It’s only logical, as some players move up our rankings, others must move down. To help make sense of all this, our writers are taking a deeper look at some of the players climbing the ladder and some who have slipped a few rungs.

Risers

Alex Bregman, Chicago Cubs, current rank: 7, previous rank: 11

Matt Chapman, San Francisco Giants, current rank: 9, previous rank: 13

Eugenio Suárez, Inlimbo Free Agents, current rank: 24, previous rank: 15

Ah, the hot crop of third basemen surging up the ranks are . . .  Really old.  Third base is a position without exciting new players expected this year and most of the hot new or young third basemen last year (Matt Shaw, Cam Smith, Ronny Mauricio, Mark Vientos, Brett Baty, Josh Jung, Royce Lewis, Coby Mayo) either had a bad year or are not guaranteed a starting job or both.   There are big questions about the two new imports (Munetaka Murakami and Kazuma Okamoto).  And for prospects, we’re really waiting to see which blocked shortstop prospect shows up here.  With Nolan Arenado on the move to Arizona, perhaps next year JJ Wetherholt will be the big riser.  Perhaps Marcelo Mayer stays healthy and starts showing more in-game power.  Perhaps Jordan Westburg stays healthy and starts showing more in-game power.  Perhaps Brady House stops being overmatched.

None of these are possibilities you can bet on in 2026 and you need to play SOMEONE at third base.  That leaves a proven crop of stars rising up even the dynasty ranks as last year’s number 2 (Rafael Devers) left the position and last year’s number 7 (Lewis), number 8 (Vientos), number 12 (Mayo), number 14 (Jung), and number 15 (Jake Burger) are all trying to get the taste of dirt out of their mouths.

Meanwhile, Bregman, Chapman, and Suárez had seasons that were just good enough to make you believe in them again next year and for the near future.

Man-o-man, did Bregman and Chapman have seasons that match up so evenly, it’s like they’re playing man-to-man, man.  Both veterans missed significant time and returned somewhat worse for wear but put up strong counting stats that suggest they could thrive over a full season.

Bregman played nearly at his peak, hitting .299/.385/.553 with 11 home runs in 51 games before suffering a right quad injury.  When he returned, nearly his whole game suffered as he hit a .250/.338/.386 the rest of the way.  (His strikeout rate improved after the injury for what it’s worth.)  I think our ranking is based on the belief that Bregman will hit more like healthy Bregman, but we gave that ranking before we knew that his power would be chewed up like Violet Beauregarde’s gum in Wrigley Field.

Chapman started off cold, hitting .198/.356/.377, largely due to a lower-than-usual BABIP and a higher-than-usual strikeout rate.  By May and June, he had reached Bregmanic heights, hitting .282/.364/.516 with 7 home runs and 3 stolen bases in 34 games.  He suffered a hand injury that limited his playing time and, when he did play, his BABIP dropped again and he hit .219/.319/.406.

Suárez had a tale of two seasons as well, but his injury was the psychic injury of being returned to Seattle.  Lifetime, Suárez is a .211/.311/.406 in Seattle  and a .278/.343/.585 hitter at Chase Field.  That helps explain why he hit .248/.320/.576 as a Diamondback and .189/.255/.428 as a Mariner.  Suárez managers in dynasty leagues are hoping he ends up anywhere but Seattle.  Put another way, they are hoping that his Mariner history does not repeat, but it rimes.

Probably the most interesting riser for fantasy purposes is Maikel Garcia.  He’s now our 5th-ranked third baseman and he presents very broad questions for you to pretend to answer.  Were the gains last year real?  If they were, does he have any more ceiling?  As the fences move in, perhaps his ceiling moves up.

Another riser to keep in mind is surprisingly young.  Isaac Paredes, having escaped Wrigley, moved from our number 17 third baseman to number 10 on the basis of a half-season that looked more like his successful pull-and-lift Rays years.  Did you know Isaac Paredes is more than a year and a half younger than Isaac Collins?  (Some would say that is not a good point of comparison, but that is Isaac-ly my point.)

Fallers

José Ramirez, Cleveland Guardians, current rank: 2, previous rank: 1

Savvy dynasty players in active leagues play by Branch Rickey’s rule: “It is better to trade a player a year too early than a year too late.”  If you believe our gurus, this is that year for José Ramirez.  In trades, there’s often a super-premium for selling the #1 asset in a category, and Ramirez is #1 no longer.  So if you’ve been waiting for a signal to try to turn your cash cow into four question marks, that time is now.  But Ramirez is situated differently from other gentle decliners because it’s likely he’ll be a steady #2 in the position for some time barring injury.   Third base is a bit of a wasteland.

