2026 Fantasy Baseball Top 100 FYPD Redraft Rankings

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  • By Jeff Clowers

    Last Updated on January 30, 2026 12:59 pm by Paul Williamson | Published: January 30, 2026

    For the uninitiated, despite both being drafts of first-year players, the differences between the rankings in a redraft and dynasty format are frequently incredibly vast. In Anthony’s Top 100 rankings for dynasty, his focus revolves around determining the ultimate ceiling of players and calculating their likelihood of actually reaching that level. Meanwhile, for those of us with an eye on the present instead of the future, the rankings below will highlight the Top 100 players in terms of value for the 2026 season and the 2026 season alone. That makes our calculus a little different, as our window of opportunity to strike is smaller – and also more reliant on the whims of a team’s manager. After all, opportunity, rather than pure skill, is the true multiplier of fantasy value when looking at single season rankings.

    That’s the thought process behind this list, so don’t be surprised to see a handful of lesser-known names leapfrog ahead of names you may recognize. But if they happen to combine that elite skillset with the chance to hit the ground running from Opening Day? Well, then you have a perfect pairing – something we find from our first name, sitting atop our listings after being the crown jewel of the most recent international signing period.

    To that point, before we fully dive into things, I did want to briefly explain that I chose to include international players – specifically older players from the KBO and NPB – in this list. In some dynasty rankings, there’s a clear delineation between players coming over from Asian leagues versus a true prospect as the differences in age and experience essentially make them an entirely different archetype of player and thus, difficult to rank against players that aren’t actually their peers. That makes sense, as that’s how most of the big players in prospect ranking (FanGraphs, Baseball America, etc.) treat it in the same fashion.

    But when it comes to FYPDs, the differentiator is right there in the name – it’s a draft of first year players, not specifically prospects. And considering our aim is to find the best investment for fantasy value in the upcoming season, the biggest contributors will often be the ones who are already in their mid-20s (or perhaps even older) which means a higher percentage of college players and a much lower amount of prep options – although a handful of high schoolers will manage to make the back end of the list since there’s still a darkhorse chance of them making an immediate impact, even if it’s a significant longshot.

    So with all that said, let’s kick things off with one of those players described. Our #1 pick and cover boy – Tatsuya Imai.


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    January 30, 2026, 12:59 pm