Sports Ethos Fantasy Baseball Flag Plants – Corner Infield

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  • By SportsEthos Staff

    Last Updated on March 24, 2026 1:30 pm by Paul Williamson | Published: March 24, 2026

    The team here at Sports Ethos is going position-by-position to plant their flag on what players they fully trust and will draft whenever, and wherever possible.

    These are more than just sleepers.

    These are the dudes our experts fully trust and want on as many rosters as possible.

    We continue our series with our top Corner Infield options.

    Larry Vannozzi

    Don’t you just love it when you can ‘set-and-forget’ a player, especially when he plays every single game?

    I sure do, so that makes me want as many shares of Braves first baseman Matt Olson as possible.

    Last year was incredibly his fourth consecutive year of playing all 162 games. When you need volume, Olson delivers!

    Even though he probably won’t replicate his incredible 2023 season (.283 with 54 homers and 139 RBI), you can bank on big production from him all year long.

    Olson’s 2026 prospects look even brighter with Ronald Acuna returning for a full season (fingers crossed!) and the likelihood of the Braves not being decimated by injuries yet again. I’m settin’ and forgettin’ Olson this year!

    Anthony Kates

    Sal Stewart – 1B – Reds – Before his elbow injury, I would have been talking about Jordan Westburg. But since he is without a timetable to return, I’ve shifted my gaze to Stewart.

    He’s been the 16th first baseman off the board in the month of March. He is projected to produce the 16th best offensive season out of first baseman (The Bat X), yet he has the second fewest projected plate appearances out of the top 27 and the same projected wRC+ as Matt Olson and Tyler Soderstrom.

    Add another 100 to 150 plate appearances (if he sees less than 490 plate appearances and was NEVER injured, something has gone horribly wrong) and you have a top-10 fantasy first baseman. And he could realistically lead the position in stolen bases.

    Nathan Baker

    Willi Castro – Castro is popularity on fantasy is always propelled by his positional versatility, and he starts the year with 2B, 3B and OF, with potential to get 1B as well.

    He’s been close to a league average hitter over his career in Detroit and Minnesota, which could justify his 308 ADP, but he’s signed with the Rockies for 2026, which should truthfully propel his draft stock far more than it has.

    Castro usually holds a well above average line drive rate, which should really play at Coors Field, but I’m also bullish about a reduction in his struggles against breaking balls, given the decrease in brake that occurs with most pitches at mile high altitude. For a fastball crushing, line drive hitter, 81 games in Denver will be gold, well worth a draft pick inside the top 300.

    Paul Williamson

    I’m going to be a bit of a homer here and take Christian Walker. 

    I have him as my 27th CI in my ranks and he is going as the 35th in Online Championship drafts of the NFBC.

    Even in a ‘down’ year, Walker got to 27 homers and drove in 88 runs.

    That provides a rock solid floor as I expect his hit tool to positively regress to what we’ve seen from him throughout his career and that  drop off was the main culprit behind career-worst .238 batting average.

    His K% had been 24% or lower between 2020 and 2024 but it went up to 27.7% in 2025.

    The BB% had been 8.5% or better in every year but one since 2019 before dropping to 6.3% last year.

    He was sub-12% on the SwStr% in three straight  years prior to last year’s 15.0% mark. The contact% was 75%+ in consecutive campaigns from 2021 until 2024.

    A good sign is that in Spring Training he was at 10.6% this year as that tracks with what we’ve seen from him for multiple campaigns.

    Add on the fact that he still makes incredible contact (90.9 MPH avgEV, 12.9% barrel% and 46.1% hard-hit%) and I think he gets the average back up to .at least the .255+ range as he gets back to around 30 homers with 90+ RBI.

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    March 24, 2026, 1:30 pm