It’s about that time. The Yahoo Fantasy baseball analysts — Scott Pianowski, Fred Zinkie and Corbin Young — share their boldest takes yet, ahead of Opening Day.
Draft your Yahoo Fantasy Baseball team for the 2026 MLB Season
😏 Regression? Not so fast
Geraldo Perdomo will finish in the top 10 in the NL MVP race again. Perdomo already does one of the hardest things to do at an elite level: he makes contact against the fire-breathing dragons. He had more walks than strikeouts last year, a sign of elite skills and he almost never swung at a pitch out of the strike zone. He’s also a plus defender, and when he wants a bag, he takes it (27 steals in 33 attempts last year).
If Perdomo can keep most of his 20 homers from last year, he’s going to be somewhere between a 6-7 WAR player. His ADP (62) is expecting him to crash hard from last season, and I’ve viewed that as a buying opportunity all spring.
BONUS: If you’d like a deeper cut, go with this one — Marcell Ozuna returns to the All-Star game. Ozuna was a star in 2023 and 2024, conking 79 home runs and posting a .289/.364/.552 slash. Last year, the stats fell off, though his OPS+ was still a respectable 118 (where 100 is league average). The Pirates have improved their lineup and they’re going to leave Ozuna alone in the DH slot. He’s a screaming value around Pick 200 in Yahoo leagues. — Scott Pianowski
💥 The team without a home breaks out
The Athletics will lead the majors in runs scored. The club finished 12th last year, and they are about to make a massive leap that will be similar to that of the 2023-24 D-backs, who rose from 14th to first in the span of one season. Sutter Health Park is a hitter’s paradise. It ranked second in baseball last season with an overall park factor of 108. But it was the Athletics’ opponents who best made use of the venue, as the club ranked 13th in run scoring and 28th in runs allowed at home. The tables will turn this year, when a rapidly improving lineup fully breaks out.
The club will get an extra month out of superstar Nick Kurtz, who debuted on April 23 last season. Jacob Wilson will continue to develop his incredible contact skills, and Shea Langeliers is poised for a full-season breakout after posting a 1.018 OPS in the second half of 2025. Tyler Soderstrom and Brent Rooker will provide steady, excellent production, and Lawrence Butler will return to his 2024 form that included an .807 OPS. Jeff McNeil will quietly lengthen the lineup, and by the middle of the season, elite prospect Leo De Vries will force the Athletics to promote him earlier than expected before becoming a fantasy factor down the stretch.
The Athletics will not challenge for a Wild Card berth, as their subpar pitching staff will put the team into too many high-scoring affairs. But smart fantasy managers will ensure that they have a couple of members of this lineup on their roster, with Rooker and Langeliers being my favorite targets when factoring in ADP.
💪 Young power + improved park = more home runs
The Royals will go from bottom five in home runs in 2025 to top 10 in home runs in 2026 with the ballpark dimensions changes. The home park will have left and right field come in 9-10 feet closer, with the wall height being lower in 2026. Kauffman Stadium ranked 19th in home run park factors to right-handed hitters and 28th to lefties across a three-year rolling average. That tells us it’s been a pitcher-heavy home park, but the dimension changes will alter things.
With Jac Cagilanone and Carter Jensen being a regular part of their lineup, the Royals are ready to explode. The Royals tied for ninth in average bat speed (72.1 mph), 20th in barrel rate and eighth in Exit Velocity 90 (EV90 is the 90th percentile average exit velocity). Caglianone has elite bat speed (77.4 mph) and a 72.9% fast swing rate, which rivals Aaron Judge and Nick Kurtz. Jensen can similarly destroy the ball, evidenced by a 74.8 mph bat speed and, 43.7% fast swing rate and a 14.5% barrel rate.
That’s in addition to their already established mashers, Bobby Witt Jr., Salvador Pérez and Vinnie Pasquantino. In 2025, the Royals had three hitters with 20 or more home runs, but expect five or more with 20+ in 2026. This will be a fun lineup to monitor, assuming Caglianone and Jensen deliver on their prospect hype and power.
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