Top 500 Fantasy Baseball Dynasty Rankings For 2026

Image credit: Shohei Ohtani (Photo by Michael Chisholm/MLB Photos via Getty Images)

With the World Series complete and the 2025 season now in the books, Baseball America is looking ahead to 2026 for fantasy baseball managers.

This year, we’re switching things up with our fantasy content schedule. In past years, we’ve presented fantasy positional breakdowns over the course of the first half of the offseason, culminating in the release of the Top 500 list in January.

For 2026, we’re releasing the Top 500 list first to provide managers a roadmap for offseason acquisition windows and allow readers to make informed decisions earlier in their leagues’ calendar. Stay tuned in the coming weeks for follow-up rankings in which we’ll dive deeper into targets, fades and sleepers for each positional group.

2026 Fantasy Rankings, Sleepers, Dynasty & More

Be sure to bookmark Baseball America’s fantasy homepage for 2026 to stay up to date on the latest rankings and analysis throughout the season.

READ MORE

When it comes to our approach to dynasty ranks, there are a few things to keep in mind.

First, we approach all rankings from a three-year window. Anything outside of a three-year window adds too much uncertainty into the equation and can devalue stars in their primes due to age. It’s a balance of expected fantasy production based on projections and age curves over that three-year window. Implementing this means we’re able to balance present and future value without getting too far ahead of ourselves. 

When curating a one-size-fits-all approach to fantasy rankings, we need to balance the variety of league sizes and scoring formats, too. Our goal is to balance our rankings to capture a variety of scoring formats, such as rotisserie and points while simultaneously balancing batting average, on-base percentage and category-based head-to-head formats. 

One positional group we value less than others is relief pitching. This is the most volatile of fantasy assets, as relievers can lose high-leverage jobs seemingly overnight and subsequently see their fantasy value tank. Trying to project relievers outside of the most elite bullpen weapons is nearly impossible over a three-year window. As such, we ask readers to approach bullpen building based on team needs and league-specific values. 

You’ll see over 120 prospects included in our dynasty Top 500 below. While prospects come with a high level of risk, we use all of the tools at our disposal to slot them into appropriate tiers based on upside potential. Within each tier, prospects are given some headroom to grow into their ultimate draft position. For example, Pirates shortstop Konnor Griffin ranks within the top 25 because of his superstar potential. With future fantasy first-round pick skills, Griffin has the ability to move up 5-10 spots based on his early MLB production, whenever that comes. 

Finally, there’s always a balance between perceived value and actual projections. Players like Nolan Schanuel, Luis Arraez and Brendan Donovan have all been productive MLB regulars over the last few seasons. However, each is perceived to be less valuable than their actual fantasy production, leading to lower trade value on the open market. Certainly, this is league and team dependent, but we are always trying balance value vs. perception. In a few of these cases, player rankings have been adjusted to more accurately reflect the market. 

So, with that all being said, welcome to the 2026 offseason and happy building!