As you may have noticed, we no longer allow comments on the site. I’m grateful to have been able to engage with you all here, and if you have questions or comments, please don’t hesitate to reach out to me on Twitter (@ifthechufits), BlueSky (scottchu.pitcherlist.com), or Reddit (u/ChusephEsquire).
- 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 No. 55 and Player Y is ranked at No. 65, but they’re in the same tier, it means that I personally prefer Player X, 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.
- This is a safe space for me where I answer to no one but myself…and you if you hit me up on Twitter (@ifthechufits), BlueSky (scottchu.pitcherlist.com), or Reddit (u/ChusephEsquire).
- 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 (available for PL Pro members). 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 over 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 can 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 BlueSky (scottchu.pitcherlist.com) or Reddit (u/ChusephEsquire).
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 Brett Ford, 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 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
- As long as Shohei Ohtani and Aaron Judge are healthy, they’re the best players in their league. I might flip them here and there, but when push comes to shove, it’s a coin flip.
Tier 2
- Elly De La Cruz brutalized the Tigers over the weekend and has 11 walks to 11 strikeouts in his last 70 plate appearances. I expect more strikeout rate spikes in the future, but love seeing the improved discipline. Elly will likely fall short of his 67 steals from 2024, but is on pace to hit over 30 home runs with over 100 runs and 100 RBI to go with 40 steals and a decent batting average, so who’s complaining?
- Kyle Tucker still has more walks than strikeouts, and while he isn’t showing the power we saw in his half-season back in 2024, he’s more or less in line with past full seasons and should get close to 30 home runs and 30 steals with excellent ratios and counting stats.
- Juan Soto had a bit of a tough April, but since May 1 is hitting .260/.410.,534 with 11 home runs and six steals. Last season’s 41 home runs was always a tall order to repeat, but he’ll safely clear 30.
- I don’t think anything is “wrong” with Bobby Witt Jr., he just hasn’t had an incredible stretch yet like he did last summer when he held a 1.185 OPS for two whole months and hit a home run almost every three games. An exact replica of that is too much to ask, but as long as he’s still disciplined at the dish, hitting the ball very hard, and running very fast, there’s nothing to get worked up over.
Tier 3
- Cal Raleigh just keeps dumping baseballs over the outfield wall and I can’t get enough of it. Raleigh isn’t getting lucky, as he’s legitimately hitting the ball harder and pulling it in the air more, so I’m thinking he can stay on this 40+ home run path, though the average might dip a bit if that HR/FB rate falls closer to 20% (currently 26.5%).
- Ronald Acuña Jr. still only has one stolen base, but he’s hitting the ball as hard as ever and despite a .480 BABIP he’s under-performing his expected stats! If he was running, he’d be in Tier 2, but the lack of steals makes him merely an elite contributor in four categories instead of five. Bummer.
- Rafael Devers is a Giant now, and as I elaborated in the Hacks & Jacks podcast that went up Monday morning, I don’t think very much changes for him in terms of fantasy value. He still hits in the heart of the order, albeit for an offense that scores slightly fewer runs, and his ballpark is a bit tougher to hit in, but he has power to all fields and wasn’t really reliant on a specific ballpark configuration. His drop in these ranks is entirely because I moved two other players up.
Tier 4
- Pete Crow-Armstrong is striking out just 19% of the time in 58 June plate appearances, and plate discipline was really the only gripe we could have with him so far this season.
- Jackson Chourio still isn’t walking. but as long as he’s hitting and walking I suppose I don’t really care.
- Vladimir Guerrero Jr. still hasn’t hit his 10th home run, making a run at 25 more challenging by the day, but the ratios are fantastic and the counting stats are only slightly behind what we saw in 2024. It’s all tied to the low fly ball rate for Vlad Jr., which stems from his flat swing plane. Unless that changes, his huge raw power will produce more average and fewer home runs than you might expect from the exit velocities.
- Every week that Gunnar Henderson can look like the Gunnar Henderson we saw in either 2023 or 2024, the more he can creep up this list.
Tier 5
- Julio Rodriguez still doesn’t have a home run in June, though he does have five steals and a bunch of hits. I’m appreciating the improved strikeout rate, which has been an issue in years past, and surprisingly the expected stats are in line with what he did in 2023 when he hit 30 home runs, though that was true in 2024 as well. I’ve been a bit flaky on exactly where I think J-Rod should be ranked all season, though the more I look, the more I believe somewhere between 25-50 is right, with some upside for the top-20 if that power ever shows up again.
