Last Updated on October 2, 2026 2:43 pm by Paul Williamson | Published: October 2, 2026

These awards are going to be given to the players that had the most fantasy impact in the various categories.

The awards are

• Fantasy Rookie of the Year
• Fantasy Waiver Wire Pickup of the Year
• Fantasy Cy Young
• Fantasy MVP

Larry Vannozzi, Nathan Baker and Paul Williamson will be handing out their award winners in each category.

The players on this very prestigious list certainly helped numerous managers win their leagues and their contributions need to be recognized.

And I’m sure agents of these players will certainly use this list in future contract negotiations.

Fantasy Rookie of the Year

Larry Vannozzi

1B, 2B, 3B Sal Stewart – Cincinnati Reds

I really want to give the Rookie of the Year nod to Kevin McGonigle due to the shear surprise of his season. After all, this is a guy who didn’t have a roster spot until the end of spring training and would be making his MLB debut. He had an outstanding year with well-rounded stats that nearly placed him in the Top 50. However, how can you not give the award to Sal Stewart?

After having a simple cup of coffee in an 18-game appearance for the Reds last September, Stewart gained a starting role in spring training and played all 162 games his year. That fact alone is amazing but his stats were even better. Stewart, just 22, slashed .263/.330/.457 with 32 homers and 111 RBI.

Whoa!

He has below average speed yet stole 15 bases (cool!) but was caught eight times (decidedly not cool). His expected stats supported his surface stats and he showed above average exit velocities and barrel rates. I feel a little nitpicky pointing out that Stewart was merely league-average in hard-hit rate, bat speed, walk rate and strikeout rate. Yes, McGonigle was excellent but Stewart was even better as he finished in the Top 20.

Nathan Baker

1B, 2B, 3B Sal Stewart – Cincinnati Reds

The National League Rookie of the Year award looks to be won by Carson Benge, but for fantasy purposes, it’s a whole different ball game. Stewart finished with 32 home runs, 15 steals, a .263 batting average and 111 RBI (3rd in baseball), making him a categories league monster while covering third base in a very weak year.

Paul Williamson

OF Carson Benge – New York Mets

Yes, Stewart was the most productive fantasy rookie, but he was at least drafted around pick 150 in the preseason.

Benge, was drafted as a late-round flyer, in deeper formats, maybe.

And he ended up providing a 20/20 campaign, finishing 51st per the FanGraphs Player Rater. He had 20 homers, 22 steals, 86 runs, 65 RBI and a .282 batting average. That’s more homers, more steals and a better average than Kevin McGonigle as well.

Benge did a great job of limiting the K% to 21.7% and kept the ground balls to a  minimum with a 42.6% ground ball rate. While he impacted the ball at around league average rates, he showed significantly harder contact in the minors as it is easy to drool over what he could become if he can even sniff the 15.3% barrel rate and 52.8% hard-hit rate from his Triple-A days.

Waiver Wire Pickup of the Year

Larry Vannozzi

1B, 3B Miguel Vargas – Chicago White Sox

Although I included Miguel Vargas as one of my sleepers last offseason, I didn’t bother drafting him in standard 12-team leagues (hardly anyone did!). I argued that he would be far better than he was the previous year but I NEVER anticipated that Vargas would finish as a Top 20 player.

Talk about a great waiver wire pickup!

Vargas hit a reasonable .250 but his counting stats were magnificent. He scored 106 runs, hit 33 homers, drove in 93 runs and swiped 22 bases. To receive that level of production free off the waiver wire is a fantasy manager’s dream come true. I hope you were one of the lucky ones to snatch this league winner early in the season.

Nathan Baker

P Eduardo Rodriguez – Arizona Diamondbacks

Jordan Walker would have a fair claim to a hitters award, but I’ll ding him for his precipitous decline over the second half of the season, when Rodriguez kept producing. A solid example of a pitcher who everyone expected the bubble to burst on week by week, it just never did for E-Rod, and he finished with a 2.89 ERA over 189.2 innings. The strikeout rate wasn’t great, although it did get better in the second half, but the value he provided for damage limitation and consistency of quality starts was immense all season, especially in points leagues.

Paul Williamson

OF Jordan Walker – St. Louis Cardinals

Walker was barely drafted late in deeper formats as almost all fantasy managers did not trust him preseason.

Personally, I dealt him (for Jonah Tong) in a dynasty league about a year and a half ago and I left him off the Williamson300.