That’s in part because of other notable fallers, many of whom were hit by a drive-by analysis above.  But it wasn’t just unproven assets that struggled last year.  Alec Bohm sunk from number 15 to number 27 Alec Bohm, 2025’s perfectly fine placeholder if you missed out on a third baseman, saw even his marginal power decrease, as his ISO dropped from .168 to .123.  His hard hit rate and his average exit velocity went up, but his average launch angle went down from 9.8 degrees to 6.8 degrees, resulting in an increase in ground ball rate from from 46.0% to 50.0%.  He also pulled the ball less.  This approach may buoy his batting average, where he remains a contributor, but he’s going to leave some boxes empty.

Jake Burger stopped playing third base, but I suspect he would have been one of the most precipitous fallers.  He was ranked 15th last year.  On top of his injury, the home runs were still showing up but all the other topline statistics were bad.  You can love living with Kyle Schwarber when he puts up league-leading home runs and big runs and RBIs.  He also walks a lot.  Burger is just a one-category guy at this point.  And I think I have more faith in him to return value than his teammate, Josh Jung, who was number 16 last year.

There was a surprising tumble for Ryan McMahon from number 25 last year to number 40 this year.  I think it reflects his 2026 performance, the move away from the Coors, and unspoken belief that the Yankees would find someone better than him to play full-time.  Unfortunately for Yankees fans, the unspoken belief that the Yankees would find someone better to play third base is not based on facts.  Just a few months ago, McMahon was someone better.  McMahon’s batting average fell to .214, the lowest it has been since 2020.  That led to a .312 on-base percentage, the lowest it has been since 2020.  And, in part, that was driven by a general decline when his pinstripes became blue.  He hit .217/.314/.403 as a Rocky and .208/.308/.333 as a Yankee.  The difference appears to be more atmospheric than anything.  Baseball America tags the former line as a park-adjusted 90 OPS+ and the latter as an only somewhat worse 81.

*   *   *

Look, let’s say that you had one goal in life.  And that goal was to be named the number one player at your baseball position in a dynasty ranking.  I have three simple words for you: “Play second base.”

OK, but let’s flesh out this scenario.  Let’s say that you were number 1 at your position last year, and not just any number 1, but basically an undisputed number 1—and you had been for years.  The number 2 player leaves the position in a huff, the number 4 player gets injured and has another rough season, the number 5 player is going to be moving off the position next year, the number 6 player was the same age as you and generally your lesser, the 7 through 10 players all had troubled years of poor performance or poor health.

Ha, ha!  It sounds like the season of gloating has begun!  Maybe you should learn some new gloating dances.  Maybe you should send some text messages to group about how when you’re a Ram-mer, everyone else looks like a Tim Anderson.

So light a big cigar and open up the ranks and find that you are not the number 1 player at your position.  You failed.

And now you have to look inward.  This should not have been a surprise.

With most of your competitors fading, you choked.  You hit 30 home runs and stole 44 bases.  That’s 9 fewer home runs than the previous year!  Who cares about three additional steals?  And you may have continued to be a workhorse, playing every season since 2016 with more than 150 games played except 2019 and the COVID 2020.  But you had 9 fewer plate appearances this year.  Playing time is how fantasy is won.

In addition to this disastrous regression, it must be true that you’re not taking league context into consideration.   In 2024, you were the fourth rated player by Fangraphs’ Player Rater.  And now you’re sixth like a total chump.

While you should blame yourself, who do you stare at with green eyes of envy?  A suffix and a surname: Junior Caminero, who obviously outplayed you.  After all, in that same player rater where you’re sixth?  He’s not even looking back at you from thirteenth place.  He’s probably joking with Hunter Goodman about, like, 6-7 or whatever these kids talk about.  You’re yesterday’s news.

At night, you scream at your six silver sluggers, stolidly, solemnly, standing still in succession, but suddenly shining and slick with sordid spittle: “Caminero was hitting in a minor league stadium designed to replicate a famous hitter’s park!”  Your words may echo in your hollow mansion, but the awards don’t answer back.  Now they have to be washed.  Just like you are at 33, with 3 years left on your contract.

Why did you think the awards were going to talk back?  Have they ever talked back before?  I don’t even think they’re shaped like people.

Hold on.

OK.

Yeah, I did an image search and it looks like they’re shaped like bats, José.  Bats.

(Bob Kelly)