Top 150 Hitters for Fantasy Baseball 2026 – Week 17

 

• As a reminder, these rankings are geared toward a standard, daily, 12-team H2H redraft league, which 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.
• These are not best ball or draft and hold rankings. The 12-team redraft format with daily moves is the fundamental opposite of that. Pure volume plays are not valued as much here as in those no-move formats.
• I take rankings like this more as art than science. Every person’s rankings are influenced by their biases, strategic philosophies, risk assessments, and projections. It’s why no two rankings are ever exactly alike. My way of evaluating and ranking players has worked well for me, but it might not be an excellent fit for you. I can’t possibly predict your team’s specific needs, your leaguemates’ player evaluations, or your current waiver wire, and if I could, it’d be weird in a bad way.
• 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 I’ll add them once those eligibilities are earned. 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 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.
• 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 with tools such as our PLV Hitter Attributes (available to PL Pro members). I also use various projections (some free, some I buy) and dollar value generators.
• Positional eligibility, specifically multi-eligibility, is neat but isn’t a huge factor in many 10- and 12-team leagues anymore due to the prevalence of multi-eligible players. It’s more valuable in deeper contests like the NFBC or in leagues with limited roster moves (draft-and-hold leagues, transaction limits/costs, extremely short benches, etc.). Still, the value is fairly situational and context-dependent.
• Similarly, 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.
• Regardless of true talent, anyone talented enough to make it to the big leagues can be brilliant or putrid for 50 to 100 at-bats. It could even last over a month with no change in potential or skill. It also could be wildly meaningful. We can’t and don’t know which will be valid until it’s over, though track record, scouting, and trends can give us hints.
• One of the most difficult things to account for in these rankings is the dynamic between low-ceiling players with clear roles and players with higher ceilings who lack a clear path to playing time. I try to note this in the blurbs as much as I can.
• THIS IS NOT A TRADE CHART. Trade charts need to account for “market” value, which is largely perception-based.

 

Read The Notes

 

If you’d like input on a player or have any feedback, your best bet is to contact me on Bluesky (@scottchu.pitcherlist.com), X (@ifthechufits), or Reddit (u/ChusephEsquire)

I also host an AMA in the r/fantasybaseball subreddit every Friday (starting sometime in late March) with Nate Schwartz, 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.

For additional insight, also check out the Hacks & Jacks podcast! This is a hitter-focused pod with me, Brett Ford, and occasional special guests.

 

Tier 1 

 

• To be clear, Juan Soto is still an incredible hitter and you should not be taking any action based on this tiny reshuffling of this tier. The first reason for the drop is that the steals just haven’t showed up. While he did swipe five back in May (four of which came in a six-day stretch), he’s been mostly still on the basepaths. The second is just how bad the Mets are at scoring runs. They have the fifth-lowest run total so far this season, as well as the fifth-worst team wRC+ (which is not easy to do when you have Juan Soto). No matter how hard you hit the ball, you can’t get runs or RBI without help from your teammates, and Soto just ain’t getting it. That should improve slightly as Lindor finds his groove, but the three straight seasons of 100+ RBI and four straight seasons of 90+ runs scored are in very serious jeopardy of ending.

 

Tier 2

 

• Welcome back, José Ramírez! It’ll be tough for J-Ram to clear 20 home runs by the end of the season, but that’s more of a function of the number of games remaining than any concern I have over his hamate injury (legitimate research has shown most players return to prior performance quickly).
• Pete Crow-Armstrong has slowed down considerably over his last 10 games. While he’s taking a boatload of walks, he’s also striking out in bunches and the batted ball quality has tanked (83.1 mph in this stretch). I’m a long way from jumping ship, but the main criticism of PCA’s elite 2025 was that once he dropped off, he dropped off hard and never recovered. The huge spike in walks is a very new development, as his 15-game rolling walk rate is twice as high as we have ever seen it, so perhaps PCA will find a new way to work his way through the slump and find strong performance again before we all start getting heartburn.
• Drake Baldwin has erased all of my concerns that surfaced when he first came off the IL. In his last 15 games, he has five home runs, 27 combined runs and RBI, and 11 walks to just five strikeouts.

