2026 Fantasy Baseball Roundtable: Players we're most excited to draft this season

· Yahoo Sports

With the 2026 MLB season approaching, you’re likely preparing for your fantasy baseball drafts. Yahoo analysts Scott Pianowski, Fred Zinkie and Corbin Young go around the table, sharing the batter and pitcher they’re most excited to draft this season.

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I’m glad I already have some Juan Soto shares, a fun and automatic pick if he’s there at fourth overall. He’s in the prime of his career, now stealing bases and insulated by a deep New York lineup. Maybe the timing is right for an MVP run. 

For some of my value picks, I’ll gravitate to Milwaukee, the best value-driven franchise in baseball. Brice Turang is one of those underrated players who does everything well. Andrew Vaughn has post-hype sleeper written all over him. And the quality of the Milwaukee defense will also push several of their pitchers to ADP-winning seasons as well. — Scott Pianowski

I’m predicting a Keaschall breakout and am trying to draft him on all of my teams. He showed last year that he has plenty of plate patience (9.2% walk rate) and can limit whiffs (14.0% strikeout rate). The infielder has a terrific batting eye, as his 20% chase rate is an excellent mark. He makes up for a mediocre quality of contact by keeping his batted ball on a low trajectory (45.8% ground ball rate, 20.3% line drive rate) and utilizing his 85th percentile average sprint speed.

From a premium spot in the Twins lineup, Keaschall will hit .285 with 90 runs, 35 steals and a double-digit homer total. The icing on the cake is that Keaschall is eligible at second base, which is one of the weakest fantasy positions this season. I see him as a clone of Cubs’ Nico Hoerner, with the added bonus of being available 2-3 rounds later in drafts. Some managers may be scared off by the amount of time Keaschall missed in 2025, but his fractured forearm was a fluke injury and not a reflection on the 23-year-old’s durability. Managers in category leagues can prioritize power hitters and balanced contributors in the early rounds before grabbing Keaschall as their primary speedster in Round 10. — Fred Zinkie

If I’m feeling risky, it’s Luis Robert Jr. Robert joins the Mets after being on one of the worst franchises in baseball. On a per-plate appearance basis, Robert would average 18 home runs and 36 stolen bases over the past two seasons if we projected him for 550 plate appearances. Injuries have been a concern, but there’s a chance that Robert puts in extra work to remain healthy with an improved team context.

Besides 2023, Robert hasn’t hit 20 home runs, though the power skills exit with a career 10.1% barrel rate and 75.6 mph bat speed, both above the league norm. Furthermore, the Mets’ home park ranked 7th in Home Run Park Factors compared to 18th for the White Sox. That should boost Robert’s home run chances in a more hitter-friendly venue for right-handed hitters. 

Making contact can be an issue for Robert, but he crushes the ball when he hits it. What’s somewhat impressive involves Robert showing improved plate discipline by chasing less often over the past two seasons. He went from a 38.6% chase rate in 2023 to 35.6% in 2024 and 32.1% in 2025. That coincided with Robert’s zone swing rates dipping to 71.7% in 2024 and 74.3% in 2025, four percentage points below the league average. Robert looks like he made an actionable approach to improve plate discipline, which can be challenging, while continuing to hit the ball hard. 

If I’m looking for a discount on a solid player, it’s Bryan Reynolds, who averaged 24 home runs and five or more stolen bases for four straight seasons. He had his worst season from a production standpoint since his rookie year in 2019 when we toss out the 2020 season. From a skills standpoint, most of Reynolds's advanced metrics look similar. Reynolds had a 73.5% contact rate, 10.1% barrel rate and 72.2 mph bat speed, all within 1-2 percentage points of his career norms. 

He expressed frustration with the outcomes in 2025 after feeling like he was hitting the ball well, which the underlying metrics indicate. Buy the dip on Reynolds because there’s a good chance he makes a mechanical adjustment and the skills point to a similar player moving forward. — Corbin Young

I hope a handful of my pitching staffs are helmed by either of the two Logans — Gilbert and Webb. Both righties are in big parks and tied to good defenses and competitive teams. I also like how both have proven the ability to succeed without maxing out on velocity, which could give them an assist in staying healthy (I acknowledge that Webb did have a Tommy John surgery, but it was 10 years ago). I’ll have both names on speed dial as I navigate the third and fourth rounds. — Scott Pianowski

I’ll take all of the Jacob Misiorowski shares. Remember the 2025 MLB All-Star Game and the controversy surrounding the decision to name Misiorowski as the NL starter? If you told me at that time that he would be available past pick 100 in 2026 drafts, I would have thought you were crazy. Misiorowski struggled at times in the second half (5.36 ERA) but still recorded a ridiculous 12.1 K/9 rate and solid 3.93 FIP over that stretch. And when many fantasy managers had turned their attention to football, he was one of the stars of October. In the NLDS, the flamethrower earned two wins while allowing one run over seven innings. He followed up that performance by striking out nine Dodgers over five innings in his lone NLCS appearance.

Among starting pitchers, only Hunter Greene logged a higher average fastball velocity than Misiorowski, who has 200-strikeout potential in his first full season. Managers who are passing on Misiorowski in favor of boring veterans such as Kevin Gausman or Sonny Gray are making a big mistake. He’s one of the most talented youngsters to enter the Majors in recent years and benefits from being part of an organization that consistently maximizes the effectiveness of their starters. After all, if Milwaukee pitching coach Chris Hook and turn Chad Patrick and Quinn Priester into effective starters, he can make Misiorowski a superstar. — Fred Zinkie

This is the year that I’m planning to wait on starting pitchers to attack those breakout picks in the middle and sleepers late in the draft. Trust the skills of Dylan Cease, though we have WHIP concerns. Cease was unlucky from a BABIP perspective, yet maintained a strong 20% K-BB% and 15.6% swinging-strike rate. A reminder from an advanced stats piece that K-BB% strongly correlates with Skill Interactive ERA or SIERA. Cease had a 3.58 SIERA in 2025, similar to 2024 (3.46). 

He has a dominant slider that generates a swinging-strike rate above 20% (21.3%), which he relies on heavily to right-handed hitters (45.3%), leading to positive outcomes (.273 wOBA, .233 xwOBA). The challenge comes against left-handed hitters, with the slider and curveball performing well when he finds success. Cease toyed with a changeup, but look for him to throw more sinkers or make a small tweak to the arsenal against left-handed hitters. He provides volume and strikeout upside at the price. — Corbin Young

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