Before we get to anything else this offseason, I want to take a look ahead at 2025. Yes, I know it's way too early for rankings, but I do like to establish a baseline set of expectations to begin the offseason that I can compare to as we go on. Scott White has already begun the process of ranking 2025 as well, touching on catcher, first base, and second base here, and he goes deeper on each position and gives his thoughts on each player, so you should make sure to check that out.
I'm not going as deep yet because I want to get an overview down on digital ink before that. Over the next few weeks, I'll be going through each position myself, reviewing 2024 and looking ahead to 2025, along with offering some way-too-early sleepers, breakouts, and busts right here in your inbox.
And I'll be here all offseason long, whether you're getting ready to make some moves in your Dynasty league or just getting a head start on the competition for 2025, the FBT Newsletter and podcast will be here to help all offseason.
Now, let's get to those way-too-early rankings:
Way-too-early 2025 Rankings
Oh, before we start, I guess I should point this out: There are going to be some big-name players you won't see in the below rankings, because I'm not ranking DH-only players yet. They'll be included in top-300s when those come out, but for now, I'm leaving them off to the side.
But those DH-only players are actually going to be a big storyline in 2025, because around half the league will likely be drafting one next year. Shohei Ohtani is obviously a first-rounder and probably the first overall pick in every league, but we also have to account for Marcell Ozuna, Kyle Schwarber, and Brent Rooker, who were all top-20 hitters in Fantasy this season. But they'll probably all fall to a point where they will be nice values in drafts next year, and I'm probably going to plan on having one on every one of my teams.
Yeah, it hurts your flexibility at points in the season -- though at least Schwarber and Rooker could conceivably gain eligibility, as both played five or more games in the outfield this season. But if there are roughly six DH-only players worth starting at any given point -- Joc Pederson, Giancarlo Stanton, Andrew McCutchen, Masataka Yoshida, and J.D. Martinez all qualified for "worth starting" status, as did Heston Kjerstad and Kyle Manzardo, while Eloy Jimenez could be a viable bounceback candidate -- that means half of a 12-team league is in the same boat. At this point, how much does it really make sense to discount those DH-only guys?
A little bit, to be certain. But if I can get a hitter like Brent Rooker outside of the top-100 in my drafts next year, I'm certainly not going to pass on it just because he is DH-only. And I think those kinds of discounts could be plentiful for 2025.
And one other note here that applies to all of these rankings: We're six months out from the start of next season, so don't hold me to any of these. There's a lot of offseason left and a lot of research to do between now and next February when draft season really starts to kick off. So, while I stand by these rankings for now, consider pretty much all of them to be relatively weakly held positions. I reserve the right to change my mind!
Catcher
Despite the emergence of guys like Shea Langeliers and the further establishment of William Contreras and Yainier Diaz as legit stars, the catcher remains pretty messy for Fantasy. I would feel pretty good about any of the first six as my starter in a one-catcher league, but after that, there are still a lot of questions here. The biggest one for me might be, "Will Francisco Alvarez ever live up to the hype?
- William Contreras, MIL
- Adley Rutschman, BAL
- Will Smith, LAD
- Cal Raleigh, SEA
- Salvador Perez, KC
- Yainer Diaz, HOU
- Shea Langeliers, OAK
- J.T. Realmuto, PHI
- Willson Contreras, STL
- Austin Wells, NYY
- Francisco Alvarez, NYM
- Logan O'Hoppe, LAA
First base
No, I don't think you should use Salvador Perez as your first baseman in 2025. Obviously, I don't. But we rank players where they are eligible and would slot in for the overall rankings, hence Perez's inclusion here. And that's fine by me, because I think first base is an 11-man position right now, and I'm really not sure who I would rank if I went beyond the top 12. Rhys Hoskins? Jake Burger? Alec Burleson? Yeah, the pickings outside of that top 11 are pretty slim.
