The 2025 World Series is just a few games away, but that didn’t stop us and some of our friends from taking a little bit of time to look even farther ahead with our Rotoworld Staff and Friends Fantasy Baseball Mock Draft for the 2026 season.
We began the draft a little over a week ago, and I took you through a detailed look at the first six rounds, which you can read right here. Now that the draft is finished, I wanted to share the complete draft board and then discuss my general thoughts on all the teams and selections. I also asked each manager to share some of the favorite picks, least favorite picks, and global reactions to how this draft went in the hopes that we can all learn how best to approach our drafts next season.
League Settings
12-team standard 5×5 roto league. It was a one-catcher league with four outfield spots, one UTIL spot, and we did use both Corner Infield and Middle Infield spots. We didn’t draft a bench, and we had just seven pitcher spots, five for starting pitchers, and two for relief pitchers, so we could get a sense of the strategy both both positions.
Fantasy Baseball Mock Draft Board: Rounds 1- 8
Fantasy Baseball Mock Draft Board: Rounds 9- 19
Fantasy Baseball Mock Draft Recap
Dave Shovein – Rotoworld
Eric’s Reaction: Dave got a lot of older players at value based on where they usually get drafted (Turner, Freeman, Ray, Chapman, etc.), but sometimes we abandon the older players too early. Those guys don’t even need peak years to return value at the cost, so I do like those picks, and I think he has a solid foundation that he can gamble on top of with upside hitters like Lawrence Butler, Luis Robert Jr., Anthony Volpe, and Royce Lewis. I don’t really love all of those gambles myself, but when you have the solid foundation of veteran players, you can take whatever swings you want. Matt McLain was the gamble I did like; I just believe in the talent.
I do think he waited too long to fill out his starting rotation, and it’s the same issue I had during the season this year. Sale was great when healthy this year, but he’s a major injury concern, so I would have liked to have had more stable pitchers around him. Kevin Gausman is also on the decline, and Robbie Ray is incredibly hard to trust. Then, Dave waited until the end of the draft to select Jack Flaherty and Jack Leiter. To me, that’s the weak point with this team.
Dave’s Reaction: Overall, I’m quite pleased with how the team turned out. I wanted to build a strong, diverse offense that gave me ample power and speed while also providing a strong average base to work with. I think that my first four picks (Ohtani, Raleigh, Turner, and Freeman) accomplished that goal. My favorite pick of the draft was probably Chris Sale, getting him as the SP13 overall in the draft to be my ace. Perhaps people overlooked him because of the missed time in the middle of the season due to injury, but he was as good as ever down the stretch, and he’ll easily be a top 10 pitcher on my board next spring – if not higher.
I also planned on getting two elite closers and accomplished that with Munoz and Duran at the 6/7 turn. I don’t necessarily have a particular pick that I would do over, but it definitely hampered my roster construction a bit, having zero outfielders in my first four bats. While the position is deep in a league of this size, my hands were tied in the middle rounds, having to fill out my outfield, letting a couple of obvious values slide by at positions that I already had filled. This is a group that I’m very happy with on the whole, though, and I would be more than happy to go to war with them for the 2026 season.
James Schiano – Rotoworld
Eric’s Reaction: James drafted too many Yankees. OK, my real thoughts, James basically alternated safe hitters with volatile guys who have major upside, and I like of appreciate that. Pairing trusted bats like Judge, Vlad Jr., Jackson Merrill, and Will Smith with mercurial upside guys like Jazz, Abrams, Westburg, and Stowers makes a lot of sense to me. I also think he got great value on Bryan Reynolds, who is boring but fell to the 16th round, which felt incredibly low.
I also think James leaned a little too far into risk with his pitching. I love many of the guys he drafted, but it’s hard to trust any one of them in 2026. Max Fried is the guy I’d trust the most, but Lopez and Schwellenbach are both coming off injuries, Perez and Cabrera are both volatile starters on a potentially mediocre team, and Megill just missed huge stretches of his season with an arm injury. It could all click and be an elite staff, but it’s a major risk.
James’ Reaction: Starting with Judge at the top, I knew I’d have to chase stolen bases a bit. Then, after taking Jazz Chisholm next, Vlad Guerrero Jr. dropped to me in the third round, which was too good a value to pass up, and helped me establish which could be a team with an elite batting average. With that scramble, I was thrilled to grab CJ Abrams and feel like I’d set up the best four-player stat set among hitters in the league across all categories. After that, it was about staying balanced and grabbing dropping players like Jackson Merrill, Bryan Reynolds, Jordan Westburg, who should be primed for bounce-back seasons.
