2026 Fantasy Baseball Top 300: Bobby Witt Jr. returns to top three; trade deadline risers and fallers

Here’s our rest-of-season Top 300. Expect this space to be updated every Monday. Players are ranked for 5×5 mixed leagues using a one-catcher format. I include the mixed-league disclaimer because I do reward upside, particularly past the top 200 or so.

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2026 Fantasy Baseball Top 300 overall ranks

**Updated Aug. 3**

August 3 Notes

Falling off: Maikel Garcia (140th), Vinnie Pasquantino (157th), Ryan O’Hearn (194th), Casey Schmitt (195th), Paul Sewald (201st), Curtis Mead (236th), Emmet Sheehan (237th), Matt Chapman (244th), Jasson Domínguez (248th), Caleb Kilian (259th), Yoendrys Gómez (263rd), Brayan Rocchio (266th), Mason Montgomery (267th), Tanner Scott (269th), Ryan Zeferjahn (278th), Christian Encarnacion-Strand (284th), Angel Martínez (293rd), Brandon Sproat (296th), Alex Lange (297th), Clayton Beeter (300th)

– These are very tentative rankings for James Wood (16th) and Nick Kurtz (50th) while waiting to hear more on their injuries. Wood injured an oblique Monday, while Kurtz had a setback with the thumb injury that had him on the IL last month.

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– Trade deadline risers (non-closers division): Hunter Goodman (obviously great that he’s staying in Colorado); Freddy Peralta in Tampa Bay (the Rays will get more whiffs out of him, and I don’t think he was as far off as his numbers suggest); José Soriano in Toronto (better situation, especially with the big catching upgrade); Cole Carrigg, Jake McCarthy and Mickey Moniak in Colorado (the Rockies should have moved the two veterans, but that they didn’t pushes them up the board, and Carrigg benefits from Brenton Doyle‘s departure); Heriberto Hernández (was worried I’d have to drop him in rankings with Owen Caissie back, but Liam Hicks‘ departure should keep him in Miami’s lineup against righties); Tyler O’Neill (is swinging the bat better and should get all of the playing time he can handle with Taylor Ward gone and Adley Rutschman not coming back).

– Trade deadline fallers: Jo Adell in Cleveland (it’s not a disaster, but he’s a home run hitter and those are quite a bit harder to come by for a right-handed hitter in Cleveland than in Anaheim); Heliot Ramos with the Yankees (good for now, probably looking at starting mostly against lefties in September, though); Reid Detmers (I really expected him to be moved and was thus ranking him higher than I would have had I thought he’d finish the year in Anaheim); Ian Seymour (probably losing his rotation spot once Shane McClanahan is back)

– Trade deadline ???: Casey Mize (move to San Diego seems like an upgrade, but the big velocity drop in his final start for Detroit is worrisome).

– Let’s do a quick review of the closing situations altered by deadline stuff.

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Angels: Ryan Zeferjahn and Kirby Yates are gone, leaving a fatigued Sam Bachman as perhaps the top option in the ninth. Ben Joyce will be the most interesting guy here once he comes off the IL, but he’s probably not worth stashing yet.

Cubs: Zeferjahn enters the mix along with Jacob Webb for now, but it seems like Daniel Palencia has turned the corner in his elbow rehab and might return next week.

Diamondbacks: The D-backs didn’t go out and get anyone to replace the demoted Paul Sewald. Brandyn Garcia is clearly their favorite reliever right now, but he’s a lefty and thus probably won’t get all of the save chances. He was a near miss from the list. Justin Martínez might return from elbow surgery and reemerge as a factor at the end of the month.

Giants: Both Erik Miller (Boston) and Caleb Kilian (Philadelphia) were sent packing Monday. That would seem to leave Dylan Smith atop the depth chart, based on how he’d been used as a setup man of late. He has a nice 2.75 ERA and makes for a decent pickup.

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Nationals: Clayton Beeter, who was acquired from the Yankees at the 2025 deadline, is still probably the current favorite for saves, but he fell just out of the top 300 this week, in part because the Nationals got Yovanny Cruz from the Yankees as part of the Luis García Jr. deal. I think there’s a decent chance Cruz ends the year with the gig.

Orioles: Tyler Wells was going to be in the top 300 this week, but he was sent to Tampa Bay at the last minute. That puts Andrew Kittredge back at the very bottom of the list. The Orioles still might get Ryan Helsley and/or Félix Bautista back in September.

