Last Updated on December 25, 2025 11:27 am by Paul Williamson | Published: December 25, 2025

There is nothing more ‘Christmas’ than the anxiety brought on by the thought of Santa’s ‘naughty’ and ‘nice’ lists.

Kids across the world have been pondering their actions over the last 364 days, wondering if they crammed enough ‘nice’ in the month of December to make up for the cookies they stole from the cookie jar in July.

But in the world of fantasy baseball, we are left pondering the actions (or inactions) of certain people/organizations/ballparks in our attempt to do the impossible.

Predict baseball.

Predicting the most unpredictable sport is, by itself, a naughty endeavor.

But we try, nonetheless.

But at the end of the day, it is a ton of fun. And we love it.

From our family here at Sports Ethos, we wish you and yours a happy holiday season.

Without further ado, here is our staff’s naughty and nice list!

NICE LIST

Larry Vannozzi 

Injury bug gives Buxton/Story a break

Well, wasn’t that refreshing? Somehow, someway, the MLB Injury Bug finally gave Byron Buxton and Trevor Story a break. I mean, not a *bone* break… but a break from being injured, for a change.

Wise SportsEthos drafters are reluctant to draft these two frequently injured stars. Buxton averaged playing in just 85 games across the 2021-2024 seasons. In 2025, however, he played in FORTY more games than his recent average. Story was even better. After averaging a measly 54 games per year from 2022 to 2024, Story played in a whopping 157 games in 2025, tying his career high. Wow, talk about comebacks!

What makes this nice story even nicer is that Buxton and Story took full advantage of the Injury Bug’s absence by having fabulous seasons. They combined for an amazing amount of counting stats by hitting 60 homers, driving in 179 runs and stealing 55 bases.

Wow!

Buxton was ranked No. 31 and Story was No. 34 on the Fangraphs Player Rater. They brought amazing profit to fantasy managers who drafted them anywhere near their ADPs, both of which were outside the Top 200.

Hey, Injury Bug, thanks for finally giving these two stars a break!

Chris Houston

Zach McKinstry – 3B,SS,OF – DET

A reporter once asked then-rookie Gavin Lux which of his former minor-league teammates would he consider to be ‘a dude,’ and without hesitation, young Lux replied, “Zach McKinstry.”

And while it certainly appears that Lux, himself, may never reach his full potential in the majors, he may have had a point about his ex-Dodger teammate, McKinstry.

At least, for one season, anyway.

The versatile McKinstry spent the majority of his time in 2025 at third base for the Tigers, where he slashed a solid .259/.333/.438 with 12 home runs and 19 stolen bases—useful fantasy numbers for a CI, MI or fourth outfielder in 12-team leagues, or as a starting infielder/outfielder in deeper leagues. Will the 30-year-old be able to duplicate his success in fantasy leagues again next year?

Only time will tell.

His underlying numbers are not great (i.e. a 21.7% strikeout rate), so I certainly have my doubts, but for 2025, his results were surprisingly good, and for that, Mister McKinstry makes the “nice” list.

Jeff Clowers

The Crime Rate In Seattle

Crime?

On the nice list?

Don’t worry, no need to get John McClain on the phone though – we’re of course talking about the stolen base binge that Josh Naylor went through once joining the Mariners.

It bears reminding just how much of an outlier the season was,with Naylor stealing 30 bases last year. Let me write that again because I still have a hardtime internalizing that number. Five-foot-ten-inch, 235 pound first baseman Josh Naylor swiped 30 bags last year, after his previous career-high came in at 10 back in 2023.

And he only got caught twice! Pretty impressive for someone built, well, like a first baseman.

The specific reasons for this sudden change in strategy elude me but I think it’s worth noting that, after averaging a 3.0 speed score the past four years, that number shot up to a 5.5 in 2025. Whether due to a change in conditioning, the shedding of lingering injuries,or some nebulous combination of other factors, I cannot tell you – but I do find it interesting that the improvements only manifested themselves on stolen base attempts and not other facets on the basepaths.

What I mean by that is, even though he raised his average from .243 to .295 between seasons, he hit only two more doubles than the year prior (albeit in 20 fewer plate appearances). That tells me that it came down to savvy decision making skills, rather than suddenly being enough of a burner to avoid getting caught.