 

Tier 3 

 

• Hunter Goodman has already matched his home run total from last season (31), in large part because he’s swinging the bat harder than ever and pulling balls in the air more than ever. That’s an incredibly potent combination, though it’s not the only thing going on under the hood for Goodman during this second breakout. The part that encourages me the most is actually his decision making. Now, no one is going to confuse Hunter Goodman with Juan Soto, but we’re seeing some meaningful improvements in areas that were huge weaknesses: two-strike counts and breaking balls. While Goodman remains a highly-aggressive hitter (which isn’t a bad thing for a guy who plays half his games in Coors), key improvements to these two areas can help him become a more consistent hitter even when some of this heat cools off.

• Welcome back, Julio Rodríguez! At some point, he’s going to explode and earn this ranking, like he did in 2023 and 2025.
• Last week, I said CJ Abrams was a good guy to try and trade away. He then hit four home runs in three games and is smashing the ball everywhere. Now I think he’s still a good trade candidate, but my asking price is higher.

 

Tier 4

 

• Welcome back, Byron Buxton! If health wasn’t a factor, he’d be somewhere in Tier 3. He’s still a streaky hitter even when fully healthy, but the hot streaks are so good that it shouldn’t really bother you.
• Willson Contreras is pulling balls in the air more than ever by a wide margin. It’s not weird that a player of his skill and experience can figure out how to do this, but the extent to which he has continued to improve is surprising. The one caveat at the moment is that Contreras has never played in 140 games in a season. While some of that is from catching, he has been on the IL in seven of the last nine seasons. He’s not a huge injury risk, but it’s still there.
• Fernando Tatis Jr. finally hit some home runs in consecutive games, though he’s still hitting far too many grounders for my liking (52.6% in July). If someone in your league is hyped on it, I’d be throwing offers their way to look for an upgrade. Projection systems still believe in him as a top-10 hitter (and they are also what powers most trade evaluators and calculators), and if you can get close to that kind of value, you’d be in great shape.
• Shea Langeliers has a 41.1% strikeout rate in July, and while he’s been able to carry a .908 OPS in spite of it, that rate needs to come down or bad days will be ahead.

 

Tier 5 

 

• Most players in this tier fell small amounts due to J-Ram, J-Rod, and Buxton coming back from the IL plus jumps by Goodman and Baldwin, so don’t read much into it.
• Wyatt Langford is picking up where he left off, and now has eight homers and 35 combined runs and RBI in his last 20 games with a .354/.404/.695 line. It’s absolutely ridiculous and why folks are so hesitant to drop him when he has two months of poor performance. The risk is high, both in performance and health, but this is why you chase it.

 

Tier 6

 

• Jeremy Peña is surging, hitting a home run in three straight games, giving him six in his last 19 (dating back to June 19). Luck is driving some of the recent success, though even without the luck the numbers would be pretty strong. Injury risk will keep him a little lower on this list than he might deserve, but you should get awesome ratios, decent power, plenty of runs, and a smattering of steals whenever he’s active.
• Seiya Suzuki has moved up to second in the order and has scored at least one run in all eight games he’s been there. He’s walked 23.7% of the time in those eight games, for what it’s worth, and while the Cubs offense is extremely inconsistent, getting on base 15 times in eight games will certainly help you score runs.
• Trea Turner is turning things around. I’ve pondered before about how often you can expect a 33-year-old everyday player to dig deep and find these crazy hot streaks, but here we are. One small note – the stolen bases are way down in July, but that may be more of a product of nearly half of his hits this month going for extra bases (when he stole eight bags in May, just a third of his hits were for extras).
• Mookie Betts remains excellent at making good decisions and good contact, but he’s lost the power he flashed a few weeks ago (note the green lines dropping below the line).