On the pitching side, there’s a pronounced gap between the top three – Tarik Skubal, Paul Skenes, and Garrett Crochet – and the rest of the pool. So, I picked my spots to seek upside on guys like Spencer Schwellenbach and Pablo López, who should be ready for normal offseasons after injury-riddled campaigns, plus emerging studs like Eury Pérez and Edward Cabrera.
Lastly, I wanted to take some shots on elite young players. Konnor Griffin was the first, and after getting reps at Double-A this season, it feels like he could debut early in 2026. If so, there’s a chance for a Julio Rodríguez or Ronald Acuña Jr. type of rookie season. Also, Samuel Basallo, who struggled in his first cup of coffee as a 20-year-old rookie, has some of the best minor league batted ball data we’ve ever seen.
Scott Pianowski – Yahoo!
Eric’s Reaction: My old podcast partner certainly swung for the fences here. Trevor Story at pick 22 certainly felt like a reach, but he also hit .263/.308/.433 this season with 25 home runs and 31 steals. Scott made an aggressive bet on Story’s health in 2026, but the veteran proved that he can be a fantasy star if he’s on the field. Same with Pete Crow-Armstrong, who looked like an MVP in the first half and then fell hard. Everybody expected regression, but he’s still a young player, so perhaps he can gain consistency next year. Scott also has speed to burn here with those two guys, Ceddanne Rafaela and Nico Hoerner, so I’m not sure Hoerner was the right player for this build, but I love the late selection of Drake Baldwin as his catcher.
Scott’s one-two punch of Freddy Peralta and Carlos Rodon is a great start to the rotation without having to spend a really high pick. I’m not as big a believer in Andrew Abbott and Zac Gallen, so the back end of this rotation concerns me a bit, and then it’s pretty clear Scott punted on closers since we’re so far out from the season that it’s hard to know who is actually closing where.
Scott’s Reaction: It’s always good to get reps in, no matter when they come. If we did this mock again tomorrow, I’d probably be even more passive with starting pitching — the middle rounds will always offer plausible-upside arms but far fewer interesting bats. I also might make third base a semi-priority, as that position is especially shallow. As for mostly punting saves, that’s what you should do when the next season is several months away and we don’t really know who the closers are. That will likely change as we get closer to the season.
My favorite picks were Matt Olson 5.03 and Sal Perez 11.3. I also paid the 2025 freight on picks like Trevor Story (2.10), Pete Crow-Armstrong (3.03), who had a horrendous second half, and Andrew Abbott (8.10), who I should have let go if only to see what the rest of the market thought of him.
D.J. Short – Rotoworld
| Round | Ov Pick | Player | Pos | Team |
Eric’s Reaction: D.J is my boss, so he had the best draft. Moving on.
OK, in actuality, D.J. is loaded from a power perspective with Bobby Witt Jr., Pete Alonso, Yordan Alvarez, Austin Riley, Seiya Suzuki, and Ben Rice. You really can’t find any fault in those bats, and they could carry him. It does make him a little light on steals. Outside of Witt Jr., he’s really relying on Steven Kwan and Daylen Lile to do a lot of heavy lifting in the steals department. I do like Lile, and I also think Keaschall was a nice upside pick, but D.J. would need to trade for speed. He also did a good job of mixing “boring” starters like Logan Webb, Ranger Suarez, and Cade Horton in with exciting strikeout arms like Hunter Greene and Nolan McLean; that’s a build I can get behind.
D.J.’s Reaction: I loved getting both Logan Webb and Hunter Greene to anchor my staff despite waiting until the fourth round to get a starting pitcher. Webb has been one of the game’s best workhorses in recent years, and Greene has Cy Young-level upside if he pitches a full season next year. I was a little iffy on my Steven Kwan pick, as he’s not necessarily elite in any fantasy category. I felt like I needed the speed potential on my roster, so I passed on Kyle Stowers despite being really impressed at what he did this year.
There was no clear strategy that I followed, as this was mostly an experiment to see how other people value these players after the 2025 regular season. I wanted to see how things flowed and adjust accordingly. Overall, I see a lot of upside in my rotation and some strong bounceback potential in the lineup, particularly with Yordan Alvarez and Austin Riley.