Whether that’s a repeatable skill is a different story entirely, especially since 19 of his 30 came after his mid-season trade to the Mariners – but now resigned to a five-year deal that will keep him Seattle until 2030, we’ll get to see how this experiment plays out for a few more years at minimum.

Nathan Baker

MLB’s Big Boppers

After recent offseasons where many of the games biggest sluggers failed to find deals that fit their reputations, we’ve seen multiple players cash in on well above market value deals in a free agency class that has been largely characterized by front office hesitancy. Kyle Schwarber, who’s projections fluctuated around the 4 years, $100 million range, took advantage of a robust market led by MLB’s cheaper teams, and the hyper-aggressive Orioles. The O’s offered him a 5-year, $150 million deal to blow the competition out of the water, only to have the Phillies meet that gaudy price tag to land their guy, which appeared to be their plan all along. Having just offered a well-above market deal to Schwarber, Baltimore pivoted to Pete Alonso, who used his age and track record to negotiate against the Schwarber deal, landing a 5 year, $155 million deal from the Orioles, heavily exceeding his market expectations as well.

The Dodgers

The best team in baseball addressing their biggest weakness with the best closer in baseball would be enough for accolades, but their willingness to make unpopular moves to make their team better is what really cements them on this list. Not drawn to the Japanese market yet again, the Dodgers are focused on opening opportunities for their young pair of outfield prospects in Zyhir Hope and Josue De Paula, and are willing to move playoff hero Teoscar Hernandez at a low to facilitate that.

A relentless desire to win exists with a handful of owners, but only the Dodgers have paired that with elite processes and a huge pot of resources, aiming to put together a dynasty that will be remembered for eternity.

If for nothing else, the Edwin Diaz signing flexed their muscle over the also well regarded Mets and Braves organizations, but also sent a clear message of intent, that complacency will not be tolerated. If Diaz can be to the Dodgers what Michael Essien was to Chelsea after their long awaited title, we may see similar futures to come (now having the same owners to boot).

Everyone who responds to trade offers within a few days

What is fantasy baseball without trades? Take a gamble, have some fun- or don’t, but at least respond to the offer. I haven’t always been worthy of a spot on the nice list myself in this regard, but to those who are, thank you for your service. The reality is, everyone has their price on fantasy baseball, or real baseball for that matter, so making that price clear from the get go can make negotiations a lot easier.

Anthony Kates

Top Young Fantasy Catchers

Catcher is deeper than ever, with seven of last year’s Top 10 most productive fantasy catchers aged 27 or younger.

Though Shea Langeliers and William Contreras are/will be turning 28 before the 2026 season, Kyle Teel, Carter Jensen and Miguel Amaya should all see enough playing time to produce Top 10 stats, and guys like Yainer Diaz, Logan O’Hoppe and Francisco Alvarez could bounce back and end up there as well.

Not to mention Ivan Herrera gaining catcher eligibility, Joe Mack hopefully making his big league debut, Harry Ford getting a chance (somewhere) to prove his bat is legitimate and, who could forget, Samuel Basallo starting the year in Baltimore.

We rarely have this many good-to-great young catchers who can produce at the big league level and it truly is #Nice to have so many options in re-draft and dynasty leagues.

Manny Macahdo

Isn’t it “Nice” the consistency you get from Machado?

Over his last 11 seasons, he has had a wRC+ of 120 or more eight times, has hit 27 or more home runs in every season but the covid-shortened 2020 season (and he hit 16 in 254 plate appearances that season – a 42 homer pace based on his average plate appearances over the 10 full seasons), had a strikeout rate under 20% in 10 of the 11 seasons and was a top-5 fantasy third baseman for 10 of the 11 seasons.

He has an outside shot at 500 home runs, 1500 runs and 1500 RBI for his career, and is a few years away from locking down a Hall of Fame plaque. He turns 34 in July and is projected, once again, to be one of the most productive third basemen in the league. He has been everything and then some that the Padres could have wanted, and I hope we still have four or five more years of high-level production out of “El Ministro.”

