2026 Fantasy Baseball Top 300: Yordan Alvarez, Gavin Williams climb; Griffin Jax does not

Here’s the first regular-season update to our overall rest-of-season Top 300. Expect this space to be updated every Monday. Players are ranked for 5×5 mixed leagues using a one-catcher format. I include the mixed-league disclaimer because I do reward upside, particularly past the top 200 or so.

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2026 Fantasy Baseball Top 300 overall ranks

**Updated April 6**

April 6 Notes

Falling off: Andrew Vaughn (No. 155), Jordan Lawlar (No. 203), Carlos Estévez (No. 226), Cody Ponce (No. 240), Christopher Morel (No. 252), Aaron Nola (No. 253), Robert Suarez (No. 281), Victor Scott II (No. 284), Kyle Manzardo (No. 288), Max Meyer (No. 289), José Caballero (No. 294), Nolan Arenado (No. 295), Ryan Nelson (No. 298)

– No real changes up top just yet. I don’t love that José Ramírez’s bat speed is down and strikeouts are up, but the Guardians did open up in Seattle and Los Angeles, making slow starts understandable (and Chase DeLauter’s exceptional one even more impressive). Yordan Alvarez has joined the top 20, even with the increased injury risk from him playing more in the outfield. It really feels like a top-three AL MVP finish is on the way if he plays in 150 games. I did drop Nick Kurtz from No. 16 to No. 20, which could look like a bad call a few weeks from now. There was plenty in the AL Rookie of the Year’s numbers last season to suggest that he was quite fortunate to finish at .290/.383/.619, but at the same time, he was a 22-year-old in his first full pro season, and he was going to continue to benefit from a terrific hitting environment in Sacramento. So, we’ll see. The power production still figures to be excellent, but my projection of a .268/.370/.552 line might have been a little optimistic.

– My first thought here was to drop Griffin Jax from No. 110 into the 150s, but then I went back and… you know what, I still really believe in Griffin Jax. It was assumed going in that the Rays wouldn’t treat him as a true closer, and they’re probably not going to reevaluate that any time soon with the start he’s gotten off to. Jax, though, still has his velocity, and he’ll figure out his issues with his slider. He’s likely to be one of the AL’s best relievers, and if the chances of him finishing with 25-30 saves have diminished, he’s still likely to be a big asset with 15-20 saves and seven or eight wins.

– Noelvi Marte, on the other hand… that’s on the short list of the wackiest early season situations I can remember. Although he’s a right-handed hitter, Marte struggled mightily against lefties last season, to the point at which the Reds said before the spring they couldn’t continue batting him second in between the left-handed TJ Friedl and switch-hitter Elly De La Cruz, who is much better against right-handers. It suggested that they really thought he’d continue to be worse against left-handers than righties. And now what have they done since? They’re platooning him against left-handers! Marte has played all three times they’ve faced left-handers and twice in six games against righties. He hasn’t started back-to-back games at any point. Marte was the team’s second-best hitter (behind De La Cruz) against righties last year, coming in at .275/.305/.516, and now he has five at-bats against them this year. On Sunday, he started against right-hander Jack Leiter, went 1-for-2 and then was lifted for a pinch-hitter against another righty. It’s truly bizarre. The Reds have two decent choices at this point: they can commit to Marte as a regular or they can send him down and bring up Rece Hinds to fill the role that Marte is terribly ill-equipped for. I’d rather they choose the former, and I think Marte will be quite useful in mixed leagues if it happens. But just carrying on like this doesn’t make any sense.

– I dropped Gavin Williams about 20 spots this spring with his velocity down about one mph from last year, but he was apparently saving it for the regular season, as he’s been above 97.0 mph in both of his starts so far. His harder curveball has also been an early success, so I’ve bumped him from No. 229 to No. 174.

– Spencer Torkelson is down from No. 216 to No. 243. He opened the season batting fifth against righties, but with his 4-for-28 start, he’s been down to eighth the last two days. It’s worth wondering if he might start losing some playing time. The Tigers, who have yet to face any lefties, have already sat Colt Keith twice, but there’s just no good reason for them to have Torkelson playing over Keith when they want to get Zach McKinstry into the lineup against a righty.

– Tyler O’Neill was the anti-Kurtz last year, finishing with a .199 average and a .392 slugging in spite of a .243 xBA and an excellent .523 xSLG. Largely because his strikeout rate was much improved, he actually had a higher xwOBA last year (.360) than during his big 2024 season with Boston (.340) that got him the three-year contract with Baltimore that most have already termed a bust. The Orioles, though, seem to be putting more stock in those actual numbers than the expected ones, because they just stuck him on the bench for three straight games after a 2-for-16 start this season. At least he’s still faring better than Ryan Mountcastle, who has started just once in nine games. I think O’Neill would be worth using in mixed leagues if he were playing regularly, but he’s going to need to catch fire for a spell, which isn’t easy to do while starting two or three times per week.

– With his five early homers, DeLauter makes the cut this week, but while he’s probably a top-200 player for the short term, he’s still only No. 264 here. I hope it happens, but he still needs to demonstrate some ability to stay healthy after playing in just 39 and 42 games the last two years. He’s also not a basestealer at all, but that’s probably for the best, since it does away with one of the easiest ways to get hurt.

– At No. 203, Garrett Mitchell was the high newcomer this week, since he’s DeLauter plus steals. I’m prepared to be disappointed yet again.

– I wanted to include Caleb Kilian here, and I think he’s worth a flier with the Giants seemingly keeping an open mind about the ninth inning (you’ll notice Ryan Walker dropping about 100 spots this week). Still, it seems like at least half of the pitchers who enjoy the kind of velocity spike that Kilian did this spring end up needing a second opinion on their sore elbows prior to Memorial Day.

– Other near misses included relievers Cole Sands of the Twins, Gregory Soto of the Pirates and Bryan Baker of the Rays (Baker probably would have made it if not for the likelihood of Edwin Uceta returning within the next couple of weeks). José Soriano, Robbie Ray and David Hamilton were the remaining final exclusions. Hamilton is definitely worth using for now, just to try to build that stolen base total, but long-term value remains a question mark.