Another week in the books means another installment of the Fantasy Baseball Dynasty rankings. This week we feature the players ranked 75-51 on our way to the top-ranked group.
Here is a look at the breakdown of this week’s grouping:
- 3 players between the ages of 30-34
- 17 players between the ages of 25-29
- 5 players between the ages of 20-24
- 11 infielders
- 8 starting pitchers
- 4 outfielders
- 2 catchers
If you have been reading this counting over the past few weeks, you will know that the ages of the players listed are getting younger and younger. The reason for this is obvious. If you are building a dynasty team, you want the best young players so you can win for a longer period of time. Seeing only three players in this group 30-years-old or older is not a shock at all.
As for the eight starting pitchers, six of them are in what I consider the sweet spot when it comes to their age: 25-29 years old. They have been in the majors for at least a few years and learned how to find success at this level. But the two pitchers not in that age range are 24 and 30, so it’s not like they are super young or too old. And as far as the catchers, some people shy away from them until the very end of the team building process as they simply don’t play every day. I used to do that.
But if you can get a great hitting catcher, especially in two-catcher leagues, then I say do it. It will give you an advantage at a position that struggles to have great offensive players.
Now on to the Fantasy Baseball Dynasty Rankings: 75-51…
75-71
Bullish on Thomas and Benson
I know nobody likely has Lane Thomas and Will Benson ranked where I do. I’m fine with that. But I like what I see out of these two players and what their upside is.
Thomas isn’t flying off the draft shelves, but he is a player who can hit 30 home runs and steal 20 bases. Despite suffering through a back issue last year, Thomas slashed .268/.315/.468 and hit 28 homers, stole 20 bases, and even scored 100 runs on a Nationals team that wasn’t good on offense. There is no reason to think he can’t continue to replicate those numbers again.
Benson is a left-handed hitter with good power and great speed. In 287 at-bats last season, he hit 11 homers and drove in 31 while stealing 19 bases in 22 attempts. He does strike out a lot (31.3%) but he had a great walk rate (12.2%) and his average EV was 90.2 mph, nearly two mph above the MLB average. That exit velocity helped him slug .498, and playing in a hitter’s ballpark and in a lineup full of good, young hitters, Benson has the chance to put up really nice numbers for years to come.
Just Keeps Producing
Bryan Reynolds is not a household name, but true fantasy players know the value he brings to fantasy teams. Reynolds had yet another solid season for Pittsburgh last year, slashing .263/.333/.460 with 24 home runs, 84 RBI, and 12 steals to go along with 85 runs scored. The runs scored, home runs and RBI all ranked in the top 8 among left fielders. A switch-hitter, Reynolds has hit 24 or more homers in each of the last three years and his career OPS is .830.
Just Wishing for More Strikeouts
Bobby Miller had a really nice rookie season for the Dodgers in 2023. He went 11-4 with a 3.76 ERA and 1.10 WHIP. His fastball velocity ranked in the 98th percentile, and his BB% and Barrel% ranked in the 80th and 81st percentile respectively. But despite Miller having a great fastball, his Whiff% ranked in the 56th percentile and K% ranked in the 51st percentile. That is because Miller induces a lot of ground balls thanks to his sinker. I like for my starting pitchers to average at least a strikeout per inning, and Miller falls just short of that at 8.6/9 innings. But that is no reason to completely ignore him.
On the Rise
Fantasy baseball fans have known about Noelvi Marte for years, and they finally got to see what he could do in the majors last season with the Reds. It was only a 35-game peak preview, but he slashed .316/.366/.456 with three homers, 15 RBI and six steals. The only question concerning Marte at the plate is how many homers will he hit. Marte hits the ball hard, but he has a below-average launch angle. If he is able to adjust it while maintaining the tools that have led him to the majors, he can be a 30-homer guy. If not, he will still hit for a high average, collect tons of doubles and 20 homers, and still be a really nice player to have at third base.
