Fantasy baseball: Top 10 prospects to consider drafting for 2026 leagues - ESPN

Fantasy baseball managers seeking a draft-day edge with untapped upside often look to the league's top prospects — perhaps too eagerly — to fortify their teams. Just look at those awesome minor league numbers! Who can resist? Prospects have yet to fail at the big-league level and so many of the boring, veteran players we could invest in already have.

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Prospects look great during these cold, snowy winter months until… well, nobody wants to hear that most prospects will disappoint. We only want to hear the good stuff!

Remember Boston Red Sox 2B Kristian Campbell, baseball's «it» selection from last season? He had a great spring, signed a long-term contract and, after hitting .301 with a .902 OPS for Boston in April, he hit .134 with a .355 OPS in May and spent much of the season in the minors.

Meanwhile, Washington Nationals OF Dylan Crews and Chicago Cubs IF Matt Shaw were top-200 selections in ESPN ADP, and they hit .208 and .226 for the season, respectively. Hitting is hard. Relying on prospects can be dangerous. Few had Athletics 1B Nick Kurtz and Atlanta Braves C Drake Baldwin winning their respective league's Rookie of the Year awards.

To be officially defined as a prospect, one must not have exhausted their MLB rookie eligibility yet (130 at-bats, 50 innings pitched, 45 days on active roster). Unlike last season, when Los Angeles Dodgers RHP Roki Sasaki led our list (and posted a disappointing 4.46 ERA in only 36⅓ regular-season innings before winning the World Series), we are not including incoming veteran Japanese players such as Munetaka Murakami (Chicago White Sox 3B, age 26),