In an incredible turn of events, I’ve done all the infield 2026 fantasy baseball rankings. Less incredible, you’ve read them. It’s like that time your favorite team won because they played better than that other team but you convinced yourself they won because you cheered loudly. When I win the Fantasy Baseball Blogger of the Millennial in 2099, and my frozen head is accepting the award, I’m going to thank you, the readers, but I’m secretly going to be thanking myself. Without me, none of this would be possible. You’re a close second though! Okay, enough ranking of you and me, let’s rank some outfielders! Here’s Steamer’s 2026 Fantasy Baseball Projections for Hitters and 2026 Fantasy Baseball Projections for Pitchers. Subscriptions are up and running, and you can already get Rudy’s Draft War Room. Anyway, here’s the top 20 outfielders for 2026 fantasy baseball:
NOTE: All my 2026 fantasy baseball rankings are currently available on Patreon for the price of a Starbucks coffee, if you get one of those extra grande frappuccino jobbers. Don’t wait for the rankings to come out over the next month, and get them all now.
NOTE II: Free agents are marked as such and not yet projected. They are ranked for where they’re currently worth drafting.
1. Aaron Judge – Went over him in the top 10 for 2026 fantasy baseball.
2. Corbin Carroll – Went over him in the top 10 for 2026 fantasy baseball.
3. Julio Rodriguez – Went over him in the top 10 for 2026 fantasy baseball.
4. Juan Soto – Went over him in the top 10 for 2026 fantasy baseball.
5. Ronald Acuña Jr. – Went over him in the top 10 for 2026 fantasy baseball.
6. Fernando Tatis Jr. – Went over him in the top 20 for 2026 fantasy baseball.
7. Kyle Schwarber – Went over him in the top 20 for 2026 fantasy baseball.
8. Jackson Chourio – Went over him in the top 20 for 2026 fantasy baseball.
9. Kyle Tucker – Went over him in the top 20 for 2026 fantasy baseball.
10. James Wood – This is a new tier. This tier goes from here until here. I call this tier, “Kyle Tucker found with a syringe filled with bull semen.” Pardon the pun, but splashy headlines like, “Tucker Births New Calf With Bull Semen,” “Tucker Milks Wrong End,” and “Tucker Bull *ucker,” are all that’s separating James Wood from being in the top 20 overall. I really wanted Wood — hey now! — in there — hey now again! Wood’s 2nd half was just a little bit too scary to warrant it, but I was very close on him. His first half 24/12/.278 seemed all but assured to move him into the top 10 overall this year, but the 2nd half 7/3/.223, and even more troubling 39 K% had me unable to do it. Still believe the talent is too great and a 22-year-old can be forgiven if he struggles a bit his first full year. Would like to see more fly balls, as well (26.6 FB%). In all, you’re talking about a kid who barely scratched the surface of his ability, still was 45th overall on the Player Rater last year with that 2nd half and could be a top five player overall. Sign me up everywhere. 2026 Projections: 103/34/72/.262/18 in 591 ABs
11. Yordan Alvarez – This is a new tier. This tier goes from here until here. I call this tier, “The Captain Woo Cubano resurgence.” What did Yordan do last year? Had the memory of what he did surgically removed from my brain and I don’t know where they put it after it was removed. Did they put it in a test tube? What if I ate it? Will that make me remember it? It’s not “being a cannibal” if it’s your own body, right? At what point is it being a cannibal anyway? Like, if I ate Cougs’s fingernail, would I be a cannibal or do I need to eat like a finger? Meh, ya know what, I don’t need to know! So, Yordan sucked last year. Captain Woo Cubano was the worst dreck that’s ever wrecked into the rocks near my imaginary beach home that I pretend I own that I purchased with my fantasy baseball winnings. He was awful! You need to just put it out of your mind. It was a fluky thing and he’s still young and talented enough to be a top 20 guy again. In fact (Grey’s backing up the Brinks truck of thoughts!), Yordan is a steal this late if we get anything close to what he’s done every other year, except last. 2026 Projections: 88/34/96/.291/1 in 512 ABs
12. Brent Rooker – This is a new tier. This tier goes from here until here. I call this tier, “Brent Rooker is underrated.” I try not to do too many one-player tiers, but you’ll have to excuuuuuuuuuuuse me, a’la Steve Martin, because Wood is really his own tier; Yordan really is his own, and Rooker is better than the guys in the next tier.