70-66
Ready to do More
I expected Andrew Vaughn to have a good season for the White Sox in 2023 and he came through with 21 homers and 80 RBI. For me, that is not even his floor going forward. His Avg. EV ranked in the 73rd percentile and his Hard-Hit% ranked in the 79th percentile. He can murder a fastball (.320/.532 AVG and SLG) but struggled against any other kind of pitch last year (.205/.333 vs. breaking balls, .172/.310 vs. offspeed pitches). Once Vaughn adjusts to non-fastballs, reaching 30-plus homers should be easily attainable.
Steady Production is a Good Thing
If you are expecting Alex Bregman to match his production in 2018 and 2019, when he averaged 36 homers and 108 RBI with a .971 OPS, that is likely not going to happen. But after an injury-riddled 2021 campaign, Bregman has come back to hit 23 and 25 homers the past two seasons while driving in 93 and 98 runs. He is basically a .260/.365/.450 hitter now, but that puts him near the top of the third base class. He plays every day, hits homers, and drives in runs. At only 30-years-old this season, he should produce for several more years.
It’s Not Always About Power
Nico Hoerner doesn’t have a lot of power in his game, but sometimes we get too caught up in that and overlook the other aspects of what makes for a good fantasy baseball player – such as stealing bases and scoring runs. Hoerner swiped 43 bases while slashing .283/.346/.383 for the Cubs last year. He can play both middle infield positions and is only 26 years old. He may never be a 20-homer player, but the speed is real and he has the ability to get on base and score. There is a lot of value in that.
Bullish on Bradish
In 2022, I added Kyle Bradish to one of my dynasty teams midway through season with the hopes that he would get hot over the final half of his 2022 campaign. Luckily, he did just that. To refresh your memory, Bradish had a 7.38 ERA and 1.770 WHIP in 10 first half starts while allowing 11 home runs and 12.4 H/9 in 46.1 innings. In 13 second half starts covering 71.1 innings, he had a 3.28 ERA and 1.164 WHIP while lowering his home runs allowed to 6 and his H/9 to 6.9.
In 2023, Bradish really put it together for the Orioles with a 2.83 ERA and 1.043 WHIP. He had a 9.0 K/9 rate and a 3.82 K/BB rate while allowing only seven hits per nine innings. I know he will start the season on the IL with a sprained UCL, but this doesn’t diminish his dynasty value for me. He is not a fluke and I expect him to be a solid pitcher for years to come.
Will the Real Cody Stand Up?
Three times during his career, Cody Bellinger has finished in the Top 10 of MVP voting, including winning the award in 2019. Four times he has hit 25 or more homers in a season, five times he has reached double-digit steals and three times he has driven in 97 or more runs. But he is also the same player who the Dodgers gave up on after a three-year stretch of diminishing returns on the field from 2020-22.
In 2021 he posted an OPS+ of only 44 when he slashed .165/.240/.302 with 10 homers and 36 RBI. He was slightly better in 2022 as he slashed .210/.265/.389 with 19 homers and 68 RBI. Away from Los Angeles, it appears Bellinger figured things out last season in Chicago when he slashed .307/.356/.525 with 95 runs scored, 26 RBI, 97 RBI, and 20 steals. He’s too good of a player to return to the level he was at the end of his tenure in Los Angeles.
65-61
Three First Baseman to Target
Triston Casas got a brief taste of MLB life in 2022 as he had 76 at-bats with the Red Sox and slashed .197/.358/.408, hitting five homers. The only real “fear” concerning Casas was would he be able to have a decent batting average as he has always been able to draw walks. Casas put those fears to rest as he slashed .263/.367/.490 last year with 24 homers and 65 RBI. He ranged from the 77th to 86th percentile in Avg. EV, Barrel% and Hard-Hit%, and his 13.9% walk rate ranked in the 93rd percentile. He still has some chase in his approach at the plate, but he will help your OBP and power numbers.
