A lapsed fan's guide to fantasy baseball in 2026 - ESPN

Fantasy baseball season is back, perhaps with many lapsed fans and eager managers wondering what they missed over these long, cold winter months.

Well, much has occurred since the final regular-season games of 2025 were played! Spring training has arrived, so now seems like a fine time to recap the big baseball stories since your last fantasy championships were decided. Let's catch up!

The 2026 fantasy baseball season is here! Get the gang back together, or start a brand new tradition.
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The Dodgers did not win the most regular-season games in 2025 (the Milwaukee Brewers did!), but they were the team that won the final game of baseball's playoffs. The formidable Toronto Blue Jays entered Game 6 of the World Series with a chance to dethrone the defending champs and they had multiple chances to win an extraordinary Game 7, but ultimately, the Dodgers became the first repeat champions since the 2000 New York Yankees.

Baseball fans may have been stunned by how it happened — many still can't believe it — but they could not have been surprised about which team finally earned the trophy, with the Dodgers boasting NL MVP Shohei Ohtani among multiple future Hall of Famers, suddenly healthy starting pitchers thriving in relief, and a ridiculously fat payroll that towered over the rest of the jealous sport.

RHP Yoshinobu Yamamoto earned World Series MVP honors for winning three games, which included six solid innings as a starter in Game 6 and an inspiring eight-out performance to close out the Game 7 finale. He threw 34 pitches the day after tossing 96. The Dodgers overcame a 3-0 deficit in Game 7, scoring single runs in the eighth and ninth innings while exhibiting top defense, taking the lead on a