- Mookie Betts has been a top-50 hitter so far this season, though I am quite concerned that the decline in batted ball quality from 2024 has clearly carried over into 2025. He should get to 20 home runs and 15 steals, and the counting stats will be good because he hits high in the order for a powerhouse offense, but it feels like the ceiling for Betts is something like 25 home runs and a .280 average. That’s still a very good hitter, but not exactly what you hoped for when you selected him in the first. At least he’s eligible at second base!
- It’s too bad we don’t get to see Will Smith in at DH on his off days, but he’s been excellent when behind the dish. He’s not walking as often as he did to start the season, but the ratios are much improved across the board, possibly thanks to a big dip in his swing rate. While I don’t always like it when players swing less, it helps when you hit fourth for the Dodgers and will absolutely get pitches to hit due to the number of guys usually cluttering the basepaths.
- Jarren Duran will get his 30 steals, but the power has regressed (expectedly) and the loss of Devers may make Durran’s lagging counting stat issue even worse.
Tier 6
- We’re getting more balls in play from Marcell Ozuna, which is a good thing as he’s a lot more valuable swinging the bat then he is taking a walk. He may take a tumble in the rankings if we don’t see a power outburst soon, but I’m willing to tread water for now due to the massive power and counting stat potential.
- We’re still waiting on Mike Trout to show off the big power since coming off the IL, but this is Mike Trout. It’ll be there.
- Teoscar Hernández is streaky. The ups and downs are just nature taking its course.
- Salvador Perez may be finding his groove, though how long he can sustain it is a bit of a question at this stage of his career.
Tier 7
Tier 8
- Jonathan Aranda has just two home runs in his last 123 plate appearances, though he’s hitting .305 with a .398 OBP in that stretch, so it’s hard to complain too loudly. The lack of home runs is at least partially due to Aranda hitting balls in the air just 28% of the time, with a 30.7% line drive rate. If a chunk of those line drives turn back into fly balls, we’ll see the batting average drop a little in exchange for home runs. If they don’t, then we’ll keep seeing higher ratios with less pop. I prefer the former to the latter, but both are viable.
- Spencer Torkelson has been quite consistent since his early explosion, though we haven’t seen any huge spikes in production since then. He should still get to 30 home runs, though the ratios may be a bit of a bummer.
- Iván Herrera can hit for sure, though the early power was likely more mirage than truth.
Tier 9
- The return of Stanton creates a huge logjam in New York, and Paul Goldschmidt may have drawn a shorter straw than I expected. Goldy was already sitting somewhat regularly prior to the activation, but he also sat in the first game after Stanton returned. Combine that with the need to find time for Ben Rice (who will likely start hitting again soon) and you have a situation where Goldy, Rice, and Stanton all sit at least once or twice a week, hurting the value of all of them.
- Brandon Nimmo is a guy who relies heavily on plus decision-making and plus contact to put up his numbers, and one of the few who truly balances of all three elements that make up our Process+ stat (Decision Value, Contact Ability, and Power). To really feel comfortable with a player’s performance, I like to look for at least two of those elements being above average, so seeing all three with Nimmo suggests there’s going to be a fair amount of consistency here. Nimmo doesn’t have the upside we see in some of the players around him in the rankings, but floor is important too and his skills combined with hitting second for a very good team means his floor is about as high as it gets for players in this range.
- Tommy Edman is putting a ton of balls in play, though the steals have dried up considerably and he’s batting ninth now.
Tier 10
For those of you in standard 10- and 12-team leagues, this is where you’ll start finding your replacement level at certain positions, particularly outfield and the middle infield.
- Yandy Díaz has been hot for about a month now, and he remains an excellent source of ratios and counting stats as part of this blossoming Rays offense where he alternates between hitting first and third.
- Logan O’Hoppe is very streaky due to his spotty plate discipline, but the power is real enough that you should keep rolling him out there week to week to make sure you catch those hot streaks.
- I know Jordan Westburg can be great, but the question is how long he can sustain it, and what happens when he slumps for longer than one or two weeks with this team at close to full strength.
