5 Infield Breakout Candidates for Fantasy Baseball (2026)

February 26, 2026

Jeremy Heist discusses five infielders who can be fantasy baseball breakouts in 2026. Target these mid-to-late round picks as fantasy hitter sleepers and values.

One of the most important parts of preseason strategy is identifying breakout candidates at each position who vastly outperform their draft day cost. It’s easy to lock in an elite player in the early rounds or take a chance on some lottery tickets in the last handful of rounds, but identifying the values in the middle rounds of drafts is the best way to give yourself a leg up on the competition. 

In this piece, we are going to look at five infielders with breakout potential who are great picks at their current ADP. Whether they are a young player looking to prove themselves for the first time or a veteran who isn’t getting the respect they deserve, these five players have a ton of upside that can help raise your team to the top. 

For this article, we will be referencing the player’s Yahoo ADP.

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Sal Stewart, 1B, Cincinnati Reds

ADP: 208.1

Sal Stewart is a name you may not be too familiar with if you checked out towards the end of last season. After debuting on September 1, he went on to smash five home runs over the course of 18 games to finish out the year. That type of immediate impact isn’t surprising considering the dominance he displayed in the minors, where he slashed .309/.383/.524 with 20 home runs, 80 RBI, 78 runs, and 17 stolen bases in 118 games between Double-A and Triple-A.

It wasn’t just the five home runs he hit in the majors that were impressive, but it was the way he impacted the ball in general. His underlying metrics are lit up in bright red, showing truly elite quality of contact in that small sample. 

At just 22 years old, he has the chance to be a difference maker for fantasy, especially with half his games coming in one of the most hitter-friendly parks in the league. Playing time isn’t completely guaranteed with the recent addition of Eugenio Suarez, but there should still be room for Stewart as the primary first baseman.

He has experience playing second base and third base, too, so picking up eligibility at those weaker positions isn’t out of the question if there’s an injury in Cincinnati's infield. 

With an ADP sitting close to 200 overall, there’s not too much risk to take a chance on Stewart’s upside on draft day. ATC currently projects him to hit .262 with 18 home runs and seven steals in 427 at-bats, but a 25-homer season isn't out of the question with his talent. 

Luke Keaschall, 2B, Minnesota Twins

ADP: 123.8

Luke Keaschall broke out in 2025 while on the field, but a forearm fracture limited him to just 49 games. In those games, he slashed .302/.382/.445 with four home runs, 28 RBI, 25 runs, and 14 stolen bases. Some simple math would extrapolate that to about 12 homers and 42 steals over a 150-game pace, which would make him an elite fantasy asset. 

It’s even more encouraging to see his plate discipline hold up against the toughest level of competition, as he posted a 14% strikeout rate, 9.2% walk rate, and 20% chase rate. Despite not hitting the ball hard, he makes up for it with great sweet spot and squared-up percentages. 

While it’s unlikely that the 23-year-old finds a power stroke in 2026, he has the potential to be a true difference maker in batting average and stolen bases. A season like Nico Hoerner put up in 2025 could be a realistic expectation for the youngster, although he has the potential to steal even more bases than the 29 Hoerner swiped last year.

Kazuma Okamoto, 3B, Toronto Blue Jays

ADP: 171.8

Kazuma Okamoto may have been a lesser-known name than Munetaka Murakami due to the latter’s massive outlier power heading into this offseason, but there’s a very good chance that Okamoto will be the much better major league player. The Blue Jays clearly thought so, inking him to a 4-year, $60 million contract this offseason.

He has been one of the most dominant hitters in the NPB throughout his career, recently slashing .327/.416/.598 with 15 home runs in 69 games in 2025. An elbow strain kept him out for most of the season, but to get an idea of what a full season looks like for the 29-year-old, he hit .278 with 41 home runs in 2023. 

Kazuma Okamoto extends Team Japan's lead to 3-1! #WorldBaseballClassic pic.twitter.com/z0bjgPAFGz

— World Baseball Classic (@WBCBaseball) March 22, 2023

He has an incredibly well-rounded profile, hitting for power while also posting identical strikeout and walk rates of 11.3% in 2025. You may worry that his stats won’t hold up in the states once he starts facing tougher competition, which will be true to some extent, but not as much as you might think. The NPB is currently in the midst of an extreme dead-ball era, where hitting is down across the league, and almost every qualified starting pitcher posts an ERA below 3.00.

The ball flies much more easily in the majors, so while Okamoto is likely to strike out more often, he should still be able to impact the ball very well.  He’s very affordable with an ADP of 221 as the 17th third baseman drafted, and is a great corner infield target or third base upside play if you wait at the position.

Jonathan Aranda, 1B, Tampa Bay Rays

ADP: 194.8

Jonathan Aranda was on many breakout lists heading into 2025, and he pretty much delivered on those expectations, slashing .316/.393/.489 with 14 home runs, 59 RBI, and 56 runs in 106 games. It may seem weird to consider him a breakout candidate once again in 2026, but with an ADP of 187 as the 18th first baseman drafted, his dominant 2025 is being disregarded. 

The main culprit in the Aranda disrespect is a fractured wrist that essentially ended his season on July 31, aside from the three games he returned for at the very end of the season. If he had continued that production over a fully healthy year, we wouldn’t be seeing such a large ADP discount for the 27-year-old.

Jonathan Aranda's February ADP on NFBC is around pick 190.

Love that value.

2025
12.8% BRL, 93 mph AVG EV, 54.5% HH
.291 xBA, .515 xSLG

Probably platoons a bit, but there's .270+/20+ upside over 500+ PA.#FantasyBaseballpic.twitter.com/qrLE13ftRb

— Eric Cross (@EricCrossMLB) February 16, 2026

The main concern for Aranda is losing at-bats in a platoon. While the Rays do typically platoon their hitters, it’s not like he is useless against lefties. In 2025, he still mustered a .274/.378/.345 slash line against southpaws. While the power is nearly non-existent, he still gets on base enough to earn starts against weaker left-handed pitchers.

The power in general for Aranda is less than that of a typical first baseman, but his final numbers may not look too different from those of teammate Yandy Diaz, who is currently being drafted 50 picks earlier.

Jorge Polanco, 2B, New York Mets

ADP: 191.6

Jorge Polanco is another example of a player who was great in 2025 but isn’t being drafted like it. Formerly an elite second baseman but mediocre in recent years, he bounced back with a .265/.326/.495 slash line with 26 home runs, 78 RBI, 64 runs, and six steals in 138 games. 

The most drastic change that led to his success was decreasing his strikeout rate from 29.2% to 15.6%, a number reminiscent of Polanco in his prime years earlier in his career. Combining that with a career-best hard hit rate of 45.8%, it’s no wonder he bounced back.

However, the 32-year-old has an ADP outside of the top 200 as the 15th second baseman off the board, which is a far cry from his 2025 performance as the seventh most valuable player at the position in 5x5 roto. It’s also important to keep in mind that he did all this in Seattle, one of the hardest places to hit in the league.

He signed a two-year, $40 million contract with the Mets this offseason and will now get to hit behind Francisco Lindor, Juan Soto, and Bo Bichette, which will give him plenty of RBI opportunities. The veteran will be New York’s everyday first baseman, so he’ll also get the benefit of multi-eligibility very early in the year and is well-positioned to be even more productive than he was last season.

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