Paul Williamson

Pittsburgh Pirates

Hey! They’re trying!

OK. Yeah, yeah, yeah, they are (most likely) trying to just save face with the MLBPA, but who cares! This is a team that is loaded with some serious starting pitching talent (Paul Skenes, Bubba Chandler, Jared Jones among others) and they are approaching ‘average’ on offense.

They’ve added some nice pop with Brandon Lowe and some nice speed with Jake Mangum. Add on the solid Ryan O’Hearn, the potential upside of Jhostynxon Garcia and bounce back candidates like Bryan Reynolds and Oneil Cruz and we have a half-way decent MLB lineup.

This means Paul Skenes is probably going to be my top fantasy SP in 2026. The ONLY reason he isn’t ahead of Crochet and Skubal is the dubs. He only got to 11 and 10 last year (he was freakin’ 10-10 last year) despite two straight years of sub-2.00 ERA.

Also, keep your eye on recently acquired Mason Montgomery. The dude has some serious swing-and-miss in his arsenal (16.3% SwStr% as a rookie) and is a legit top-5 closer candidate if he figures it all out.

The power-speed combo

Juan Soto stole 38 of his 95 steals in 2025. That is 40% of his seven-year career total.

Josh Naylor got 30 of his 55 career total steals this year. That is 54.5% of his career total.

In fact, in 2024 19 out of the 50 players with at least 20 steals, also got 20 homers, that’s 38%.

In 2025 24 out of 45 players with at least 20 steal, hit 20 homers.

That is 53.3%.

If you took the dive on the injured Zach Neto, bought the dip on Dansby Swanson, took the risk on Byron Buxton, found Trevor Story on your wire or had Soto or Naylor on  your team, you found nice power and speed out of that group of players.

Finding this kind of value is critical to win category leagues and this year, managers were unexpectedly rewarded from some (Soto, Naylor) and found treasure (Story, Buxton) with others.

Toronto Blue Jays

Now I didn’t do the work.

Sue me.

But, I got a feeling the Blue Jays were at least top two or three in the league in terms of quantity of players that outperformed their preseason ADP.

(NOTE: All ADP and rankings come from FanGraphs Player Rater)

The most notable name is, of course, George Springer, who turned the clock back in time to turn in a renaissance of a campaign. He had a 242.9 ADP and finished as the 11th ranked player. He hit 32 homers (most since 2019), 106 runs (most since 2017), 84 RBI (2019) as he hit .309 (career-high).

Bo Bichette turned things around after a down 2024 and finished 49th with an ADP 114.0.

Kevin Gausman was drafted at and ADP of 166.7 but was the 87th ranked player.

Alejandro Kirk (252.2 ADP/88th ranked), Ernie Clement (372.3 ADP/182nd ranked), Addison Barger (641.8 ADP/207th ranked) and Eric Lauer (undrafted/ranked 139th).

The surprise World Series contenders were filled with all kinds of found fantasy gold this year.

Naughty List

Larry Vannozzi

Astros management/medical teams

Houston, we have a problem.

Although the Houston Astros made our Nice List in 2024, I am going in the opposite direction in 2025.

Specifically, I’m placing the Astros medical team on my Naughty List.

Maybe we gave the Astros a pass in 2024 when they tormented fantasy managers with Kyle Tucker’s vague yet multi-month outage due to a “bone bruise.”

No such pass in 2025, however.

This time, we suffered with ambiguity and questions surrounding an injury to a different star player – Yordan Alvarez.

We first lost the hulking slugger on May 3 due to hand inflammation. I can hear fantasy managers saying, “Ok, that doesn’t sound too bad. He’ll return soon.” However, we were surprised nearly a month later when the Astros discovered that inflammation was actually a fracture!

So we scaled back our expectations, waited another month…only to have the Astros announce that Alvarez had suffered a setback.

UGH!

All told, he missed nearly FOUR MONTHS and the Astros kept us guessing the entire time. On the heels of the Tucker and Alvarez sagas, I won’t trust health updates from the Astros for a very, very long time.

Chris Houston

Cole Ragans – SP – KC

Cole Ragans? More like COAL Ragans, amirite? As in *ahem* a huge lump of coal in his fantasy managers’ stockings.