Sometimes it is difficult to live up to the hype if you are a top-ranked prospect transitioning to the majors. That was the case for Spencer Torkelson of the Tigers. But this past season he finally showed why he had that hype as he slugged 31 homers and drove in 94 runs in a park that is not easy to hit homers in and in a lineup that is not conducive to high RBI totals. His slash line wasn’t great, but his xwOBA, xSLG, Avg. EV, Barrel%, and Hard-Hit% all ranked in the 78th percentile or better, with his Hard-Hit% ranking in the 94th percentile.
Josh Naylor had a great season for Cleveland but hardly anyone knows he did. He slashed .308/.354/.489 leading to an .842 OPS (10th among first basemen) and an OPS+ of 133, which was ninth among his position peers. While his home runs dropped from 20 to 17 last year, his RBI total jumped from 79 to 97 his SLG increased by 37 points from 2022 to 2023 and his OPS saw a jump of 72 points. He may not be a masher at first base, but he will help in the OBP and SLG departments.
Dealer’s Choice with These Catchers
Yainer Diaz was stuck in rookie prison by Dusty Baker last year as he played in only 104 games and got 377 plate appearances. In April and May, he appeared in only a combined 22 games, hitting two homers and driving in five. From June through August, Diaz appeared in 65 games and hit 17 homers and had 44 RBI. Overall, Diaz finished with 23 home runs, had a .282 batting average, and slugged .538 – second among catchers. His xwOBA ranked in the 84th percentile and his xBA and xSLG were in the 92nd and 96th percentile. Diaz doesn’t draw walks, but his power is real and he should easily top 30 homers and approach 35 dingers as the everyday catcher for the Astros. Once he does that, he will shoot up these rankings next year.
Williams Contreras slashed .291/.369/.459 for Milwaukee with 17 homers and 78 RBI, making the Brewers look very smart for trading for him ahead of the 2023 season. For his career, Conteras has a .817 OPS and a .464 SLG. While the 17 homers were three fewer than what he hit in 2022 in 206 more at-bats, he did hit 38 doubles and his Hard-Hit% ranked in the 87th percentile. One of the best things about Conteras is the fact he catches nearly every day as he played in 141 games last year.
60-56
Dodger Aces 1A and 1B
Tyler Glasnow has always had the talent to be a top pitcher, but it seems he is always on the Injured List and not the pitching mound. After appearing in only two games in 2022, Glasnow made 21 starts last season for the Rays and went 10-7 with a 3.53 ERA and 1.08 WHIP. In 120 innings of work, he struck out 162 for a 12.2 K/9 rate, better than his career average of 11.5. The talent is not the question – it is his injury history. Those 120 innings he threw last year were a career high for a pitcher who broke into the majors in 2016!
This is what we know about Yoshinobu Yamamoto – he is now very rich and pitches for the Dodgers. OK, we know more than that. We know that he should be a very good pitcher in the majors. Japanese pitchers coming to the States have had a very good history of success. Will he be the next Spencer Strider or Gerrit Cole? Probably not. But he should strike out just a tad more than one batter per inning, have an ERA in the 3.00-3.20 range and not walk a lot of hitters and thus have a good WHIP. I certainly wouldn’t be shy about wanting to add him to my team.
Sneaky Good
If you didn’t know who Pablo Lopez was before the 2023 season, you should know who he is now. Just go look at his StatCast numbers if you want to see a lot of pretty red splashed on your page. Overall he was 11-8 in his first season with the Twins with a 3.66 ERA and 1.16 WHIP with an ERA+ of 117 and 3.33 FIP. In 194 innings, he fanned 234 batters for a 10.9 K/9 rate. And Lopez is great when the pressure is at its highest. His career postseason ERA is 1.53 with a 0.96 WHIP. And in 12.2 innings of postseason action last year, he allowed only one earned run.
