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Who should I draft for fantasy baseball in 2026? Fantasy baseball outlooks for Jackson Holliday, Hunter Greene, Matt McLain, Chris Sale, Joe Ryan, Vinnie Pasquantino.
Who Should I Draft? Some common 2026 fantasy baseball draft decisions are regarding players like Jackson Holliday, Hunter Greene, Matt McLain, Chris Sale, Joe Ryan, Vinnie Pasquantino. But not to worry, we are here to help make these decisions and build winning teams in 2026. Draft your optimal fantasy baseball teams for 2026. Our free Who Should I Draft? tool will help make your fantasy baseball draft decisions. Compare up to four MLB players, and we tell you who to draft... all free! Make the right decisions.
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Fantasy Baseball Draft Outlooks
Below are some fantasy baseball outlooks written by our MLB team here at RotoBaller, bringing you their fantasy baseball analysis and advice on which players to consider drafting in 2026:
Chris Sale, SP, Atlanta Braves
Atlanta Braves left-handed pitcher Chris Sale was coming off a dominant 2024 campaign, in which he posted a 2.38 ERA, 1.01 WHIP, and a 32.1% K rate en route to winning the NL Cy Young Award. However, his 2025 campaign was not as successful, as the southpaw logged only 125 2/3 innings as he spent a majority of the season on the 60-day IL with a fractured left ribcage. While he was a disappointment at his near second-round price tag last season, Sale should be back on the radar of fantasy managers in 2025, given his lower 35.6 ADP on NFBC. When on the bump, the 36-year-old was nearly just as effective as he was during his Cy Young campaign, posting a 2.58 ERA with a 1.07 WHIP. He generated a near-identical 32.4% K% and a 2.84 xERA (compared to 32.1% K% and a 2.80 xERA the previous summer).
More importantly, when he returned to the mound in late August, following his lengthy absence, Sale posted a strong 2.72 ERA with a 0.83 WHIP over his final 36 1/3 innings to finish his campaign, suggesting he did not have any lasting effects from the rib injury. Managers should expect Sale to remain the lead option of the Atlanta rotation and enter 2026 with the potential to produce elite strikeout numbers and carry high-end ratios. His overall 92nd percentile xERA suggests Sale could be just as dominant in 2026, and his primary pitch, his slider, remained elite, generating a .194 xwOBA and a 39.8% whiff rate.
Given that he looked like his normal self post-injury, a repeat of his 2024 Cy Young campaign is not out of the question even at age 36.
Matt McLain, 2B, Cincinnati Reds
Matt McLain struggled in 2025, hitting .220/.300/.343 with 15 homers and 18 steals across 577 plate appearances. His biggest issue was a 28.9 K% driven by his passive plate approach. McLain's 26 percent chase rate and 11.2 SwStr% weren't that bad, but his 43 Swing% led to too many called strikes. McLain's 17.2 LD% also dragged his BABIP down to .292, though we don't have enough data on the 26-year-old to know his baseline yet. McLain's contact quality declined relative to his 2023 rookie season, as he lost nearly a full tick of average airborne exit velocity (94.4 mph to 93.5) while his rate of Brls/BBE fell from 10.8 percent to 7.2 percent. McLain's HR/FB was nearly cut in half (17.4 percent to 9.9 percent).
McLain was successful on 90 percent of his steal attempts and could push 20 homers, so he has fantasy upside. However, playing time is no longer secure with Sal Stewart expected to receive 2B reps during Spring Training. Similarly, McLain's batting average could be a deal breaker in fantasy. Consider McLain a high-risk, medium-reward play at his 213.33 ADP.
Jackson Holliday, 2B, Baltimore Orioles
Baltimore Orioles second baseman Jackson Holliday made a significant jump in his sophomore season compared to his rookie campaign, where he struggled with a .189 batting average and .566 OPS. Holliday improved in his second year of the big leagues by slashing .242/.314/.375 with 17 home runs, 55 RBI, 70 runs, 17 stolen bases, and a .308 wOBA across 649 plate appearances. The 22-year-old's stats were below the league average last year, but he is trending in the right direction, suggesting he can build on his sophomore campaign. He cut down his strikeouts and increased his walks, evidenced by his K% dropping from 33.3% in 2024 to 21.6% while his BB% rose from 7.2% to 8.6% in 2025.
The 2022 No. 1 overall pick still has ways to go, but if he can continue to improve in 2026, a 20/20 campaign is not out of the question. Holliday is a candidate to lead off in a loaded Orioles lineup that includes Pete Alonso, Gunnar Henderson, Jordan Westburg, Adley Rutschman, and Taylor Ward. From the leadoff spot, Holliday slashed .244/.321/.374 with 13 home runs in 116 games in his career so far. Holliday is still just 22 years old and is currently No. 9 in the latest RotoBaller second base rankings.
If he can continue to improve and win Baltimore's leadoff spot in the batting order, a top-five finish is in the cards and is a value pick at his NFBC ADP of 137.15.
