Top 200 Fantasy Baseball Dynasty Rankings - Eric Cross' October 2026 Update

October 23, 2026

Eric Cross' updated top 200 dynasty fantasy baseball rankings, updated for October 2026. His top MLB players to target in dynasty leagues for 2026 and beyond.

Another fantasy baseball season has come and gone. But for those of us who play in dynasty leagues, the work is never done.

That's the beauty of dynasty leagues. You can immediately move on to the next season and work on a way to try and improve your team. That can be done via offseason restocking drafts, FYPD drafts, or trading.

Below, you'll find my top-200 Dynasty Rankings for October 2026, with notes on notable risers or fallers in my October update. Check out my Patreon for my full top-500 Dynasty Rankings, plus plenty of additional content.

What Factors Into My Fantasy Baseball Dynasty Rankings

Many elements go into dynasty rankings, but I primarily weigh the following:

• Current/Recent Performance
• Expected future short-term performance (next 2-3 years)
• Expected future long-term performance
• Profile/metrics analysis
• Durability
• Team Context (it matters a little bit)

Top 200 Fantasy Baseball Dynasty Rankings

Updated: October 2026. For the full Top 500, along with additional rankings, analysis, and more, check out Eric's Toolshed Fantasy Patreon.

Dynasty Fantasy Baseball Rankings Notes

Carson Benge, New York Mets

After an impressive rookie season, Carson Benge finds himself as a Top 50 dynasty asset heading into the offseason. In 654 plate appearances, Benge slashed .282/.346/.430 with 86 runs, 22 doubles, 20 home runs, and 22 steals. He became just the 19th rookie to go 20/20 in MLB history, and just the 9th to also have a batting average above .280.

Carson Benge, last 26 games...

108 PA
.356 AVG
.398 OBP
.564 SLG
10 XBH
5 HR
3 SB
18.5% K

Benge is now inside my Top-100 overall in my dynasty rankings, and is making a case to be a Top-25 OF as well.
#LGM
https://t.co/5ObtJfUCc7

— Eric Cross (@EricCrossMLB) August 28, 2026

Outside of his defense/arm, Benge isn't one of those players who has one standout tool. But he does a lot of things well across the board without any notable red flags in the profile/ he finished his rookie season with an 88.8 mph AVG EV, 7.3% barrel rate, and a 38.8% hard-hit rate. All of those are right around league-average marks, and the same can be said for his 7.6% walk rate and 21.7% strikeout rate.

However, the areas where Benge stands out offensively are in the contact and speed departments. He posted an 86.3% zone contact rate, 78.6% overall contact rate, and had an 82nd percentile sprint speed this past season. I'm not sure I see a jump up into the Top 25 in 2027, but Benge has the all-around skill set to stick as a Top 50 caliber player moving forward.

Carter Jensen, Kansas City Royals

Another rookie hitter that made a solid jump up my rankings to close the season is Kansas City's rookie catcher, Carter Jensen. After slashing .300/.391/.550 with a trio ot taters in a nice 69-PA debut for the Royals in 2025, Jensen followed that up by racking up 80 runs, 27 home runs, 81 RBI, and 65 walks, along with a .239/.323/.467 slash line.

This made Jensen just the 5th rookie in MLB history to have at least 35 doubles, 25 home runs, and 65 walks in his debut season. The other four are Tim Salmon, Dick Allen, Albert Pujols, and Ted Williams. That's a damn fine list to be on. If my ranking didn't give it away, I'm buying Jensen for 2027 and beyond.

Sure, the 28.2% strikeout rate is a little high, and the 70.3% contact rate is a little low, but neither is a terrible mark. It also helps that Jensen walked at a solid 10.8% clip, only chased 24.1% of the time, and finished with a 12.7% barrel rate, 91.5 mph AVG EV, and 44.8% hard-hit rate. Jensen's batted ball angles were also beneficial to his power output, finishing with a 67.3% air rate, 41.8% pull rate, and 23.1% pull-air rate.

Gavin Williams, Cleveland Guardians

At this point, Gavin Williams has put himself in the ace discussion for fantasy baseball, both for 2027 redraft leagues and dynasty leagues as well. In 32 starts spanning 184.1 innings in 2026, Williams posted a 3.76 ERA, 1.11 WHIP, 8.2% walk rate, and a 33.2% strikeout rate.

Yes, his ERA rose by 0.70 from the previous season, but I'm more focused on Williams improving his WHIP from 1.27 to 1.11, his walk rate from 11.8% to 8.2%, and his strikeout rate from 24.6% to 33.2%. And despite the ERA rising, Williams had a lower xERA, FIP, and xFIP than the previous season. This level of upside was always lurking for Williams, but it took him until his 4th Major League season to finally put it all together.

Gavin Williams strikes out three in the 5th 🔥

He's up to 11 Ks on the day! https://t.co/exwWvMhrCd

— MLB (@MLB) October 5, 2026

And the fact that Williams' production surge coincided with notable improvements in the walk rate, chase rate, and whiff rate departments should give optimism that his 2026 season wasn't a fluke. Another notable and encouraging improvement was with Williams' four-seamer. After allowing a .268 BAA and .498 SLG on the pitch in 2025, those dropped to .192 and .317 respectively in 2026.

Williams also increased his sweeper usage from 19.9% to 28.8%, making it his most used offering this past season. And when your most-used offering has a .158 BAA, .281 SLG, and 44% whiff rate, that's usually a good thing.

Reid Detmers, Los Angeles Angels

Honestly, I never thought I'd see the day when Reid Detmers was inside the top 100 in my dynasty rankings, but here we are. Before the All-Star break, it was the same old story from Detmers, sitting with a 4.39 ERA at break. But in 13 starts after the break, Detmers posted a 1.89 ERA, 0.89 WHIP, 4.5% walk rate, 30.6% strikeout rate, and a .201 BAA across 76.1 innings.

That dominant end to the season dropped Detmer's ERA to an impressive 3.36 for the season, to go along with a 1.04 WHIP, 6.5% walk rate, and a 28.5% strikeout rate. This was the 4th straight season where Detmers had a strikeout rate above 26%, but the first time since 2022 where he walked fewer than 9% of the batters he faced. Detmers' walk rate, ERA, and WHIP were all new career-best marks for him in his 6th year in the Majors.

It feels like this type of outcome was always just over the horizon for Detmers, who has posted impressive underlying metrics for a few seasons in a row now. The 2026 season was his second straight season with a chase rate above 32% and his third straight season with a whiff rate above 29%.

If you enjoyed these rankings and want to see the full Top 500, along with additional rankings, analysis, and more, check out Eric's Toolshed Fantasy Patreon.

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