Matthew Pouliot – Rotoworld
Eric’s Reaction: Man, if you’re going to wait on starting pitching, then draft the way Matthew did. He didn’t draft a single pitcher until the sixth round and ended up with Blake Snell, George Kirby, Kyle Bradish, Tanner Bibee, and Bryce Miller. Now, I assume Snell is going to go higher after his playoff dominance, but health is always a concern for him. Same with Miller, who will need off-season elbow surgery, and Bradish, who is coming off Tommy John surgery. There is risk here, but I love the risks he took. He also took a risk with his closer and hoping that playing in New York didn’t break Devin Williams.
Matthew’s offense is also a nice mix of older guys like Bryce Harper, Mike Trout, and Jose Altuve with younger upside plays like James Wood, Wyatt Langford, Dylan Crews, and Jacob Wilson. It’s a nice balance, and I liked the post hype pick of Adley Rutschman in the 18th round. His batted ball data suggested he should have had a much better season than he did.
Matthew’s Reaction: I couldn’t be more thrilled about my draft. To think I came away with Mike Trout, Bryce Harper, and Jose Altuve, all of whom are surely on their way to brilliant 2016 seasons. Actually, Harper is the player I was most surprised to end up with, as I’ve been fading him for a couple of years now. In Round 5, though, it’s tough to pass him up. While he’s coming off a down season, his exit velocity numbers showed little sign of decline. His .379 xwOBA was right on par with his 2022-24 average of .377.
Despite using my first five picks on bats, I still came away with two of my top-10 starting pitchers in Blake Snell and George Kirby, and also got one of my favorite targets in Kyle Bradish in round nine. Bradish looked phenomenal in his return from Tommy John, posting a 37% strikeout rate in six starts. He was at 25% in his 2023 breakthrough and 33% in eight starts before getting hurt in 2024.
In the second half of the draft, I definitely wanted to make sure I landed Dylan Crews, who isn’t without risk but could be a 20 HR/30 SB guy. I spent a few rounds late waiting for someone to take either Anthony Volpe or Jacob Wilson so that I could grab the other. I had them pretty much even, but hardly anyone was taking middle infielders at that point.
Eric Samulski – Rotoworld
Eric’s Reaction: I’m pretty happy with my draft. I was able to wait on starting pitching and land four bats who I think are all high-impact bats. Elly De La Cruz is certainly a risk, but he’s immensely talented, and I think I balanced him out with Kyle Tucker, Manny Machado, and Rafael Devers (my first baseman), who are all veterans that we know produce when they are healthy. I didn’t love my Christian Yelich pick, given his history of back injuries, and I liked the Chandler Simpson pick, but I wonder if I could have waited a bit longer. That said, I think there is real upside with all of Tyler Soderstrom, Noelvi Marte, Jakob Marsee, and Colson Montgomery, so I like rounding out my roster with those bats.
I think I jumped the gun on Jacob deGrom a little too early. He was great this season and finished with 172.1 innings, but that may have been the Tommy John honeymoon. I think we should project closer to 110 innings for him next year, and he’ll be 38. That being said, I also think of Cole Ragans as a top 10-15 starter in baseball, and I had Michael King inside my top 10 starters this year before injury, so I love that as my top three, even if there are some innings concerns. Shane Bieber should be fully healthy next year, and then I balance that out with the upside of Bubba Chandler, who I have inside the top 40 starting pitchers for next year.
Jorge Montanez- Rotoworld
Eric’s Reaction: Jorge is taking some major risks at the top of his rotation with Christopher Sanchez and Bryan Woo since they both surged to prominence this year but don’t have long track records as fantasy aces. That being said, they’re both absurdly talented, so I get wanting to take that risk. He also snagged Nick Pivetta and Ryan Pepiot, who are both arms I like, but there could be major volatility in this rotation. Cade Smith also might be a top-five fantasy closer next season, and Jorge got him in the 14th round, which is tremendous value.
Jorge took Andy Pages right before I was going to, so I love that pick, and I don’t think people give Pages enough credit for what he did at 24 years old. Riley Greene is another big upside bat, and there are no complaints about starting with Jose Ramirez and Francisco Lindor. I just would have waited longer on catcher. He took Shea Langeliers, but I think his offense is missing one more high-impact bat, and he’ll really need consistency or a breakthrough from guys like Bryson Stott, Brandon Nimmo, Jasson Dominguez, and Triston Casas, who should be healthy near the start of the season.
Jorge’s Reaction: Drafting from the seventh slot, I was happy to select a perennial first-round talent in José Ramírez, coming off his second straight 30/40 season and finishing fifth overall by Fangraph’s Player Rater. I was even more thrilled to get Francisco Lindor, the ninth overall player, with the sixth pick in the second round. The two picks are a great example of how drafting from the middle can land some great values.
