Dynasty Fantasy Baseball Risers - Are These Young Stars The New Top Dogs At Their Positions?

Kevin's dynasty fantasy baseball breakouts, risers and studs. Are these young MLB stars the top dynasty fantasy baseball hitters at their respective positions?

"It was his hat, Mr. Krabs! He was number one." With young superstars emerging every baseball season, the player who gets to wear the Smitty Werben Jagerman Jensen hat for top dynasty player at his position is constantly changing.

This season is no different, and the dynasty landscape has already shifted significantly since the offseason, especially at the top of a few positions.

Let's take a look at a few stars having great seasons and see if they are deserving of wearing that hat. Since I don't have published dynasty rankings of my own, I'm using my colleague Eric Cross' rankings from March as my preseason benchmark.

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Cal Raleigh, C, Seattle Mariners

Preseason Dynasty Rank: C6

Incumbent C1: William Contreras

Other Contenders: Yainer Diaz, Adley Rutschman, Will Smith, Samuel Basallo

Ok -- let's start with a layup. Cal Raleigh has been on a home run barrage this season that we've never seen from a catcher in the history of the sport. If it weren't for Aaron Judge continuing to be an alien, he would be the easy front-runner for AL MVP.

The Big Dumper hit two more HRs on Friday, bringing his league-leading total to 35 (which is also a new career high). He has over double the number of HRs as any other catcher-eligible player.

This season, Raleigh is testing out a fun hypothesis: what if a player has the Isaac Paredes extreme pulled fly-ball approach but with excellent quality of contact? Raleigh has a league-leading 36.4 percent pulled air rate (up about seven points from last season) with these quality of contact metrics:

If all he was doing offensively were hitting HRs like this, Raleigh would probably still be the top dynasty catcher, but he has been a great all-around hitter this season. He has a 184 wRC+, which is over 60 points higher than his prior career high. He also has a career-best 25.0 percent K rate and 13.9 percent BB rate.

Will Raleigh regress a little as the season goes on? Maybe -- I mean it's unlikely he sustains a 65-HR pace, and he does have the largest gap between his HRs and xHRs in the league. However, even with some regression built in, he should still have a historic catcher season and is the no doubt new number-one catcher in fantasy for both redraft and dynasty.

His case is helped by the fact that William Contreras, Adley Rutschman, and Yainer Diaz have all had disappointing seasons. Will Smith is having an excellent season as well but he's two years older, will never get to DH playing on the same team as Shohei Ohtani, and doesn't have Raleigh's power upside. I love Basallo as a prospect but you can't compare someone who has never played in the majors to someone doing what Raleigh is doing right now.

Nick Kurtz, 1B, Athletics

Preseason Dynasty Rank: 1B13

Incumbent 1B1: Vladimir Guerrero Jr.

Other Contenders: Bryce Harper, Matt Olson, Freddie Freeman, Pete Alonso

Let's follow up on the layup of Raleigh as the new C1 with a spicier discussion at first base. Earlier this season, I wrote about how the top of the first base position was getting pretty old and a young first baseman could shoot up dynasty rankings with a strong season.

That's what Nick Kurtz has done. Kurtz was a weekly feature in my hitting prospects to stash series when he was in the minors earlier this season. He tore through the minors quickly after being drafted fourth overall last season. He followed up his 227 wRC+ in 2024 with a 148 wRC+ and eight HRs in the minors this season.

After being called up, he got off to a bit of a slow start (as most hitting prospects have of late). He didn't homer until his 17th game, but since that point, he's been incredibly impressive. He had a 128 wRC+ in May and a 152 wRC+ in June (wRC+ on the season is 118). He's also already up to 13 HRs in only 200 PAs.

NICK KURTZ. CLUTCH.

That's his second #walkoff homer this WEEK! pic.twitter.com/NX0MyEXJNb

— MLB (@MLB) June 20, 2025

This might seem wild to some, but I think Kurtz has passed all of the "old guys" at the position from a dynasty standpoint for sure. His prospect pedigree and early big league performance warrant this ranking.

Bryce Harper, Matt Olson, Freddie Freeman, and Pete Alonso are all still great players, but when you're on the wrong side of 30, you have to be elite to maintain your dynasty standing, and none have been elite enough this season to fend off Kurtz.

That leaves Vladimir Guerrero Jr. He is coming off an excellent season where he had a 164 wRC+, 30 HRs, and a career-high .323 BA. He has been a staple at the top of the first base dynasty rankings seemingly since his time as a prospect. I'll still take him over Kurtz ... for now.

Kurtz still has two areas of his game I would like to see improvements on before I give him the crown as the top dynasty first baseman. He's striking out 34.0 percent of the time, which is way too high, and he is struggling immensely against lefties as he only has a 31 wRC+ against them this season.

Vladdy will likely always be a better all-around hitter than Kurtz. His ability to hit for power while having his incredible approach at the plate is magnificent. However, Kurtz is demonstrating an HR upside we haven't seen from Vladdy since his 2021 season in Buffalo and Dunedin. If Kurtz can close the gap in the hit tool a bit, this conversation will need to be revisited in the offseason.

