The mother of all lists has been unleashed on the Patreon! That’s right, it’s the Top 1,000 2025 Dynasty Baseball Rankings! Top 80 are free here on the Brick Wall. Analysis, 2025 Projections and Prime Projections for every player. The All-in-One Spreadsheet is coming soon which include my Top 146 FYPD Ranks, Top 500 Prospects Ranks, Top 1,000 Dynasty Ranks, and the Positional Ranks. These lists will be released here on Imaginary Brick Wall in late March. I’ve been doing these Top 1,000 Rankings since 2019, and man, it always feels so great when I release it out into the wild! Please enjoy! Here is the Top 1,000 Rankings for 2025 Fantasy Baseball Dynasty Leagues:

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1) Shohei Ohtani – LAD, RHP/DH, 30.9 – Ohtani was the no brainer #1 overall dynasty asset in the game before he tore his non pitching shoulder in the World Series. Now it’s not so easy. He’s expected to be ready to DH by Opening Day, but it will push his pitching debut into May at the earliest. Shoulder surgery which takes your rehab right up to the start of the season is also not a great recipe for success in general. Considering he’s 30 years old, it has me teetering on whether he deserves this top spot, but he’s just so far out ahead of the pack assuming full health, that I can’t move off him. He just went .310/54/59 as a hitter only, finishing as the #1 fantasy player in the game by a country mile (shouldn’t the expression be a city mile? Try driving a mile in New York City, it will take you about 30 minutes. In the country? 50 seconds). And now in 2025, the throwing elbow is expected to be fully healthy after undergoing an internal brace procedure, or whatever super secret elbow surgery he underwent. His elbow was healthy enough to even hear murmurs he could have pitched this post-season. And when healthy, he is a true ace with a 3.01 ERA and 31.2/8.9 K%/BB% in 481.2 career IP. It’s his 2nd major elbow surgery in 5 years, but I’m not betting against a super human talent like Ohtani, and the same goes for the shoulder surgery. I just can’t bring myself to bet against the true GOAT. Health is clearly a risk, but even factoring in that extra risk, he is so far and away the best fantasy player in the game that he still lands at #1. – 2025 Projection: 105/40/101/.283/.371/.562/25 // 9/3.41/1.19/142 in 120 IP

2) Bobby Witt Jr. – KCR, SS, 24.10 – In leagues where Ohtani can’t be used as both a pitcher and hitter (weekly leagues or leagues where Ohtani is split into two players), age does start to become more of a factor, so in those leagues, Bobby Witt Jr. would be crowned the #1 dynasty player in the game. Coming off his rookie season in 2022, he improved in almost every facet of the game in 2023, and then he once again improved in every facet of the game in 2024. Someone tell Bobby that development isn’t linear, because his development is a straight line. He put up career bests in Barrel% (14.3%), EV (92.7 MPH), Max EV (116.9 MPH), xwOBA (.413), K% (15%), and BB% (8.0%). His 74.7 MPH bat speed is elite, which makes his contact rates even more impressive, because that bat speed/contact combo is in even more rarified air. He’s also the fastest man in baseball by a good margin with a 30.5 ft/sec sprint. It all resulted in a .332/32/31 season, and seeing how he’s only gotten better every single season, there might just be another level in here. 40/40 here we come. – 2025 Projection: 118/35/104/.315/.379/.555/39

3) Elly De La Cruz – CIN, SS, 23.3 – Risk? What risk? I laugh in the face risk, ranking Elly 9th overall last off-season, and finishing his blurb by writing, “I always say, ‘if you can’t take risks in fantasy, where can you take risks,’ and I’m not even sure Elly is as risky as people think. I’m all in.” That not so risky risk paid off in a huge way in 2024 with Elly going .259/25/67. Those 67 steals led the league by a large margin, lapping most of the field. He’s one of, if not the most electric player in the game at 6’5” with an elite 75.2 MPH swing (his lefty swing is super elite, while his righty swing is more near elite) and 30.0/sec sprint speed. He crushes the ball with a 91.8 MPH EV, he brought his launch up as expected to a respectable 9.7 degrees, he brought his chase down to an above average 26.9%, and he kept his strikeout rate in a reasonable enough range (31.3%) to let the insane talent shine. And this is just the beginning. If he can continue to improve his plate skills and raise that launch, which I wouldn’t see why that isn’t the expectation at just 23 years old, I shutter to think about what kind of numbers are possible. – 2025 Projection: 110/31/89/.267/.348/.515/59

4) Gunnar Henderson – BAL, SS, 23.9 – Henderson massively improved on basically the only three weaknesses of his game in 2024, which easily propelled him into a Top 5 dynasty asset. He put up a .829 OPS vs. lefties in 2024 after a notching a lowly .618 OPS in 2023. I never let Gunnar’s struggles vs. lefties hold his ranking back, even when it was a major point of contention in is his prospect years, and I think it’s something to keep in mind when evaluating lefty hitting prospects. You often don’t get that many reps against lefties, so you often see that skill develop over time when they get into the majors. Don’t let it scare you off. He also improved his base stealing, nabbing 21 bags in 25 attempts after stealing only 10 bags in 2023. Granted this one was more a fantasy skill than a real life skill, as he was an excellent base runner overall in both years. And finally, he improved his hit tool, putting up a 22.1% K%, 24.4% whiff%, and a .281 BA. He combined all of those improvements while continuing to smash the ball with a 92.8 MPH EV, leading to 37 homers. He still doesn’t steal quite enough to pop him over Witt or Elly, but he is right there with those guys, and if steals are devalued in your league, like in points or 6+ hitting category leagues, Gunnar would slid in ahead of Elly. – 2025 Projection: 116/35/99/.280/.370/.535/18

5) Juan Soto – NYM, OF, 26.5 – Soto didn’t give the Yanks even the slightest bit of deference, going to the highest bidder in the New York Mets, signing for 15 years and $765 million (the Yanks reportedly offered 16 years for $760 million). He’s just a subway ride away from his new digs … or more accurately, just a chauffeured ride away … or probably even more accurately, just a helicopter ride away. For a super elite hitter like Soto, ballpark doesn’t really matter, but the most interesting part of this move is how much he changed his hitting profile for Yankee Stadium’s short porch.  He put up a career high by far 45.1% Pull% (38.9% in 2023), and it led to a career high 41 homers. The Yanks were the 3rd best park for lefty homers last year, while the Mets were 10th worst. Will Soto continue to pull the ball that much? Or will he decide to go back to his career norms? My guess is that he keeps on pulling it, because he actually hit one more homer on the road than he did at home. It seems Yankee Stadium gave him the push to unlock more homer power regardless of ballpark, and I don’t see why he would want to go back. His 19.7% Barrel%, 94.2 MPH EV, and 57% Hard Hit% were all career highs. His Statcast expected homer totals were 46 for Yankee Stadium and the exact same 46 for Citi Field, again underscoring that he is ballpark proof. The only thing he doesn’t do is steal bases with only 7 steals, and that is what keeps him just a smidge behind Witt, Elly and Gunnar. 2025 Projection: 118/35/105/.289/.418/.539/9

Shadow5) Shohei Ohtani – LAD, DH only/Weekly Leagues, 30.9 – This is where I would rank Ohtani in weekly lineup leagues or as a hitter only. Without the pitching to put him over the top, the age does come into play here a bit. And it’s hard not to have that shoulder surgery in the back of your mind too. – 2025 Projection: 2025 Projection: 105/40/101/.283/.371/.562/25

6) Corbin Carroll – ARI, OF, 24.7 – Back when Carroll was in the throes of his awful start, I made a decree by Fantasy Law to not sell low in one of my Dynasty Baseball Rundowns, writing, “‘The captain goes down with the ship.’ That’s just Maritime Law. Now, I’m no sailor, but as the world’s foremost expert on Fantasy Law, there are some players that you are required to go down with the ship for, and Corbin Carroll is most certainly one of those players. I’ve seen a ton of panic and sell low offers for Carroll, but all of the warning signs could be flashing red, the sirens could be blaring, and you are still legally obligated to not sell low on an established elite dynasty asset like Carroll.” He continued to struggle for a bit after writing that, but before long, he did indeed turn that ship around, slashing .258/.351/.577 with 20 homers, 20 steals, and a 10.6/11.3 K%/BB% in his final 71 games. He smashed the ball with a 91.3 MPH EV and 14.6 degree launch over that time. I would say any lingering concern over his shoulder injury can be put to rest, cementing Carroll as a truly elite dynasty asset with standout contact, approach, power, and speed. He’s the total package. Don’t be scared off by the poor first half. – 2025 Projection: 119/28/84/.270/.357/.519/42

7) Kyle Tucker – CHC, OF, 28.2 – A fractured shin knocked Tucker out for half the season, but he put up a 1.041 OPS in 18 games after returning, so there is zero concern about the injury long term. I guess the one area of his game where maybe you can get a little nervous about is stolen bases. He only stole one bag in those 18 games, and he put up a career low 26.0 ft/sec sprint, which is in the bottom 18% of the league. He’s never been fast but he’s always been an excellent base stealer, so I’m not sure I’m extra worried about it, but he does kinda feel like the type of player who may not steal as much as he gets into his 30’s. He’s not there yet at only 28, but it might be something to keep in mind. Steals aside, he does feel like the type of player who will rake deep into his 30’s. He only played in 78 games, but it was the best year of his career with a 180 wRC+ that came on the back of a career high by far 16.5% BB% (11.9% in 2023). He also hit 23 homers with 11 steals, and if you double that over a full season pace, that is 46 homers with 22 steals if my math is correct … carry the 1. He’s been one of the most consistently great players of his generation. Almost too consistent as he semes to get taken for granted. – 2025 Projection: 102/34/109/.285/.378/.533/24

8) Aaron Judge – NYY, OF, 32.11 – In pure win now mode, I can see ranking Judge 2nd overall, but with him turning 33 years old just one month into the 2025 season, age starts to move a little more to the forefront of my mind. 33 years old is generally the number for me when I maybe start to explore sell opportunities if I want to rebuild or retool, so while I’m not saying to sell Judge, it’s the reason why he isn’t ranked even higher coming off his massive season. His 218 wRC+ was the best in baseball by a massive margin. The only players to put up a higher wRC+ in a season are Barry Bonds (3x), Babe Ruth (3x), Ted Williams (2x), and Roger Hornsby (1x). I mean, do I need to say more? No. No I don’t. – 2025 Projection: 112/50/128/.293/.422/.661/10

9) Fernando Tatis Jr. – SDP, OF, 26.3 – Tatis proved without a shadow of a doubt that he is not going to fade into mediocrity after his relatively down 2023 season coming off the PED suspension and multiple surgeries (not that I had much doubt, ranking him 6th overall last off-season). He demolished the ball with a 93.5 MPH EV, 14.5% Barrel%, .393 xwOBA, and a 55.1% Hard Hit% which was in the top 1% of baseball. Not only were his power metrics in prime form, but his 21.9% K% was a career best. He missed over two months with a stress reaction in his leg, which I guess you can add to his “injury risk” pile, but he was fine when he returned in September, and he went nuclear in the playoffs too with 4 homers in 7 games. It all resulted in 25 homers with a .280 BA in 109 games (including the playoffs). That is about a 35 homer pace over a full season. The one area where the injuries did seem to take their toll was on the bases. He only stole 11 bases on 14 attempts and his sprint speed tanked to 28.4 ft/sec (29.3 in 2023). Maybe you can blame the leg injury, but he wasn’t running much before that injury, and I’m not sure how you can blame the wrist/shoulder injuries for him getting slower, especially since he was fine in 2023. How much he’s going to run in the future is the wild card in this profile, and that question, along with some continued injury risk, is enough to nudge him just outside of the of that Top 5-ish area into the Top 10 area. – 2025 Projection: 96/33/89/.283/.348/.529/18