Joe Ryan, SP, Minnesota Twins
Joe Ryan has always flashed high-upside talent, but would come up short by the season's end due to either inconsistency or injury. He finally managed to put it all together in 2025, tossing a career-high 171 innings with a 3.42 ERA, 1.04 WHIP, 194 strikeouts, and 39 walks. The 29-year-old's ERA tends to run on the high side due to his fly ball tendencies (36.9% ground ball rate) that led to 26 allowed home runs last season, but he's as reliable as they come in terms of WHIP, as can be seen by his 1.06 career mark over five seasons.
He doesn't typically pitch deep into starts, which limits his upside to some degree, as even his elite 28.2% strikeout rate still didn't get him to 200 punchouts in 2025. The long ball concerns, lack of volume, and lack of wins on the struggling Twins make it hard to envision a true ace outcome for fantasy, but he's still a high-end target as your second starting pitcher taken in drafts. Ryan is being drafted outside of the top 60 overall in NFBC drafts, which is an affordable price to pay for a WHIP anchor who offers plenty of strikeouts.
Vinnie Pasquantino, 1B, Kansas City Royals
Kansas City Royals first baseman Vinnie Pasquantino had a career year in 2025, hitting .264 with 32 home runs, 113 RBI, and 72 runs scored, good for a .340 wOBA and 116 wRC+. He was able to amass these totals thanks to staying healthy for the entirety of the campaign, playing in 160 games after injuries cut short his 2023 and 2024 seasons. The RBI total was the sixth-most in all of baseball and just one behind AL MVP Aaron Judge. The left-handed slugger continued to put the bat on the ball at a solid rate as he's done throughout his career, with an 83.4 percent contact rate and better-than-average 15.7 percent strikeout rate, while improving his barrel rate almost four percent, up to 10.8 percent for the season.
If there are some things to critique, the 28-year-old chases a lot of pitches and walks at a below-average rate, while also displaying middle-of-the-road bat speed and hard-hit rates. Even his improved barrel rate is just 65th percentile, so a repeat of last year's power numbers could be a challenge. Even so, producing something like a .265-28-90-80-1 line is plenty productive, especially for someone with an NFBC ADP around 88 overall. RotoBaller ranks the Old Dominion product at 78 overall, so he still looks like a value pick in 2026.
Hunter Greene, SP, Cincinnati Reds
Cincinnati Reds starting pitcher Hunter Greene earned his first All-Star nod in 2024 and was well on his way to another bid in 2025 before a groin injury sidelined him from early June to mid August. As a result, the right-hander tallied just 19 starts, the fewest of any season since he debuted in 2022, and has now pitched fewer than 126 innings in three of four years. The 6-foot-5 hurler was strong in those 19 starts, though, as he posted a 2.76 ERA and a phenomenal 0.94 WHIP. Not only that, the former first-rounder produced a better-than-average walk rate for the first time in his career, coming in at 6.2 percent, which helped him to an elite 25.2 percent K-BB%. Already armed with a triple-digit fastball, a devastating splitter was added to his arsenal over the last two seasons, which has transformed the 26-year-old into one of the most dangerous pitchers in baseball.
He'll come into 2026 fully healthy, and although he's yet to be a significant producer of wins in his young career, the flamethrower should provide plenty of strikeouts along with a low ERA and WHIP. With an NFBC ADP around 49 overall, there is some upside here if Greene can manage to stay healthy for the entire season, which is reflected in RotoBaller's current ranking of 43 overall.
Who Should I Draft Tool
Read more about the Who Should I Draft tool here:
2026 Player Decisions. Today's focus in on specific players - Jackson Holliday, Hunter Greene, Matt McLain, Chris Sale, Joe Ryan, Vinnie Pasquantino. These are some common searches for 2026 fantasy baseball drafts.
Using The Tool. This is a simple tool but very powerful. The first step is to enter the player names that you want to compare. In the first box, search for the first player name. In the second box, search for the second player name. Compare up to four MLB players at once, and then click the Who To Draft? button to see who the recommended draft picks are based on fantasy baseball rankings, projections and more.
Improvements For Who Should I Draft? We have lots of great features for you to give you as much information as possible to win your 2026 fantasy baseball drafts. You'll see MLB player tiles with stats and projections, ADPs, and news -- enhanced search results with data to compare, and a slick interface. We hope you enjoy!
How It Works. Our RotoBaller staff puts together their preseason fantasy baseball rankings and projections based on their research, and update it constantly throughout the preseason. That information is the core data that is powering the decision-making in this tool. When you search for player names, you will only see those players that are ranked.
Scoring Formats. Fantasy baseball managers play in various types of leagues, and this tool allows you to choose whether it's roto leagues (rotisserie) scoring, or points leagues scoring. The second thing you want to do, is to select the scoring format. There are two small radio buttons (small circle), so click on the scoring format you prefer. The results may vary based on the scoring format you select.
Popular Draft Searches. Curious to see some tough draft decisions for 2026? Below you will find a list of some popular Who Should I Draft? searches that RotoBaller readers are looking at this. Click any of the links to see the result and recommendation.
Popular Player Comparison Searches - Who To Draft
Below are some popular searches and comparisons from our Who To Draft tool for 2026 drafts for Jackson Holliday, Hunter Greene, Matt McLain, Chris Sale, Joe Ryan, Vinnie Pasquantino:
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