Pirates: This should be all Luke Weaver, making him a priority pickup wherever he’s available.

Twins: Ditto Jeff Hoffman. I can’t imagine the Twins committed $11 million to him to set up for Yoendrys Gómez.

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– In a pleasant surprise, the Reds aren’t going to wait until Aug. 14 to call up Héctor Rodríguez, who debuts at No. 195 this week. More on him in Tuesday’s waiver wire column. I still wouldn’t expect to see the Cardinals’ Joshua Báez or the Rockies’ Charlie Condon before Aug. 14. Teams need to wait until then to lock in their prospects retaining rookie eligibility for next year. Kade Anderson is probably in the same boat in Seattle, but he debuts at No. 250 anyway. Even if he’s part of a six-man rotation, he could still be useful in shallow leagues right away.

– I’d already dropped Jasson Domínguez from the list before it was revealed Monday night that he and Anthony Volpe were going down the George Lombard Jr. was coming up to join the Yankees. I considered making room for Lombard, but I think he’s just off the list at this point. Lombard’s .284/.411/.489 line between Double- and Triple-A was very good, but I doubt he’s ready to hit for average in the majors just yet and that he was caught nine times on 23 steal attempts might have him hesitant to attempt steals right away. Maybe I’ll regret it next week. I did slide José Caballero down some now that he’s presumably going into a utility role.

July 27 Notes

Falling off: Shea Langeliers (70th), Max Meyer (134th), Spencer Steer (194th), Adley Rutschman (235th), Kerry Carpenter (239th), Samuel Basallo (243rd), Ryan Waldschmidt (264th), Will Warren (267th), Joshua Kuroda-Grauer (272nd), Jack Flaherty (274th), Gage Jump (277th), Andrew Kittredge (279th), Ezequiel Tovar (280th), Jorge Polanco (287th), Masataka Yoshida (292nd), Charlie Condon (297th), Kirby Yates (298th)

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– More upheaval in the top 10 with Juan Soto (calf) and Bobby Witt Jr. (back) landing on the IL. Witt’s stay looks like it’ll be a short one, so he’s still close to the top at No. 13. Soto’s absence could last a month or longer, with the Mets unlikely to be aggressive in bringing him back. He checks in at No. 148 for now. With two spots open, Fernando Tatis Jr., who has five homers and six steals in his last 23 games, jumps into the top 10 for the first time this year.

– With their Fangraphs postseason odds down to seven percent, the Blue Jays now seem very likely to sell, with free agents to be Kevin Gausman, Shane Bieber and Daulton Varsho most likely to go. George Springer is also looking more attractive now after turning it on some lately. One wonders if they could go even beyond that, though. Ernie Clement‘s defensive numbers have taken a real hit this year, yet he’d probably still net a couple of quality prospects with his versatility and his outstanding postseason last year still very much in everyone’s memory. And while Jeff Hoffman is surely the reliever they’d prefer to move, imagine what kind of return Louis Varland would bring. Selling high there might not be the worst idea, in part because his heavy workload the last two years could cause issues later. I was tempted to put Hoffman back into the top 300 just because of the slight possibility that a Varland trade returns him to the closer’s role, but I’m holding off for now. If Hoffman is the one traded (or if both are moved), it probably wouldn’t be to a team that would go to him in the ninth right away.

– Curtis Mead is holding pretty steady in the 230s after being sent from D.C. to Boston over the weekend. There’s certainly an argument that he should have been higher before the trade, but I didn’t love the exit velocity numbers and the Nationals were pretty much always sitting him once or twice per week. Mead figures to be a fixture in Boston’s lineup for now, but that could change if Roman Anthony and Trevor Story come back healthy and things get crowded again. I’d feel better about him if he had any defensive value at all. I’d probably have him 50 spots higher if I was certain he’d be an everyday guy the rest of the year, but there are a number of players in the 200s that I feel that way about.

– I dropped Rockies prospect Charlie Condon from the bottom of the list and decided against adding the Reds’ Héctor Rodriguez since even though trades figure to open spots for them at the deadline, it seems unlikely either will be called up before Aug. 14, when they’d be prevented from getting enough service time to lose rookie eligibility next year. They also might not quite be everyday players when they are recalled since they’ll need to stay under the 130-at-bat threshold.

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