10) Ronald Acuna Jr. – ATL, OF, 27.3 – Acuna tore his right ACL in 2021 and now he’s torn his left ACL in 2024. Since that first torn ACL, he’s been in the process of slowing down with a 29.4 ft/sec sprint in 2021, a 28.5 ft/sec sprint in 2022, a 28.0 ft/sec sprint in 2023 and finally a 27.7 ft/sec sprint in 2024. And now coming off this 2nd ACL tear, I don’t think there is any question at all that Acuna is not going to be the athlete he was in his prime. Even with the lowest sprint speed of his career, he still stole 16 bases in 49 games, which is about a 48 steal pace, so I don’t think he is all of a sudden going to stop running, but let’s see how he looks coming off this 2nd major knee injury. He was also in the midst of the worst season of his career before going down with the injury. He hit only 4 homers with a .716 OPS. He was definitely getting unlucky as he was crushing the ball with a 92.2 MPH EV, but even his .348 xwOBA was a career low by far. He wasn’t able to maintain any of the contact gains from 2023 with his K% jumping back up to 23.9% (11.4% in 2023). After the first ACL tear, Acuna’s first year back wasn’t particularly great with 15 homers and a 115 wRC+ in 119 games in 2022, so keep that in mind for 2025. He had a historic season in 2023 of course, so the hope is that he can do the same eventually after this one, but this one will be his 2nd, and it’s hard for me to completely ignore it. He’s also expected to miss about a third of the season in 2025. Acuna is the type of talent you want to keep betting on no matter what the circumstances are, but I’m definitely a little concerned. – 2025 Projection: 71/23/63/.272/.363/.524/20

11) Julio Rodriguez – SEA, OF, 24.3 – The Slow Start King is going to give his dynasty owners a massive coronary event if he gets off to yet another slow start in 2025. He seriously needs to figure something out this off-season. Treat Spring Training like it’s the regular season? Ramp up earlier? I don’t know the answer because I don’t know what his off-season routine is, but he needs to do something differently. He put up a .616 OPS in his first 87 games before exploding after that, slashing .318/.371/.543 with 13 homers, 7 steals, and a 23.3/6.5 K%/BB% in his final 56 games. He’s far too talented to be too scared off by the slow starts. His 76.3 MPH swing is the 9th fastest in baseball. He crushes the ball with a 91.7 MPH EV and he has elite speed with a 29.6 ft/sec sprint. The one area of his game which is preventing him from joining the true elites, especially as a real life hitter, are his plate skills. It’s yet to improve at all in his 3 years in the majors with a 30.9% whiff% and 37.4% Chase% (25.4/6.2 K%/BB%). He can thrive in fantasy especially even without that improving at all, but if that can take a step forward, we may not have seen the best of Julio yet. – 2025 Projection: 100/31/100/.281/.342/.490/32

12) James Wood – WAS, OF, 22.7 – I don’t need to do any deep victory lap philosophizing when it comes to if James Wood is a hit for me (see my 19 Dynasty Baseball Strategies/Thoughts for 2025 for more thoughts on victory lapping in dynasty), because I can say without a shadow of a doubt that I can victory lap the hell out of James Wood. I named him a major First Year Player Draft Target in his draft year, and then I ranked him all the way up at 68th overall in the 2024 Top 1,000 Dynasty Baseball Rankings. I couldn’t help but buy into that beastly power/speed combo from a 6’7” frame, and the swing was always short enough to bet on the hit tool ending up good enough. And that is exactly how it played out in his rookie year with an elite 92.8/96.9 MPH AVG/FB EV, a plus 28.7 ft/sec sprint, a well above average 21% Chase%, and a not in the true danger zone 29.6% whiff%. It resulted in 9 homers, 14 steals, a .264 BA and a 120 wRC+ in 79 games. The 2.4 degree launch subdued the homer power a bit, but he hits the ball so hard that he’s launch proof, and that number is certainly coming up in the future. He’s basically Elly De La Cruz with better plate skills and half as many steals. Do not even think about valuing Wood as anything but a near elite dynasty asset this off-season. – 2025 Projection: 89/24/87/.251/.346/.474/26 Prime Projection: 105/32/105/.268/.364/.518/28

13) Jackson Chourio – MIL, OF, 21.1 – I spent most of my waking hours last off-season agonizing over who to place as the #1 prospect in baseball between Chourio, Holliday and Langford. And honestly, it wasn’t only waking hours, I was dreaming of a Chourio 20/20 rookie season in my sleep. I trusted the voices I was getting from the baseball gods, placing Chourio first overall on my prospect rankings, and projecting his 2024 stat line for 21 homers, 22 steals, 75 RBI, a .320 OBP and a .469 SLG in my 2024 Top 1,000 Rankings. And as we know, he ended up outdoing Langford by a solid amount and Holliday by a city mile, hitting 21 homers with 25 steals, 79 RBI, a .327 OBP and a .464 SLG. Damn, it’s almost like I really did see his future stat line in my dreams (and yes, I’m not mentioning batting average or runs because I didn’t nail those ha). He hit the ball very hard with a 89.7 MPH EV, he had elite speed with a 29.7 ft/sec sprint, and he had a slightly above average 21.1% K%. And all of those numbers include his rough first 2 months of the season. If you just look at his last 4 months, which is reasonable considering he was a 20 year old rookie just finding his MLB sea legs, his numbers get even more impressive, slashing .305/.360/.527 with 16 homers, 15 steals, and a 18.4/7.3 K%/BB% in his final 97 games. There is some room for improvement with his plate approach (below average 31.9% Chase%) and launch (7.6 degrees), but neither of those are too bad to begin with, and he has the profile to make that work even if he can’t improve it. But he’ll barely be 21 years old next season, so I don’t see why we wouldn’t expect all areas of his game to improve. Wood vs. Chourio is a coin flip for me, but I gave the edge to Wood because he hits the ball harder and chases less. – 2025 Projection: 93/26/89/.285/.339/.488/28

14) Wyatt Langford – TEX, OF, 23.5 – Langford’s surface stats don’t jump off the page with a .253 BA, .740 OPS, 16 homers, and 19 steals in 134 games, but his underlying skills were jumping off the page all season, and it finally showed in September. He went bonkos to close out the season, slashing .289/.372/.579 with 9 homers, 7 steals, and a 19.0/10.2 K%/BB% in his final 32 games. Even if you pull it back to June 3rd, he had a .804 OPS with 15 homers and 18 steals in his final 98 games. And like I mentioned, the underlying skills are super impressive. He hits the ball very hard with a 9.3% Barrel% and 89.6 MPH EV (91.3 MPH EV in those final 32 games). He lifts it with a 16.6 degree launch, he has elite speed with a 29.8 ft/sec sprint, he has above average contact rates (22.9% whiff% and 20.6% K%), and he has an above average plate approach (23% Chase% with a 9.2% BB%). The cherry on top is that his 74.5 MPH swing is nearly elite, and it’s a short swing too with 7 foot length. That swing speed/length combo is special. Only Heliot Ramos swings a faster bat with a shorter swing. He’s going to explode in 2025. – 2025 Projection: 89/26/93/.274/.352/.481/24

15) Jackson Merrill – SDP, OF, 21.11 – Merrill’s ability to raise his launch angle considerably, while not losing even a smidge of contact prowess, is nothing short of incredible. He went from putting up a 59.9% GB% with a 19.2% K% at Single-A in 2022 to putting up a 35.9% GB% with a 17% K% in the majors in 2024. Justin Crawford better be blowing up his celly round the clock to get some pointers on how he did it. It resulted in Merrill having one of, if the not the best rookie season in baseball, slashing .292/.326/.500 with 24 homers, 16 steals, and a 17.0/4.9 K%/BB% in 156 games. The underlying numbers back it all up with a 11.3% Barrel%, 90.4 MPH EV, and a .376 xwOBA. The only area of his game to quibble with is that he’s never walked a ton, and he chased a lot with a 34.4% Chase%. He’s also never been a huge base stealer in his career, but I don’t think him stealing 20+ bags is out of the question at all. He’s an easy elite dynasty asset, and he’s in a tier with James Wood, Jackson Chourio, Paul Skenes, and Wyatt Langford as the top rookies in the game. – 2025 Projection: 86/25/92/.288/.336/.492/19

16) Yordan Alvarez – HOU, OF, 27.9 – Yordan had to go ahead and put his surgically repaired knees back in our mind right at the end of 2024, tweaking his knee after sliding into 2nd base on September 22nd, which ended his regular season. He returned for the playoffs, so it’s not a big deal, but any knee injury is going to have our minds racing, thinking about if they are going to become a concern as he starts to age. The good news is that he’s only 27 years old, so I wouldn’t worry about it quite yet. He’s as consistent as they come with beastly season after beastly season. He slashed .308/.392/.567 with 35 homers, a career high 6 steals, and a 15.0/10.9 K%/BB% in 147 games. There are zero concerns about him over the short term, but I do think the knees are something to at least keep in the back of your mind down the line. – 2025 Projection: 91/35/100/.303/.405/.579/3

17) Vladimir Guerrero Jr. – TOR, 1B, 25.6 – We can finally put the “Vlad has only had a great year in a minor league ballpark” narrative to rest. His 165 wRC+ this year was almost identical to the 166 mark he put up in 2021. Granted he hit 48 homers in the minor league park and only 30 this year, but still. His underlying numbers were screaming that he was legitimately elite despite the relatively mediocre surface stats in 2023, so his big year really isn’t that surprising. I don’t have a fancy bat speed + contact rate stat to give you, but if I did, Vlad, Yordan, and Soto would be the cream of the crop. Vlad swung a 75.9 MPH bat with a 13.8/10.3 K%/BB%. And he crushes the ball with a 93.8 MPH EV. The 7.4 degree launch is still subduing the homer power a bit, and he doesn’t run much with only 2 steals, so I wouldn’t quite call him a truly elite dynasty asset, but he’s not far off. – 2025 Projection: 99/32/109/.308/.383/.528/4

18) Jose Ramirez – CLE, 3B, 32.6 – Ramirez had the quietest 39/41 season of all time. Barely heard about it. The pomp and circumstance around Ohtani was too loud for anyone else to get their fair due. Or maybe it’s because he doesn’t play in a large market that Ramriez’ entire spectacular career doesn’t really get the respect he deserves. He’s only 5’9”. He doesn’t smash the ball like the true giants of the game. He doesn’t have elite speed. He doesn’t swing the fastest bat. He’s an everyman who quietly goes about his business with elite season after elite season. He does it with elite contact skills (12% K%), elite lift (19.6 degree launch) and elite pull ability (52.8% Pull%). He also hits the ball plenty hard with an 89.2 MPH EV. The only question is how long can he do it for at 32 years old. He obviously showed zero signs of slowing down in 2024, and like I mentioned in the Aaron Judge blurb, 33 years old is really the first year I start to seriously consider selling elite players like this. I’m not going to dock him for his age too much. He’s an elite win now piece. – 2025 Projection: 102/33/106/.280/.344/.520/33

19) Paul Skenes – PIT, RHP, 22.10 – While this is far from the most impressive part of Skenes game, I’ve just been having a lot of fun diving into the new bat tracking data, and of course Skenes ranks towards the top of those leaderboards as well. The disparity amongst pitcher’s induced swing speed is obviously much less than the disparity between hitters, but I still find it interesting. Skenes had the 8th best swing speed against amongst qualified pitchers at 70.9 MPH. The only qualified starter to induce slower swings was Chris Sale, and Will Vest led of all baseball amongst qualified pitchers. That’s just the cherry on top of his elite profile. He throws a 6 pitch mix, and all of them range from above average to elite. His 94 MPH sinker was the most valuable sinker in baseball with a +18 run value. His 98.8 MPH 4-seamer notched a +6 run value, the curveball notched a +2, the sweeper was at +5, the changeup at +2, and while the slider was his only negative value pitch at -2, that was only because he got unlucky on the pitch with a .229 xwOBA. He combined that filth with plus command which led to a 1.96 ERA and 33.1/6.2 K%/BB% in 133 IP. He’s the easiest #1 dynasty pitcher in the game ranking I’ve ever made since  … 2024. Spencer Strider was a damn easy call last off-season, and he’s a perfect example of the only thing that can go wrong, injuries. Pitchers break, and pitchers who throw upper 90’s seem to break even more. You can’t play scared, and you need good pitchers to win, but it’s why I can’t rank any pitcher higher than around Top 20-ish overall on the Dynasty Rankings. They are just inherently too risky. – 2025 Projection: 15/2.77/0.98/227 in 185 IP