With a terrific hitting foundation set, it was time to establish some pitching with Cristopher Sánchez and Bryan Woo, the sixth and fourth-most valuable pitchers, via the player rater. Breakouts Riley Greene and Shea Langeliers were then taken to give me a power boost. Langeliers may have been my biggest reach, considering a similar player at the catching position in Hunter Goodman wasn’t taken until three rounds later.
Nick Pivetta, Ryan Pepiot, and Matthew Boyd rounded out my rotation, while David Bednar and Cade Smith were taken to secure some saves. Late picks are typically the best spots to take some chances, and I did so with Jasson Dominguez and Triston Casas to round out my team. Overall, I’d be excited about this team going into 2026.
Justin Mason – Fangraphs
Eric’s Reaction: Landing Mookie Betts in the fourth round is a pick I love, and I’m a believer in the Vinnie Pasquantino breakout. Brice Turang needs that power growth to stick to pay off this price, but it’s possible, and then there are a few boring but productive veterans at the end of the draft with Max Muncy, Dansby Swanson, TJ Friedl, and J.T. Realmuto. I don’t love it, but I did love the last pick gamble on Bryce Eldridge, who could start the year in the Giants’ lineup.
I’m a believer in Drew Rasmussen and Shane Baz, so I liked those picks to add to a rotation headlined by Garrett Crochet, and you have to assume Robert Suarez closes wherever he lands next season, so Justin should have two great closers if Josh Hader winds up being healthy. You just have to wonder if he could have taken a hitter instead of one of those guys and landed an RP2 later.
Justin’s Reaction: I don’t love my team overall. I think I should have waited a bit more on RP and loaded up more on offense. I think my favorite pick was Maikel Garcia, and my least favorite was probably taking Josh Hader instead of waiting on a closer. Also wanted to take Gerrit Cole at the end, but filled up my pitching too fast.
Frank Ammirante – Rotoballer
Eric’s Reaction: Outside of Corbin Carroll, there are major questions with every hitter Frank took inside the top 11 rounds. That’s not to say those are bad picks. All of those questions could be answered positively, and he could have an elite offense, but the questions do remain. Where does Jarren Duran play next year, and what’s his true talent level after a step back this year? Where does Eugenio Suarez sign? Was Geraldo Perdomo’s season a fluke? Can Willy Adames hit higher than .230? Are Christian Walker and Ozzie Albies healthy? Have we already seen their best seasons? I do love snagging Agustin Ramirez as his catcher in the 16th round though.
Frank also frontloaded his rotation with Paul Skenes and Hunter Brown, but I’m not the biggest believer in Brown, especially in the third round. I also don’t think we’re going to see Zack Wheeler for a while, and I don’t believe he’s going to be close to the pitcher he was when healthy this year, so I get the thought in taking him, but the 9th round was too high for me. I do love Nick Lodolo though, and I think Frank got great value there.
Frank’s Reaction: My favorite Pick was Geraldo Perdomo. Most drafters will likely steer clear of Perdomo because he came out of nowhere, but what if this is just a late bloomer? Then you’re getting a guy who went .290-98-20-100-27 at a value. However, the pick I’d do over was Kyle Manzardo. I waited too long on CI, so I would have preferred to get someone who wasn’t such a drain on batting average here.
At the end of the day, I like how I grabbed a couple of veteran bounce-back candidates (Christian Walker, Willy Adames) while leaning into uncertainty to find potential value (Zack Wheeler). Generally, I like to wait on closers in early drafts because so much can change throughout the offseason, but I feel like I waited too long with this one. That’s one of my regrets. Also, I was autodrafted Adrian Morejon, so that’s my bad.
George Bissell – Rotoworld
Eric’s Reaction: Talk about waiting on starting pitching. George didn’t draft a single starter until the 11th round but ended up with Dylan Cease, Tyler Glasnow, Gavin Williams, Nathan Eovaldi, and Cam Schlittler. Now, a lot of that is because we are doing this in October. When Dylan Cease signs, or if Glasnow has a healthy postseason, or if Eovaldi comes into spring training healthy, those draft prices are going to skyrocket. But it’s hard to argue with how George built his starting rotation.