And boy was I wrong, and so many fantasy managers, for that matter.

He broke out in a big way, with 29 homers, 97 runs, 102 RBI, 22 steals and a .269 batting average.

Walker did this by finally getting the strikeouts just a little under control with a 26.1% K%, limiting the ground balls to a 42.8% ground ball rate and getting his overall contact rate up to an at least serviceable 70.0%.

And when you have the bat speed like Walker does (79.3 MPH, 85.5% FastSw%), that is all he needed to do in order to turn into a star.

I do feel the need to list the following honorable mentions –

• Bryan Baker
• Josh Bell
• Jake Bauers
• Jake McCarthy
• Liam Hicks
• Nolan Arenado
• Parker Messick
• Cade Cavalli

Fantasy Cy Young

Larry Vannozzi

Jacob Misiorowski – Milwaukee Brewers

Jacob Misiorowski had a phenominal year. His 1.80 ERA and incredible 0.80 WHIP across 164.2 innings were immensely beneficial to fantasy teams. Also, he was tied for the AL lead in wins (16) and racked up an MLB-high of 252 strikeouts. His well-documented fastball *averaged* 100.5 mph. His 31.3% K-BB% was by far the best in baseball among qualified pitchers. You simply cannot ask for anything more that what he delivered this year. Fantasy managers who selected Miz near his 2026 ADP of 100 received the best deal that anyone of us will ever see on this ace.

Nathan Baker

Jacob Misiorowski – Milwaukee Brewers

This one is an absolute non-contest, with the best pitcher in baseball on the brink of earning his first real life Cy Young award, and in some style too. He leads all of baseball in ERA (and every ERA-adjacent expected stat), strikeouts and fWAR, won 16 games and made 30 starts, making this one a slam dunk.

Paul Williamson

Cam Schlittler – New York Yankees

I was debating in my head between The Miz and Cam Schlittler and with Larry and Nathan zigging to Misiorowski, I’ll zag to Schlittler.

And the only reason why I think there is a good argument to be made here is Schlittler gave managers nearly 20 innings more (4-5 starts) of elite ratios to go with just 13 less Ks and two less wins. And that added volume really comes in handy when you’re in a tight race in the ratio categories.

He made 33 starts with 14 wins, 1.95 ERA and a 0.92 WHIP. He missed bats with a 13.9% SwStr%, induced enough ground balls with a 43.2% ground ball rate and limited damage by inducing a 7.3% barrel rate and 38.1% hard-hit rate.

Fantasy MVP

Larry Vannozzi

OF Pete Crow-Armstrong – Chicago Cubs

It pains me to admit that Pete Crow-Armstrong was the fantasy MVP this year. His awful second half of 2025 prompted me to draft exactly zero shares this year, something that I was quite proud of as late as Memorial Day when his average was still mired in the .230’s.

However, PCA caught fire for the rest of the season and finished as the No. 1 overall player in both Yahoo and the FanGraphs Player Rater. He played all 162 games and crushed the field in WAR. Incredibly, his 40/40 season (45/41 to be exact) came with over 100 runs scored, over 100 RBI and a .280 average. He improved his walk rate, bat speed, exit velocities, barrel rate and hard-hit rate this year while setting career highs in nearly every hitting stat.

Move over, Shohei and Judge; we have a new MVP!.

Nathan Baker

Yordan Alvarez – Houston Astros

There is no wrong answer here between Alvarez and Pete Crow-Armstrong; for category purposes, PCA stole 40 more bases while Alvarez hit 36 points higher on the batting average, but I’ll give it to Alvarez because of his points league value with walks, and his superior performance over the last few weeks of the season for fantasy playoff purposes. Both players should be nailed on first rounders next year.

Paul Williamson

OF Pete Crow-Armstrong – Chicago Cubs

Not only was PCA the best overall fantasy asset in 2026, he did it while outperforming his ADP.

Managers drafted him in the third round (mostly) in standard leagues and he provided elite production in all five categories.

The only player that came close to matching his all around production was Fernando Tatis Jr. and PCA wound up with 23 more RBI, 23 more runs, three more steals and 20 more homers, more than enough to overcome a nine point gap in batting average. .

Other players in running like Yordan, Ben Rice, Pete Alonso, Hunter Goodman, were all lacking in a category (mostly steals).

PCA was an absolute fantasy league winner and is in the running as the top pick in 2027 drafts.