20) Bryce Harper – PHI, 1B, 32.5 – You can find some things here and there which maybe can look like small red flags in hindsight if Harper does start to decline, like a nearly career worst in xwOBA (.361), Barrel% (10.6%), and sprint speed (27.4 ft/sec), but I think that is simply slicing and dicing the numbers too much when it comes to a proven stud like Harper. And none of those marks were too bad or too far off from career norms. His 145 wRC+ was a 3 year high and slightly better than his 142 career wRC+. He crushes the ball with a 91.1 MPH EV and he has a strong plate approach with a 21.9/12.0 K%/BB%. It doesn’t seem like we can count on more than a handful of steals anymore (7 steals), but he strikes me as the type who could rake well into his late 30’s. I wouldn’t be thinking about selling Harper off quite yet. – 2025 Projection: 98/33/99/.287/.382/.520/10

21) Mookie Betts – LAD, 2B/OF, 32.6 – Betts is the leader of the Slow Bat Speed Kings with a 69 MPH swing that is 442nd “best” in baseball (minimum 50 swings). But he proves swinging an electric bat isn’t the only path to success. He had another great season which was only interrupted by a fractured hand in mid June, slashing .289/.372/.491 with 19 homers, 16 steals, and a 11.0/11.8 K%/BB% in 116 games. He has 4 dingers in 11 post season games and counting. The 11% K% tied a career best, and his 16 steals tied for a 6 year best. The 26.7 ft/sec sprint was a career low and in the bottom 30% of the league, so while there certainly seems to be some physical decline, it hasn’t impacted his stats quite yet. Like I’ve been saying with elite players like this, 33 years old is when I start to think about selling, so I’m running it back in 2025 with Mookie. 2025 Projection: 110/32/100/.290/.370/.525/18

22) Francisco Lindor – NYM, SS, 31.4 – Lindor gutted it out with a back injury to close out the season and into playoffs, requiring extra injections to get back on the field, and while I respect the hell out of his heart (130 wRC+ in 13 playoff games), I do hope it’s something that doesn’t come back to bite him early in 2025. Sometimes things like that can throw off your normal off-season routine, creating an uphill battle all season. While it’s something to think about, it would be much too cautious to plan on Lindor being anything other than a stud next year. After going 31/31 in 2023, he followed that up in 2024 with a 33/29 season. His 137 wRC+, 13.6% Barrel% and .382 xwOBA were all career highs. As long as the back isn’t an issue, I don’t see why he wouldn’t go 30/30 again. If the back is an issue, there is a chance he doesn’t run quite as much. 2025 Projection: 103/31/94/.268/.340/.485/26

23) Jarren Duran – BOS, OF, 28.7 – Duran’s hit tool and plate approach have improved every year of his 4 year career, and considering how electric of a player he is, that is all he need to go nuclear. He slashed .285/.342/.492 with 21 homers, 34 steals and a 21.8/7.3 K%/BB% in 160 games. He has elite speed with a 29.6 ft/sec sprint, he hits the ball very hard with a 90.8 MPH EV, and he has plus bat speed with a 73.6 MPH swing. There is absolutely nothing in the underlying numbers to say this year was a fluke, and with how he’s improved every year of his career (48 wRC+ in 2021, 77 wRC+ in 2022, 120 wRC+ in 2023, 129 wRC+ in 2024), who is to say he can’t do it again in 2025. I’m all in. 2025 Projection: 101/23/83/.280/.341/.476/33

24) Oneil Cruz – PIT, OF/SS, 26.6 – Saying that Cruz’ 95.5 MPH EV is elite would be an understatement. It is in all time great territory, trailing only Judge and Ohtani, two all time greats. His 78.6 MPH swing speed is also super elite, trailing only Giancarlo Stanton’s 81.2 MPH swing (Stanton laps the field, with nobody even close to him). And he also has double plus speed with a 28.8 ft/sec sprint speed. This is an extremely special talent. Yes, there is hit tool risk with a 34.1% whiff% and 30.1% K%, but I really don’t think it’s as risky at it seems. He hit .259 this year with a .266 xBA, and in 1,009 career PA he has a .250 BA. He can clearly thrive with the elevated swing and miss. He put together a strong year in 2024 with 21 homers and 22 steals in 23 attempts in 146 games, but he is merely just scratching the surface of what he’s capable of. He was a major target coming into the year, and he turned into an elite dynasty asset. Make sure you treat him like one this off-season. – 2025 Projection: 84/27/92/.255/.328/.474/26

25) CJ Abrams – WAS, SS, 24.6 – Washington sent Abrams to his room at the end of the season like an unruly teenager to think about what he’s done after partying at a casino until 8 AM when he had a 1 PM game. Maybe he was exhibiting this type of behavior all season and it was a long time coming. But maybe this is also what a normal 23/24 year old does, and at that point of the season, the Nationals were so far out of it. I say give the kid a break, but either way, I’m not letting it impact his considerable dynasty value. His power has been slowly but surely ticking up with a 90.9 MPH FB/LD EV in 2022, followed by a 92.6 MPH FB/LD EV in 2023, and finally putting up a very respectable 93.6 MPH FB/LD EV in 2024. It resulted in his first 20 homer season in 138 games, and at a still wiry 6’2” with a 15.1 degree launch, this is just the beginning of his power ascension as he enters his mid 20’s. He wasn’t as good on the bases this year as he was in 2023 (31 for 43), but he finished the season 17 for 19 on steal attempts in his final 52 games, so I think that was just a small sample aberration. And really his biggest demerit is that the plate skills haven’t shown any improvement since he broke into the majors with a 21.3/6.6 K%/BB% and 35.4% Chase%. He can be an easy top 50 dynasty asset even if the plate approach never improves, putting up several 20/30 seasons, but if he wants to take the next step into elite status, he needs to improve in that area. And entering his age 24 year old season, I don’t see why we shouldn’t expect improvement there. Abrams is just getting started. – 2025 Projection: 89/23/76/.263/.329/.450/35

26) Trea Turner – PHI, SS, 31.9 – Turner has two big red flags as he gets deeper into his 30’s. The first one is that speed first players don’t tend to age as well as power first players. The second one is that he also chases a lot with a 33.9% Chase% and 5.0% BB%, and high chase players also don’t tend to age well. His 71.7 MPH swing speed is very slightly above average, so if that starts to fall, along with his foot speed as he gets older, it could spell trouble. The reasons to not panic too much are that while he’s a speed first player, he also hits the ball hard with an 89.1 MPH EV. He’s always had above average K rates with a 18.2% K%, the speed is still elite with a 29.6 ft/sec sprint, and he strikes me as the type of elite base stealer who will be stealing bases until they rip the uniform off him. He’s also only 31 years old, so we are still a few years away from really getting worried about a skills decline. If you’re rebuilding, Turner definitely makes sense to explore trade possibilities on, but if you are only getting low ball-ish offers, I wouldn’t be pressed to sell. I would wait for him to be putting up big numbers in 2025, and then explore the trade market again at that point. – 2025 Projection: 98/25/79/.290/.339/.472/28

27) Jazz Chisholm – NYY, 3B/OF, 27.2 – I ranked Jazz 34th overall on the 2024 Top 1,000, absolutely refusing to fade a player with such a beastly power/speed combo, and named him a major target, writing, “Buy the injury discount. His proven upside is way way way too high to let your fear control you. He was on a 30/30 pace this year. The hit tool isn’t great, but he has 1,193 PA with a .245 BA. That is a large enough sample where I’m not too worried about the bottom falling out. If you want to shy away from mediocre talents due to injury concern, that is fine with me. Even shying away from good talents is reasonable. But you don’t shy away from near elite talents like Chisholm.” And what he just did in 2024 is why you don’t fade this kind of talent. He slashed .256/.324/.436 with 24 homers, 40 steals, and a 24.5/8.5 K%/BB% in 147 games. He was playing well with the Marlins, but he exploded when he got the Yanks with 11 homers, 18 steals and a 132 wRC+ in 46 games. It’s not even that he hit particularly well at Yankee Stadium, it just seemed to light a fire under him, but for sure it’s also a big home field upgrade for him. And the most important thing of all is that he stayed healthy. Health is the main reason why people faded him, and unfortunately, it still has to be taken into account in his price. Staying healthy one season is good, but he needs to go back to back healthy seasons for me to take “injury risk” off his resume, or at least have it downplayed. We saw Robert stay basically healthy in 2023, only to again miss a large chunk of the season in 2024. Jazz could easily follow that same path. If not for injury risk, Jazz has an argument for Top 15 status, so this ranking does factor in a bit of risk. – 2025 Projection: 87/25/84/.252/.323/.455/33

28) Tarik Skubal – DET, LHP, 28.4 – I was all in on Skubal’s 80.1 IP explosion in 2023, ranking him 59th overall on the 2024 Top 1,000, and placing a futures bet on him to lead the league in strikeouts ($10 to win $800). He not only led all of baseball with 228 strikeouts, but he was also the #1 fantasy pitcher in the game with a 2.39 ERA and 30.3/4.6 K%/BB% in 192 IP. His 96.8 MPH fastball was up another tick from last year and was the 4th most valuable 4-seamer in the game. His changeup is elite with a 46.1% whiff%. His 96.6 MPH sinker was the 24th most valuable sinker in baseball. And his slider was above average. Tack on elite control and you have one of the very best pitchers in baseball. It really wouldn’t be crazy at all to have him above Skenes as the top dog. – 2025 Projection: 16/2.82/0.96/220 in 185 IP

29) Garrett Crochet – BOS, LHP, 25.9 – Paul Skenes is the no doubt #1 dynasty pitcher in the game. I’m not arguing that … buuuuuuuuuuuut … what if Crochet is actually better than him? He put up a better K% (35.1% vs. 33.1%), BB% (5.5% vs. 6.2%), Chase% (33.5% vs. 30.9%), and a much better whiff% (33.0% vs. 28.7%). His 97.2 MPH 4-seamer put up a 31.4% whiff% while Skenes’ 98.8 MPH 4-seamer put up a 24.2% whiff%. Crochet’s cutter put up a 32.7% whiff% while Skenes’ sinker notched a 29.3% whiff%. Crochet’s sweeper notched a 42.7% whiff% while Skenes’ sweeper notched a 22.6% whiff% and his curve notched a 33.7% whiff%. They are both beastly athletes. I described the 6’6”, 245 pound Crochet as a WWE Ballerina in my March Mailbag Podcast. With Chicago, he couldn’t touch Skenes in wins, but he’s in Boston now, and just judging who is the better pitcher, I wouldn’t be so sure the answer is Skenes. Now, Skenes dusted him on ERA (3.58 vs. 1.96), and even though their xERA’s were much much closer (2.83 vs. 2.50), I do think that matters. Crochet also has more of a track record of control problems than Skenes does. Like I said, Skenes is the undeniable #1 dynasty pitcher in the game … but maybe … he won’t be at the end of 2025. – 2025 Projection: 15/3.03/1.03/230 in 170 IP

30) Austin Riley – ATL, 3B, 28.1 – Riley seemingly had a down year on the surface with a 116 wRC+ in 110 games, but there is not a single thing to be worried about. His .366 xwOBA was much better than his .338 wOBA, and was in the top 8% of baseball. He was also in the midst of bringing up his season numbers to career norms with a .942 OPS in his last 57 games before his regular season ended with a right hand fracture in mid August. His 93.3 MPH EV and 53.4% Hard Hit% were actually career highs by a good margin, so he’s never hit the ball harder. Have zero concern about Riley moving forward. He’ll do his usual .275 BA with 35 homer thing in 2025. – 2025 Projection: 96/34/94/.273/.339/.513/2

31) Rafael Devers – BOS, 3B, 28.5 – Devers is consistently one of easiest evaluations in the game. He consistently smashes the ball with elite EV and a swing that is geared for both power and average. You can bank on about .270+/30+ every single year. Just call him Dollar Bill Devers, because you can take him to the bank. But there is one thing sticking in my craw this year, which is that he battled shoulder issues in both shoulders this season. His season ended in late September with shoulder inflammation. There was no structural damage and he won’t require surgery, but shoulders are damn important for hitting, and it’s a concern that this shoulder “inflammation” can keep popping up down the line. He’s going to be 28 next year, which is still smack dab in his prime, but he is starting to creep up there a bit. I’m not dinging him too much for it, but it’s why he’s ranked here and not 10 spots higher. – 2025 Projection: 90/31/98/.274/.354/.510/3

32) Logan Gilbert – SEA, RHP, 27.9 – While everyone was focused on George Kirby, waiting for Kirby to turn into a true ace, Gilbert was putting in the work in the shadows, and he emerged as the one to enter true ace territory in 2024. He put up a 3.23 ERA with a 27.4/4.6 K%/BB% in 208.2 IP. He led all of baseball in IP. His 31.7% whiff% is in elite territory for a starter, and his walk rate was in the top 5% of baseball. Elite control, swing and miss, and durability is a Teflon combination. And that isn’t even it. He throws gas with a 96.6 MPH fastball. His splitter is insanely elite with a 50.6% whiff% and .137 xwOBA. His most used pitch is a plus to double plus slider with a 36.8% whiff% and .264 xwOBA. And he has yet another plus secondary in his curve with a 35.4% whiff% and .210 xwOBA. He also throws a useful cutter, giving him a very diverse pitch mix. He straight up doesn’t have a flaw. He has a very very real case to be the top fantasy pitcher and the game, and also possibly the top dynasty pitcher in the game. – 2025 Projection: 15/3.18/0.98/209 in 200 IP

33) Roki Sasaki – LAD, RHP, 23.5 – Sasaki and his people pulled whatever back room deals that needed to be pulled and got him coming stateside this season, which is insanely exciting, because there is little doubt that he will be a true ace right from the get go, and possibly the best pitcher in all the land. He’s better than Yamamoto, and you saw Yamamoto’s seamless transition, other than the shoulder injury. But that injury might have pushed LA to a six man rotation, which works just fine for Sasaki. His fastball sits in the upper 90’s and regularly hits over 100 MPH. The splitter is truly elite and the slider is plus. He has prototypical size at a projectable and athletic 6’2”, 187 pounds, and he has plus control/command of his stuff. He’s been so insanely dominant in Japan that he has basically already hit legend status with so many crazy feats, and he’s only 23 years old. He put up a 2.35 ERA with a 28.7/7.1 K%/BB% in 111 IP this year. He was even better in 2023 with a 1.78 ERA and 39.1%/4.9% K%/BB% in 91 IP. As you can see, the biggest and only red flag is injuries, as he has a career high of 129.1 IP. He battled an oblique injury in 2023 and right arm discomfort in 2024. The right arm discomfort is particularly concerning because his stuff was actually down a tick or two this year. It was still beastly, but would any of us be surprised if Tommy John/internal brace surgery was right around the corner? You can’t be too scared off by that, because even if he needs it, he should still return as an ace. He’s so easily the top pick in my Top 146 2025 First Year Player Draft Rankings (Patreon), and while I don’t think he’s a no brainer for #1 overall prospect in the game, how can you not put a ready made ace in the top spot, injury risk be damned. He’s my top dog in the Top 500 2025 Prospects Rankings (Patreon). – 2025 Projection: 12/3.06/1.04/175 in 150 IP Prime Projection: 16/2.72/0.92/240 in 185 IP

34) Corbin Burnes – ARI, RHP, 30.5 – When it comes to proven veteran studs, I think you can get into more trouble than it’s worth to slice and dice the numbers too much. Burnes just completed his 5th straight season of legit ace production with a 2.92 ERA and 23.1/6.1 K%/BB% in 194.1 IP. His K rates are in steep decline, falling from the 36.7% and 35.6% marks he put up in 2020 and 2021, but this is the part where I don’t want to over evaluate a proven year after year elite ace. His 28.6% whiff% is still well above average, so I would be surprised if the K rates didn’t bounce back somewhat in 2025, and his 3 secondaries (curve, slider, change) are all whiff machines, so he could rack up more strikeouts if he wanted to. He was content to dominate with plus control of the 2nd best cutter in baseball with a +20 run value (only Emmanuel Clase topped that with a 23 Run Value). No matter how you slice it … or dice it … Burnes is a true ace, just don’t expect the days of mid 30% K rates anymore, obviously. – 2025 Projection: 15/3.13/1.05/205 in 194 IP

35) Luis Robert – CHW, OF, 27.8 – Robert is in super juicy buy low territory right now. This one feels like it’s served up on a silver platter. He had a down year in 2024 with a career worst 33.2% K% and .224 BA, but he has a 1,944 career PA track record with a 27% K% and .267 BA. He’s smack dab in the middle of his prime at 27 years old, and he has near elite bat speed with a 74.5 MPH swing. His 28.8 ft/sec sprint speed was a 4 year high, and he hit the ball very hard with a 90.1 MPH EV. There is no physical decline, and there is a huge track record which says this was simply a down year. And even in a down year he hit 14 homers with 23 steals in 100 games (about a 21/35 pace). It’s as easy as could be to buy the bounce back in 2025, but the one real area of concern is injuries. He once again missed a large chunk of the season with a hip injury. He’s played in over 100 games just once in his career (2023), and even that year his season ended with a sprained MCL which would have kept him out for a couple months had it not been the end of the season. The White Sox are also terrible, which can’t help the motivation, let alone Runs and RBI. Those reasons are why he can’t really be in elite or near elite asset territory, but there is easy 30/30 upside in here if he does stay healthy, and that is worth trying to acquire on a discount this off-season. – 2025 Projection: 82/23/72/.254/.312/.470/28

36) Riley Greene – DET, OF, 24.6 – With how volatile development can be, it’s always nice when a talented prospect has a nice and smooth upward trajectory. Greene put up a 98 wRC+ in 2022, a 121 wRC+ in 2023 and finally a 135 wRC+ in 2024. He raised his launch (12.2 degrees), improved his whiff% (26.8%) and improved his Chase% (23.1%). That is all he needed to explode with how hard he hit the ball already (13.4% Barrel% with a 91.3 MPH EV) and how fast he swung the bat (elite 74.5 MPH swing). He slashed .262/.348/.479 with 24 homers, 4 steals, and a 26.7/11.0 K%/BB% in 137 games. Even if this is where he tops out, that would be a very good player, but I think he has at least one more level in him. I would be surprised if he can’t get that strikeout rate down into the low 20’s at true peak, resulting in several seasons of plus to double plus hit/power production.. – 2025 Projection: 86/28/92/.276/.359/.498/7

37) Yoshinobu Yamamoto – LAD, RHP, 26.8 – The only blemish on Yamamoto’s excellent first season stateside was a shoulder injury that knocked him out for almost 3 months, limiting him to just 90 IP. It might have been the straw that broke the camels back to push the Dodgers over the edge to go to a 6 man rotation in 2025. Or maybe it’s that Ohtani is coming back from his 2nd major elbow injury. Or that Glasnow can only throw 130 IP during a season. Or that Gavin Stone will likely miss all of 2025 with a shoulder injury. Or that Buehler took all season to start looking like himself coming off his 2nd Tommy John. Or that Bobby Miller was a shell of his former self. Or that River Ryan underwent Tommy John that will keep him out for all of 2025. Or that … I can honestly keep going on and on. Roki Sasaki is likely to get added to the mix too, and he’s had his own injury problems which is another reason to go 6 man. Point being, we might have to put a cap on how many innings all Dodgers starters will be able to pitch, but if it keeps them healthy, who wouldn’t be for that. And a healthy Yamamoto was a true ace with a 3.00 ERA and 28.5/6.5 K%/BB% in 90 IP. The fastball sat 95.5 MPH and while it wasn’t a dominant pitch, it was firmly above average. The famed splitter lived up to the billing with a 38.6% whiff% and .227 xwOBA. And the curveball was plus too with a 33% whiff% and .252 xwOBA. He also mixes in a cutter, slider and sinker every now and then. And he has plus control over that impressive arsenal. He fully lived up to the hype, shoulder injury notwithstanding. – 2025 Projection: 13/3.17/1.12/195 in 170 IP

38) Corey Seager – TEX, SS, 30.11 – Seager underwent hernia surgery in late January 2024, which was supposed to keep him out for a portion of 2024, but he ended up being ready on opening day, which might have been a mistake, because his season then ended on September 2nd after undergoing hernia surgery again. He was also battling some hip trouble at the end of the season. I’m no doctor, but maybe giving his first hernia surgery more than 2 months to heal before returning to real games would have been prudent. At least on this 2nd hernia surgery he will have no choice with all off-season to heal. And sandwiched between the two surgeries was Seager having yet another tremendous season. He jacked 30 homers with a 140 wRC+ and 18.0/9.9 K%/BB% in 123 games. The underlying numbers back up him being one of the best hitters in the game with a .394 xwOBA which was the 10th best mark in baseball. He’s starting to get up there in age, and the injuries are starting to pile up a bit, but with zero signs of slowing down so far, I don’t want to get too concerned. He should continue to be one of the best hitters in baseball for the next few seasons, and he’s also a candidate to be a major producer deep into his 30’s. – 2025 Projection: 88/33/97/.288/.362/.528/2

39) Matt Olson – ATL, 1B, 31.0 – What goes up, must come down. After putting up a career year in 2023 with 54 homers, Olson nearly bottomed out with the 2nd worst year of his career in 2024 with a 117 wRC+. While I didn’t see him falling that far, I saw the fall coming, writing in his 2024 Top 1,000 blurb, “2023 strikes me as a career year, but Olson is one of the premier power hitters in baseball.” And now I can follow up that blurb with “2024 strikes me as a down year, and Olson is still one of the premier power hitters in baseball.” He dominated to close out the season with 16 homers and .949 OPS in his final 63 games. He still hit the ball very hard with a 12.4% Barrel% that was right in line with career norms. It was just a down year. He remains one of the best power hitters in the game. – 2025 Projection: 93/36/115/.253/.348/.517/1

40) Pete Alonso – NYM, 1B, 30.4 – Alonso’s BA unsurprisingly bounced back from a .205 BABIP induced .217 BA in 2023, rising to .240 with a .276 BABIP in 2024, which is right around his career norms. The ebbs and flows of a baseball career are always interesting, with luck being such a big part of the game. Make sure to keep that in mind when evaluating Alonso’s career low 34 homers this year too. His 14.4 degree launch was 3.8 degrees lower than last year, so there might have been a conscious attempt to balance out his profile, but 34 homers is a really nice floor to have. And that is basically a reasonable floor with a 95.3 MPH FB/LD EV and a 75.3 MPH swing that is the 16th fastest swing in baseball amongst qualified hitters. Seeing how fast he swings the bat gives added confidence that his skills are not going to tank in his 30’s. This is a special talent who should be ripping dingers deep into his mid 30’s. – 2025 Projection: 92/37/115/.248/.339/.507/3

41) Michael Harris – ATL, OF, 24.1 – It’s an absolutely no brainer to stay (almost) fully in on Harris. I say almost because his stolen bases and speed dropped off considerably in 2024 with 10 steals and a 28.3 ft/sec sprint in 110 games. He had a 29.4 ft/sec sprint in 2022. Some of it could be blamed on a hamstring injury that knocked him out for 2 months, but not all of it could be blamed on that. It seems like the reasonable hope is for him to get to around 20+ rather than 30+, which is still very valuable. And steals can be extremely hard to predict because it often is just a choice of how much a player wants to run, so I wouldn’t rule anything out. His plate approach also hasn’t improved at all in his 3 years in the bigs with a 39.6% Chase%, and finally he hasn’t improved his launch at all with a 7.5 degree launch. Honestly after writing that all out, even I’m questioning if maybe I shouldn’t still be all the way in, but when I look at his elite 74.7 MPH swing, 10% Barrel%, 90.5/95.3 MPH AVG/FB EV, 47% Hard Hit%, and 20% K%, I realize there is no way I’m betting against this guy. That just screams electric player, and keep in mind all of those above stats were accumulated in his age 21-23 year old seasons. I don’t think we’ve seen his prime yet, and just a few incremental improvements in a few area could result in absolutely beastly seasons. His development hasn’t gone exactly like planned, which is why I wouldn’t consider him in that Top 20 ish dynasty asset area, but he’s easily still a Top 50 guy. – 2025 Projection: 88/23/77/.282/.328/.467/23