New York Frame of Mind
Anthony Volpe was a mix of good, bad, and ugly for the Yankees last season. The good is the fact he hit 21 homers, drove in 60 runs, and stole 24 bases. The bad is the fact he struck out 167 times for a 27.8 strikeout percentage. And the ugly is this – a slash line of .209/.283/.383. Volpe is likely to never hit for a high average as his career minor league average was .263. But his game is about the power/speed combo he brings to the field. He is a 20/20 player and could become 30/30 with a little more discipline at the plate. I’ll take that every day of the week.
Gleyber Torres may never have another season like he had in 2019 when he hit 38 homers and had 90 RBI while slugging .535. But the 2020 and 2021 seasons were not kind as he slugged .368 and .366 those years. However, Torres has bounced back to swat 24 and 25 home runs the last two years with double-digit steals and slugging percentages of .451 and .453. The fact he hit 38 home runs leaves room for me to believe he can do it again – or at least reach 30 for a number of years as he is only going to be 27 next year.
55-51
Aces in the Making
In Tyrik Skubal’s full three seasons, he has gotten better and better and is a now a pitcher you should want on your staff. In 2021 he had a 4.34 ERA and 1.26 WHIP. That dropped to 3.52/1.16 in 2022 and last season it was 2.80/0.90. His career K/9 rate is 10.0 and it was 11.4 last season. So why is Skubal not a hotter commodity? Because during these last three years, his innings pitched has been 149.1, 117.2 and 80.1 as he has not been able to stay healthy. Assuming he stays healthy, I expect him to come close to producing last year’s numbers for years to come.
George Kirby is the kind of pitcher who can anchor your staff for years. All he did last season was post a 3.35 ERA and 1.038 WHIP with an eye-popping 0.9 BB/9 rate. In 190.2 innings of work, Kirby issued only 19 walks. Yes, 19 walks! He did not have an eye-popping strikeout rate (8.1), but like with Bobby Miller, strikeouts are the end-all, be-all when judging a pitcher.
Just Stay Healthy!
It would be really nice to see what Jazz Chisholm Jr. could do if he ever played a full season. He came close in 2021 when he played in 124 games. But he appeared in only 60 games in 2022 and 97 last season. When on the field, Chisholm is one of the more exciting players to watch thanks to his power-speed combo. He won’t help your batting average or OBP, but he hit 14 homers and stole 12 bases in 2022 and upped those numbers to 19 and 22 last year. His 162-game average is 90 runs scored, 28 home runs, 83 RBI, and 32 steals. If Chisholm can play a full season in 2024, I fully expect him to come close to those numbers.
Plenty of Power
Texas Rangers right fielder Adolis Garcia is not going to help your team when it comes to batting average or on-base percentage. He hit .245 with a .328 OBP last year and his career numbers there are .244 and .302. And if your league uses strikeouts as a stat, he is not going to help you there, either. What Garcia is good at is hitting the ball hard. Garcia is coming off a 39 homer, 107 RBI, and has hit 27 or more homers in each of the last three seasons. In 2023, his xwOBA, xSLG, EV, Barrel %, and Hard-Hit % all ranked in the 90th percentile or higher. And Garcia can even steal a base or two, swiping 16 in 2021 and 25 in 2022 before dropping to nine last season.
No Webb of Lies
In 2018 and 2019, it didn’t look like Logan Webb was going to carve out a very successful MLB career. In eight 2019 starts and 11 2020 starts (with two appearances out of the pen), Webb had a combined 5.36 ERA and 1.52 WHIP. But since 2021, Webb has become one of the best pitchers in the game. Over the last three seasons, he has a 3.07 ERA and 1.11 WHIP. He is not a strikeout pitcher (8.9 K/9 over the last three years) but he is good for 200 innings per year, so if your league uses strikeouts and K/9, he will still rack up some punchouts for you.
Come Back Next Week
Thanks for reading and come back again next week for Fantasy Baseball Dynasty Rankings: 50-26.
If you need to catch up, here are the previous rankings:
