Although every player matters, some have greater potential than others to swing the fantasy baseball standings in one direction or another. Here are the players who are most likely to make an enormous impact on leagues this season.

Draft your Yahoo Fantasy Baseball team for the 2026 MLB Season

Ronald Acuña Jr., OF, Atlanta Braves

The range of outcomes for Acuña is massive. He could be the biggest first-round bust if he plays in fewer than 100 games for a third straight season. Or, he could combine his tremendous plate skills (.935 OPS in 2025) with a renewed base-running aggressiveness to challenge Aaron Judge and Shohei Ohtani for fantasy supremacy. The Braves addition of first base coach Antoan Richardson, who is credited with keying the Mets’ base- stealing aggressiveness last year, is another reason to believe that Acuña is on the cusp of a memorable bounce-back season.

Bobby Witt Jr., SS, Kansas City Royals

This is the year that Witt puts it all together and wins an AL MVP award. The 25-year-old was amazing at the dish in 2024 (.977 OPS), which allowed him to finish second on every voter’s ballot. From a fantasy perspective, it was unfortunate that his offensive excellence that season also included a year-over-year steals dip from 49 to 31. He recovered some of that base-running aggressiveness when he swiped 38 bags in 2025, and this year he will get back to the 40-steal plateau. The smaller dimensions at Kauffman Stadium, combined with reaching an age that is typically synonymous with peak production, will enable Witt to collect 35 homers and 40 steals, while batting .300 and reaching triple digits in runs and RBI.

Tarik Skubal, SP, Detroit Tigers

Make no mistake — Skubal is a man on a mission this season. The largest contract given out to a pitcher in MLB history was the $325 million commitment from the Dodgers to Yoshinobu Yamamoto. Skubal will not only surpass that deal when he reaches free agency next winter, but he has a real chance to be baseball’s first $500 million pitcher. After the Tigers tried to low-ball the lefty in his final year of arbitration, Skubal is going to have a walk year for the ages, which will result in a third straight Cy Young award while also leading many fantasy teams to titles.

Roman Anthony, OF, Boston Red Sox

There is no doubt that Anthony is going to be a superstar. After less than a full season in the majors, he is already regarded by many as Boston’s most valuable position player, and by the end of this year, he’s going to be viewed as one of the top performers in the American League. His batting average will be high, and he will easily score 100 runs. But to create fantasy production that matches his real-life value, Anthony will need to start tallying counting stats at a higher rate. After all, in his debut season, he recorded just eight homers and four steals in 71 games. High expectations are already baked into his ADP (45.6).

Cole Ragans, SP, Kansas City Royals

Ragans is currently the 12th pitcher off the board by ADP, which is a fair reflection of a talented hurler who made just 13 starts last season. But make no mistake — the lefty has upside that can be matched by only a few pitchers. His swing-and-miss skills are absurd, and last season his 38.1% strikeout rate was beaten only by Mason Miller among pitchers who threw at least 60 innings. Ragans has logged a sub-3.00 FIP in each of the past two seasons, and last year he produced a respectable 1.18 WHIP despite battling through an unfortunate .357 BABIP that would have ranked last in baseball if he had enough innings to qualify.

There are two outcomes for Ragans — he’s a bust who misses significant time due to injury, or he makes 30 starts and joins Skubal, Paul Skenes and Garrett Crochet in the top tier of starters.

Konnor Griffin, SS/OF, Pittsburgh Pirates

Griffin will by no means be the only impact rookie. JJ Wetherholt, Kevin McGonigle, Justin Crawford, Carson Benge and Chase DeLauter should all play on Opening Day. But with all due respect to the other talented youngsters, no one can match Griffin’s potential for fantasy dominance. After hitting .333 with 21 homers and 65 steals as a 19-year-old last season, baseball’s best prospect has proven to have the skill set that fantasy managers drool over. If the Pirates allow Griffin to debut sooner rather than later, he could be a top-50 player in his rookie year, which would make him a major value pick at his current ADP (191.6). Of course, there is also a chance that he is still in the minors on Memorial Day, which would mean that his managers would have wasted a bench spot for at least two months.

Nolan McLean, SP, New York Mets

I chose McLean as a placeholder for an exciting group of young pitchers. This is the last time that we will see McLean, Jacob Misiorowski, Trey Yesavage, Chase Burns and Bubba Chandler bunched in ADP. All five youngsters have less than a full season of experience but have a draft season ADP between pick 100-150, thanks to their sky-high ceilings. Some of them will thrive this year, carrying their fantasy teams to glory and boosting their 2027 draft stock inside the top-50 picks. And others will falter, driving their managers crazy and making us wonder why we used premium picks on unproven players at the riskiest position.