 

Tier 7 

 

• Jackson Merrill has found his power stroke in July, hitting six home runs this month and posting a .380 xwOBA, which puts him in the top 20 on the month. I loved seeing Merrill move up to second in the order for a little while, though he hit sixth again on Wednesday and was absent Thursday, so it’s possible they’re pushing him back down again. This lineup is extremely top-heavy, so getting back to hitting second would be a major boon to his counting stats.
• Munetaka Murakami is hitting .157 with a 38.5% strikeout rate since his return (though he does also have a .359 OBP), and that’s the dark side of three true outcome hitters. We haven’t really seen Murakami struggle yet, so it’s hard to say how long it might take for him to snap out of it. How long it takes, and then how long he can stay hot a second time, will tell us a lot about his long-term upside.
• It’s been an ugly 16-game stretch for Brandon Marsh, as his wRC+ of 8 is the fifth worst mark in baseball since July 2. We’ve seen Marsh struggle before and rebound fairly quickly (look at August and September of last season), so hopefully this is just a blip on the radar.

 

Tier 8

 

• Jake McCarthy is the locked-in everyday leadoff man for the Rockies in the midst of an 11-game on-base streak. I am stunned to see him hitting well against both righties and lefties, especially after he looked awful throughout April. Since then, though, he’s hit at least .291 and slugged at least .477 in each month since with July being his best month yet overall (.976 OPS). If he didn’t have such a reputation for injury and for inexplicable performance drop-offs, McCarthy would be at least a tier higher.
• Carson Benge has dropped off a bit of late and I’m closing to dropping him even further due to the severe disappointment in his supporting staff outside of Juan Soto. I was hoping he’d build on his very strong June, and while he’s continued to hit for a decent average and steal bases, the home runs have dipped and the counting stats leave a ton to be desired. His batted ball quality hasn’t decreased much at all, though, so I’m holding out one more week.

 

Tier 9 

 

• Isaac Paredes is raking this month and has started to find his home runs stroke in his home ballpark (which is designed perfectly for his pull-heavy approach). Paredes is also locked into the third spot in the lineup behind Peña and Alvarez, so RBI should steadily flow in.
• Yes, I still love Curtis Mead. Yes, I noticed he was out against three of the last four righties. No, I don’t understand why they are doing that.
• Josh Naylor is putting a ton of balls in play and stealing bases, but he has just two extra-base hits this month. If you don’t need speed and you’re in a 10-teamer, Naylor is a tough guy to keep waiting for, but in points leagues or leagues where you do need the speed, you can keep holding.
• Kazuma Okamoto has a 65 wRC+ in July, and things have only gotten worse since the Break as he is still waiting for his first hit in the second half. He’s been pushed down to sixth in the order for a team that isn’t scoring a bunch of runs, though he’s slumped before and rebounded. I’m trying to have a little patience, especially since he’s a third baseman and options at the position are often thin, but hand-wringing is justified, particularly in light of the strikeout spike of late.
• Brandon Nimmo’s luck is finally turning around, it seems, as his expected stats have turned down but his performance has turned up. Hopefully he improves under the hood a bit and things even out.
• It’s a long fall for Kyle Tucker, but what else can I do? July is his worst month yet, as he has a .554 OPS with zero homers or steals and just four RBI. The stuff under the hood is just as bad. There are no signs of a turnaround yet. I wish I could point to something to explain it, but he’s just not very good right now. In 8-10 team leagues, you’re in an extremely tough spot, especially if you’re on the outside looking in.

 

Tier 10

 

• It’s hard not to fall in love with Esmerlyn Valdez, as he’s hitting the ball ridiculously hard, but the wet blanket in me needs to remind folks that this kind of success is extremely difficult to maintain when you’re striking out nearly 40% of the time. The ratios are going to take a dive at some point, but hopefully the power is present enough to offset that pain.
• Jac Caglianone has real power and a real problem with hitting the ball into the ground. Until he fixes that (which can take years, just ask Jordan Walker), he will be extremely frustrating.
• I wish I could give you some kind of meaningful news on Ivan Herrera, but the reality is that he continues to show a lack of power and the arrows are currently pointing down, not up to steady. It’s bad on the stat sheet and it’s bad under the hood.
• Jacob Wilson has struggled to stay healthy, but he currently looks as strong as ever leading off for the As. Don’t expect more home run binges like he had this week, but he’ll slap liners all over the place and score runs (especially at home) with a fantastic batting average and maybe a few steals, too. He’s also solid as a rock in points leagues.
• Welcome back, Gleyber Torres! I don’t love the strikeouts in his first three games back, but he was hitting the ball quite well earlier in the season, and with the offense firing much better than it did at the start of the year, there’s upside for ratios and runs.
• Let’s see how much Luis Robert Jr.’s return messes with the outfield for the Mets, as I’m concerned that they are going to start mixing things up and pull AJ Ewing out of the leadoff spot (though LuBob won’t be the guy who takes it from him).

