Top 150 Hitters for Fantasy Baseball 2026 – Week 19

The trade deadline has come and gone, and frankly, very few hitters witha new home see much of a change in rank (and many who did have a change went downward).

• 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 

 

• No changes here, except for the loss of James Wood to injury.

 

Tier 2

 

• Pete Crow-Armstrong continues to be exceptional, and while the long periods of being not awesome still remain in the back of my mind (and are the chief reason he’s not in Tier 1 quite yet), they’re hard to even think about when PCA is being this good.
• Welcome back, Bobby Witt Jr.! He’s already got a three-hit game since coming off the IL earlier this week and hopefully can find some of the magic he was showcasing prior to hitting the IL.

 

Tier 3 

 

• Matt Olson now leads this tier after others have sh0wn prolonged slumps in a way Olson has not. Don’t get me wrong, he has suffered some awful weeks, but Olson has been quick to rebound in 2026 and that’s always a good sign.
• It’s been a painfully slow start to the second half for Jordan Walker, and the thing he’s suffering from most is just less power when he connects. His hard-hit rate in the second half is just 31.5% after it was 51.5% in the first half. The knee issue further clouds the short-term projections a bit but hopefully he rebounds as he did in slumps earlier in the season.

 

Tier 4

 

• Randy Arozarena is on a path to a career year in many metrics, and the main reason is that he hasn’t endured one of his deep slumps that plagued him the last several seasons. He’s actually hitting more ground balls than usual, which normall would be a bad thing but somehow it has worked out well for him in 2026 as he’s managed to turn a lot of those grounders into hits. As much as I might nitpick with how he’s getting it done, Arozarena has been getting it one with great consistency all season long.
• Ronald Acuña Jr. remains in the top 20 by a hair, a testament to the incredible talent we’ve seen him flash over his career. He’s actually hit the ball well in the small sample we’ve seen on his return despite the poor results, though the plate discipline leaves a lot to be desired. In 66 plate appearances since the start of June, Acuña has struck out 30.3% of the time, and that trend has continued since returning from injury. When Acuña connects and/or gets on base, he’s as electric as anyone in the league, but between injury and the decline in discipline, he’s connecting/getting on base far too rarely. On the bright side, at least the Marlins gifted him a home run on Thursday!
• Dillon Dingler stands alone as the clear number four catcher right now, and if you’re in OBP, you could argue he’s in the same tier as Hunter Goodman.
• The slump continues for Kyle Schwarber, though again, he will eventually have some weeks that absolutely dominate. The strikeout rate has been consistently high for Schwarber during this cold spell, which was something he had been able to manage a little better the last two seasons. No long term or actionable concerns here, but he does move down a bit.
• Sal Stewart just clubbed his sixth home run and drove in his 22nd runner since the Break, and while the strikeouts are up a but in this hot streak and the batted ball data paints a less rosy picture, I think his skills will catch up by the time the luck wears off. We may never see Stewart return to the incredible heights of April again, but he’s been a consistent positive in the overall skills and production department all season long, with weeks and months where he’s returned to top-15 levels. Certain skills seem to come and go (one of contact or decision-making, though usually just one of the two), but a small home park and prime lineup spot helps offset some of those dips.

 

Tier 5 

 

• The Jackson Merrill rebound continues unabated, to the point where it’s hard to remember that at the end of play on June 30 (81 games), Merrill was slashing just .213/.271/.343 with eight total home runs, though he had stolen 18 bases to somewhat make up for the lack of production elsewhere. In 31 games since the calendar flipped to July, Merrill has already had as many home runs along with a .311/.346/.538 line and a much more robust pace for runs and RBI. While his decision-making skills leave a lot to be desired, his (usually) robust hit tool can benefit from that aggression at the plate. The early-season lull largely stemmed from a big drop in contact ability (see below), and as long as that contact ability stays above average, Merrill should continue to produce.

 

 

Tier 6

 

• Whoa, Ceddanne Rafaela! The Red Sox center fielder has seven home runs in his last 14 games (not including whatever happens Thursday) and has been promoted to second in the batting order after showing a consistent ability to put the ball in play and carry a high batting average. Truth be told, neither PLV nor Statcast have a huge fondness for Rafaela’s underlying metrics due to his extremely aggressive approach and penchant for soft contact, but he’s a fantastic defender and has earned a prime lineup spot for the hottest team in baseball. We’ve seen Rafaela show plus batted ball metrics in the past with two separate spikes in the summer of ’25, and if he were to show that again while in this plus environment, we could see him rise even further. It’s more likely that he fades a bit but remains very good due to his speed and contact ability, but the upside is there, and you don’t have to squint too hard to see it.

