Projecting Rest of Season Top 10 Hitters in 2025 Fantasy Baseball (Week 5)

Ryan Kirksey projects which 10 hitters will finish the season in the top 10 for the 2025 fantasy baseball season, as we head into Week 5 of MLB action.

The Week 5 edition of our Top 10 Hitters series for fantasy baseball and the 2025 season is upon us. What has changed with fantasy baseball hitters over the last week? As the weather heats up, offenses will also start being more productive, and some of the slumping hitters (looking at you, Mookie Betts!) should pick things up.

Even in the last week, we can see that offenses are starting to improve. On the season, all players in Major League Baseball are hitting .241/.315/.389. In the last seven days, those numbers are .252/.323/.396 with 169 home runs in that span. While there are still some hitters who will continue to surprise, some hitters who have not come close to the top 10 this season might make their moves soon.

In some cases, the numbers are starting to stabilize, while in others, more plate appearances are needed to make a firm decision. But in fantasy baseball, the stats we have are all that we can use. Making future judgments based on current data is the name of the game! It's a long season, and there is a lot of baseball left to be played. I'm going to take a closer look at the current top-10 hitters in fantasy and make some predictions about who ends up there when it's all said and done in October.

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Current Top 10 Hitters for Fantasy Baseball

According to Yahoo's player rankings, here are the top 10 most valuable hitters in 5x5 roto leagues as of April 29, 2025.

Aaron Judge remains at the top of the fantasy hitter list for Week 5, even though he continues to be in a bit of a minor slump. He did hit a home run this past week, but it was just his second since early April, and he has lost about 10 points of batting average over the last week or so. Still, he leads MLB in batting average and RBI, and we know the home runs will be coming.

Kyle Tucker has cooled off in the power and batting average departments lately. Over the last week, he hit just .222/.364/.389 with one home run. But he is making up for it with four steals in that time, and he still has an 18 percent walk rate. Tucker is a streaky player, so some stops and starts in his stats are to be expected.

Corbin Carroll man..
• 5’10 / 165 pounds
• Atop the league with 9 HRs

He doesn’t specialize in just pulling optimally hit fly balls like Isaac Paredes

HE HAS A MAX EV OF 116 MPH‼️Most of his HRs are gone everywhere

Like, I don’t think i’ve seen anything like this in my life pic.twitter.com/dUI7SoLZ0J

— Zack🐻 (@EuryPerezSzn) April 24, 2025

Brice Turang maintains his spot in the top 10, largely on the back of his elite batting average and eight steals. He also leads all hitters in runs this season. With his spot secured at the top of the Brewers lineup, his combination of average, steals, and runs could keep him near the top of fantasy boards all year, even if he finishes with around 12-15 home runs.

Oneil Cruz enters the top-10 list this week after a monstrous last several days. In the last seven days, Cruz is hitting .333/.400/.704 with three home runs and two steals. He is the only player in baseball who can claim to have 20 combined home runs and steals this season.

ONEIL CRUZ BLASTS A 463-FOOT HR 🤯 pic.twitter.com/8RoZlsz8EP

— MLB (@MLB) April 24, 2025

The only player in baseball besides Cruz to have at least 17 combined home runs and steals is Pete Crow-Armstrong. His last week has been downright Bondsian with a .421 average and an .842 slugging percentage. He is only striking out 15 percent of the time as well, meaning pitchers are not fooling him, and this progression and growth are legitimate.

Pure sluggers Pete Alonso and Tyler Soderstrom maintain spots on this list for Week 5, but it's largely on the back of high batting averages. I don't believe either one of them projects to be a .300 hitter the rest of the season, so without the high steals and runs, these two are likely to slip off at some point as their batting averages normalize.

Projected Top 10 Hitters for Fantasy Baseball

Using a blend of ATC projections, Nick Mariano's projections, and my own opinions, here is my projected top-10 finish for hitters in the last five months of the 2025 fantasy baseball season.

Shohei Ohtani is still conspicuously missing from the list of top 10 current fantasy hitters. Ohtani is still hitting the cover off the ball to the tune of .333/.448/.542 (new dad strength!), but he has zero home runs and just one RBI during that time. That has to change soon, and the home runs will likely come. He is still stealing bases, but just can't get the ball over the fence lately.

Aaron Judge did hit a home run this week, and I do not doubt that one of his patented summer home-run binges, where he hits eight in a week, is right around the corner. Similar to Judge, Kyle Tucker slowed down on the power over the last two weeks, but once those home-field winds at Wrigley pick up this summer, he will also be a 30-home-run player.

Kyle Tucker makes it a 1-run game in the 8th inning 👀 pic.twitter.com/RZ2gKAko1G

— MLB (@MLB) April 23, 2025

Unless you are a complete outlier of a home-run hitter like Aaron Judge or Pete Alonso, it's incredibly difficult to crack a year-end top 10 without a solid floor of steals and batting average. That's why players like Kyle Tucker, Oneil Cruz, Corbin Carroll, and Fernando Tatis Jr. will likely end up near the top this year.

Each of them has a fantasy floor of about a .260 average, and all should easily hit 25 home runs and 25 steals at a minimum. What will be interesting to see is how many of these players end up with 30/30 seasons. There were four 30/30 players back in 2023, but that's the only time that has happened in at least the last 25 years.

Bobby Witt Jr. rose 20 places in the fantasy hitter rankings from 76 to 55 this week, and he is on a steady climb. He is doing everything except hitting home runs this year. But if he ends up with at least .300/25/35, he will find his way into the top 10 by the end of the season.

Without Bobby Witt Jr. stats:

— The Royals have a batting average of .195. #fountainsup pic.twitter.com/HvldBUuyDV

— Royals Muse (@KCRoyalsMuse) April 20, 2025

Juan Soto also had a very promising week after his slow start. He hit .304/.407/.391 over the last seven days, albeit with no home runs or RBI. The power is going to come for Soto as he is still seeing the ball as well as ever and is making hard contact. This is just a temporary power slump that should end at any time.

I've seen enough of Pete Crow-Armstrong to be a believer at this point, and he replaces Gunnar Henderson on the projected top-10 list. PCA is doing everything you want in a fantasy asset and shows no signs of slowing down. The knock on PCA when he came up to the big leagues was his tendency to strike out 30 percent of the time. He has improved that to 23 percent this season and last, which is driving a lot of his success.

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