soon and should be a staple in the middle of their lineup. This ranking is a bit aggressive, but I think there’s still plenty left in the tank here.
• Lars Nootbaar should be up soon and this ranking comes with my assumption that he will play 80-90% of the time and will be near the top of the order more often than not. This is bad news for Victor Scott II.

 

Tier 12

 

• Edouard Julien and Matt Wallner won’t have to deal with any left-handed starters for quite some time, and I’m hoping we see them take full advantage. Neither can really afford to blow this opportunity to shine.
• Nolan Gorman looks like the ugly version of himself right now and just took a seat against a righty. There’s a non-zero chance that the return of Nootbaar leads to Brendan Donovan taking more reps at second while Gorman works through these contact issues.

 

Tier 13

 

• I threw a few more catchers in the list because people keep asking about them. Catcher is deep right now, y’all.
• Jung Hoo Lee is doing exactly what we hoped he would by avoiding strikouts, taking walks, and slapping the ball around. He may just barely get to double-digit steals and home runs, but the real value will be in points leagues and on teams who need a ratio boost.
• Mark Canha will keep hitting in the middle of the order for the Tigers and between the ratios and accumulation of counting stats he should be a fine fill-in for your outfield when you need something stable to pass the time.
• The injury to Royce Lewis is a massive (if not entirely unexpected) bummer. He’s well worth an IL spot, but we won’t see him until June.
• Ditto Josh Jung. Jung’s injury history is insanely unlucky, so I’m not willing to put the injury-prone tag on him quite yet.
• Maikel Garcia is lighting up the scoreboard right now and is already halfway to the four home runs he hit over 123 starts last season. If he keeps hitting the ball in the air, we may see him shoot up closer to the top-100 in short order.
• I really hope Zach Neto takes over the leadoff spot in Anaheim soon.
• Brendan Donovan won’t wow us with power or speed, but he’s a valuable contributor to ratios and runs while he’s hitting at the top of the order. He’s been platooned in the past but I’m still not 100% sure how this roster shakes out when guys like Edman and Nootbaar are back and in full swing.

 