42) Lawrence Butler – OAK, OF, 24.9 – Butler put all of his faithful followers loyalty to the test when he got sent down to the minors after putting up a .555 OPS in his first 41 games of the season. He pulled the dynasty baseball version of “if you can’t handle me at my worst, you don’t deserve me at my best.” I’m not gonna lie, after naming him a target this off-season, I did drop him in one league after he got sent back down, but I never let him leave my mind, and when he got called back up and hit a dinger or two, I spent large amounts of FAAB because I simply couldn’t bear to watch him breakout on someone else’s team, and that proved prudent as he was a beast the rest of the way. He slashed .291/.330/.565 with 20 homers, a perfect 15 for 15 on the bases, and a 21.8/6.1 K%/BB% in his final 84 games. The reason I was so quick to stick my neck out to pick him back up (and shouldn’t have dropped him in the first place) is that the underlying numbers were screaming that he was getting unlucky earlier in the season, and the underlying numbers don’t lie (well, sometimes they lie, but not in this case). He smashes the ball with an 11% Barrel% and 91.1 MPH EV, he’s an excellent athlete, and his hit tool has continually improved throughout his career, with the improvements sticking in the majors with a respectable 26.8% whiff% and 27.3% chase%. And to top it all off, he’s about to get a major ballpark upgrade in 2025 and beyond. He had a .866 OPS on the road vs. a .753 OPS at home this year. I’ve been super high on him, and I’ll continue to be super high on him. Even this ranking might be too low. – 2025 Projection: 84/28/82/.255/.326/.487/20

43) Zach Neto – LAA, SS, 24.2 – I was Zach Neto’s biggest fan, ranking him 3rd overall in his FYPD class, far above consensus, and even I couldn’t foresee him stealing 30 bags this year. He stole only 5 bags in 84 games in 2023, and his 27.7 ft/sec sprint wasn’t that impressive. He actually got faster in 2024 with a 28.2 ft/sec sprint, which shows he made it a point to improve in that area last off-season, and he just decided to run more with 40 steal attempts. He wasn’t particularly successful, so it just goes to show how hard it is to predict steals. It can simply come down to how much a player chooses to run. Considering he wasn’t all that successful though, I think we have to consider what he did in 2024 a ceiling. Even if that drops down to 20, he has enough power and feel to hit to be a perennial 20/20 player with a solid BA. His 23 homers, 88.5/94.2 MPH FB/LD EV, 12.3 degree launch and 23.3% K% shows a player that can hit for both power and average. He’s still young and was thrown into the fire with the Angels aggressively promoting players, so I wouldn’t be surprised to see an uptick in both contact and power. His 6.5% BB% is low, but I see that definitely rising as he gains more experience. All of that above analysis assumes he will be healthy for 2025, and that now isn’t a guarantee with him undergoing shoulder surgery in early November which puts his rehab timeline right up against Opening Day. Even if he is ready in time, major surgery like that that takes all off-season to rehab is not a recipe for a big season. I’m bummed about it, but long term, I’m not going to let it shake me too much.- 2025 Projection: 74/21/78/.257/.324/.441/18 (assuming he misses some time in 2025) Prime Projection: 90/25/90/.271/.335/.465/25

44) Dylan Crews – WAS, OF, 23.1 – Crews’ dynasty value/hype has seen some fluctuations since being drafted, but the thing that was quietly flying under the radar, was how good he was on the bases, and for fantasy, that has a major impact on his value. He stole 25 bases in 100 games in the upper minors, and then he stole 12 bags with a double plus 29.3 ft/sec sprint in his 31 game MLB debut. He only stole 6 bases in 71 games his junior year of college, and then went 3 for 7 in his pro debut, so I can’t blame anyone for not expecting it, but it’s clearly a real skill he has, and it makes Crews insanely exciting for fantasy again. He combines the speed with above average contact rates (19.7% K%), above average chase rates (26.6%), and plus power (94.7 MPH FB/LD EV in the majors and a 90.2 MPH EV in the minors). The only quibble in his profile is the low launch (8.8 degrees), but he has the skillset to make that work, and he only needs to raise it a bit higher to be in a completely fine range, which I’m betting he will. The Langford vs. Crews debate might not end up as easy as we thought, and with Crews not really being considered in that lofty tier anymore, there could be a buy window here this off-season. If you can buy off the relatively subdued hype and .641 MLB OPS, I would be all over it. He’s a Top 50 dynasty asset in my book. – 2025 Projection: 81/21/76/.259/.334/.448/26 Prime Projection: 94/27/97/.278/.359/.481/28

45) Jasson Dominguez – NYY, OF, 22.2 – The Yankees didn’t want to unleash Dominguez in the majors this year, and his .617 OPS in the 67 PA he did receive isn’t super impressive, but make no mistake, Dominguez is still on the superstar path. His 75.4 MPH swing is straight elite, which proves right there that his talent really wasn’t that overhyped as an international prospect. His 23.4% whiff% was comfortably above average, which is pretty huge to see, and his 28.1% Chase% was slightly above average. Tack on plus speed, and Dominguez’ beastly potential was even able to shine through despite the Yanks refusing to unleash him. And oh yea, he destroyed the upper minors immediately after returning from Tommy John surgery in mid May with a 135 wRC+, 11 homers, 16 steals (in 17 attempts) and a 20.0/8.8 K%/BB% in 58 games. Is he really 22 years old and not 26 years old? Beats me. But I don’t care when it comes to a talent this huge (I gave my thoughts on MLB cracking down on players’ lying about their ages in the 19 Dynasty Baseball Strategies/Thoughts for 2025). I see no reason why the Yanks won’t unleash him immediately in 2025, and he could be on a beeline for elite dynasty asset status in short order. Go after him. – 2025 Projection: 83/21/76/.246/.323/.434/26 Prime Projection: 109/28/91/.266/.351/.487/34

46) Cole Ragans – KCR, LHP, 27.4 – Ragans proved without a shadow of a doubt that his 2nd half 2023 breakout was 100% legit. He was a legit ace for the entire season in 2024, and most importantly, he stayed healthy all year. He put up a 3.14 ERA with a 29.3/8.8 K%/BB% in 186.1 IP. The 32% whiff% was elite and the control was average, which is all he needs to let his explosive stuff do the rest. His 95.4 MPH fastball was the 8th most valuable fastball in baseball with a +16 Run Value. His double plus changeup was the 15th most valuable changeup in the game, putting up a 47.8% whiff%. The slider and curve were both plus, bat missing weapons, and he throws a useful cutter too. The only deficiency is that his control was merely average and not plus, which puts him slightly below the aces ranked ahead of him, but not by much. – 2025 Projection: 13/3.28/1.13/218 in 185 IP

47) George Kirby – SEA, RHP, 27.2 – Kirby still hasn’t found that great secondary, and it resulted in him continuing to sit in that low end ace territory with a 3.53 ERA and 23.0/3.0 K%/BB% in 191 IP. His 96 MPH fastball is elite with a 29.1% whiff%, and his 3% BB% is best in all of baseball amongst qualified pitchers. And while he hasn’t had a secondary pitch breakout, he throws 3 secondaries (slider, splitter, curve) which are all average to above average. His slider was actually the 13th most valuable slider in baseball with a 9 Run Value, but the pitch got lucky with a .294 xwOBA and 27.1% whiff% vs. a .245 wOBA. This is his 2nd straight year of 190+ IP, and even if he doesn’t rack up strikeouts, I would still put him in low ace territory. His secondaries did improve in 2024, so if he can improve them again in 2025, that could be the incremental improvement he needs to really put up some monstrous career years. I’m definitely not budging off Kirby. – 2025 Projection: 14/3.28/1.02/182 in 188 IP

48) Junior Caminero – TBR, 3B, 21.9 – Caminero swings the 9th fastest bat in baseball at 77.2 MPH. He hits the ball very, very hard with a 93.3 MPH EV at Triple-A, and a 89.7 MPH EV, 11.8% Barrel%, and a 45.7% Hard Hit% in the majors. And the best part of all is that he’s had above average strikeout rates most of his career, putting up a very respectable 21.5% K% in 43 MLB games. There is almost no way this guy isn’t going to start raking his face off in the very near future. The swing is a little on the long side, the 31.7% whiff% doesn’t look as good as the K rates, he chases a lot with a 35.4 Chase%, and the launch is low at 6.8 degrees, but he legitimately has the type of profile that can make all of those things work and still put up big numbers. And at only 21 years old, his plate skills and launch are only going to improve. He’s right on track to be one of the best hit/power combo bats in the game, and if there is any buy window based on the small, mediocre MLB sample, I would be all over it. – 2025 Projection: 74/24/83/.262/.319/.461/5 Prime Projection: 89/33/103/.279/.343/.516/7

49) Jackson Holliday – BAL, 2B, 21.4 – There always has to be one. Chourio was a beast. Langford was really good and beasted at the end of the season. Merrill exceeded all expectations all year. Caminero showed flashes and laid a solid foundation. And then there was Holliday, who had a nightmare rookie year. He slashed .189/.255/.311 with 5 homers, 4 steals, and a 33.2/7.2 K%/BB% in 60 games. The .262 xwOBA backs up the terrible surface stats. To continue with the bad, just to get it all out of my system, his bat speed also wasn’t very impressive with a 71.2 MPH swing that was very slightly below average. There are very real things to be concerned about, like the hit tool being bottom of the scale bad, because he doesn’t necessarily have the biggest game power/base stealing to truly make up for that. It’s possible for prospects to bust, or have decent but unspectacular careers, even elite ones who feel can’t miss. Now having said that, I’m not even close to giving up on Holliday. Even with the extreme struggles, he put up a very good 8.2% Barrel% and 89.3/94.8 MPH AVG/FB EV. Hitting the ball that hard as a 20 year old is impressive. He’s also lightning fast with a 29.4 ft/sec sprint, and he had an above average 27.2% Chase%, so it’s not like he was completely lost up there. His hit tool has been very strong at every stop of the minors, so a 33.9% whiff% as a 20 year old in his first taste of the majors really isn’t that huge of a deal. It’s almost certain to improve as he gains experience. Do I think his terrible season has his stock dropping a bit? Yes. But he’s still a Top 50 dynasty asset for me, and I’m expecting a much better year 2. – 2025 Projection: 77/16/68/.247/.318/.411/18 Prime Projection: 98/25/83/.278/.360/.485/25

50) Hunter Greene – CIN, RHP, 25.8 – Here is what I wrote in part in Greene’s 2024 Top 1,000 blurb, “Buy low on Hunter Greene. We’ve been taught over and over again to not throw the towel in on elite pitching prospects if they don’t immediately dominate their first few years in the league, and Greene has all of the ingredients to be a next level breakout as he gains more experience. I know the fastball gets hit harder than you would expect, but as his command improves and as he continues to tinker with his arsenal, I’m betting on him figuring it out. This is going to be one of those breakouts that look so obvious in hindsight.” … and that obvious (in hindsight) breakout happened in 2024 with him putting up a 2.75 ERA (4.82 ERA in 2023), 3.03 xERA, and a 27.7/9.3 K%/BB% in 150.1 IP. He did in fact tinker with his arsenal (I wrote that blurb before news of his new pitches came out, but of course all young pitchers are now tinkering with their arsenals if they are smart), improving his fastball movement to the point where it was the 2nd most valuable fastball in baseball (Cade Smith is #1 by a landslide). He also added a splitter which was an above average pitch, even if he didn’t go to it often (8.3% usage). And the slider of course remained a plus to double plus whiff machine (39% whiff%). His control/command remained below average, but I still think there is another level in here as he stays healthy and gains more experience. I don’t even think this is the peak, assuming he stays healthy, which who knows there honestly (he missed time with elbow inflammation this year). Greene had the ace breakout I knew was coming, and I’m going to continue to buy high. – 2025 Projection: 14/3.26/1.05/203 in 170 IP