• Otto Lopez and Ketel Marte has been a bit disappointing of late, but let’s be realistic: there are no other options even close to these guys at second base, and the guys in the tier below either have question marks of their own in terms of talent/consistency (García Jr., Albies, Jazz) or upside (Arraez, Wetherholt). Just hold and see what happens.
• Bryan Reynolds has slumped over the last month, both in actual results and in skill metrics, but we’ve seen Reynolds slump many times over his career only to find his groove again. Don’t do anything rash. It’s odd to have to say that about a guy who posted a 142 wRC+ in the first half, but I’ve gotten a lot of questions about dropping Reynolds. Even in a very shallow eight-teamer, I’m not there yet unless someone has dropped a top-40 bat and there’s literally no one else to let go of (this DOES happen in eigth-team leagues, and it’s what makes them so difficult – there are more good and high-upside players than there are roster spots and you have to pick and choose which ones to keep and which ones to let go of).

 

Tier 7 

 

• Kevin McGonigle would be a tier higher in points leagues, maybe even the bottom of Tier 5. The plate discipline is absurd, especially for a rookie, and his rolling walk and strikeout rates are as stable as they come. It’s also worth noting that since June 1, the Tigers have scored more runs than anyone in the American League by a wide margin: their 292 runs (not even counting today’s blowout of the Mariners) is a full 22 more runs than the second-place offense (Houston), and that gap is slightly more than the gap between second and seventh. He should clear 100 runs scored if they continue to score at an above-average rate.
• It sounds like Jake Bauers should be good to go by Friday and should be able to go back to somehow being the model of consistency in Milwaukee. Bauers has at least four home runs and 25 combined runs and RBI each month this season, with a lot of that consistency coming out of basically nowhere, as prior to 2026, Bauers had a long and bad track record against lefties, posting just a .611 OPS against same-side pitching, which led to smart managers platooning him, even when he was hot. In 2026? That OPS against southpaws is a whopping .804.
• Wilyer Abreu is one of the hottest hitters in baseball over the last seven days and has five home runs in his last six games heading into Thursday’s action. Abreu is a notoriously streaky hitter, and he’s been crazy hot in two different spurts since the start of the second half (he had back-to-back double-dinger games right out of the Break), though he was insanely quiet in the 10 games in between (a .271 OPS, and that’s not a typo). As long as you can stomach the ups and downs, Abreu should end up being a solid player for you, though in head-to-head formats you may grow tired of the extreme lows that come between the highs.
• Luis Arraez lands in Philly, and the only real change here is that he’ll bat fourth instead of first, which trades his runs for RBI, and that’s about it. The infield is the same size in every park and no one has outfield walls that are 200 feet away, so Arraez’s skills are basically ballpark agnostic.
• Zach Neto has struggled to rein in the strikeouts this season, and that’s killed his batting average. On Thursday, he finally hit his first home run of the second half, which is a plus, but I’m pretty nervous about how many counting stats Neto can rack up on an offense that is really just him and a 35-year-old Trout doing the best they can.

 

Tier 8

There is a net gain of +11 to this tier

• I’ve historically not been a huge fan of Ezequiel Duran, but he’s been a fantastic contributor as a utility man for the Rangers, particularly since the claendar moved to July. He’s slashing .299/.345/.579 in that stretch with seven homers and three steals and remains eligible at second, third, short, and in the outfield (and also at first in Yahoo formats). Duran will never blow us away with hard contact or plate discipline, but he continues to climb up to the middle of the batting order for the Rangers and has secured an everyday job as the third baseman while Josh Jung is on the IL (and should be the full-time second baseman when Jung comes back).
• Bryson Stott has moved to third base following the deadline, and that additional flexibility adds meaningful value to his profile, though not as much as the huge improvement in plate discipline so far in the second half. He’s walking 16.7% of the time in his last 19 games, and his average exit velocity is a robust 92.5 mph (almost three ticks above his season average). We’ve seen Stott go on extreme heaters in recent seasons, and this may be the beginning of one of those runs right now.