 

Tier 11

At this point in the ranks, you can start considering players as streamers in standard-size 10-12-team leagues. That doesn’t mean they are bad; it just means we are at/near the replacement level, as several of these guys are likely on your wire.

• Nice rebound from Travis Bazzana, even though he’s dropped to fifth in the order with J-Ram’s return. He’s not hitting the ball particularly hard, but he does just enough to pop a few home runs, and he’s already stolen two bases since the break. Combine that with the consistently strong walk rate, and I can forgive the increase in strikeouts.
• The plate discipline has been atrocious, but Eugenio Suárez has four home runs in his last seven games (and only one of those was in Coors), and the few times he has connected, he’s blistered the baseball. This might be the start of something good.
• Josh Jung was looking like he was bouncing back, but he still sits at just one home run since June 9 and just six RBI in 32 games. That’s tough to stomach, even at third. The ratios have been OK, I suppose, but in shallower leagues you may need to look elsewhere if homers and RBI are on your wish list.
• Another drop for Cal Raleigh. I’ll likely hold him around this range for a while in hopes something clicks, but as of now, he just isn’t putting the same power on his fly balls.

 

Tier 12

Most players in the top half of this tier moved up 13+ spots due to all the guys I shoved at the bottom.

• A few signs of life from Salvador Perez are all I need to hold out some hope that some heat is coming.
• Ty France has set the world on fire for the last few weeks, and you’d think I’d be more excited about it, but I’m not. Obviously, he’s a fine stream if you need some short-term production, but we’ve seen thousands of plate appearances from France, and these peaks just don’t last very long (nor is this one particularly unique). Is it possible that he really has made a change, and that the increase in pulled fly balls and locked-in batting is more than just normal heat? Yes, that’s always a possibility. That said, I remain skeptical that Ty France will still be on fantasy rosters through August and September, as his slumps are generally long and brutal. Still, he is smacking the heck out of the ball right now and is well worth a scoop for that short-term burst.

• Welcome back, Luis Robert Jr.! He started in two of the first three games since being activated and pinched hit in the other. He also popped a home run in one of the games, though he also had more than his fair share of strikeouts. The upside is fantastic, as always, but he remains extremely volatile for a variety of valid reasons.
• Alex Bregman tallied a couple of hits lately and three home runs, but I’m still fairly lukewarm on his rest-of-season outlook, as the ranking suggests. The batted ball quality is not very good, and this offense is exceedingly inconsistent, making projecting counting stats very difficult.
• Keibert Ruiz is sitting a lot more than I’d like, but he performs well when on the field. If you need more volume, go ahead and stream elsewhere, but the floor here is quite strong, even if the playing time is frustrating at times.
• Heliot Ramos is a streaky power hitter, and those types bounce between the Taxi Squad and the last two tiers of this list. It’s just the nature of the beast.
• The bottom has fallen out a bit for Josh Bell, with just eight combined runs and RBI in his last 14 games with zero homers. Believe it or not, the expected stats are even worse than the actual ones, and I expect him to drop in the order sooner rather than later.
• I kept waiting for Christian Walker to bounce back due to his strong start, but he’s been awful since the start of June and it’s time to move on.
• Kyle Stowers is a streaky lefty power guy through and through. I just don’t think there’s more to him than that at this point.