- TJ Friedl isn’t going to be able to provide much power long-term, but the batting average, speed, and lineup spot should be enough to make him more valuable than I initially suspected.
- Geraldo Perdomo has cooled off a bit, but he does still hit third for a offense that has plenty of firepower. The fact he hits third is surprising, to say the least, but I’m not going to look that gift horse in the mouth.
Tier 11
- Lourdes Gurriel Jr. will have pretty solid numbers by year end (top-100ish hitter) but the ups and downs have historically been hard to explain and the fact he doesn’t do any one thing exceptionally well makes him difficult to rank. I’m just going to leave him around this spot and wait for it all to work out.
- Kerry Carpenter takes another tumble as he continues to struggle at the plate. He’ll bounce back, eventually, but it could get worse before it gets better as the contact ability has taken a tumble and the decision-making has remained poor. At least the power is still there!
Tier 12
- Nick Kurtz has seven home runs in his last 12 games (there’s a two-week absence in there as well), and while the strikeouts remain a mild concern, he’s a high-upside power bat. Expect some ugly droughts here and there, because that’s just how it often goes for rookies, but it should be worth it in the end.
- Marcus Semien keeps hitting, so he keeps sliding up. The key will be whether the next slump lasts 100+ games, because the last one did.
- Rhys Hoskins will probably be fine, but first base is too deep to be overly attached to a slumping hitter, especially in those 10-teamers with no corner infield spot.
- Carlos Correa is back from the IL (one week late, sorry!), and hopefully he can find whatever spark he needs to start putting up useful numbers.
- Giancarlo Stanton is back and will hit the ball very hard, strike out a lot, and be a huge injury risk.
- Gavin Sheets has found a full-time opportunity with Jackson Merrill on the IL, and it could be a path to getting more at-bats even after Merrill comes back if he plays well. Sheets has big power, issues hitting lefties, and tends to be streaky, but this opportunity is too good to ignore.
- Josh Jung hasn’t hit a home run since May 16, and since then the strikeout rate has crept up a bit (28.6% in his last 105 plate appearances). Hopefully he can find that form from May again soon, but if he does and it doesn’t last more than two or three weeks, I may have to re-evaluate his upside.
Tier 13
Carlos Correa was inadvertently left off the list after he was activated from the IL. He would fall in this tier.
- Willy Adames has been showing signs of life and now has a new teammate to possibly boost his offensive output.
- Michael Harris II has been putting the ball in play and being somewhat productive, and while his path back to being a top-100 hitter is hard to make out from what we’ve seen from him this year, he could do enough to be roster-worthy for the rest of the season.
- Ozzie Albies and Bryson Stott should be better than this, and in 12-teamers the options available at second base MIGHT not be good enough to let these guys go. I’m not saying you SHOULD necessarily let them go, but in a shallow league, you MIGHT have options, especially if you don’t need the steals. Points leaguers should take special note of Crawford, though he’s likely already been scooped up by now.
- J.P. Crawford doesn’t bring much power or speed to the table, but being a leadoff hitter for a good offense has plenty of perks, especially when you can put the ball in play. The three stolen bases in his last seven games heading into Wednesday’s action probably won’t continue, but his excellent plate discipline and dependability at the top of the order gives him a shot at being a top-100 hitter the rest of the way even if he falls short of 15 home runs and 15 steals (which he is very likely to do).
- Miguel Vargas has been steady enough to keep in your lineup, though I don’t think the ceiling is particularly high.
- Jo Adell’s breakout watch has fizzled a bit due to a big uptick in swings and misses. Bummer.
- Lars Nootbaar is struggling, and worse yet, he lost that leadoff job to a guy who might be tough to take it back from. In shallower formats with only three outfielders, you might consider throwing him back until he’s hitting high in
- Michael Toglia was sent down to triple-A and comes back swinging a hot bat. I don’t trust his decision-making or contact skills very much at all, but with four of the next six series for the Rockies being in Coors, he’s very streamable.
- There are good things going on under the hood with Parker Meadows with respect to plate discipline and batted ball quality, so he should be able to work his way out of this slump.
- Maybe the time off for Adolis García actually worked?
- Josh Smith has a ton of versatility in real baseball and with positional eligibility, but his overall skills make his fantasy ceiling limited. It sounds like Smith will avoid the IL with this hammy issue, but hammy injuries are tricky.
