MLB Rank 2026 in-season update: Ranking baseball's top 50 players - ESPN

A few weeks before Opening Day of the 2026 MLB season, we created our annual MLB Rank list of the top 100 players in baseball to answer the question: Who will be the best player in 2026?

More than four months later, we asked 17 ESPN MLB experts to give their ranking of the top 50 players in the sport this season. We averaged those lists to create an in-season update to our MLB Rank that gives us a chance to take a look at more than just who has excelled this season.

Our list features the MVPs and Cy Young Award winners you'd expect, as well as the budding young megastars who have broken out this season and could dominate MLB for many years. However, because we asked voters to rank players based on their overall impact on the 2026 season — combining what they've done with what we expect them to do the rest of the way — you will see players such as Aaron Judge, typically in the conversation for No. 1, further down on our list.

So, whois No. 1? Where does the best player on your team rank? And how different does this top-50 list look compared with our top 100 at the beginning of the season? To go with our updated ranking, 10 of our voters also broke down what each player has done and what to expect over the final months of the season.

(All stats entering Wednesday.)

Jump to team's top-ranked player:

American League
ATH | BOS | CHW | CLE
DET | HOU | KC
NYY | SEA | TB | TOR
(No top 50 players: BAL, LAA, MIN, TEX)

National League
ATL | ARI | CHC | CIN | COL
LAD | MIA | MIL | NYM | PHI
PIT | SD | STL | WSH
(No top 50 players: SF)

What he's done so far: Ohtani began the year performing like one of the best pitchers in the sport, so much so that, through the first three months, the prospect of him winning the National League Cy