 

Rank	Hitter	Team	Position	Change
1	Shohei OhtaniT1	LAD	DH	-
2	Yordan Alvarez	HOU	OF	+1
3	James Wood	WSH	OF	+1
4	Juan Soto	NYM	OF	-2
5	José Ramírez T2	CLE	3B	+UR
6	Ben Rice	NYY	C, 1B	-
7	Elly De La Cruz	CIN	SS	+1
8	Junior Caminero	TB	3B	+2
9	Jordan Walker	STL	OF	+2
10	Pete Crow-Armstrong	CHC	OF	-3
11	Kyle Schwarber	PHI	OF	-2
12	Drake Baldwin	ATL	C	+10
13	Hunter Goodman T3	COL	C	+10
14	Jackson Chourio	MIL	OF	-1
15	Miguel Vargas	CHW	1B, 3B	-1
16	Brice Turang	MIL	2B	-4
17	Matt Olson	ATL	1B	-2
18	Corbin Carroll	ARI	OF	-2
19	Julio Rodríguez	SEA	OF	+UR
20	CJ Abrams	WSH	SS	+5
21	Byron Buxton T4	MIN	OF	+UR
22	Francisco Lindor	NYM	SS	-3
23	Pete Alonso	BAL	1B	-2
24	Bryce Harper	PHI	1B	-4
25	Willson Contreras	BOS	1B	+4
26	Fernando Tatis Jr.	SD	OF	+10
27	Shea Langeliers	ATH	C	-10
28	Randy Arozarena	SEA	OF	-2
29	Otto Lopez	MIA	2B, SS	-11
30	Michael Harris II T5	ATL	OF	-2
31	Ketel Marte	ARI	2B	-
32	William Contreras	MIL	C	-8
33	Dillon Dingler	DET	C	-1
34	Bryan Reynolds	PIT	OF	-7
35	Zach Neto	LAA	SS	-1
36	Freddie Freeman	LAD	1B	-6
37	Yandy Díaz	TB	1B	-2
38	Wyatt Langford	TEX	OF	+4
39	Luis García Jr. T6	WSH	2B	-6
40	Alec Burleson	STL	1B, OF	-2
41	Riley Greene	DET	OF	-1
42	Andy Pages	LAD	OF	+2
43	Jeremy Peña	HOU	SS	+8
44	Seiya Suzuki	CHC	OF	+9
45	Kevin McGonigle	DET	SS	-6
46	Brandon Lowe	PIT	2B	-5
47	Rafael Devers	SF	1B	-4
48	Gunnar Henderson	BAL	SS	-1
49	Sal Stewart	CIN	1B, 3B	-3
50	Trea Turner	PHI	SS	+11
51	Mookie Betts	LAD	SS	-14
52	Jazz Chisholm Jr.	NYY	2B, 3B	-4
53	Manny Machado T7	SD	3B	-4
54	Xavier Edwards	MIA	2B, SS	+1
55	JJ Wetherholt	STL	2B, SS	+4
56	Jackson Merrill	SD	OF	+14
57	Jonathan Aranda	TB	1B	+3
58	Munetaka Murakami	CHW	1B, 3B	-13
59	Gabriel Moreno	ARI	C	+10
60	Cody Bellinger	NYY	1B	-8
61	Brandon Marsh	PHI	OF	-11
62	Sam Antonacci	CHW	2B, OF	-4
63	Carter Jensen	KC	C	+2
64	Ozzie Albies T8	ATL	2B	-10
65	Liam Hicks	MIA	C, 1B	+11
66	Ceddanne Rafaela	BOS	2B, OF	+7
67	Jake McCarthy	COL	OF	+11
68	Carson Benge	NYM	OF	-6
69	Teoscar Hernández	LAD	OF	-2
70	Casey Schmitt	SF	1B, 2B, 3B	+2
71	Max Muncy	LAD	3B	+10
72	Ryan O’Hearn	PIT	1B	-9
73	Luis Arraez	SF	1B, 2B	-5
74	Jake Bauers	MIL	1B, OF	-10
75	Kazuma Okamoto	TOR	3B	-19
76	Isaac Paredes T9	HOU	3B	+8