 

Tier 9 

There is a net gain of +16 to this tier

• Josh Naylor’s last home run was on June 12 and that makes me sad. The extreme collapse of the power from both Naylor and Raleigh is downright baffling. At least Naylor continues to steal bases at a high rate?
• If you’re looking for good news on Mookie Betts, all I can really say is that if he had better luck, he’d be average instead of bad. That’s it. He’s not walking as much as usual, and the power is basically non-existent outside of that two-homer game coming out of the break against the Phillies. You almost certainly can’t trade him, and now you have to gauge whether you think it’s more likely that he continues to perform worse than a streamer or whether he has a huge month late in the year like he did in 2025. I’m on the fence on this one at the moment, which is why he stays just above the “free to stream” tier for 10-12 teamers.
• Sam Antonacci has been quiet the last few weeks and has started to sit against lefties (which is fair, as he’s got a paltry .525 OPS against southpaws on the season). Being in a platoon is no fun for fantasy purposes, but at least he leads off against righties and continues to hit them well.
• Gleyber Torres is hitting at or near the top of the order for a hot offense (as previously mentioned, the Tigers have the most runs scored in baseball since June 1 by a wide margin), and he’s recently rediscovered his home run stroke (though one of the homers came against Baltimore, who he famously crushes, and another was in Sacramento). I don’t expect the RBI to keep piliong up, but he’s got at least one run scored in five straight games and that kind of production can keep rolling as long as this offense keeps cruising.
• The Giants have pushed Jung Hoo Lee down the order a few times this year, but injuries and trades have left a vacuum at the setup spot that Lee is best suited to fill. Again, Lee is best suited to points leagues, but if you need ratios, runs, and a safe floor, Lee is here for you.
• It’s a massive jump for Steven Kwan as he reasserts himself as the leadoff man for Cleveland and has gone back to his slap-hitting ways, hitting .422 with a .500 OBP so far in the second half. Sure, it’s a crazy BABIP (.466), but that’s largely because he is peppering line drives everywhere. I don’t expect Kwan to keep up a line drive rate over 40% as he has so far this half, and his 5.2% hard-hit rate is comicially low, but that is not a far cry from the type of contributor Kwan can be when he’s right. Kwan has one of the best hit tools in the game (along with Luis Arraez), and we’ve been waiting for him to turn into the line drive machine he’s been the last few weeks. If you dropped Kwan earlier this season, you did not do anything wrong: Kwan was objectively awful in the first half and had been demoted to the bottom of a bad lineup. That said, he appears to have regained his mojo and is primed to give us a solid half of ratios, runs, and some stolen bases at the top of the scrappy Guardians lineup that will need to use it’s full bag of tricks to try and make another playoff run.And yes, it’s crazy for a guy to move up 50 spots, and those of you who don’t need runs, ratios, or steals will likely have very little interest in Kwan, but those who do need those categories or those in points leagues should be scooping him off the wire immediately if he’s still out there.
• Jac Caglianone had a good week, but still is hitting a ton of grounders. He moves up due to the nice week and attrition, but my general concerns remain the same.

 

Tier 10

At this point in the ranks, you can start considering aggressive adds/drops based on need and situation in shallow/standard-size 10-12 team leagues, especially in the outfield. 

• I covered Vladimir Guerrero in depth on the Hacks and Jacks podcast, but the short version is this: Vlad likely has more upside than guys on your wire, especially if you need power and ratios, so I don’t think you can drop him in 12-teamers, particularly those with a corner infield spot, but those of you in standard-size leagues, especially 8-10 teamers, have some tough decisions to make, especially since I doubt anyone in redraft is interested at all in trading.
• Carter Jensen is frustrating as he’s lost control of the strikeouts. He’s taken more walks recently, which is a good sign, but I had hoped he’d jump out of this slump sooner. He could still very well finish the season inside the top-75 hitters, but these slumps just last too long right now.
• In OBP, Esmerlyn Valdez is easier to hold on to as he is taking a boatload of walks during this slump, but the zone contact rate remains a massive problem, and there’s only so much taking walks can help with that. A high walk rate is a great sign for guys who tend to chase outside of the zone, but Esmerlyn really doesn’t do that. His issue is with the stuff he sees in the zone. Esmerlyn is extremely patient and controls the zone well, but it doesn’t really matter right now because he’s struggling to conect on the good pitches he sees. There’s no real path to sustained success with his 69.9% zone contact rate, though if he can bump it up above 75%, he could lock in as a streaky-but-intimidating masher.
• Jo Adell moves to a lineup that is not any better than the one he left and goes to a park that is markedly worse for right-handed power right at a time when his plate discipline is the worst it has been all season. How fun.
• We’re back on the Jarren Duran roller coaster, eh?