- Christian Encarnacion-Strand turned off the hitting almost immediately after I featured him, so I take the blame for it. I jinxed him. It was me. Still, he could get back to hitting at any time, and while he’s at home and hitting near the middle of the order, he’s as decent a gamble as any that you can likely find on the wire at third base.
Taxi Squad
Players are listed in no particular order. This list is not every interesting guy out there, but a running list of players who either almost made the list or have been topics of interesting conversation.
NEW FEATURE: I will put blurbs in bold if they are new to the Taxi Squad or if there’s a significant update to their note.
Catcher
- Carlos Narváez (C, BOS) — Streaming catcher with a little bit of upside.
- Ryan Jeffers (C, MIN) — Hitting first or second lately, but sitting more.
- Francisco Alvarez (C, NYM) — Can’t roster him in single-catcher formats right now.
- Dillon Dingler (C, DET) — Still hot, and more playing time than I expected.
- Keibert Ruiz (C, WSN) — Points league catcher.
- Sean Murphy (C, ATL) — Playing time is gone. Drop.
- Dalton Rushing (C, LAD) — Dynasty only.
- Carson Kelly (C, CHC) — Not exactly making great use of the extra playing time. Just a streamer.
- Drake Baldwin (C, ATL) — Playing fine but the playing time is frustrating.
First Base
- Spencer Horwitz (1B/2B, PIT) — May not rebound to his Toronto numbers as quickly as I hoped
- Carlos Santana (1B, CLE) — OBP streamer who somehow still has something in the tank. What a career.
- Pavin Smith (1B/OF, ARI) — Streamer against soft righties.
- Spencer Steer (1B/3B/OF, CIN) — Was never a huge fan of the underlying skills, but has utility in deeper leagues and is a streamer in shallow leagues.
- Kyle Manzardo (1B, CLE) — Has lost most of the playing time against lefties.
- Domonic Smith (1B, SFG) — Swinging a hot bat and takes walks but the batted ball quality metrics are bad.
Second Base
- Trevor Story (2B, BOS) — Ratios are too bad to stomach.
- Hyeseong Kim (2B, LAD) — Will be very exciting when he has anything close to a regular role.
- Jorge Polanco (2B/3B, SEA) — Streamer with a little pop.
- Jonathan India (2B/3B/OF, KCR) — Deep points league only.
- Gavin Lux (2B/OF, CIN) — The hot streak was incredible but also relatively short in the grand scheme of things.
- José Caballero (2B/3B/SS/OF, TBR) — Speed streamer.
- Ernie Clement (2B/3B/OF, TOR) — Points league streamer.
- Andrés Giménez (2B, TOR) — Not batting ninth anymore, viable in points leagues.
- Nick Gonzales (2B, PIT) — Has pop and improved his strikeout rate a bit, but need to see him playing every day before I can rank him.
- Otto Lopez (2B, MIA) — Stole a pair of bases and hit a pair of home runs recently, though he’s struggled to sustain success.
- Ronny Mauricio (2B/3B, NYM) — The strikeouts should get cleaned up eventually.
- Brett Baty (2B/3B, NYM) — Grounders have spiked back up lately, hopefully he gets a handle on that.
- Kristian Campbell (2B, BOS) — Still a promising player in dynasty but no need to torture yourself in redraft.
- Casey Schmitt (2B, SFG) — Has been hot before for a few weeks but then fizzles out.
Third Base
- Joey Ortiz (3B/SS, MIL) — Does just enough in four of the five hitting categories to be relevant. If this list were for OBP, he might crack the end of it.
- Connor Norby (3B, MIA) — Swings hard and misses often. Chasing the hot streaks is a dangerous game.
- Caleb Durbin (3B, MIL) — Needs to turn a lot of those fly balls into liners as he does not have the pop to get those flies out of the yard very often.
- Dylan Moore (2B/3B/SS/OF, SEA) — Streaky utility man.
- Willi Castro (2B/3B/SS/OF, MIN) — Streaky utility man.
- Max Muncy (2B/3B/SS, OAK) — The hit tool is a big concern for me.
- Abraham Toro (1B/3B, BOS) — Has playing time but not enough underlying skills for long-term intrigue.
Shortstop
- Isiah Kiner-Falefa (2B/3B/SS, PIT) — Hits for a decent average and might steal 20 bases.