*I’ll see myself out now.*

Anyway, I’m placing Ragans firmly on the “naughty” list for his disappointing 2025 campaign, not so much for his performance on the field—a 3-3 record with a 4.67 ERA, 1.18 WHIP and 98 strikeouts over 61.2 innings pitched isn’t world-beating, by any means, but it isn’t exactly bad, either. Especially when we consider that the ace’s expected ERA (xERA) was 2.67, while he also maintained a stellar 38.1% strikeout rate and 34.8% whiff rate.

No, the southpaw’s inclusion on this list has much more to do with his health, or lack thereof. The hurler only managed to make a total of 13 starts in 2025, as he found himself on the injured list quite a bit.

First, in May, with a left groin strain.

That was just a 15-day stint.

But after returning from that issue in early June, he made just one shaky start against the Cardinals and immediately was placed back on the injured list due to a left rotator cuff strain. That injury caused him to miss almost the remainder of the season, returning in mid-September only to come back and make a few more uneven starts prior to season’s end.

Make no mistake, the 28-year-old is an outstanding starting pitcher, but he needs way more than 61 innings to establish any sort of rhythm on the mound. Considering Ragan’s injury history, however, it is hard to bet on him seeing anything approaching the 186.1 innings that he saw in 2024.

Coal Ragans, indeed

Nathan Baker

People who use MLB Pipeline’s prospect rankings as the sole source for trade evaluations.

Pipeline is easily accessible, free to use, and well formatted, so the attraction to use those rankings as an arbiter of trade value is tempting, but the outlet only updates rankings a couple times per year, leaving significant changes in prospect value going unnoticed.

Compounding this is the generally passive style of the publication; this isn’t a matter of right or wrong, and more so style, but the combination of irregular updates with prioritizing track record and pedigree over recent performances leaves fast risers criminally under ranked, and fast fallers in the top 100 for far too long. A trade is not a “fleece” because the return is ranked highly, nor is it trash because you’ve never heard of the prospects on the way back.

If only the people who cared to rank trades on prospect rankings had a better source to go by… *cough* Anthony *cough*

Bob Castellini

Owners should never meddle in baseball operations, especially when their personal projects come out of the GM’s slim budget.

Castellini attempted to woo Kyle Schwarber back to his hometown team in Cincinnati, and while his $125 million effort might be commendable on the surface , the manner in which it came about is a complete injustice to Reds fans, and his front office.

After losing out on the bidding to Baltimore and Philadelphia, who both went shockingly high in their pursuit of the slugger by a heavy margin. Balking at the $150 million price tag for a 33 year old DH is not the problem; rather, if $125 million was available to spend on Schwarber, why not re-allocate those funds to another free agent or even a trade to make the team that won 83 games last season better?

The answer is simple; Schwarber was a vanity project for the owner, in the aim of increasing low ticket sales, and the incentive of improving the team pales in comparison to the incentive of putting butts in seats. Do better, Bob.

Mets Fans

I say this from a place of love as a Mets fan myself, but this fanbase doesn’t know what it wants.

Enduring multiple seasons of pain, watching some of baseballs most expensive teams flounder at decisive moments should be enough incentive to want to change the makeup of a core that had talent, but not the optimal flexibility for a winning ballclub.

Part of that change includes the departures of fan-favorite stalwarts Pete Alonso and Brandon Nimmo, both of whom will be playing their remaining five years of baseball earning well over market value, and don’t provide great defensive value.

With a focus on trusting one of the games brightest minds at the helm, the Mets have focused on extricating the problematic parts of their roster, leaving room for a combination of shorter term deals and opportunities for the best crop of prospects in baseball to perform. The passion and dedication from Mets fans is second to none; other fanbases would desert their team for far less, but that passion has not manifested itself in well thought out opinions, calling for radical change, and then being upset when radical change happens.

Jeff Clowers

Yoshinobu Yamamoto’s Pitch Counts

Even if your fandom wasn’t directly impacted by this past World Series, you were almost certainly still watching what became an instant classic of a series.