 

Tier 11

 

• Heriberto Hernández has also lost control of the strikeout rate, and his power upside isn’t as exciting as Esmerlyn’s. You can move on unless you are desperate for power and want to see if Hernandez can beat this slump.
• If you have a Yankee fan in your league, offer them Heliot Ramos right now. Sure, he looks like he’s a big winner in this deadline, hitting fourth for the Bronx Bombers, but that’s a temproary spot until some of the injured outfielders come back (starting with Bellinger), and he’s still the same streaky power guy he’s always been. Ramos has been noticably cold of late also, slugging just .369 in his last 25 games with a 29.4% strikeout rate. I don’t see Ramos holding this role long, even if Bellinger, Stanton, and Judge have more setbacks. Still, if he DID heat up, he’d be raking up the stats in a hurry thanks to being gifted this role on a good offense.
• Andruw Monasterio has piled up the hits since the start of July, slashing .346/.411/.603 in 91 plate appearances. He’s overperforming his expected stats by a fairly wide margin, but even without the luck he’d be decent. Injuries created this opportunity for him despite trades almost putting him back on the bench, so there’s at least three more weeks of runway if he can stay hot at the dish. This feels like a random hot streak from a player who is more average than good, but still a very easy stream while it keeps going on.
• Spencer Torkelson! Finally! He’s been the seventh-best fantasy first baseman over the last 30 days thanks to his 20 RBI (once again, the Tigers have the most runs scored in baseball since June 1 by a wide margin), and the strikeout rate is down 10 points from his season average. Tork will beg, borrow, and steal his way to 30 home runs by the end of the year, it seems, though he’s easier to appreciate in OBP thanks to his double-digit walk rate.
• Tim Tawa has two nice little stretches in the second half, but overall the batted ball data is lackluster. Still, he’s a solid streamer for the time being.
• Endy Rodríguez is a streamable catcher who has struggled with consistency and injuries, though was once a top-50 prospect.
• George Lombard Jr. is a line-drive hitter with some mild hit tool concerns and extreme patience at the plate who was white-hot prior to promotion. Streamable, and someone in your league ought to pull the trigger, but I don’t see a quick path to the top-100 hitters based on the tools (though some of that is because extremely patient hitters sometimes struggle initially in the bigs due to the tougher time gauging strikes and balls).
• Osleivis Basabe should get plenty of playing time and has a solid hit tool, but the pop and speed is very limited. Points league fill-in.

 

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

 

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.
• 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) — Getting extra playing time against lefties.
• Jonah Heim (C, ATH) — Langeliers being lost for the season will give Heim plenty of volume.
• Eduardo Valencia (C, DET) — He’s got legitimate pop, but playing time and ratios will be volatile.
• Yainer Diaz (C, HOU) — The playing time didn’t materialize as I hoped.
• Keibert Ruiz (C, WSN) — The lack of playing time hurts too much to keep him ranked, but he puts a ton of balls in play and should always be on the points league radar.

First Base

• 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) — Playing more, but you never know when the time will disappear, even when he’s hitting (I mean, he has a 142 wRC+ on the season with amazing discipline and still can’t get a safe role).
• Kyle Manzardo (1B, CLE) — I’m out in all formats, even dynasty, until he leaves Cleveland.
• Nolan Schanuel (1B, LAA) — Points league streamer.
• Christian Encarnacion-Strand (1B/3B, BAL) — Playing more but not producing much.
• Vinnie Pasquantino (1B, KCR) — Back on the IL with wrist issues and I don’t see a need to keep holding.
• Spencer Steer (1B/2B/OF) — I wouldn’t expect him back until September. If you’ve got a full IL, he might be a drop.
• Josh Bell (1B, MIN) — He’s fallen off the deep end in terms of production.
• Nathaniel Lowe (1B, CLE) — He’ll produce against righties and sit against lefties.
• Abimelec Ortiz (1B, WSN) — He has legitimate pop and will see consistent at-bats against righties near the top of the order, but he’s a streamer at best in standard leagues due to his platoon and the depth of first base.