77	Curtis Mead	WSH	1B, 2B, 3B	+6
78	Josh Naylor	SEA	1B	-1
79	Vladimir Guerrero Jr.	TOR	1B	-8
80	Caleb Durbin	BOS	2B, 3B	+7
81	Wilyer Abreu	BOS	OF	+13
82	Kyle Tucker	LAD	OF	-25
83	Mike Trout	LAA	OF	-4
84	Ian Happ	CHC	OF	-4
85	Bo Bichette	NYM	3B, SS	-11
86	Nick Gonzales	PIT	2B, 3B	-1
87	Brandon Nimmo	TEX	OF	+11
88	Colson Montgomery	CHW	SS	-2
89	Cole Carrigg	COL	OF	-
90	Esmerlyn Valdez T10	PIT	OF	+19
91	Nasim Nuñez	WSH	2B, SS	+32
92	Jac Caglianone	KC	OF	-10
93	Ivan Herrera	STL	C, DH	-18
94	Jake Burger	TEX	1B	-1
95	Royce Lewis	MIN	3B	-
96	Chase DeLauter	CLE	OF	-
97	Tyler Soderstrom	ATH	1B	+9
98	Jacob Wilson	ATH	SS	+28
99	Tommy Edman	LAD	2B, OF	+20
100	TJ Rumfield	COL	1B, 3B	+2
101	Chandler Simpson	TB	OF	+16
102	Gleyber Torres	DET	2B	+UR
103	Dansby Swanson	CHC	SS	+1
104	A.J. Ewing	NYM	OF	-13
105	Trent Grisham T11	NYY	OF	-13
106	Geraldo Perdomo	ARI	SS	+1
107	Jo Adell	LAA	OF	+1
108	Daylen Lile	WSH	OF	+2
109	Garrett Mitchell	MIL	OF	-12
110	Heriberto Hernández	MIA	OF	+11
111	Brooks Lee	MIN	2B, 3B, SS	-8
112	Joe Mack	MIA	C	+19
113	Eugenio Suárez	CIN	3B	+19
114	JJ Bleday	CIN	OF	+2
115	Bryce Eldridge	SF	1B, DH	+18
116	Travis Bazzana	CLE	2B	+23
117	Bryson Stott	PHI	2B, SS	-17
118	Michael Busch	CHC	1B	+9
119	Ezequiel Duran	TEX	1B, 2B, 3B, SS, OF	+15
120	Josh Jung	TEX	3B	-32
121	Brayan Rocchio	CLE	2B, SS	+17
122	Cal Raleigh	SEA	C	-23
123	Salvador Perez T12	KC	C, 1B	+22
124	Ryan Jeffers	MIN	C	+16
125	Christian Yelich	MIL	OF	+17
126	Yainer Diaz	HOU	C	+17
127	Alex Bregman	CHC	3B	-13
128	Willy Adames	SF	SS	+16
129	Jose Altuve	HOU	2B, OF	-17
130	Mauricio Dubón	ATL	2B, 3B, SS, OF	-5
131	Jung Hoo Lee	SF	OF	+16
132	Ty France	SD	1B	+UR
133	Luis Robert Jr.	NYM	OF	+UR
134	Dylan Crews	WSH	OF	+12
135	Chase Meidroth	CHW	2B, SS	+13
136	George Springer	TOR	OF	+13
137	Nico Hoerner	CHC	2B, SS	+13
138	Luke Keaschall	MIN	2B	-10
139	Ernie Clement	TOR	1B, 2B, 3B, SS	-9
140	Keibert Ruiz	WSH	C	-27
141	Kody Clemens	MIN	1B, 2B, OF	-17
142	Trevor Larnach	MIN	OF	-1
143	Heliot Ramos	SF	OF	-23
144	José Caballero	NYY	2B, 3B, SS, OF	-29
145	Jasson Domínguez	NYY	OF	-23
146	Josh Bell	MIN	1B	-56
147	Kyle Stowers	MIA	1B, OF	-42
148	Christian Walker	HOU	1B	-47
149	Dominic Canzone	SEA	OF	-31
150	Jake Mangum	PIT	OF	-14