51) Zack Wheeler – PHI, RHP, 34.10 – Not only did Wheeler show zero signs of slowing down, it was arguably his best season ever with a 2.57 ERA, 0.96 WHIP and 28.5/6.6 K%/BB% in 200 IP. The ERA and WHIP were career bests, and the K rate was the 2nd best mark of his career. He added a splitter this year which was immediately an elite pitch with a 40.2% whiff% and .178 xwOBA (7.3% usage). That was just the cherry on top of an already elite 5 pitch mix (now 6 pitch mix). As much as I love fading the true aces, there is no doubt that having a consistent veteran ace like this on a win now team is invaluable. In win now, I wouldn’t worry about his age too much and just ride him. And if you are about to start a rebuild, make sure you get an absolute haul for him despite his age. A general dynasty ranking will be hard to capture his true dynasty value in practice, rather than just in theory. He’s a league changer. – 2025 Projection: 15/2.93/1.04/211 in 195 IP

52) Freddie Freeman – LAD, 1B, 35.7 – The decline has to come one day, right? And as we saw with Paul Goldschmidt, when it comes for a player around this age, their dynasty value falls off a cliff very quickly. If I owned Freeman, even in win now mode, I would be mighty tempted to cash my chips in this off-season, even if the offer isn’t like a godfather type offer. He had another excellent year in 2024 with a 137 wRC+, 22 homers, 9 steals, and a 15.7/12.2 K%/BB% in 147 games. His .370 xwOBA was a career low, but it was still in the top 6% of baseball, which just shows how great of a career he’s having. He should have a gentle decline, but even a gentle decline will tank his trade value. It’s better to sell a year early than a year late. I think this is the year to pull the trigger. – 2025 Projection: 92/25/102/.290/.384/.501/10

53) Ketel Marte – ARI, 2B, 31.6 – Marte has always hit the ball hard, but he went absolutely bonkos in 2024 with a 94 MPH EV which was a career high by a mile (91.1 MPH in 2023). It was the 6th best EV in baseball amongst qualified hitters. And it resulted in him smashing 36 homers in 136 games to go along with his usual excellent plate plate approach (18.2/11.1 K%/BB%) and high BA (.292). His righty swing is just an insane 77.2 MPH, and it resulted in a 1.080 OPS vs. lefties. His 71.5 MPH lefty swing is just fine too and it resulted in a .841 OPS. I have to say, the jump in EV is suspiciously high, but what do I know. It sure feels like a career year, but if the throwback steroid era 30 year old power breakout is for real, maybe he can hold this level for the next couple years. I find it hard to bet on that, but even if he falls back to career norms, he’s still a damn good hitter. – 2025 Projection: 97/29/90/.280/.357/.506/8

54) Michael King – SDP, RHP, 29.10 – King is a true ace. It really is that simple. After his rough April, he put up a 2.42 ERA with a 28.5/7.4 K%/BB% in 137.2 IP. He stayed healthy all year and accumulated 185.2 IP including the playoffs, and he was getting stronger as the year went on. His changeup was the 4th most valuable change in baseball with a +10 run value and notching a 36.2% whiff%. His 92.9 MPH sinker was the 22nd most valuable sinker in baseball. The 93.7 MPH 4-seamer missed bats with a 26.1% whiff%, and the sweeper gave him another swing and miss secondary with a 34.5% whiff%. His 29.2% whiff% overall is near elite. He was not a fluke at all, as he flashed these same skills at the end of 2023. I wouldn’t quite place him at the top of the “true ace” tier, as even during his dominate May-September the 3.40 SIERA wasn’t quite as good as the ERA, and the K/BB numbers weren’t in the land of Skenes, Crochet, Skubal, and Sale, but he’s in the tier right under them. – 2025 Projection: 14/3.28/1.16/205 in 175 IP

55) Grayson Rodriguez – BAL, RHP, 25.3 – Grayson is an ace waiting to happen. He’s not quite there yet, but as long as he stays healthy, it’s basically a foregone conclusion, so if you can get any discount/fatigue price on him at all, I would jump on it. He leveled up in 2024 with a 3.86 ERA and 26.5/7.3 K%/BB% in 116.2 IP. The 96.1 MPH fastball notched a plus 26.9% K% and .325 xwOBA. The pitch got a bit unlucky, but it’s a plus pitch. The plus changeup was his best and most used secondary with a 34.8% whiff% and .254 xwOBA. The slider wasn’t that great, but it missed a lot of bats with a 36.1% whiff%, so I think it will be a good pitch long term. He also threw an average-ish curve. It all resulted in a 30% whiff%, which is elite for a starter, and the control was above average. Velocity, control, bat missing fastball, bat missing secondaries, diverse pitch mix, size  … he has it all, and it was just starting to blossom last year until a lat injury (near the shoulder) ended his season on July 31st. It seemed he was healthy enough to be considered for the post-season, but Baltimore decided to play it safe. All pitchers are risky, so I’m inclined to use the injury as another chance to buy at a small discount. He won’t come cheap and there might not be any discount on him at all, so maybe the real takeaway here is that if you own him already, don’t be the one to sell even slightly low and then come to regret it. – 2025 Projection: 14/3.48/1.17/197 in 170 IP

56) Dylan Cease – SDP, RHP, 29.2 – Cease is officially one of the most inconsistent pitchers in baseball,, and I guess below average control will do that to you, but he put up a career best 8.5% BB% in 2024, which is almost dead average, giving hope that he can get off that seesaw and just remain a consistent ace from here on out. We all know the stuff is straight filth with the 2nd most valuable slider in baseball (behind only Chris Sale and tied with Ronel Blanco) that notched a 44.6% whiff% and .211 xwOBA. The 4-seamer sits 96.9 MPH, and he rounds out the arsenal with a much lesser used knuckle curve and sweeper. The sweeper is a new pitch and it was excellent when he went to it with a 38.5% whiff% on only 4.2% usage. It all led to a 3.47 ERA (3.32 xERA) with a 29.4/8.5 K%/BB% in 189.1 IP. His 32.3% whiff% is elite. His control started to regress more towards career norms in the 2nd half with a 9.6% BB% in his final 91 IP, so I’m not sure I completely trust the control gains. It’s enough to keep him out of the true top tier ace range for me, but it’s not enough to scare me off completely. He’s in the 2nd tier of aces. – 2025 Projection: 13/3.53/1.18/220 in 185 IP

57) Spencer Strider – ATL, RHP, 26.6 – Strider underwent an internal brace procedure on his right elbow in mid April, and the best case scenario seems to be a late April return. Atlanta has World Series aspirations, so I’m sure their main goal is to have him healthy for the post-season. I’ve been preaching to take the “Tommy John” discount on elite starters for as long as I’ve been writing, but I do believe you have to factor in some level of risk. It’s not like everyone just comes right back into prime form. Some never get fully healthy again. Most have to shake off some kind of rust at the least. What we do know for sure, is that Strider has best fantasy starter in the game potential if he’s fully healthy. His slider is among the best, or the best in baseball with a 55.3% whiff% in 2023, which is nuts. The fastball sits mid to upper 90’s and is a plus pitch. And he also throws a changeup and curve which are both really good pitches when he goes to them, which isn’t often. And he has about average control of his arsenal. If you want to assume full health, he would rank somewhere in the 30’s, but he’s not going to pitch a full season this year, and assuming 100% full health right off the bat isn’t something I would plan on. If he does immediately get back there, consider it gravy, but I think it’s prudent to factor in some level of rust. – 2025 Projection: 9/3.40/1.15/166 in 135 IP

58) Blake Snell – LAD, LHP, 32.5 – Snell has always been an extremely streaky pitcher who needs to find a rhythm to succeed, so it was not surprising to see him struggle early in the season after Boras took his free agency negotiations into mid to late March. Snell doesn’t blame Boras for not getting what he wanted this off-season though, coming to Boras’ defense when Jordan Montgomery fired Boras, saying Boras “butchered” his free agency negotiations. Montgomery never found that rhythm all season, but Snell eventually did, putting up a 1.23 ERA with a 38.1/10.0 K%/BB% in his final 80.1 IP. The 95.9 MPH fastball performed better than ever with a 24.4% whiff% and .286 xwOBA. His 3 secondaries (curve, change, slider) put up a 49.8%, 47.6%, and 44.6% whiff%, respectively. It’s his 2nd straight year of putting up a 37%+ whiff% overall, which is insane for a starting pitcher. Below average control, being 32 years old, and not being the type to rack up innings (he’s thrown more than 129.1 IP just twice in his career) are the only things preventing him from ranking even higher. – 2025 Projection: 14/3.25/1.14/226 in 170 IP

59) Ozzie Albies – ATL, 2B, 28.3 – I’m a little torn on Albies. On the one hand, Albies is still in the prime of his career, and has a long track of excellent production, which makes predicting a bounce back season in 2025 seem very easy. But on the other hand, his 27.2 ft/sec sprint speed was a career low and was below average, he swings a well below average bat with a 69.1 MPH swing, and he chases a lot with a 33.6% Chase%. He also doesn’t hit the ball hard enough (32% Hard Hit% in 2024 and 35.5% in his career) to make up for a lot of those deficiencies. He thrives based on the contact (14.9% K%), lift (18.4 degree launch), and pull (48.8% Pull%) profile, but I’m starting to question if this is a profile I want to bet on long term. The profile isn’t that much different than Jose Altuve, who has aged just fine, so maybe I’m overthinking it, but I’m starting to think that Albies might have more name value than real dynasty value at the moment. I’m not too concerned over the next couple of seasons, but in the medium and long term, I wouldn’t be surprised to see him as just a good fantasy player, rather than a true difference maker. – 2025 Projection: 83/25/87/.266/.321/.461/16

60) Spencer Steer – CIN, 1B/OF, 27.4 – Good luck trying to predict stolen bases. Steer was quite bad at stealing bases in the minors, and barely ran. He went 0 for 1 in his 28 game MLB debut in 2022. And then over the last two year he’s become one of the better base stealers in the majors. He went 15 for 18 in 2023 and then 25 for 28 in 2024. His 28.2 ft/sec sprint speed is definitely plenty fast enough to steal bags if you are good at it, and it seems Steer has been putting in the work on that part of his game. It’s a big deal for his fantasy value, because he already had a strong plate approach and above average game power. He had a 20.9%/11.0% K%/BB% with an 88 MPH EV, 17.4 degree launch, and a 44.4% Pull%. With the newfound stolen bases, that should make him a perennial .250/20+/20+ guy for the next several years. And if he can find just a hair more raw power in his late 20’s, there could be a big career year or two mixed in there. Defense is his biggest problem as he isn’t good anywhere on the field, but he has versatility (he can play every position but CF), and he’s not terrible at any of them either. I’m not really concerned about his playing time at all. I’ve been high on Steer since his breakout in the upper minors in 2022, and I’ll continue to be high on him. – 2025 Projection: 81/25/90/.253/.339/.456/21

61) Brenton Doyle – COL, OF, 26.11 – Doyle lowered his strikeout rate from 35% in 2023 to 25.4% in 2024, which has to be one of the biggest improvements of strikeout rate in a single year of all time. That is really unbelievable considering his strikeout rates were over 30% his entire minor league career too other than in rookie ball. If this were a case where the K rate was back over 30% in the 2nd half, I would be less likely to believe, but he put up a 26.1% K% post all break in 57 games, and a 20.8% K% in 19 games in September. It’s prudent to factor in some regression, but it’s pretty clear he took a big step forward with his hit tool, and that is all he needed to let his big power/speed combo shine. He hit 23 homers with 30 steals, and the underlying numbers back it up with a 10.5% Barrel% and 29.3 ft/sec sprint. If he didn’t have such a terrible history of hit tool issues, he would likely rank even higher than this, so even this high ranking takes into account some added risk there. I’m 100% buying into Doyle. – 2025 Projection: 86/26/82/.248/.315/.447/29