- Brooks Lee (2B/3B/SS, MIN) — Not enough production to consider despite being eligible everywhere.
- Trey Sweeney (SS, DET) — Cooled off in a big way.
- Zach McKinstry (2B/3B/SS/OF, DET) — Striking out a lot of late and not walking, which is not great for a player who has a very low ceiling.
- Tyler Fitzgerald (SS/OF, SFG) — Streaky hitter with major contact issues.
- Javier Báez (3B/SS/OF, DET) — He ain’t dead yet!
Outfield/DH
- Evan Carter (OF, TEX) — Streamer until he cools off. Rank-worthy in points.
- Will Benson (OF, CIN) — If you blinked, you missed it.
- Isaac Collins (OF, MIL) — No longer playing with enough regularity for 12-team consideration.
- Jesus Sanchez (OF, MIA) — Power streamer with a tough home park and poor supporting cast.
- Emmanuel Rodriguez (OF, MIN) — Triple-A strikeout rates above 30% are extremely troubling, even if they come with an OBP well above .400.
- Mike Yastrzemski (OF, SFG) — The definition of a replacement-level fantasy outfielder in 12-teamers.
- Michael Conforto (OF, LAD) — Droppable in mixed leagues.
- Jorge Soler (OF, LAA) — Power streamer.
- Chandler Simpson (OF, TBR) — Let’s see how long he needs to “work on his defense.” To Tampa’s credit, Simpson was not playing that well in center, but whatever.
- Denzel Clarke (OF, ATH) — Trevor Hooth likes him, I guess. Very deep league streamer for now. Glove gets him playing time.
- Lane Thomas (OF, WSN) — If he hit near the top of the order more, I’ll be interested.
- Cedric Mullins (OF, BAL) — Still playing almost every day, viable streamer.
- Kyle Stowers (OF, MIA) — Misses way too often in the zone to think he will find consistency.
- Trent Grisham (OF, NYY) — Leads off but playing less and not performing.
- Matt Wallner (OF, MIN) — The extreme contact issues make him extremely streaky
- Brenton Doyle (OF, COL) — Go ahead and hold as a streamer, as four of the next five series for the Rockies are at home.
IL Stashes
Players are listed by position and not by projected value.
- Miguel Amaya (C, CHC) — Droppable in redraft if your IL is full,l as he’ll be out for at least a month.
- Shea Langeliers (C, ATH) — Expected to miss four to six weeks with an oblique injury.
- Bryce Harper (1B, PHI) — More issues with the wrist issue he played through last year. I’m expecting him to be out at least a month, if not two.
- Ryan Mountcastle (1B, BAL) — Not holding in 12-teamers.
- Ha-Seong Kim (2B/SS, TBR) — Looks quite bad on rehab right now and the EV is down over five ticks from 2024 (82.1 mph).
- Alex Bregman (3B, BOS) — Hopefully he’s back by August. Bummer.
- Mark Vientos (3B, NYM) — Well, keeping him on your IL is easier than keeping him on your bench.
- Matt Chapman (3B, SFG) — They’re hoping this IL stint only lasts a month.
- Royce Lewis (3B, MIN) — Not holding him in most formats.
- Ezequiel Tovar (SS, COL) — Yet another core injury on the left side. Mild oblique strains usually put guys on the IL for about four to six weeks.
- Victor Robles (OF, SEA) —May be out until September. Drop.
- Yordan Alvarez (OF, HOU) — No, I can’t tell you what the heck is happening in Houston, but he’s a hold.
- Dylan Crews (OF, WAS) — Still not doing baseball stuff.
- Daulton Varsho (OF, TOR) — Not holding in 12-teamers if my IL is already full of ranked players.
- Jordan Walker (OF, STL) — Not holding in 12-teamers if my IL is already full of ranked players.
- Anthony Santander (OF, TOR) — Trying to hold if I can, as perhaps this is the reason for the exceptionally long slump?
- Austin Hays (OF, CIN) — Not holding in 12-teamers if my IL is already full of ranked players.
- Wilyer Abreu (OF, BOS) — Slumping for about a month and now has more competition when he returns. Not a hold for me in shallow leagues.
- Jackson Merrill (OF, SDP) — It’s hard to say how long a player will miss on the concussion IL, but hopefully the time lets him get healthy and regroup after an uninspiring return from the last IL stint.
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