Second Base

• Matt McLain (2B/SS, CIN) — On the IL again.
• Tyler Tolbert (2B/SS/OF, KCR) — Four huge games and nothing else.
• David Hamilton (2B/3B/SS, MIL) — Speed streamer.
• Pedro Ramirez (2B/3B, CHC) — The luck had faded, so go ahead and stream someone else in redraft.
• Jackson Holliday (2B, BAL) — The role has improved just in time for the production to dip. Hopefully he heats back up soon.
• Blaze Alexander (2B/3B/SS/OF, BAL) — Still no timeline.
• Mauricio Dubón (2B/3B/SS/OF, ATL) — The roster shuffle is costing him meaningful playing time.
• Cooper Pratt (SS, MIL) — The heat has faded, though the OBP remains solid if you’re in a deep OBP format.

Third Base

• Austin Riley (3B, ATL) — Heating up a little, but until I see more than three or four sporadic good games, I’m not getting too excited. The second-half line looks good, but it’s two little pockets of heat and a bunch of nothing in between.
• Jordan Lawlar (3B/OF, ARI) — This dude cannot catch a break.
• Eugenio Suárez (3B, CIN) — There’s just nothing good happening under the hood.
• Angel Genao (3B, CLE) — He’s found some power in 2026, which is exciting, and he’s a well-regarded prospect, but the role and playing time remain questionable.

Shortstop

• Anthony Volpe (SS, NYY) — Oof.
• 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.
• Kaelen Culpepper (SS, MIN) — Culpepper has been fairly good in triple-A and recently returned from a pair of injuries that cost him most of the summer. The Twins are in need of offensive reinforcements if they want to stay in the hunt, so we could see Culpepper by mid-to-late August if he seems to be fully healthy. UPDATE: Culpepper gets the call today! There’s a decent opportunity in the outfield for the Twins, and he may be ranked next week.
• Jesús Made (SS, MIL) — Just pointing out that I don’t see Made breaking through in 2026. He hasn’t exactly been a world-beater in triple-A, though his above-average results are an awesome sign for a 19-year-old kid in the high minors.
• Brayan Rocchio (SS, CLE) — As ice cold as it gets.

Outfield/DH

• Joc Pederson (OF, TEX) — The king of the streaky lefty platoon guys in 2026.
• Joshua Baez (OF, STL) — Power and strikeouts.
• Dylan Beavers (OF, BAL) — Might be worth a look in deeper OBP formats.
• Lars Nootbaar (OF, ARI) — He’ll get a good opportunity in Arizona, but the skills remain fairly limited.
• Cam Smith (OF, HOU) — One of these days, he’ll stay on the list.
• Ryan Waldschmidt (OF, ARI) — Hitting decently well but playing time is spotty.
• Daulton Varsho (OF, HOU) — Hitting fourth for Houston ain’t bad, but the streakiness will continue to be an issue.
• Taylor Ward (OF, SEA) — Change of scenery does little to get me excited for Ward.
• Victor Mesa Jr. (OF, TBR) — Platoon guy with some power upside.
• Tyrone Taylor (OF, NYM) — Making the most of new playing time opportunities but feels like it’s just a little hot streak.
• Trevor Larnach (OF, MIN) — Has lost a ton of playing time.
• Jake Mangum (OF, PIT) — Still leads off most days and would be ranked in points leagues, but not doing quite enough to keep our attention in category formats as an outfielder.
• Walker Jenkins (OF, MIN) — Jenkins missed a chunk of time early in the summer, and hasn’t found his home run stroke since returning in late June. If he does find it soon, he could scratch and claw his way to some playing time as a leadoff man over Larnach with his plus-plus hit tool.
• Henry Bolte (OF, ATH) — Hitting first against a lefty today and hitting the ball hard, but keeps getting caught stealing.
• Luis Robert Jr. (OF, NYM) — The strikeouts have spiked, he isn’t running, and the quality of contact is mediocre.
• Jacob Young (OF, WSN) — Hard to wait out the slump when the offense is decimated by trades and injury.
• Lawrence Butler (OF, ATH) — Leading off against righties but the inconsistency and limited upside make him more of a deep-league fill-in.