As for Rooker, who was higher on last year’s Player Rater: Jackson Chourio or Rooker? That’s Rooker. Rooker or Kyle Tucker? Okay, Tucker but $18.9 to $19. Rooker or Vlad Jr.? Okay, Vlad Jr. but that was $19.8 to $18.9. Rooker is as good as these guys. Last year, he went 30/6/.262. If he had more runs or RBIs, he would’ve easily been above the guys I mentioned and those homers feel low for him in Bing Bong. Also, the year before he stole 11 bags and he was only caught once last year. He could go 35/15 just as easily as James Wood. Look at Rooker’s last three years: 30/4, 39/11, 30/6. If Vlad Jr. did that, you’d have him in the top five overall. Well, yeah, because Vlad Jr. would hit .290+ and guess what Rooker hit in 2024? .293, but that was with a 28.8%, so ya know his average was going to come down–Psyche! He had a 22.2% strikeout rate last year. Rooker is hands down the most underrated hitter in baseball. The hype is on Kurtz, and I am with that, as well, but Rooker is basically a top 20 guy you can have at a discount. 2026 Projections: 89/34/104/.271/7 in 595 ABs
13. Pete Crow-Armstrong – This is a new tier. This tier goes from here until Merrill. I call this tier, “Eating tailpipe bananas.” Let me know if this scenario sounds familiar at all: Drafting a big-time prospect in the top 30 overall only for him to disappoint. I may as well start calling this tier the Wyatt Langford/Jackson Merrill tier. So, why get involved again? Are you not falling for the banana in the old tailpipe all over again or are you taking the banana out of the tailpipe and eating it? Can’t you find non-tailpipe bananas to eat? Are tailpipe bananas that delicious? In one word: Yes. The allure of the upside, men and five women readers. It’s freakin’ delicious. Sure, it tastes a bit of carbon monoxide, and, after eating a tailpipe banana, a sore develops on your lip, but yum! So, I’m unlikely to draft any of the guys in this tier. A) They’re being drafted at the same time I’m taking my first pitcher (between 45-60). B) They all feel like traps. C) There’s no C.
As for PCA, the good news, he has 50-steal speed. The bad news, he’s one bad slump away that sees him hitting .205 by July. I know, I rationalized drafting James Wood, who had an awful 2nd half, but avoiding PCA is cockamamie to the highest degree. It’s 100% cockamamie and 0% sense, especially true after seeing PCA had a 25 K% in the 2nd half, which was better than Wood’s. BUT WAS IT?! Mr. Reversal Question coming through to clean house! I’d contend (for the featherweight title) that it’s not better. Wood struggled with Ks; PCA struggled with just garbage contact. Garbage contact is harder to fix. Look at the two side by side, Wood is first:
PCA might be fine (for fantasy) if he goes 20/40/.230. That has value, but he went 6/8/.216 in the 2nd half, and that gives you an idea of what you could get in the 1st half this year, and be eliminated in your league by June. 2026 Projections: 67/21/73/.234/38 in 577 ABs
14. Wyatt Langford – 16/19 to 22/22 year over year is the right direction. .253 to .241 is not. 20.6% to 26.4% strikeout rate aren’t great either. Rangers playing in one of the worst parks is super meh. Ten out of ten times I will take a guy in a good park and terrible lineup vs. a comparable guy in a terrible park and good lineup. Think Hunter Goodman last year vs. Jonah Heim. I know, now it’s hindsight, but Heim was going before Goodman last year. Any hoo! If Langford could get two working obliques — Do people have two of them? I don’t know. — and get coached by Josh Naylor this offseason to actually steal when on base, I’d be more excited for him. 2026 Projections: 78/24/61/.252/20 in 516 ABs
