By Ryan Main
OK. It was bad enough when Sean would win every year, but now we have another behemoth to deal with. Larry dominated from start to finish in a record setting season where he could have sat his team for the last 2 weeks and still walked home as a champion. Congratulations to Larry’s High Tops for yet another Shooter Cup Title.
Last year’s keeper rankings had Sean predicted to take another title with a record 82 keeper points. Will he have improved on that to lead again this year, or will we have a new leader? There was a lot of talk about some of the bottom teams having trouble rebuilding as well – will we see progress at the bottom, or does Bobby just really like the Fireball pajamas?
Some minor tweaks to the ranks this year – seemed like people wanted the article ASAP, but the Fantrax ADP wasn’t available yet, so I swapped in NFBC ADP, along with the others: dynasty (Rotowire) and redraft (Fantasy Pros, ESPN) for the composite rank.
Also, Rotowire’s projections haven’t updated ANY team names, so I updated some free agent signings and probably a couple traded players, but if it’s the old team…blame Rotowire.
As we head into the 2026 keeper decisions, here’s how our rosters stacked up at years end…
OOF. I had to triple check the total, but Riley, Santander, Wheeler and Grayson dropped after their injury plagued seasons and Ozuna was just terrible. Senga and Ober continued their inconsistency after showing signs of breakouts. The rankings drop seems more due to bad luck than bad decisions but will take some work with Wheeler retiring and an aging roster. Hopefully Jacob Wilson and Brice Turang can continue their growth, and Cam Smith can figure something out…. maybe the Nimmo and Ward trades will help their numbers as well.
Wow, that was a lot…are all these blubs going to be this long?
For the 2nd year in a row, Wei decided to play an active roster, but didn’t manage to improve his ranking with only one trade during the season. His RK’s have started to move into keeper slots, so the team is staying young and still has some great rookies…wait, is Painter on a 15-year RK contract? Ok, so who do we have for upside…Holliday, Westburg, Bradish, McLean…Gavin Williams is a big sleeper (horseman?) and I guess you must keep Gerrit Cole. I think there’s some making for a good 2nd half, but this team will likely struggle out of the gate.
Oh…and can you set your team’s name please?
West Coast! That’s a lot of NL West keeper options and Miami – we all know they trade away the best keepers, so a good target. There’s some potential in this lineup actually…and a nice young roster. Corbin Burnes hiding down the list could help turn things around for 2027, but it will be tough to be competitive without a killer draft (which we’ve seen from Bobby before). I don’t think that Ha Seong Kim trade is going to work out too well though.
Congratulations on the 2nd consecutive FIREBALL, last place finish. Let’s not do that again.
Kim’s top 2 keepers were picked up in August trades that reshaped his keeper set. With bounce-backs possible from Adley, Doyle, Bibee and Trout???…maybe Kim can rebound quickly, but there’s a lot of options here so…choose wisely. Jordan Walker and Coby Mayo could still have a shot at figuring it out and the jury’s still out on Dylan Crews. Kim’s kept a lot of options open and picked up a lot of young potential last year…I’d predict a similar 2026 with more upgrades to come.
Carey did most of his work early last year, adding Yordan, Fried and Naylor via trade before the end of June and then decided his work was done and went home for the season. There are still some depth options in Lawlar and Volpe…although even their own teams or fans don’t seem to like them so who knows what playing time will look like. Carey tried his best to trade away Adolis last year, but somehow, he just keeps coming back. Caminero looks fantastic as an RK asset and Walcott should also hit soon….Salas is still only 17 so…maybe he can be a 15-year RK like Painter someday. Some definite improvement here, particularly on the top end and next year Caminero moves into the keepers to give a very strong top 4.
Hi Damon! Can someone named Ronald lead a team to a championship? What Ronald will we get this year – Acuna Prime was something to see, but Ronald is not. So many questions from there…Gilbert was the picture of reliable…until he wasn’t. Miller…starter, set up man…still great numbers and gives holds, but is that a top keeper? Will Arozarena continue his improved season next year or was his postseason just him returning to the bleh version he had been in Tampa. Micheal Harris II has the II because he waits until the 2nd half to start playing. Can Sonny Gray pitch in Boston after flopping in a big city previously. What bones will Albies break this year…drink some milk mother fucker! Marsee, Loubob…what are they? I don’t know what the answers are to any of these…if there’s questions, there’s still lots of upside, but hard to know if this will be a top 5 team or bottom 5.
Another team that traded for their #1 keeper during the last season. Now, in this case, giving up JRam was a massive price, but Crochet is much younger and finished 2nd in Cy Young voting. Tatis is a blast to own and who doesn’t want the newest Blue Jay on their team in Dylan Cease. If Shane’O’Mac looks good in spring training, Paul might have a top rotation in place with some bats to fill in the draft. Nobody knows what Lawrence Butler, Royce Lewis, Teoscar, Keaschall or Varsho will do after showing high ceilings, but terrible floors at times over the past couple seasons. Sasaki should also be interesting to watch as he moves back to an SP role…stats seem to imply he may have overachieved as a reliever so this might be a good sell high option. Oh and ERNIE CLEMENT…everyone’s most likeable (aside from Vlad) Blue Jay…not really a keeper option, but a fun guy to have around. The vibes on Paul’s team must be fantastic.