62) Manny Machado – SDP, 3B, 32.9 – Machado underwent elbow surgery in early October 2023 which brought his rehab timeline right up against the start of 2024, and it seems pretty clear that was the reason for his slow start (.611 OPS in his first 42 games). But he quickly shook the rust off, and he looked healthy the rest of the way, slashing .297/.345/.525 with 24 homers, 9 steals, and a 17.7/6.9 K%/BB% in his final 110 games. He smashed the ball all season with a 92.5 MPH EV, so some of those early season struggles might have also just been bad luck. Everything was within career norms with zero signs og decline. He’s creeping up there in age, but he’s still a very impactful win now piece. His value might be in a very reasonably priced range this off-season for a win now team. – 2025 Projection: 82/30/97/.277/.334/.480/9

63) Kyle Schwarber – PHI, OF, 32.1 – Schwarber brought his BA back from the abyss in 2024 after getting too launch happy in 2022-23. His 19+ degree launches in those years were career highs, and they resulted in a .218 BA and .197 BA. He brought the launch back down to a reasonable 15 degrees this year, and the BA rose with it to .248. Even in 2022-23 the xBA was telling us that wasn’t his true talent level. A career .230 BA in 4,660 PA just might be a large enough sample to say that is a fair expectation going forward ;). And of course what you are buying is that monster power. He couldn’t get to 40+ like he did in the launch happy years, cracking 38 this year with a 93.6 MPH EV, but we will take that trade off all day. He’s also an OBP machine with a .366 OBP. Schwarber is a great example on how league rules can drastically change a players value. Even in 5×5 BA leagues, he’s great, but in an OBP league, or in a 6+ category league, or in an Ottoneu style points league (no negative for K’s), he’s a next level beast. He played in only 5 games in the OF last year, making him a DH only player right now, which is extremely annoying, and while he could gain OF eligibility during the season, there is no guarantee of that. It definitely dings his value, and it’s something you are going to have to plan around now. – 2025 Projection: 104/39/100/.230/.343/.490/4

64) Brent Rooker – OAK, OF, 30.5 – I remember when Rooker was a fun FYPD “sleeper” pick back in 2017/18 after he destroyed pro ball in his pro debut with 18 homers in 62 games in the lower minors that same year he got drafted (just another reminder to not underrate great pro debuts). He then went on to rip dingers every year since, culminating in this monster career year in 2024. I guess what I’m saying is, maybe this monster year shouldn’t have been as surprising at it seemed. He crushed 39 homers with a 164 wRC+ in 145 games, and the .383 xwOBA, which was top 4% in baseball, backed up the surface stats. It wasn’t only the homers though, he also hit .293 and stole 11 bags. The reason why I called it a “career year,” is that for one, it just smells of a career year the same way Matt Olson’s 2023 smelled of a career year to me, and for two, the underlying numbers don’t back up the hit tool. He had a 28.8% K% with a 34.1% whiff%, which tells me the BA is definitely coming way down in 2025. Regardless, there is zero doubt that Rooker is a legit elite power hitter with a 96.9 MPH FB/LD EV and 18.9 degree launch, so even if the BA comes way down, there is plenty of value to be had, and like every other hitter in Oakland, the ballpark upgrade will only help him. – 2025 Projection: 78/33/93/.260/.334/.510/8

65) Matt McLain – CIN, 2B/SS, 25.8 – Don’t forget about little Matty Mclain. He underwent shoulder surgery in late March and then suffered a late season rib injury which knocked out his entire regular season. But he returned in time for the AFL to prove his shoulder was healthy, and he’s hitting well there with 4 homers and a .844 OPS in 12 games. It gives confidence that with a full normal off-season, he will be ready to build on his awesome 2023 MLB debut where he slashed .290/.357/.507 with 16 homers, 14 steals, and a 28.5%/7.7% K%/BB% in 89 games. He obliterated Triple-A too with a 184 wRC+ in 40 games. He has double plus speed with a 29 ft/sec sprint and he has above average power with a 89.3 MPH EV and 13.8 degree launch. His plate approach wasn’t great with a 28.5%/7.7% K%/BB% in the majors, but his chase rate was above average at 25.4%, and his 28% whiff% shows he isn’t going to have any major contact issues. He also had a 20.6%/16.7% K%/BB% in the minors. And the cherry on top is that he is a good defensive player, so his glove will keep him on the field. Assuming full health, McLain is the real deal, but factoring in some rust and/or risk from the surgery wouldn’t be crazy. Just don’t factor in too much, because McLain can be a really exciting fantasy player. – 2025 Projection: 82/25/79/.269/.343/.468/22

66) Pete Crow-Armstrong – CHC, OF, 23.0 – Pete Crow Armstrong’s power has been underrated from the time he was drafted. He was my #1 target in his 2020/21 FYPD class after getting drafted a ridiculous 19th overall, writing in his FYPD blurb, “Armstrong stands out for his plus speed, plus defense, and strong track record of hitting. Power hasn’t been a big part of his game, but he has recently added muscle onto his projectable 6’1” frame, and a 99 MPH exit velocity mark at a 2019 Perfect Game event is damn good. Armstrong is my favorite target in first year player drafts relative to consensus.” I’ve basically named him a target every 3 months since then, even ranking him within my Top 100 overall this off-season at #99. And in 2024, especially the 2nd half of 2024, we started to see the first buds of a breakout that could absolutely explode in 2025. For starters, he put up a 88.9/94.0 MPH AVG/FB EV on the season, which shows that power potential I saw 4 years ago wasn’t a mirage. And when it comes with a 17.2 degree launch, an elite 30.0 ft/sec sprint speed, and elite CF defense, you have the makings of an extremely exciting fantasy player. We saw that player in his final 65 games, slashing .267/.317/.457 with 9 homers, 11 steals, and a 21.8/6.9 K%/BB%. The reason why he isn’t ranked even higher is because he still does have some deficiencies in his game. His 70.6 MPH swing is below average, his 41.4% Chase% is extreme, and his 29.9% whiff% is well below average. That isn’t exactly my favorite trifecta of skills, but he’s still so young, I foresee all of those numbers improving. And focusing on what he doesn’t do well is silly when what he does do well is so insanely exciting. Put some respect on this man’s name. His name is Pete Crow Armstrong, not Pete Crow Armweak. – 2025 Projection: 82/18/71/.244/.312/.425/31 Prime Projection: 93/24/74/.259/.331/.446/44

67) Kristian Campbell – BOS, 2B/OF, 22.3 – Campbell possesses one of the most visually disgusting swings I have ever seen, and I mean that in the best way possible. It looks like he literally unhinges his shoulder to turn his body into a cannon, absolutely unfurling on the baseball. Here is what I wrote about a homer Campbell hit in early September in the in-season Dynasty Baseball Rundowns: “on his latest homer, I think he dislocated his shoulder with one of the most bad intentions swings I’ve seen.”  Underscoring my visual evaluation of that explosive shoulder movement is that shortly after that homer he hit the IL with a lat strain, which is right under the shoulder blades. Campbell underwent a well documented swing change and bat speed training to unlock more power last off-season, which was obviously successful beyond anybody’s wildest imagination, so let’s just hope that it’s not going to cause more injuries. That is the only small thing that is even rattling around in my brain as a negative, because the season he just had was nothing short or spectacular. He slashed .330/.439/.558 with 20 homers, 24 steals, and a 19.9/14.3 K%/BB% in 115 games spread across 3 levels (A+, AA, AAA). He was just as dominant in the upper minors as he was at High-A with across the board domination. He hits it hard, he has a good feel to hit, he has a good approach, he has size (6’3”, 191 pounds), he has bat speed, he can lift it, and he has speed. You can be hesitant to fully buy in because it feels like he came out of nowhere, but he put up a 1.033 OPS in 45 games in the ACC in 2023, a .932 OPS in 58 games in 2022 in the Northwoods League, and then a .911 OPS in 22 games at mostly High-A in his pro debut, so it’s not his fault that everyone underrated him. He always had a good feel to hit and good approach, and he always had the frame and athleticism to tack on more power, so I’m not going to hold it against him that he wasn’t more hyped (4th round pick in 2023). He still didn’t lift and pull the ball a ton with an under 40% Pull% and under 30% FB%, but he knew when to pick his spots (as you saw with that homer video above), and he has the type of profile that can thrive without an extreme lift and pull profile. I’m all in on Campbell. He’s an elite prospect who has a chance to break camp in the bigs. 2025 Projection: 68/16/61/.252/.324/.423/19 Prime Projection: 98/26/89/.277/.356/.478/26

68) Roman Anthony – BOS, OF, 20.11 – Because the rule of prospecting is that if you are even the smallest, tiniest, tiny bit lower on a prospect than other prospectors (most to all have Anthony over Campbell, while I have it the other way around), you must bash that prospect with an overly critical lens, let me start with the negatives here. For one, Anthony isn’t the best base stealer with a career 38 steals in 52 attempts (he was 21 for 28 last year), so there is risk that he doesn’t run as much in the majors as we hope. Secondly, he hits the ball on the ground a lot with an around 50% GB% in 2024, which could limit his homer upside. And lastly, there is some hit tool risk with a 23.5% K%. Now that we got that out of the way, let me just say that I obviously love Anthony, he’s a legit 50/50 coin flip with Campbell, and he’s a no doubt elite prospect. He started the season as a 19 year old in the upper minors and obliterated both Double-A and Triple-A, slashing .291/.396/.498 with 18 homers, 21 steals, and a 23.5/14.6 K%/BB% in 119 games. He crushes the ball, he has speed, he has size, he has elite age to level production, and he hit both lefties and righties well in 2024. He’s as close to a Gunnar Henderson clone as there is, and if you wanted to put him even as the #1 prospect in baseball, I wouldn’t argue with you. He’s going to be a beast. 2025 Projection: 51/14/46/.251/.328/.422/9 Prime Projection: 92/31/98/.272/.363/.493/18

69) Bryce Miller – SEA, RHP, 26.8 – I definitely don’t trust the 2.94 ERA in 180.1 IP when the 3.73 xERA and 24.3/6.4 K%/BB% don’t back that up, but this might very well be a case where the underlying numbers end up regressing towards the surface stats, rather than the other way around. Miller’s 95.2 MPH 4-seamer was one of the best in the game with a +14 Run Value, ranking 14th in all of baseball. His new splitter was the most valuable splitter in baseball with a +10 Run Value. It didn’t miss a ton of bats with a 29% whiff%, so I don’t fully trust that it is actually the best splitter in baseball, but that is insanely impressive for a new pitch. He also started throwing a knuckle curve in the 2nd half which was excellent with a 37.8% whiff% and .207 xwOBA. He has a sinker which keeps the ball on the ground, and he mixes in a sweeper, slider and cutter too. All signs actually point towards him exploding in 2025. He’s in that funny spot where his ERA should make him overrated, but nobody is fully buying the ERA I don’t think, and I think the underlying numbers are about to meet up with those surface stats. I’m all in on Miller. – 2025 Projection: 14/3.39/1.06/189 in 185 IP

70) Chris Sale – ATL, LHP, 35.11 – Vintage Chris Sale came back for 2024, and really the only thing that changed was that he stayed healthy. His 177.2 IP was the most he’s pitched in a season since 2017. And he performed like 2017 Chris Sale too with a 2.38 ERA and 32.1/5.6 K%/BB%. The slider was the best slider in baseball by a large margin with a 24 Run Value (Dylan Cease and Ronel Blanco were tied for 2nd at 19, and the next highest guy was Ryan Helsley at 13). The 94.8 MPH 4-seamer was above average to plus with a respectable 24.1% whiff%. His changeup was the best it’s been in 6 years with a .244 xwOBA. He also throws a lesser used, decent sinker which keeps the ball on the ground. He’s basically 36 years old and he hasn’t thrown this many innings in years. Who knows if he can do it again, but what I do know is that I’m not betting against at least plus control of that kind of arsenal. You have to factor in some injury and age risk, but he looks like an elite win now piece. – 2025 Projection: 14/3.14/1.04/202 in 165 IP