Junior Caminero, 3B, Tampa Bay Rays

Preseason Dynasty Rank: 3B5

Incumbent 3B1: Jose Ramirez

Other Contenders: Jazz Chisholm Jr., Rafael Devers, Austin Riley

I'm writing this section with Scott White from CBS Sports' Caminero song stuck in my head. Junior Caminero is one of the best young power hitters in the game. We've been waiting for his big league breakout for a couple of seasons after he put up a monster season in the minors in 2023, resulting in him getting a big league call-up at only 20 years old (his 19-year-old season).

In 2023, he had a 155 wRC+ with 31 HRs and a sub-20 percent K rate between High-A and Double-A. His cup of coffee in the majors that season was unspectacular, but he held his own with a 76 wRC+. He followed that up in 2024 with what many considered to be a disappointing season.

He spent over half the season in Triple-A, where he only had a 109 wRC+. While somewhat underwhelming, I was fairly impressed with his MLB performance last season, though. He had a 105 wRC+ while only striking out 21.5 percent of the time in his age-20 season.

Let's fast forward to the present day and the Junior Caminero breakout is finally upon us. He already has 21 HRs this season with a 128 wRC+. He's in impressive company in the power department for a player his age.

Junior Caminero is the 4th player with 20 or more home runs before the All-Star Game and prior to turning 22 years old in MLB since 1969 (Divisional Era).

Cody Bellinger (24, 2017)
Albert Pujols (21, 2001)
Ronald Acuña Jr. (20, 2019)
Junior Caminero (20, 2025)

— Francys Romero (@francysromeroFR) June 26, 2025

As a Caminero fan, I'm also giving huge props to his coach from the Dominican Republic, who flew in to work with him when he was struggling in mid-May. He has hit 13 of his 21 HRs since then and is more confident at the plate.

The power numbers for Caminero are obviously what draw all of the headlines, but his ability to avoid strikeouts while swinging as hard as he does is something that has stuck out to me. He has the second-fastest average bat speed in the majors (only behind Oneil Cruz) and is first in fast swing rate. However, he and Vladimir Guerrero Jr. are the only two players in the top 10 for average bat speed with a K rate below 22 percent (his is 18.5 percent).

Looking at him compared to the other top dynasty third basemen, he has passed Rafael Devers and Austin Riley. Devers might not have 3B eligibility for much longer but even ignoring that, he's having a comparably good season and is seven years younger. He's outperforming Riley, who is not looking like the player we saw in 2022 and 2023, and Caminero is six years younger than him.

Jazz Chisholm Jr. and Jose Ramirez bring an added element to this conversation that the other three don't: speed. Does their speed upside make up for Caminero's power upside and youth? For me, Chisholm has not shown enough consistency and has had issues staying on the field that keep him below the other two.

Comparing Ramirez and Caminero for dynasty, it comes down to your title window. If your title window is in the next two seasons, valuing Ramirez more makes sense. He was elite last season -- almost going 40/40 and is having another great season in 2025. Otherwise, I think Caminero needs to be your man as Ramirez is already 32 years old.

James Wood, OF, Washington Nationals

Preseason Dynasty Rank: OF10

Incumbent OF1: Juan Soto

Other Contenders: Ronald Acuña Jr., Kyle Tucker, Aaron Judge, Corbin Carroll, Fernando Tatis Jr., Wyatt Langford, Jackson Chourio, Julio Rodriguez

The Nationals are the first team I can remember that traded a generational superstar for prospects and comfortably won the trade. It's kind of wild to think how bad the Nationals would be had they not made the Juan Soto trade a few years ago. CJ Abrams and MacKenzie Gore have been tremendous, but James Wood is looking like a superstar and the man who is making this deal look so lopsided.

Wood had a mostly elite minor league career with a few bumps on the road along the way. He had a very strong first full season in the minors with a 150 wRC+ and a 21.6 percent K rate. However, his K rate spiked in 2023 to 31.5 percent across High-A and Double-A, although he was very productive with 26 HRs and a 137 wRC+.

In 2024, Wood was a man on a mission to the big leagues and his stint in Triple-A was one of the most impressive I've seen from a prospect in a while. He had a 177 wRC+ with 10 HRs and 10 SBs across 231 PAs. He also drastically improved his plate approach as he walked 17.3 percent of the time and only struck out 18.2 percent of the time.

He got the call to the majors around midseason and was very impressive for a 21-year-old. He had a 120 wRC+ with nine HRs and 14 SBs, and he only struck out 28.9 percent of the time.

This season, Wood has fully taken the step into superstardom. He has a 161 wRC+ with 23 HRs and 12 SBs already this season. He also has a very manageable K rate of 26.4 percent. Strikeouts will always be a part of the game for big players like Wood, but when you can walk as much as he does (14.6 percent) and make the kind of contact he does, that K rate is palatable.

A Savant page like that for any player is impressive. A Savant page like that for a 22-year-old is genuinely absurd. It's scary to think about him getting even better.

Comparing him to the rest of the top dynasty outfielders is tough as it is a loaded position. The top-10 dynasty outfielders are all likely top-20 overall dynasty assets. You're going to be splitting hairs when comparing him to the rest of this group.

If I were a win-now team, it would be hard for me to part with Judge for anyone. Corbin Carroll, Ronald Acuña Jr., Juan Soto, Kyle Tucker, and Fernando Tatis Jr. are all in a tier with Wood for me. I wouldn't argue with you having anyone at the top of that group as they're all elite and at least fairly young.

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