 

UPDATE: I’ve separated the Taxi Squad and Injured List for my own organization. The Injured List will only focus on players who might actually get ranked on return.

Catcher

• Tyler Stephenson (C, CIN) — Boring-but-safe streamer when he’s at home.
• J.T. Realmuto (C, PHI) — Not the hitter he once was, but plays often and doesn’t strike out a ton.
• Endy Rodríguez (C, PIT) — Hitting the ball hard and often lately. A solid streamer who has more upside than I initially thought.
• Alejandro Kirk (C, TOR) — Strong plate skills but no longer plays every day so he’s more of a safe streamer than locked-in regular.
• Francisco Alvarez (C, NYM) — Plenty of power but injuries and inconsistency continue to hold him back.
• Anthony Seigler (C/2B, BOS) — Leading off and rank-worthy for points leagues, but the lack of power is quite real. Would be the next catcher to be ranked.
• Carson Kelly (C, LAD) — Streaky part-timer.
• Jonah Heim (C, ATH) — Got extra time against a slew of lefties, but no need to keep holding.
• Dalton Rushing (C, LAD) — Too many streaming options to keep holding out hope in standard leagues.
• Henry Davis (C, PIT) — The Pirate offense being good is cool but I have no faith in Davis.

First Base

• Spencer Torkelson (1B, DET) —Just let me have this one. If he could make contact at even a below-average (as opposed to abysmal) clip, he’d be quite relevant.
• Coby Mayo (1B/3B, BAL) — Will get more playing time with Alexander out, but nothing more than a desperate power option in deep leagues.
• Andrew Vaughn (1B, MIL) — Barely playing at all.
• Kyle Manzardo (1B, CLE) — Streaky and prone to platooning.
• Nolan Schanuel (1B, LAA) — Points league streamer.
• Christian Encarnacion-Strand (1B/3B, BAL) — Lit up some lefties but need to see more to be interested.
• Paul Goldschmidt (1B, NYY) — The bottom has completely fallen out.
• Vinnie Pasquantino (1B, KCR) — Go ahead and scoop him if you’re looking for a lotto ticket, but he’s got to start hitting fly balls with more authority for me to get excited.
• Spencer Steer (1B/2B/OF) — He’s been quite average for a while now, but has value in the deeper formats due to his eligibility and the fact he hits fourth.

Second Base

• Cole Young (2B, SEA) — Love the low strikeout rate of late, but he’s hard to rank when hitting at the bottom of the order.
• Marcus Semien (2B, NYM) — He’s back and should only be considered in very deep leagues where you just need volume.
• Angel Martínez (2B/OF, CLE) — Not worth holding on your IL unless it’s unlimited.
• Matt McLain (2B/SS, CIN) — Hit the IL and wasn’t playing against all righties.
• Javier Sanoja (2B/3B/OF, MIA) — Points league streamer.
• Tyler Tolbert (2B/SS/OF, KCR) — He still lands on leaderboards because of those two monster games, but there’s nothing to see here.
• Jorge Polanco (2B/3B, NYM) — My hopes aren’t terribly high that he’ll find success, but he’ll likely have a fantasy-relevant stretch or two between now and the end of the season.
• Willi Castro (2B/3B/SS/OF, COL) — Sat against the last three lefties.
• Brett Baty (2B/3B, NYM) — The return of Semien clouds his playing time.
• Max Muncy (2B/3B, ATH) — He’ll get some playing time in the short term, but his extreme struggles with making contact make him an unreliable option.

Third Base

• Nolan Arenado (3B, ARI) — The power isn’t there anymore, but he can still provide ratios and RBI at a slightly above-average clip.
• Austin Riley (3B, ATL) — And just like that, Austin Riley had a week where he just crushed the ball. Still more of a flyer for me, though, considering the injury history and how bad he was heading into the Break. Almost ranked him.
• Jordan Lawlar (3B/OF, ARI) — This dude cannot catch a break.
• Noelvi Marte (3B/OF, CIN) — Short side of a platoon.
• Kyle Karros (3B, COL) — Been a slow homestand, so go ahead and move on.