By the time Game 6 finished, Yoshinobu Yamamoto had laid stake to one of the greatest postseason runs by a pitcher – and we hadn’t even reached his Game 7 heroics yet. By the time the Dodgers had completed their back-to-back run, Yoshi had thrown 235 pitches over a seven-day stretch, including 34 as a reliever on zero days rest as the winning pitcher in the clinching victory.

Now, Yamamoto will forgo resting up in advance of the 2026 season, choosing, instead, to represent his country in international competition at the World Baseball Classic. Though a more than understandable desire, fantasy managers will be keeping a close eye on him with the hope that his elevated workload doesn’t lead to potential injury after he broke out in his sophomore MLB season, pitching 173.2 innings and allowing a tidy 2.49 ERA against that was supported by a 0.99 WHIP and a 201:59 strikeout-to-walk ratio.

The only nitpick against the Dodgers’ ace would be that his walk percentage rose 2.6 percent compared to the year prior, dropping to the 38th-percentile after previously sitting in the 81st-percentile. If he can clean that up slightly in 2026, he could level up even further as a starter but the Dodgers may now need limit his usage somewhat throughout the season in an effort to keep him fresh for the games in October that they’ll likely find themselves playing in.

Myself – For Not Going To More MiLB games

In a Blue Jays rotation that features some of the most recognizable names in the game, 22-year-old Trey Yesavage may be their most exciting member. To call him a playoff hero would come as an understatement, as the rookie dominated across his five starts, including an appearance in relief of Game 7 of the World Series.

Over his 27.2 innings, Yesavage struck out 39 compared to just 12 walks, earning himself a 3.58 ERA and 1.05
WHIP in the process. His overall numbers were somewhat marred by a four-inning, five-earned run outing against Seattle in the ALDS but outside of that, he was nothing short of dominant.

In his first playoff start, he struck out 11 – a franchise postseason record – before beating his own record with 12 punchouts during Game 5 of the World Series. Not only that, he became the record holder for strikeouts by a rookie in the World Series, as well as the first pitcher of any variety to ever record 12 strikeouts in a World Series game without walking a batter.

Again, he was truly dominant – but despite him spending a good chunk of his year pitching for High-A Vancouver, which is only a 15 minute drive away from me, I never made the time to catch a start of his prior to becoming a household name in Canada.

Not only that, but other helium prospects like Arjun Nimmala and Gage Stanifer also spent considerable time in Canadians colours, so the Jays’ affiliate was far from a one-man show. I’ve been kicking myself about it ever since, so take it from me that this is as good a reminder as any that investing your time in the local talent could be a great gift to your self as a baseball fan in 2026!

Anthony Kates

Cheap Team Owners 

All but three of the 30 MLB teams’ majority owners are worth at least $1 billion, yet they raise ticketing, merchandise, food and drink costs every year and treat their teams like savings accounts, opting to save money by spending little on free agents, instead of opening the checkbook and putting together a title contender.

I understand not every owner is Steve Cohen, so they don’t all need to spend like they are the Mets or Dodgers or even the Yankees. But Jerry Reinsdorf, the White Sox owner, is worth $2.3 billion, and they had the fourth lowest payroll in 2025.

Compare him to Ken Kendrick, the Diamondbacks owner, whose net worth is roughly half of Reinsdorf’s, yet they had the eleventh highest payroll in 2025.

“If you build it, they will come” and “It takes money to make money” are two famous quotes we’ve all heard time and time again.

And MLB team owners need to heed them.

If they would SPEND their money, BUILDING a competitive team, the fans would COME to the stadium to support them, in turn, MAKING the owners more money. More competition can only be good for baseball.

Power Hitting Third Basemen

The last time fewer than 10 third base eligible batters hit 20 or more home runs in a season was 2014.

Only six eclipsed the 20 home run total that season; the year after, 2015, there were 11. Every other season from 2014 through 2025, outside of those three, there were 13 or more third basemen who hit at least 20 home runs.

I get if more players had been healthy, there would have been more 20 homer hitters, but that’s the point.

Austin Riley, Max Muncy, Jordan Westburg, Brett Baty, Alex Bregman, Royce Lewis, Noelvi Marte (suspension, not injury) all have hit or could hit 20 in a season, but none were on the field for 500 or more plate appearances.