15. Maikel Garcia – Went over him in the 2nd basemen rankings.
16. Jackson Merrill – Last year was such a terrible year for Merrill, that it’s a bit of trip on the Struggle Bus to get fully invested. I could see us looking at Merrill next year, and thinking 2025 was a lost year and he’s actually a 25/15/.280 hitter like he was in 2024 and we should’ve ignored 2025, but, as I stand here — and I am standing — I see a guy who might go 22/7/.275 and that’s just fine, but it’s not like I’m going to miss out on a guy going 40/40/.300 and bang my head into a wall all year. I just jinxed myself and reversed cursed Merrill into a top three overall year, didn’t I? Hmm… 2026 Projections: 82/20/64/.272/8 in 523 ABs
17. Riley Greene – This is a new tier. This tier goes from here until the top 40 outfielders for 2026 fantasy baseball. I call this tier, “A quote from Confucius about being realistic.” This tier name is philosophically realizing that things could be much worse than a player who might not be as good as last year, but is not bad either, i.e., “Take an orange and Orange Fanta, and you have twice the oranges but one needs a straw,” or something equally profound about realistic expectations. That’s this tier. They might not be headed for twice as much as last year, or even what they did last year, but they’re safer than the above tier with less upside. See, you have an orange and an Orange Fanta, and you need a straw.
As for Greene, you know how much he exceeded expectations last year on homers (36)? According to Statcast, if he called Comerica home, he would’ve had less homers. The thing is, he did call Comerica home. That’s funny in a very nerdy way. Is Greene really a 22.9 HR/FB% guy? Well, um, hmm, uhh, no. Prolly not. Realistically, 30/5/.260 isn’t bad, and, who knows, maybe he’ll finally realize he has 15-steal speed. 2026 Projections: 76/30/88/.257/5 in 581 ABs
18. Cody Bellinger – Re-signed with the Yankees, which was the expectation all along. I’m not sure any other team was ever involved in serious discussions about Cody. What, you don’t like a guy who is solid and looks incredibly stoned? Shame on you for discriminating against a guy who gets the munchies at 4:20 PM every day and the giggles soon thereafter. Look at this guy:
That guy is out of his gourd. You can almost see the pot brownie recipe in a thought bubble above his head. “It’s called purple haze? But this is green.” Any hoo! Cody is once again in a good park for him, has surprising speed and excellent plate discipline. His only downside is he gets distracted from the game and completely absorbed in trying new Cheetos flavors. 2026 Projections: 84/25/84/.274/11 in 533 ABs
19. Christian Yelich – Yelich being conjoined back in the rankings with Cody is so genuinely feel-good. It’s like Destiny’s Child getting back together or The Police or Hall and Oates. Oh, and I should add, those bands getting back together and they’re not disgusted with each other, but actually like each other. A small, but important caveat. Yelich might be the most Confucius quote about being realistic as anyone. You just be realistic with Yelich and I think you’re fine. Yelich was also the highest ranked guy on the Player Rater last year out of everyone in this tier, and 9th overall for outfielders, which I think would stump most people. But that’s Yelich being better than this for fantasy if he plays 150 games again. How about we be realistic and expect him to play 130 games and return about this value? 2026 Projections: 74/21/78/.271/15 in 521 ABs
20. Roman Anthony – Does Roman speak Latin? Can he explain Pluribus? If Anthony can defeat the dreaded sophomore slump, he could be a top 20 overall bat and easily a steal this late. His upside seems completely unknownable at this point. All signs seem to indicate he’s a 30/30/.280 hitter, but that’s what I thought Wyatt Langford was going to be for the last two years. The good news is Anthony is in one of the top hitters’ parks unlike Wyatt, who is in park where Lee Harvey Oswald couldn’t even call his shot. Could Roman Anthony go 15/10/.260? Yes. Could he go 30/30/.290? Yes. And everything in-between. I moved him around a bit recently in the rankings and changed his projections because I just don’t love the unknown, but the unknown is where the upside lies. I’m one philosophical ess oh bee! 2026 Projections: 92/17/62/.269/21 in 587 ABs