Rank	Hitter	Position	Change
1	Ronald Acuña Jr.T1	OF	-
2	Bobby Witt Jr.	3B	+1
3	Julio Rodríguez	OF	-1
4	Mookie Betts	2B	-
5	Freddie Freeman	1B	-
6	Kyle Tucker	OF	-
7	Juan Soto T2	OF	+2
8	Aaron Judge	OF	-1
9	Shohei Ohtani	DH	-1
10	Corbin Carroll	OF	-
11	Matt Olson	1B	-
12	Fernando Tatis Jr.	OF	-
13	Yordan Alvarez	OF	-
14	Bryce Harper	1B	-
15	Austin Riley T3	3B	-
16	Rafael Devers	3B	-
17	José Ramírez	3B	-
18	Ozzie Albies	2B	-
19	Pete Alonso	1B	-
20	Vladimir Guerrero Jr.	1B	-
21	Trea Turner	SS	-
22	Corey Seager	SS	-
23	Marcus Semien	2B	-
24	Michael Harris II	OF	-
25	Adolis García T4	OF	+2
26	Francisco Lindor	SS	-
27	Luis Robert Jr.	OF	+1
28	Bo Bichette	SS	+1
29	Randy Arozarena	OF	+1
30	Jose Altuve	2B	+1
31	Oneil Cruz T5	SS	+1
32	Bryan Reynolds	OF	+1
33	Kyle Schwarber	OF	+2
34	Gunnar Henderson	3B, SS	+2
35	Mike Trout	OF	+4
36	Manny Machado	3B	+1
37	Jazz Chisholm Jr.	OF	+1
38	Elly De La Cruz	3B, SS	-13
39	Paul Goldschmidt T6	1B	+1
40	Alex Bregman	3B	+1
41	Christian Walker	1B	+1
42	Adley Rutschman	C	+1
43	CJ Abrams	SS	+9
44	Christian Yelich	OF	+1
45	Gleyber Torres	2B	+1
46	Dansby Swanson	SS	+1
47	Cody Bellinger	1B, OF	+1
48	Nolan Arenado	3B	+1
49	Will Smith	C	+2
50	Nolan Jones	1B, OF	-6
51	J.T. Realmuto T7	C	+2
52	Ketel Marte	2B	+2
53	Spencer Torkelson	1B	+2
54	Triston Casas	1B	+2
55	William Contreras	C	+2
56	Xander Bogaerts	SS	+3
57	Anthony Santander T8	OF	+3
58	Teoscar Hernández	OF	+5
59	Josh Naylor	1B	+2
60	Nick Castellanos	OF	+2
61	Jake Burger	3B	+13
62	Nico Hoerner	2B, SS	-12
63	George Springer	OF	+2
64	Seiya Suzuki	OF	+2
65	Willson Contreras	C	+2
66	Brandon Nimmo	OF	-2
67	Christian Encarnacion-Strand	1B, 3B	+1
68	Andrés Giménez	2B	+1
69	Yandy Díaz	1B	+1
70	Luis Arraez	2B	+1
71	Marcell Ozuna T9	DH	+1
72	Salvador Perez	C, 1B	+1
73	Yainer Diaz		+2
74	Riley Greene	OF	+2
75	Wyatt Langford	OF	+2
76	Evan Carter	OF	+3
77	Christopher Morel	2B, 3B, OF	+7
78	Ian Happ		+2
79	Lane Thomas	OF	-1
80	Max Muncy	3B	+1
81	Willy Adames	SS	+1
82	Isaac Paredes	1B, 3B	+1
83	Jorge Soler	OF	+2
84	Ke’Bryan Hayes T10	3B	+2
85	Jarren Duran	OF	+16
86	Vinnie Pasquantino	1B	+1
87	Ha-Seong Kim	2B, 3B, SS	+1
88	Bryson Stott	SS	+1
89	Cedric Mullins	OF	+1
90	Spencer Steer	1B, 3B, OF	+1
91	Alec Bohm	1B, 3B	+1
92	Taylor Ward	OF	+5
93	Jackson Chourio	OF	+1
94	MJ Melendez	C, OF	+1
95	Jonathan India	2B	+4
96	Anthony Volpe	SS	+4
97	Masataka Yoshida	OF	-4
98	Thairo Estrada	2B, SS	-2
99	Tyler O’Neill	OF	+14
100	Rhys Hoskins	1B	+2
101	Eloy Jiménez	OF	+3
102	J.D. Martinez	DH	+4
103	Lourdes Gurriel Jr.	OF	+5
104	Jordan Walker	OF	-6
105	Ezequiel Tovar	SS	-2
106	Daulton Varsho	C	+5
107	Zack Gelof	2B	-2
108	Jeimer Candelario	1B, 3B	-1
109	Lars Nootbaar	OF	+5
110	Logan O’Hoppe	C	-1
111	Ryan Mountcastle T11	1B	+4
112	Kerry Carpenter	OF	+5
113	Andrew Vaughn	1B	+7
114	Chas McCormick	OF	-2
115	Trevor Story	2B	+7
116	Steven Kwan	OF	+7
117	Edouard Julien	2B	+7
118	Brandon Drury	1B, 2B	+7
119	Nathaniel Lowe	1B	-3
120	Jung Hoo Lee	OF	+10
121	Jake Fraley	OF	-
122	Jack Suwinski	OF	+5
123	Bryan De La Cruz	OF	+5
124	Jeremy Peña	SS	+5
125	Parker Meadows	OF	+6
126	Jorge Polanco	2B, 3B	-8
127	Matt Wallner	OF	-1
128	Nolan Gorman	2B, 3B	-9
129	Starling Marte	OF	+5
130	Mitch Garver	C	+UR
131	Josh Bell	1B	+4
132	Cal Raleigh	C	+5
133	Francisco Alvarez	C	+3
134	Ryan McMahon	2B, 3B	-1
135	Josh Lowe	OF	+5
136	Justin Turner	1B	+5
137	Gabriel Moreno	C	+UR
138	Byron Buxton	DH	+4
139	Colt Keith	3B	+4
140	Matt Chapman	3B	+4
141	J.P. Crawford	SS	+6
142	Mark Canha	OF	+UR
143	Carlos Correa	SS	+6
144	Royce Lewis	3B	-110
145	Josh Jung	3B	-87
146	Maikel Garcia	3B	+UR
147	Ceddanne Rafaela	OF	+UR
148	Zach Neto	SS	-3
149	Brendan Donovan	2B, OF	+UR
150	James Outman	OF	-4

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