71) Gerrit Cole – NYY, RHP, 34.7 – I was slightly low on Cole in 2024, closing out his Top 1,000 blurb by writing, “there are some indications he might be coming back to the pack a bit,” and then shortly after that he got hit with nerve inflammation and edema in his elbow, which delayed the start of his season until mid June. It resulted in the worst season he’s had since his breakout with a 3.41 ERA and 25.5/7.4 K%/BB% in 95 IP. He also put up a lowly 17.7/8.1 K%/BB% in 29 innings in the playoffs (albeit with a 2.17 ERA). I think it’s fair to say that the days of elite Cole are likely gone, although maybe you can say a full off-season to get healthy will produce a bounce back season. The 95.9 MPH fastball was a career low and his secondaries are starting to become pretty unimpressive. His secondaries used to be whiff machines, but that took a big step back in 2023, and then it took another step back this year with his overall whiff% down to a slightly below average 24.8%. He’s had below average Barrels against for years now, so he’s not an inducing weak contact guy, and his control took a step back this year as well. For sure you have to factor in some health bounce back, but he took a step back in 2023 when he was healthy, so I’m not sure how much to factor in. He’s still a reliable vet who should produce near ace production, but it seems his days of being a tippy top dynasty asset are over. – 2025 Projection: 13/3.36/1.11/199 in 185 IP

72) Tyler Glasnow – LAD, RHP, 31.8 – After throwing a career high 120 IP in 2023, Glasnow topped that mark in 2024 with 134 IP. If we want to look on the bright side, he is headed in the right direction. If we want to look on the dark side, he has a very clear internal limit of about 145 IP max (he threw 144.2 IP in 2014 if you want to include the minors and the AFL), and the closer he gets to that mark, the more the countdown until injury gets closer to zero. His season ended on August 11th with an elbow injury. The good news is that it already might be fully healed, so he should be full go for 2025 theoretically. When he’s on the mound, he’s among the best fantasy starters in the game with a 3.49 ERA, 2.65 xERA, and a 32.2/6.7 K%/BB%. That K% was 4th highest among pitchers with more than 100 IP (Crochet, Snell, and Skenes were the top 3, in that order). The stuff is straight filthy with 3 plus to elite pitches in his 96.3 MPH 4-seamer, slider and curveball. Even with all of the injury risk, and the likely cap of about 150 IP (and that is being generous), Glasnow’s upside is just too high to ding too much. I’m willing to take on the risk. – 2025 Projection: 12/3.33/1.03/178 in 140 IP

73) Shota Imanaga – CHC, LHP, 31.7 – It’s no secret that I enjoy a good victory lap like Wade Boggs on horseback taking a victory lap around Yankee Stadium after beating the Braves in the 1996 World Series. Like Boggs, I also eat chicken before I write every article, and I also drink 107 beers on a flight before going 2 for 3 with 2 doubles just hours later. Come to think of it, maybe that was CJ Abrams problem. Not that he partied until 8 am, but that he went 0 for 3 right after that. Dude, we all know that if you are going to be a rebel, you better produce. Maybe he did deserve that punishment after all ;). Now where was I? Oh yea, victory lapping. While I do believe in celebrating your hits, I also believe in taking the walk of shame for your misses, and finding lessons in who I consider to be my biggest miss, Shota Imanaga. I had Imanaga pegged as a good, but not great MLB pitcher, giving him a projection of 11/3.91/1.22/175 in 160 IP. He ended up going 15/2.91/1.02/174 in 173.1 IP. I believe where I went wrong was that I overrated fastball velocity, and while to my credit, the 91.7 MPH fastball actually didn’t miss that many bats (17.5% whiff%) or induce weak contact (91.2 MPH EV with .327 xwOBA), it was still a positive value pitch with a 52% usage rate, and it came with elite control, an elite secondary (splitter), a diverse pitch mix, and a history of ace production in the 2nd toughest league in the world. I shouldn’t have let a low 90’s fastball blind me to how good and established the rest of the profile was, and also to the fact that the fastball was still pretty good despite the low velocity. This wasn’t my only miss, but I believe that every other miss I had, my process was good and I don’t regret my take on them. Imanaga is the only one where I’m disappointed in my evaluation, and I will be taking those lessons with me headed into 2025, starting with properly ranking him for next season, which is in the near ace tier. – 2025 Projection: 13/3.28/1.06/182 in 175 IP

74) Framber Valdez – HOU, LHP, 31.5 – Valdez had a mediocre first half of the season, but he was back at ace levels in his final 108.2 IP with a 2.24 ERA and 27.5/8.4 K%/BB%. He’s a groundball machine with 4 of his 5 pitches putting up a 2 degree through a negative 13 degree launch. His curve, slider and changeup are whiff machines with a 39.8%, 35.4%, and 38.3% whiff%. And he’s maintained slightly above average control for 3 full seasons now. His K numbers have never been high enough to put into the true ace tier, but he’s firmly established in the lower ace tier. – 2025 Projection: 13/3.25/1.13/190 in 190 IP

75) William Contreras – MIL, C, 27.3 – Contreras is coming off back to back seasons finishing as the #1 catcher in fantasy. He’s smack dab in the middle of his prime at 27 years old. There isn’t much an argument for anybody else to hold down the #1 dynasty catcher in the game spot. He smashes the ball with a career high 92.8 MPH EV that is in the top 6% of the league, and his 118.1 MPH Max EV was the 4th hardest hit ball all season. He has a good feel to hit and a plus plate approach (20.5/11.5 K%/BB%). And he also nabbed 9 bags this year, which is a really, really nice little bonus to get from your catcher. The only quibble with his profile is that he hits it on the ground a lot with a 54.5% GB%, which definitely limits his homer upside, but he hits the ball hard enough where he can still hit plenty of dingers, as evidenced by him knocking out 23 this year. – 2025 Projection: 88/22/84/.279/.360/.460/6

76) Triston Casas – BOS, 1B, 25.3 – Casas missed 4 months of the season after suffering torn cartilage in his ribs in late April. I’ve had two pretty big rib injuries in my life, once playing tackle football with my knucklehead friends when we were like 18 years old (no pads, just pickup tackle), and once playing flag football in my law school league. I guess maybe the lesson is that tackle football isn’t anymore dangerous than flag football … but point being, when you hurt your ribs, any movement at all can be extremely painful. It’s not surprising that he was rusty when he returned in mid August, but by the end of the season, he was starting to hit his stride with 5 homers and a 1.026 OPS in is final 12 games. The rib injury was a small bump in the road, but that was all it was as he’s still on the path to being one of the top slugging 1B in baseball. He swings a double plus 74.6 MPH bat, which is really all you need to know about how legit his power is. His 90.2/95.8 MPH AVG/FB EV also backs up how elite his power is, and he’s never had any launch issues in his career, so there are zero worries there either. The only worry is that the hit tool ends up below average with a 32.2% whiff%, but it was better in 2023 (28.1% whiff%), and even with a below average hit tool, he will still be a beast with high OBP’s (12.3% BB%). Buy any discount you can on Casas, especially in OBP and 6+ hitting cat leagues. He’s going to be a monster. – 2025 Projection: 86/32/94/.253/.348/.514/1

77) Matt Shaw – CHC, 3B/2B/SS, 23.4 – The little man discount never fails. Baseball scouts see a little man, and they immediately shave a few inches of projection right off the top. I don’t mind it, because it consistently creates excellent buying opportunities for the right players, and Matt Shaw is definitely one of those right players. He went a little later than he should have in the real MLB Draft, then he went a little later than he should have in Dynasty First Year Player Drafts, and now he’s getting ranked a little later than he should be on prospect lists. He’s an elite prospect that gets ranked like a merely good one. He’s under 6’0”, but his bat packs a true punch, putting up an 89.3 MPH EV with a 14.6 degree launch in 35 games at Triple-A. He smoked 21 homers on the season in 121 games split between Double-A and Triple-A. He’s not a pull machine, but a lot of these lift and pull machines put up some pretty low batting averages, and a profile like Shaw doesn’t need to only pull the ball. He can use his hard hit ability, plus speed (31 steals), and plus contact rates (18.2% K%) to do damage when he goes oppo. He also walks a ton with a 11.9% BB%, making him a likely top of the order bat. Don’t fall into the little man trap, Shaw is going to be a do everything fantasy terror when he gets his shot, and with the Isaac Paredes/Cam Smith trade, that shot could come on Opening Day. Shaw’s been a target for me from before his junior year of college, and he remains a target for me. – 2025 Projection: 79/18/77/.256/.318/.423/23 Prime Projection: 96/23/83/.276/.348/.461/26

78) Carson Williams – TBR, SS, 21.2 – Williams put up a 31.8% K% in 105 games at High-A in 2023, so the worry was that the K rate would explode against upper minors pitching, but that didn’t happen. It actually improved at Double-A with a 28.5% K%, and that was good enough to let his special talent shine. He jacked 20 homers with 33 steals, a 11.5% BB% and a 142 wRC+ in 115 games. He’s a still projectable 6’2”, 180 pounds with an explosive righty swing that is made to launch homers. He’s also an excellent athlete with plus speed and plus SS defense. Tampa’s long term SS job is literally waiting for him (the Kim signing could impact Williams’ projected playing time for 2025, but it’s better for his long term development anyway to take it slow), and because of his plus defense, he is sure to have all the leash he can handle even if it takes his hit tool a year or two to adjust to MLB pitching. If he can keep the K% in the high 20’s, he will be a beast, and if he can continue to improve on it at only 21 years old, there is near elite dynasty asset upside. – 2025 Projection: 21/7/29/.230/.300/.424/9 Prime Projection: 89/28/96/.254/.334/.483/23

79) Leodalis De Vries – SDP, SS, 18.6 – De Vries is my pick to be the #1 overall fantasy prospect in baseball by this time next year (in a tight race with Walker Jenkins and Sebastian Walcott), that is unless he loses rookie eligibility because San Diego are madmen when it comes to promoting their elite prospects. There are already rumors they are considering calling De Vries and Salas up in 2025, which is straight wild. It did work out for Jackson Merrill, so who am I to judge? Merrill was 20 years old of course while De Vries and Salas are 18, but I love to see a team pushing the limits and setting new upper standards on how fast a prospect can fly through the minors. And De Vries has the type of talent that just might be able to pull it off. He was sent straight to full season ball for his pro debut, and while it took him a few months to find his footing, he went gangbusters once he did, slashing .275/.400/.563 with 11 homers, 8 steals, and a 20.5/14.9 K%/BB% in his final 40 games. Even with the early struggles, he still put up a 116 wRC+ in 75 games which is just silly for a 17 year old. The thing that separates De Vries from Jenkins, Walcott and De Paula for me, is that there are zero questions about him getting to his raw power. He put up a 32.4% GB%, 49.3% FB%, and 49.5% Pull%. I fully believe those other guys will get to their raw power as well, don’t get me wrong, but De Vries seems to be one step ahead of them in that area. His season ended in mid August with a shoulder injury, but he’s playing in the AFL, and while he’s not playing especially well, it’s still nice to see the shoulder isn’t an issue. He’s an elite prospect right now, and if he doesn’t end up at #1, he won’t be far off. – ETA: 2026 Prime Projection: 91/31/99/.271/.353/.513/20

80) Walker Jenkins – MIN, OF, 20.1 – My Kyle Tucker comp for Jenkins last off-season turned out to be eerily accurate, at least for what they each did in their first full year of pro ball as 19 year old’s. Tucker had 9 homers with 32 steals and a 16.3/10.1 K%/BB% in 117 games in the lower minors, while Jenkins had 6 homers with 17 steals and a 12.8/15.2 K%/BB% in 82 games. Like Jenkins, Tucker also wasn’t a burner, and nobody really expected the steal totals to stick in the majors, but they did. And like Jenkins, the only thing that hadn’t fully developed yet was the power, but Tucker had a monster power explosion the very next season, hitting 25 homers in 120 games split between High-A and Double-A. I see no reason why Jenkins can’t have that same power explosion at 6’3”, 210 pounds with one of the sweetest lefty swings this game has ever seen. He doesn’t hit the ball on the ground too much and he can pull it, so while his hard hit numbers weren’t too impressive, they weren’t too bad either, and it would be pretty shocking if he didn’t develop impact power. He’s on a beeline for elite dynasty asset, and he’s among the favorites to be the #1 prospect in baseball by the middle of 2025. – ETA: 2026 Prime Projection: 103/27/96/.282/.365/.504/18

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By Michael Halpern (@MichaelCHalpern)
Email: michaelhalpern@imaginarybrickwall.com
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