On top of the injury problems, there isn’t a ton of youth at the position either, with only Junior Caminero, Addison Barger, Isaac Paredes, Westburg, Riley, Baty and Mark Vientos under the age of 29 entering the 2026 season, and no real high level relief moving through the minor leagues.

I’ll be asking Santa for healthier third basemen, no suspensions and a return to the powerful normalcy we expect out of the hot corner for Christmas this year.

Paul Williamson

Globe Life Park

2023 seems like a distant memory these days for Ranger fans.

Not only is the team a shell of itself, the park didn’t help things, unless offensively.

So, I guess this is a naughty for hitters, nice for pitchers? (More on this in a moment)

But man, there is no doubt this park is no longer the hitters haven it once was.

In 2023, the park was a positive spot for hitters to produce in the following categories

• doubles
• singles
• BA on contact
• Homers
• hits
• OBP
• runs
• wOBA
• wOBA on contact
• xwOBA on contact

It stayed positive for homers and gained in triples for 2024 before being negative in every single category.

The most notable drops from ’23 to last year are

• Homers (133 to 80)
• Hits (105 to 92)
• Runs (112 to 83)
• wOBA (106 to 91)
• wOBA on contact (107 to 90)

While all their offensive struggles can’t be blamed on the park factors, it does help.

On the road, as a team, they owned a 97 wRC+, ranked 17th in MLB. The home wRC+ was a more depressing 87 and ranked 28th.

While it is a positive for pitchers, the sudden drop off, with no clear explanation, it the heart of this naughty designation.

Some explanations come from a DMagazine’s Zach Crizer that notes center field fly balls being a dead zone and the Rangers’ hitting philosophy playing into the belief the park is a hitter’s park, leading to a more aggressive approach.

The roof is also closed most games as this keeps the hitter-friendly Texas heat out of the park. But there is no data on the number of games played pre-2024 with the roof open, but it would make sense that the team closed the roof more and suppressed their offense the process.

Headed into 2025, we all kind of assumed Globe Life Park would at least be average for hitters, at worst. Going back to 2023 and before levels being a very likely outcome.

But now, we have to assume this is one of the most pitcher-friendly environments, right along with Seattle and San Francisco.

Relief Pitcher Free Agency

Ugh.

I had some hope that some dudes may move to situations that could spring into the closer’s mix.

But so far, that has not happened.

I thought Luke Weaver and his 14-15% SwStr% may have been signed by a team needing a closer, but instead followed Devin Williams to Queens.

Shawn Armstrong got a taste of being a closer in Texas and instead of going to a spot to close games, he will pitch behind Cade Smith in Cleveland.

And who the hell is going to close games in Detroit? You can’t look me in the eye tell me it is going to be Kenley Jansen. Or Will Vest. Or Kyle Finnegan. AJ Hinch isn’t known for utilizing a single, set closer. No reason to expect he will start now.

Ditto in LA with BOTH the Angels AND Dodgers.

The Angels signed Drew Pomeranz and he has solid closer upside with good swing-and-miss ability and he joins an unpredictable ‘pen situation with Robert Stephenson, Ben Joyce and the recently signed Jordan Romano also possibilities.

Edwin Diaz goes to a Dave Roberts-run bullpen where he showed he was not afraid to utilize any arm, at any time given the depth of options he has available.

And I would have loved to see Tanner Scott get another crack at this thing. He still had elite swing-and-miss.

And we just straight up lost a top-10 closer when Robert Suarez when to ATL to setup for Raisel Iglesias.

Matt Strahm, Sean Newcomb, Jose A. Ferrer, Brad Keller are all stuck as either setup men or go to a team that utilizes a heavy committee approach (though a new manager may change that for the White Sox and Sean Newcomb).

It wasn’t all bad as I am intruiged by the swing-and-miss of Mason Montgomery in Pittsburgh and Peter Fairbanks heads to Miami where he figures to at least be the main closer ahead of Calvin Faucher.

But overall, some of my favorite potential closers did not go to teams I’d have wanted.

Oh well, they didn’t ask me.