2026 Sports Ethos Fantasy Baseball Mock Draft Breakdown

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  • By Paul Williamson

    Last Updated on February 3, 2026 2:44 pm by Paul Williamson | Published: February 3, 2026

    On January 26, we completed our first mock draft of the draft season.

    The settings were as follows –

    • 5×5
    • Mixed league
    • Roto
    • 12-teams
    • 2-catchers
    • 5-outfield
    • 1 IR

    I will break this mock into two rounds at a time, discuss my selections followed by my favorite pick from the other participants.

    Here are the links to the ‘X’ posts that have the full results of the mock.

    Rounds 1-10

    11-20

    21-30

    I was pick 11.

    Rounds 1, 2

    I went with Gunnar Henderson as my first pick at pick 11 and was thrilled Kyle Tucker fell to me after the turn.

    Henderson, I believe, will get his power stroke now that he should not be dealing with a shoulder impingement that hurt his ability to barrel the ball, leading to a decrease in power production in 2025.

    He went from 28 and 37 homers in 2023 and 2024 down to 17 in 2025. However, the avgEV stayed over 92 MPH and the hard-hit% stayed elite at 49.0%. But the only metric to drop was the barrel rate, going down from 11%+ to 8.5%. I fully expect that barrel to normalize to give him power to go with his excellent production in runs and RBI in a great Baltimore lineup with steals and average.

    Tucker is usually a mainstay in the first round but injury concerns have him falling to the second round so far this year. But his move to the Dodgers makes his counting stat potential through the roof as I may see myself moving him to Hnderson’s spot and hope Henderson falls to me next time I am in this position.

    Favorite pick – Daniel Rotter of Just Baseball selecting Francisco Lindor at 2-6. He has returned three straight seasons of 30+ homers and 29+ steals. With all three of Skubal, Skenes and Crochet going in round one, first round bats fell to round 2 and Rotter took advantage.

    Rounds 3,4

    I continued my stacking of five-category production with a second shortstop in Zach Neto in round three. In a 12-team setup, it is critical to find as many five-category dudes as you can in the early rounds with few exceptions (Cal Raleigh, Aaron Judge, Junior Caminero kind of dudes). This way you are not scrambling to try and pad specific categories later in the draft and it will help open up your draft board.

    In round four I took Brent Rooker. He may not get steals but batting in a loaded Athletic lineup with elite on-base skills and 30+ home run potential, he should be in line to produce plenty of runs and RBI (89 and 90 last season) to go with a good average.

    Favorite pick – this came from Sports Ethos’ own Pedro Oliveira. He snagged Cole Ragans toward end of the fourth round. He began with three elite bats in Judge, Vlad and Machado and snagged a Cy Young candidate as his SP1.

    Rounds 5,6

    I took Byron Buxton at the end of round five and this is a wonderful discount on another five-category stud after he showed he could actually stay healthy in 2025. Not only did he prove he can stay healthy but he showed his skills are far from diminished with 35 homers, 24 steals and a .264 average. The barrel rate was 17.6% with a 92.5 MPH avgEV.

    Next, I took my favorite sleeper SP1 of 2026 with Spencer Schwellenbach. Last year, a fracture ended his season early but that isn’t as bad as ligament damage or some kind of major elbow surgery, giving me confidence he can take the next step in 2026. He has a 3.35 or better ERA, 24.9%+ K% or 1.04 WHIP or better in his two MLB seasons. With multiple 30%+ whiff offerings and four 107+ Stuff+ pitches, he has legit potential to turn into a legit SP1.

    Favorite pick – I almost went with Larry Vannozzi’s Max Fried pick but instead I’m going with Stat the Scoutline’s Ross Jensen who took CJ Abrams at pick 71. Abrams had been going near pick 50 in most drafts and I’ve never like that price. But getting a near two round discount? Sign me up.

    Rounds 7,8

    I went with my first catcher in Drake Baldwin here. This is a reach but remember this was a two-catcher setup and headed into the turn, I couldn’t wait and hope one of my C1 targets would fall to me later. Baldwin is a rock solid first catcher with loads of power potential.

    I continued to load up on power with Seiya Suzuki in round six. His second half production did drop off but plenty of metrics were still there for him as it reeked of bad luck. Legit power gets to be harder and harder to find as the draft goes along so locking it up as quick as you can is essential.

    Favorite pick – Scout the Statline’s Owen Hurd snagged Chase Burns at pick 8-7 as he pairs up Hunter Brown with Burns as an SP1/2 that has so much strikeout potential.

    Rounds 9,10

    I went with Emmet Sheehan with glee as my SP2 in round nine. The only potential problem with Schwelly is if the K% stayed in the 25% range. Sheehan was phenomenal in a return from Tommy John last year as he showed he hadn’t missed a beat with a 30.6% K% and a very good 7.8% BB% to go with it. Sneaky hot take here – I think the Dodgers are likely to try and ride him a bit this year as they manage the workload of Yamamoto, Snell, Glasnow and Ohtani for October. He may lead the team in innings.

    My 10th round pick was Michael Harris II. Another player with legit five-category upside that turned his 90%+ in-zone contact% into a stellar run to end 2025. Any time a hitter as talented as MH2 makes that much contact in the zone, he will eventually start doing damage. And he did. To get this kind of potential value this far past pick 100 is incredible.

    Favorite pick – Sports Ethos’ Anthony Kates got great value in Willy Adames at pick 9-8. He has such immense power and run production upside as he has hit 30+ homers in three of his last four seasons. The power on his team so far is incredible with Raleigh, Olson, Suarez and now Adames.

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    February 3, 2026, 2:44 pm