MLB Rank 2026: Ranking baseball's top 100 players - ESPN

Opening Day is just a few weeks away, which means it's time to ask the question that's on everyone's mind as the new MLB season approaches: Who will be the best player in 2026?

To answer that question, we created our annual MLB Rank list of the top 100 players in baseball. More than two dozen ESPN baseball experts sent in their top 100 rankings, which we averaged to create the final list.

However, the exercise raised a host of other questions around how to compare players who have vastly different but still important roles across the sport. How do you match up a two-way generational talent such as Shohei Ohtani against another starting pitcher, or the best sluggers in the game? How do you rank players who don't have much (or any) major league experience? And what about the top relievers? It seems impossible to pit these stars against one another, but we did it — and you shouldn't be surprised as to which superstar came out on top.

Our top 100 list features a huge variety of players, from MVP and Cy Young Award winners to veterans filling out Hall of Fame résumés to young megastars who could dominate MLB for years to come, building their own cases to be enshrined in Cooperstown. But who's No. 1? And where does the best player on your team rank?

ESPN MLB experts Jeff Passan, Alden Gonzalez, Buster Olney, Jesse Rogers, Jorge Castillo, Bradford Doolittle, David Schoenfield, Kiley McDaniel, Eric Karabell and Tristan Cockcroft broke down why each player is ranked where he is and what to expect from each this coming season.

Jump to team's top-ranked player:

American League
ATH | BAL | BOS | CLE | DET
HOU | KC | LAA | MIN | NYY
SEA | TB | TEX | TOR
(No top 100 players: CHW)

National League
ARI | ATL | CHC | CIN
LAD | MIL | NYM