Top 200 Fantasy Baseball Dynasty Rankings - Eric Cross' May 2025 Update

Eric Cross' updated top 200 dynasty fantasy baseball rankings, updated for May 2025. His top MLB players to target in dynasty leagues for 2025 and beyond.

The first quarter of the season is in the books, and rankings are already in flux. The first couple of updates to my prospect and dynasty rankings each season are always exciting; we have new data to comb through and breakouts to analyze. Now that we're in the middle of May, the data samples are becoming more believable, and early-season breakouts are either falling off or showing that their success is for real.

I'll be updating these rankings monthly throughout the 2025 season and posting the Top 200 here on RotoBaller, along with thoughts on trending players.

Below, you'll find my Top 200 Dynasty Rankings for May 2025, with notes on five notable risers or fallers in my May update. Check out my Patreon for my full Top 500 Dynasty Rankings, plus plenty of additional content.

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What Factors Into My Dynasty Rankings

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

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

Top 200 Fantasy Baseball Dynasty Rankings

Updated: May 2025 | The full Top 500, along with additional rankings, analysis, and more, check out Eric's Toolshed Fantasy Patreon.

Dynasty Fantasy Baseball Rankings Notes

Pete Crow-Armstrong, Chicago Cubs

The most notable jump in my dynasty rankings this month was Pete Crow-Armstrong vaulting up to #33 overall. There are currently three players with double-digit home runs and steals so far this season, and two of them were first-round picks in Shohei Ohtani and Kyle Tucker. Crow-Armstrong is the third. In 202 plate appearances this season, Crow-Armstrong has 12 home runs, 14 steals, 36 runs scored, and 38 RBI with a .282/.317/.569 slash line.

The area of concern with Crow-Armstrong is the aggressiveness, which has led to a 43.8% chase rate and just a 4.5% walk rate. Thankfully, PCA has improved his zone contact rate from 73.2% to 81.5% with a 14.1% barrel rate and 41.5% hard-hit rate, on top of his elite speed (97th percentile) and award-winning defense.

Given the aggressive approach, Crow-Armstrong will likely have some valleys to go along with the peaks. But the all-around talent is here for him to stick as a Top-50 player moving forward and maybe even Top 20-25 if he can learn to become a bit more patient at the plate.

Hunter Brown, Houston Astros

At this point, Hunter Brown is a bona fide ace for fantasy and a no-doubt top-10 overall pitcher. Trust me, as I mentioned on the latest Toolshed episode, I tried to poke holes in the profile or find any reason to dispute my previous sentence. It couldn't be done. When I'm looking for an ace pitcher, Brown checks off all the boxes, and then some.

In his first nine outings this season, Brown has posted a stellar 1.43 ERA, 0.83 WHIP, 6.7% walk rate, and a 32.2% strikeout rate. It hasn't just been this season where he's shown elite performance either, as Brown was a Top 10-15 SP for fantasy over the final four months of the 2024 season after having that disastrous first six weeks or so.

Hunter Brown, Painted 97mph Two Seamer. 🖌️🎨 pic.twitter.com/2TFhohl1Yd

— Rob Friedman (@PitchingNinja) May 3, 2025

Brown has increased his strikeout rate by 7.1% this season, his whiff rate by 2.9%, and his chase rate by 4.7% while dropping his walk rate by 1.7%. All of his contact and bat missing metrics are above-average or better, and Brown is also one of the best arms in the league at limiting hard contact and barrels. Opposing hitters are only mustering an 85.1 mph AVG EV and a 29.1% hard-hit rate off of Brown this season.

Not only is Brown a top-10 arm at this point, I'd have zero issue ranking him as high as #3 overall behind Paul Skenes and Tarik Skubal. Those two represent the top tier of fantasy pitchers, and Brown is now firmly in Tier-2 along with Garrett Crochet, Logan Gilbert, Spencer Strider, etc.

Wilyer Abreu, Boston Red Sox

After a solid rookie season in 2024, Wilyer Abreu has taken a solid step forward so far in 2025. In 181 plate appearances, Abreu is slashing .264/.354/.522 with 24 runs, 11 home runs, 27 RBI, and four steals, while having a beautiful-looking Savant page.

Not only are the surface stats nice, but Abreu's metrics under the hood are encouraging as well and back up his early-season surge. Abreu continues to run impressive quality of contact metrics with a 14.4% barrel rate and a 49.6% hard-hit rate along with a 91.6 mph AVG EV, .596 xSLG, and .470 xwOBACON. But he did all of this last season, too. So, what has changed in 2025?

Well, a lot. Abreu has increased his zone contact rate from 76.4% to 88.6% and his overall contact rate from 70.4% to 82.6% while also dropping his chase rate from 28.2% to 23.8%. On top of that, Abreu's walk and strikeout rates have improved from 8.9% and 28% to 12.2% and 18.2%, respectively.

Given the steps forward in the contact and approach department while not sacrificing any power, Abreu is easily a Top-100 player at this point and pushing Top-50 overall status.

Cal Raleigh, Seattle Mariners

At the catcher position, there has been plenty of turnover at the top, especially with the #1 overall spot. But the one backstop who has remained consistently good to great over the last few years is Cal "Big Dumper" Raleigh, who takes over the #1 dynasty catcher spot for me this month. Honestly, it's hard to make an argument against him in the top spot at this point.

Cal Raleigh gives the @Mariners a late lead with home run No. 15! #RivalryWeekend pic.twitter.com/6e8MGdNZ5C

— MLB (@MLB) May 18, 2025

"But Eric, he hit .220 last season and is also a .220 career hitter over five seasons!"

So what? Yes, the average will probably never be impactful. Still, Raleigh is so darn good in the power and run production categories that it more than makes up for his batting average shortcomings.

Since the beginning of the 2023 season, Raleigh ranks second in runs (182), first in RBI (207), tied-first in SLG (.461), first in ISO (.233), and is first in home runs by a country mile. Raleigh has 79 home runs since the start of 2023, which is 20 more than second-place Shea Langeliers. William Contreras is still in the same tier as Raleigh, and I believe he'll bounce back, but the #1 spot right now has to go to Big Dumper.

Corbin Burnes, Arizona Diamondbacks

As someone who got in early on Corbin Burnes a half-decade ago and had plenty of shares, his ascension to pitching greatness was pure gold for my fantasy teams. But notice how I used the word "had" and not "has" as I now have zero shares of Burnes in my dynasty leagues.

Yes, Burnes had a 2.92 ERA last year and is at 2.56 this year, but there are some underlying concerns which have me dropping him down my rankings and recommending him as a sell in dynasty. To start, Burnes' walk rate has nearly doubled this season from 6.1% to 11.6% which would be a career-worst mark for Burnes.

On top of that, Burnes is getting hit extremely hard this season with a45.5% hard-hit rate allowed, and his bat missing abilities have continued their downward trend this season. Burnes is down to a 22.6% strikeout rate and 25.7% whiff rate, both of which are career lows. He also has his lowest chase rate since 2018 and all of his ERA indicators are in the 3.96 to 4.29 range right now.

Is Burnes still a good arm for fantasy? Yes. But is he an elite "set and forget" ace? Not anymore.

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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