Whatever size fantasy baseball league you join, knowing what top prospects could make an impact in 2026 is a key component of winning.
RotoWire's experts can help you keep track of the next great players on the horizon, which is an important part of building a champion. And while it can be difficult to track thousands of players, RotoWire's MLB prospect rankings do just that for fantasy baseball managers.
What MLB Prospect Rankings Measure
RotoWire's Prospect Rankings update the top 400 minor leaguers throughout the year. The prospect page gives an Estimated Time of Arrival to the major leagues. If you are looking for player who could have an impact in 2026, sort the rankings by this aspect. For keeper and dynasty leagues, the ETA can give you an indication when they may be close to helping your team. The prospect rankings are for 5x5 rotisserie leagues, but easily apply to most formats. There are also arrows to indicate players who perform better in On-base Percentage (OBP) leagues.
For dynasty and keeper leagues, RotoWire also has First-Year Player Draft rankings for players who just signed with a MLB organization. Tatsuya Imai is the top player joining from a foreign league. Kade Anderson, who the Mariners selected with the third overall pick in the 2025 First-Year Player Draft, is the top draft pick from last year's class.
The RotoWire prospect rankings measure players on both current performance and long-term outlook. The rankings are hardly an exact science, and there are
Whatever size fantasy baseball league you join, knowing what top prospects could make an impact in 2026 is a key component of winning.
RotoWire's experts can help you keep track of the next great players on the horizon, which is an important part of building a champion. And while it can be difficult to track thousands of players, RotoWire's MLB prospect rankings do just that for fantasy baseball managers.
What MLB Prospect Rankings Measure
RotoWire's Prospect Rankings update the top 400 minor leaguers throughout the year. The prospect page gives an Estimated Time of Arrival to the major leagues. If you are looking for player who could have an impact in 2026, sort the rankings by this aspect. For keeper and dynasty leagues, the ETA can give you an indication when they may be close to helping your team. The prospect rankings are for 5x5 rotisserie leagues, but easily apply to most formats. There are also arrows to indicate players who perform better in On-base Percentage (OBP) leagues.
For dynasty and keeper leagues, RotoWire also has First-Year Player Draft rankings for players who just signed with a MLB organization. Tatsuya Imai is the top player joining from a foreign league. Kade Anderson, who the Mariners selected with the third overall pick in the 2025 First-Year Player Draft, is the top draft pick from last year's class.
The RotoWire prospect rankings measure players on both current performance and long-term outlook. The rankings are hardly an exact science, and there are plenty of top prospects who were unable to find success in the Majors, but they generally give good insight as to who the game's next biggest stars will be.
How Fantasy Baseball Prospect Value Differs From Real Life
The biggest factor that real GMs must into account but doesn't impact fantasy baseball is defense. That means you may see certain prospects higher up on MLB prospect rankings when they may not hold the same value at a fantasy level. That's where RotoWire's experts can help you sort out who offers the most for your team. For example, catchers and relief pitchers may not get as high a grade in RotoWire's standard rankings and fantasy baseball dynasty rankings.
At the MLB level, Blue Jays third baseman Ernie Clement led all of baseball with a 2.9 defensive WAR in 2025. But he's ranked 325th in RotoWire's fantasy baseball rankings because he had just 9 homers and 50 RBI in 157 games last season. He had a higher WAR than Padres' star Manny Machado, who is ranked 24th in fantasy baseball because of what he delivers at the plate.
The same goes for fantasy prospects. Fantasy managers are only concerned with offensive MLB player stats, whereas big-league organizations must consider the player as a whole. There are no bonus points for having great defenders on your fantasy team (other than it meaning they'll likely have more opportunities to play).
Key Factors That Influence a Prospect's Fantasy Outlook
MLB organizations are notoriously slow to call up their best players. Whereas a Cooper Flagg in the NBA or Caleb Williams in the NFL, hits the ground running on Day 1, it can take 3-4 years for prospects to sniff the Majors. It makes sense from both a contractual standpoint and an adjustment one.
One key factor is the timing of when a player's clock starts for arbitration. Players must accrue three years of Major League service time to become eligible for salary arbitration. However, a small group of players can qualify for arbitration after two years (this players are given the Super Two moniker). MLB teams want to time the start a player's arbitration clock when it's most beneficial to them, often trying to hold a player back to gain another year of eligibility. It's a key factor in gauging when a player may reach the majors.
"The playing time aspect, which is often tied to current skills, is considered more in re-draft leagues where a prospect's short-term value is all that matters," said RotoWire baseball expert James Anderson. "In dynasty leagues, a prospect's realistic long-term upside is the main factor in determining value."
Performance, team needs and contracts all factor into call-up decisions. RotoWire's fantasy experts monitor teams to see which player fit the appropriate criteria and adjust the player's ETA accordingly. When prospects are close to reaching the Bigs, keep an eye on the MLB injury report on RotoWire to see if a Major League injury opens a roster spot and translates into a call-up.
Why Prospect Rankings Change Throughout the Season
There are plenty of unknowns in fantasy baseball, and prospects are no exceptions. Young players can either take time to adjust to life as pro players, or move up to face new, stiffer competition at the next level.
Aside from the no-brainers in the top-10 like Detroit's Kevin McGonigle and Pittsburgh's Konnor Griffin, rankings will fluctuate heavily over the course of the season as data emerges on prospects. This is especially true from recently drafted players who are getting their first taste of professional baseball.
"With prospects who have been around for multiple years, their value will only fluctuate significantly if they're vastly outperforming or underperforming the prior career norms," Anderson said. "The prospects who can climb the highest during the season are high-upside prospects with very little or zero professional experience entering the year."
The top performers will be heavily covered, meaning managers should always check fantasy minor league baseball news to find out the latest of potential call-ups. In addition, RotoWire offers a weekly Minor League Barometer to detail which prospect's stock is rising or falling.
Ways Fantasy Managers Use Prospect Rankings
Savvy fantasy baseball managers will always pay attention to prospect rankings. It's a relatively cheap way to bolster your team, either on draft day using RotoWire's fantasy baseball draft kit or during the season by grabbing call-ups off the waiver wire before other teams do.
"Fantasy managers use prospect rankings year round to evaluate trades in dynasty leagues. During the season, prospect rankings are extremely useful for finding breakout prospects and determining which prospects to cut when adding a breakout prospect off waivers," Anderson said.
Managers in re-draft leagues shouldn't expect instant success from prospects, but it becomes essential in keeper and dynasty leagues to know the names of the game's next top players and RotoWire's experts and tools can help with that.
