Below you will find my top must-draft players for the 2025 fantasy baseball season broken down by position. The average draft position (ADP) data is courtesy of the National Fantasy Baseball Championship (NFBC).
Below you will find my top must-draft players for the 2025 fantasy baseball season broken down by position. The average draft position (ADP) data is courtesy of the National Fantasy Baseball Championship (NFBC).
Logan O’Hoppe reached the 100-game threshold last year and delivered 20 homers. His 12% barrel rate and 46.3% hard-hit rate are both good indicators of his 2025 upside.
The 2024 season seems like O’Hoppe’s floor and he’s slated to hit sixth in an improved Angels lineup. With his career .279 Minor League batting average and .853 OPS on display, he could develop into a top-five fantasy catcher sooner rather than later.
Did you know Josh Naylor led all first basemen in RBI last year with 108? Well, now you do. He’s also one of four who hit 30 home runs. Surprisingly, he’s the sixth first baseman going off the board, which is a tremendous return on investment.
Nawylor sacrificed batting average for power, but I like to think there’s a universe in the timeline where he can deliver both. Naylor now finds himself in a strong run-producing offense in Arizona and should once again be a great draft pick in 2025 at his fantasy baseball ADP.
Jose Altuve is projected as a top-40 player – 20 home runs, a .270 batting average and 17 stolen bases – at the age of 34. In 2024, Luis Garcia hit 18 home runs, recorded a .282 batting average and stole 22 bases. He’s 10 years younger than Altuve and being drafted nearly 100 picks later.
It’s hard to say no to that value, especially with the Nationals’ lineup featuring James Wood and Dylan Crews for an entire season in 2025. In a position littered with questions, my answer continues to be Garcia, at cost, whenever I can draft him.
I don’t think we can overstate the impact Juan Soto has on a lineup. Francisco Lindor will be leading off in front of Soto in 2025 and should see a crazy amount of fastballs this season. He should be in line for 30 home runs/30 stolen bases/100 runs/100 RBI and once again be in the MVP discussion.
Being the cheapest of the elite-level fantasy shortstops makes him incredibly appealing. Lindor took his game to a new level in the post-season and is now poised to have a Hall of Fame career if he stays healthy and delivers.
This Mets’ lineup is deep and Mark Vientos feels like a lock to drive in 100 runs hitting either third or fifth in this lineup. Vientos has legit 30-homer power and will feel very little pressure with all the stars around him. That’s crucial for a young player’s development.
Vientos is usually the 10th third baseman drafted, but I feel as good, if not better about him than I do the five players going ahead of him in ADP. That’s why I’m practicing patience at the position and snagging Vientos aggressively in 2025 drafts.
James Wood is my breakout player of 2025. His career Minor League .300 batting average/.400 on-base percentage (OBP)/.500 slugging rate triple slash line suggests a superstar in the making. He has power, speed, is a plus defender and makes everything look easy.
Sure, there could be some peaks and valleys as the league adjusts to him, but Wood has the skillset to be at the top of the mountain more often than the bottom of the ravine. He’s currently being drafted as a fringe-top-50 outfielder in 2025. He’ll likely be a top-25 outfielder in 2026, so draft accordingly.
Look, I too have struggled with the inconsistent nature of Blake Snell, but the Dodgers’ offense and bullpen are so good that I can’t say no in 2025. His dreadful start in 2024 (6.31 ERA over his first eight starts) was due largely to the lingering contract negotiations and signing late in the season.
Once Snell got settled in he was otherworldly with a 1.45 ERA over his final 12 starts and filthy strikeout numbers (103 total strikeouts/8.6 per game). He could win 20 games for the Dodgers this year, and that’s far from hyperbole. That’s a big word, so I’ll end on that.