- Vladimir Guerrero, TOR
- Freddie Freeman, LAD
- Bryce Harper, PHI
- Matt Olson, ATL
- Pete Alonso, NYM
- Josh Naylor, CLE
- Spencer Steer, CIN
- Vinnie Pasquantino, KC
- Christian Walker, ARI
- Triston Casas, BOS
- Cody Bellinger, CHC
- Salvador Perez, KC
Second base
And second base might be worse! If we were ranking every position against every other one -- as we will once top-300 rankings are due -- I'm not sure Luis Garcia would definitely be a top-10 option at any other position except catcher. I like him, but it's still not clear he's an everyday player, and this was by far the best season of his career. There's room to grow with him and a few others here, but we'll need several players to step forward (and for the trio of over-30 guys in the top four not to step back) for this not to be the weakest non-catcher position by a mile.
- Ketel Marte, ARI
- Jose Altuve, HOU
- Ozzie Albies, ATL
- Marcus Semien, TEX
- Jordan Westburg, BAL
- Luis Garcia, WAS
- Nico Hoerner, CHC
- Brice Turang, MIL
- Xander Bogaerts, SD
- Brandon Lowe, TB
- Luis Rengifo, LAA
- Jackson Holliday, BAL
Third base
Third base is a bit better, but I don't exactly feel great about players outside of the top seven here. Bregman is an especially tough player to figure out because it seems like his value is dependent on that short porch in Houston, and he's heading into free agency as a soon-to-be 31-year-old. Since 2020, he has a .356 wOBA at home compared to a .335 mark on the road, in large part thanks to more power at home. I'm not saying his production would just collapse away from Minute Maid Park, but it would make what looks like a somewhat fringe-y Fantasy skill set even more precarious.
- Jose Ramirez, CLE
- Rafael Devers, BOS
- Austin Riley, ATL
- Manny Machado, SD
- Jazz Chisholm, NYY
- Royce Lewis, MIN
- Jordan Westburg, BAL
- Alex Bregman, HOU
- Mark Vientos, NYM
- Alec Bohm, PHI
- Eugenio Suarez, ARI
- Junior Caminero, TB
Shortstop
I struggled with who to put in the final spot here as much as basically any other position. I'm defaulting to the idea of a Bichette bounceback -- he's just 27 next season and was a consistently .800s OPS bat before a completely lost 2024 season. I don't know if we can bet on the steals ever coming back (just 10 over the past two seasons), but I do think it's reasonable to bet on the bat looking a lot better, likely somewhere besides Toronto, as he enters his final year of team control. I'll bet on a contract-year Bichette, sure. Do I have him too low?
- Bobby Witt, KC
- Elly De La Cruz, CIN
- Gunnar Henderson, BAL
- Mookie Betts, LAD
- Francisco Lindor, NYM
- Trea Turner, PHI
- Corey Seager, TEX
- C.J. Abrams, WAS
- Oneil Cruz, PIT
- Willy Adames, MIL
- Zachary Neto, LAA
- Bo Bichette, TOR
Outfield
Outside of the top 15 or so, outfield is pretty wide open. We're a long way from it mattering still, but my preference might be to make sure I have three of the top 20 or so here because I'm not sure there's much that separations 25 and 45 at this point. So, if you think someone from that range is ranked too high or too low, fear not: I probably agree!