It also allowed him to load up on impact bats, and he went with a mix of proven veterans like Fernando Tatis Jr. and Kyle Schwarber and upside bets like Zach Neto and Roman Anthony. I think there’s a good chance Oneil Cruz sits against all lefties next season, which is a problem, but we know the upside that he has. George may be relying a bit too much on Jose Caballero to help him in steals, and that is because I really don’t buy Josh Naylor as a 30-steal fantasy player. So much of his fantasy value this season came from that speed production because his home run total dropped back to 20. He’s going to be a free agent, so he’s one of the more fascinating off-season stories to watch. The team he chooses could dictate how much he runs and what his potential power output is, and he could go from being a top-three first baseman to something closer to 10th. However, this draft came together nicely for him, especially if Byron Buxton is healthy for another full season.
George’s Reaction: He won’t draw any exaggerated reactions from leaguemates on draft day next spring, but Yandy Díaz continues to quietly be one of the more impactful under-the-radar contributors in the fantasy landscape as one of the stronger four-category contributors available in the later rounds. He benefitted greatly from Tampa Bay’s stadium situation this past year when he crushed a career-high 25 home runs, but even baking in some regression leaves him as a near-elite batting average contributor with 20-homer upside available outside the top 100 overall. He was my favorite pick in this draft and a player I’ll be targeting often next spring.
I’ve tried to avoid early-round starting pitchers in recent years and feel like the strategy worked well in this draft by taking chances on some previously-elite arms that some fantasy managers have soured on, like Dylan Cease and Tyler Glasnow, while also taking some swings with up-and-coming arms like Gavin Williams and Cam Schlittler. The only way this sort of strategic approach to load up on elite bats early works is if at least one or two of them pitch at a near-elite level.
Chris Crawford- Rotoworld
Eric’s Reaction: This starting rotation will be either a Lamborghini doing 110 mph on the Autobahn or a terrible car crash. We know what Tarik Skubal can bring, but all of those other arms have glorious strikeout upside and unrosterable downside. Jesus Luzardo has always been hard to trust, Roki Sasaki and Trevor Rogers seemed like major busts for long stretches this season, and Yoshinobu Yamamoto is electric but will also be pitching next season coming off of his biggest workload ever, so he carries some significant injury risk. I’d love to watch this rotation.
Chris also drafted ample power with Nick Kurtz, Brent Rooker, Ketel Marte, Hunter Goodman, and Spencer Torkelson, but there may not be a lot of speed here. Yes, Sal Frelick can steal bags, and Randy Arozarena will chip in a few, but I’m a little worried about the offensive production outside of power stats and RBIs.
Nick Shlain – Rotoworld
Eric’s Reaction: There has probably never been a more fu outfield assembled than Jackson Chourio, Teoscar Hernandez, Michael Harris II, Brenton Doyle, and Addison Barger, but there are plenty of risks there. We’ve yet to see Chourio put together a consistent full season, Barger was in the minors to start the year and faded down the stretch, and both Harris II and Doyle were on many waiver wires this summer. All of these players have clear talent, but there are a lot of questions. However, I have Wilson Contreras as my 10th-ranked first baseman heading into next season, and Nick got him in the 13th round, which is just, once again, proving that we should likely wait to draft first basemen next season.
I do love to top of Nick’s rotation though. He seems to like doubling up on pitchers when he picks from the turn, and I get that. Starting with Logan Gilbert and Joe Ryan in the third and fourth, and then snagging Shota Imanaga in the 12th, was awesome work. I’m not as high on Hurston Waldrep and Clay Holmes, but he invested so little in those picks that it’s not a big deal if he has to churn on the waiver wire. He should also have two really strong closer options in Mason Miller and Jeff Hoffman, so he won’t need to chase saves on the wire either, which is nice for his mental health.
Nick’s Reaction: Having the 12th pick, I tried to scoop up whatever value I could find when drafting with 11 other experts. I was happy with Jackson Chourio in the first round, but if I had to do it again, I probably would’ve taken Paul Skenes over Junior Caminero. I was hoping Yamamoto would fall to me in the third round, but he was picked one place ahead of me, so I ended up with Logan Gilbert and Joe Ryan as my top arms. Hopefully, Joe Ryan is traded to a contender this offseason. I can see Seager and Bregman bouncing back with healthy seasons next year. Felt like I got good value on my closers as well as Teoscar Hernandez and Michael Harris II and Shota Imanaga. Also thought I did well waiting on 1B and C before ending up with Wilson Contreras and Alejandro Kirk. My favorite pick was the last pick of the entire draft, Kevin McGonigle, who is the top prospect in all of baseball, and I expect will break camp with the Tigers next year.
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