So many horsemen. Oh..and Bo, you traitor you…and BEN RICE – so much helium. I’d be excited for James Wood, but holy guacamole…you paid how much for him? I’m not sure that he’ll ever recover just the Yamamoto value, but why not throw in 5 other keepers too. Pitching should be pretty solid here regardless, with Greene, Luzardo, and Eury. Some interesting decisions to make on the bats…Alonso, Wood, Rice and Bo are obvious locks…will Paredes bounce back…does Matt Shaw have a position anymore…Barger could be a huge candidate if he just improves slightly and why am I not surprised to see Davis Schneider lurking in there…good job keeping the roommates together so they can share a couch. I think the keepers are fairly obvious here aside from the last spot…got to go Barger right?
Just Olson and Betts return from last year’s set after a monstrous season of trades and roster turnover to reset as quickly as I think we’ve seen in some time. Now Con has Fuck..er, Tucker to lead his team with what looks like a superstar in Nick Kurtz. Con picked up Devers before the trade to San Francisco…hopefully he can get back to his routines after a tumultuous season at the hands of the Red Sox. No doubt the #1 RK pick will be Konnor Griffin with more picks to play with and some young SPs to round out his keepers. Will Conley keep Denzel Clarke around for his sparkling defense (not likely)? I’m guessing Con will continue his turnover to round out the last few spots…although a keeper reduction would make that a lot easier and Con might immediately be a top contender if the chips fall right.
It was a fun offseason watching JRod give back to his community after kicking ass in the playoffs. Hopefully he’s finding his form heading into 2026. A lot of questions on this roster…Oneil Cruz and Jackson Merrill have been getting a lot of hate on the podcasts already. Is Edwin Diaz a keeper in LA, or will it eat him up like it has every other closer that LA picks up. Vinnie P and Jac Caglianone gets some short fences in KC – hopefully that pushes them to the next level. Seager, please stay healthy. Speed demons Chandler Simpson and Victor Scott should be fun to watch, but can they hit consistently? Yelich and Aranda are also interesting but have their own concerns.
Interesting. Not a lot has changed from the previous team. Marko probably regrets trading Josh Naylor before he lit on fire in Seattle, but otherwise, it was a flawless season and while moving into money positions, Marko still improved his keeper ranking quite a bit. A very strong keeper set with a good mix of speed and power with strong pitching should have Marko in the race again to the finish. We’ll be looking to have a strong draft to really see how far this team can go, but with consistent improvement every season, we should expect that to continue again.
1-2-3 ranked bats with the top SP is unfair. Throw in Harper, Chourio, Bregman and DeGrom and Sean is instantly a Shooter Cup contender. It’s surprising that he isn’t ranked higher, but he’s missing a top ranked RK option – I mean c’mon Sean, get on it. There’s not even anything to debate here…as usual, Sean already moved any dead weight out to make sure his keepers are the best he could put together. It’ll be all we can do to hold him back this year.
Co-leader in the rankings, Dick Dogs are positioned for another run at a cup. Gunnar should jump back and have a better surrounding cast this year. I don’t think anybody will complain if Vlad puts together an MVP season and Cal is likely to continue being the top catcher option even if he takes a step back. That’s a great top 3 and Marte is still the top 2nd base keeper. That’s the good half. The other half have questions…who’s the real PCA – did he get hurt or tired or did the league catch up to him? Machado, Turner and Sasaki all have great resumes, but will they keep delivering after some recent inconsistency? Oh…ya, Skenes is pretty good in that RK slot. Again, there are not really any questions here on who to keep, so it should be interesting to see how Steve’s draft goes. Good luck in taking down Larry and Sean.
Ok, first things first…this may be a tie, but Larry takes fist overall as reigning Champion and having the higher ranked set in 2025.
Somehow, after absolutely dominating the league last year and making 10 in-season trades, Larry returns with the same total keeper points. This time, his actual keepers have improved with less RK points, but you don’t have to look far to see what’s going right. Aaron Judge is the best hitter in the league. After picking up JRam mid-season, Larry’s set at the most difficult positions to fill and still has a ton of depth with 9 top 200 ranked keeper options beyond his top 8.
That’s it for this year’s rankings – can’t wait to get the season started after a fantastic, but crushing finish to the Jays dream season in 2025. It was a hell of a ride, and I can’t wait to see what 2026 brings. Good luck to everyone (except Sean and Larry) this year. Let’s see a new Champion! Worst ranked to first finish Cheese – let’s GO!
OBSESSED BALLERS FANTASY BASEBALL LEAGUE 