- Aaron Judge, NYY
- Juan Soto, NYY
- Mookie Betts, LAD
- Ronald Acuna, ATL
- Kyle Tucker, HOU
- Yordan Alvarez, HOU
- Fernando Tatis, SD
- Corbin Carroll, ARI
- Julio Rodriguez, SEA
- Jarren Duran, BOS
- Jackson Chourio, MIL
- Jazz Chisholm, NYY
- Jackson Merrill, SD
- Luis Robert, CHW
- Michael Harris, ATL
- Christian Yelich, MIL
- Anthony Santander, BAL
- Oneil Cruz, PIT
- Teoscar Hernandez, LAD
- Bryan Reynolds, PIT
- Brenton Doyle, COL
- James Wood, WAS
- Mike Trout, LAA
- Wyatt Langford, TEX
- Riley Greene, DET
- Jurickson Profar, SD
- Steven Kwan, CLE
- Lawrence Butler, OAK
- Ian Happ, CHC
- Cody Bellinger, CHC
- Spencer Steer, CIN
- Randy Arozarena, SEA
- Seiya Suzuki, CHC
- Adolis Garcia, TEX
- Tyler O'Neill, BOS
- Brandon Nimmo, NYM
- Cedric Mullins, BAL
- Ceddanne Rafaela, BOS
- Colton Cowser, BAL
- Pete Crow-Armstrong, CHC
- Nick Castellanos, PHI
- Tommy Edman, LAD
- Heliot Ramos, SF
- Parker Meadows, DET
- Kerry Carpenter, DET
- Evan Carter, TEX
- Victor Robles, SEA
- Alec Burleson, STL
Starting pitcher
I think there's an obvious top five, and I think this order is pretty obvious. I'm sure many folks out there will rank Skenes higher than Wheeler, given his dominant rookie season, but I just can't bring myself to move him ahead of Wheeler, who has a 2.94 ERA and 1.03 WHIP over the past five seasons while cementing himself as arguably the league's pre-eminent workhorse ace. Skenes is incredible, but we don't quite know how he'll hold up to 170-plus innings, and Wheeler's ceiling is pretty high, too!
- Tarik Skubal, DET
- Zack Wheeler, PHI
- Paul Skenes, PIT
- Corbin Burnes, BAL
- Chris Sale, ATL
- Cole Ragans, KC
- Gerrit Cole, NYY
- Dylan Cease, SD
- Logan Gilbert, SEA
- George Kirby, SEA
- Pablo Lopez, MIN
- Spencer Strider, ATL
- Yoshinobu Yamamoto, LAD
- Garrett Crochet, CHW
- Framber Valdez, HOU
- Luis Castillo, SEA
- Shota Imanaga, CHC
- Aaron Nola, PHI
- Zac Gallen, ARI
- Logan Webb, SF
- Max Fried, ATL
- Justin Steele, CHC
- Bailey Ober, MIN
- Hunter Greene, CIN
- Tyler Glasnow, LAD
- Blake Snell, SF
- Sandy Alcantara, MIA
- Hunter Brown, HOU
- Spencer Schwellenbach, ATL
- Carlos Rodon, NYY
- Tanner Bibee, CLE
- Grayson Rodriguez, BAL
- Bryce Miller, SEA
- Freddy Peralta, MIL
- Sonny Gray, STL
- Luis Gil, NYY
- Shane McClanahan, TB
- Jack Flaherty, LAD
- Kodai Senga, NYM
- Jared Jones, PIT
- Bryan Woo, SEA
- Spencer Arrighetti, HOU
- Seth Lugo, KC
- Kevin Gausman, TOR
- Cristopher Sanchez, PHI
- Yusei Kikuchi, HOU
- Jacob deGrom, TEX
- Joe Musgrove, SD
Relief pitcher
The one you'll notice here is Jobe, who I slotted in at 12 to draw attention to the fact that he is likely to be by far the most interesting SPaRP option for 2025. I wrote about Jobe before his brief, season-ending cup of coffee, but he's the top pitching prospect in baseball and looks like he should have a rotation spot waiting for him in Detroit next spring if he doesn't completely implode this postseason. If he isn't in the rotation, then the top SPaRP for 2025 will probably be Bowden Francis, whose upside is a bit tougher to figure out despite his incredible run to close out the season.
- Emmanuel Clase, CLE
- Edwin Diaz, NYM
- Josh Hader, HOU
- Devin Williams, MIL
- Ryan Helsley, STL
- Mason Miller, OAK
- Raisel Iglesias, ATL
- Jhoan Duran, MIN
- Andres Munoz, SEA
- Robert Suarez, SD
- Kirby Yates, TEX
- Jackson Jobe, BOS