Shortstop

• Anthony Volpe (SS, NYY) — He’ll be a post-hype sleeper at some point, probably.
• Masyn Winn (SS, STL) — Had two fun weeks but has quieted down to a below-replacement option.
• Xander Bogaerts (SS, SDP) — Hitting third makes him semi-interesting if you’re desperate.
• Colt Emerson (3B/SS, SEA) — There’s long-term upside here, but I’m not waiting for it in 2026. He needs to figure out those holes in his swing and make more contact in the zone.
• J.P. Crawford (3B/SS, SEA) — If the Mariners find their groove on offense and Crawford is still leading off, then maybe he’d be valuable.
• Cooper Pratt (SS, MIL) — Points league streamer who lacks power but should put a lot of balls in play as line drives and grounders.

Outfield/DH

• Kerry Carpenter (OF, DET) — The premier streaky lefty platoon guy.
• Mike Yastrzemski (OF, ATL) — Streaky lefty platoon guy.
• Gavin Sheets (1B/OF, SDP) — Streaky lefty platoon guy.
• Luke Raley (OF, SEA) — Streaky lefty platoon guy.
• Mickey Moniak (OF, COL) — Sat against both lefties in his return, though he did pinch hit in both games. Streaky lefty platoon guy.
• Jesús Sánchez (OF, TOR) — Streaky lefty platoon guy.
• Tristan Peters (OF, CWS) — Lefty platoon guy who is overperforming considerably.
• Jorge Soler (OF, LAA) — Streaky power streamer.
• Steven Kwan (OF, CLE) — Batting ninth is a worst-case scenario for his value. How did everything go so terribly wrong?
• Justin Crawford (OF, PHI) — Lost interest until the walk rate is closer to 10%.
• Joc Pederson (DH, TEX) — Streaky lefty platoon guy.
• Joshua Baez (OF, STL) — The home runs are there, but nothing else.
• Lourdes Gurriel Jr. (OF, ARI) — I never know what to expect from him, and in a shallow league, I would just avoid the headache entirely.
• Jacob Young (OF, WAS) — Has shown signs here and there, but the wheels keep falling off soon after.
• Dylan Beavers (OF, BAL) — Might be worth a look in deeper OBP formats.
• Jarren Duran (OF, BOS) — He might finish with 20 homers and 20 steals but the ratios are going to be awful and the counting stats won’t help either. If the strikeouts come down and he hits in the top half of the order, he could get ranked again.
• Braden Montgomery (OF, CWS) — Not showing enough to justify holding over other outfield streamers.
• Colton Cowser (OF, BAL) — The strikeouts are back and so is the platoon.
• Lars Nootbaar (OF, STL) — No need to hold here as he has dropped in the lineup and is sitting against most lefties.
• Cam Smith (OF, HOU) — One of these days, he’ll stay on the list.
• Ryan Waldschmidt (OF, ARI) — They’ve recalled him after he slashed .286/.416/.524 following his demotion, but playing time and opportunity remain to be determined.
• Lane Thomas (OF, KCR) — I suspect a lot of his recent production is merely because the Royals have seen a lot of lefties, as Thomas continues to perform badly against right-handed pitching.
• Daulton Varsho (OF, TOR) — Varsho is notoriously streaky as well as injury-prone, so I’ve always viewed him as more of a disposable streamer in 12-teamers.
• Taylor Ward (OF, BAL) — In deeper formats or OBP, you can justify holding him if you don’t like the waiver options, but I just don’t see any signs that he’s going to go back to being the 2025 Ward, who I was a big fan of.
• Cedric Mullins (OF, TBR) — The steals have dried up, and he doesn’t hit enough to justify holding through it.
• Victor Mesa Jr. (OF, TBR) — The plate discipline is solid, and he’s shown high exit velocities in the minors this season, but he seems to get jammed a lot in the majors. If Mesa Jr. played more, he’d be a streamer candidate in OBP leagues.
• Henry Bolte (OF, ATH) — The batted ball quality has fallen off and now he’s sat against two straight righties.