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.

Fallers

Jac Caglianone, Kansas City Royals, Current rank: 12, Previous Rank: 6

Jac Caglianone exploded onto the minor league baseball scene in 2025 and he would carry that aura into his major league debut the same year. Unfortunately, his value peaked mid-season when the rankers at The Dynasty Guru slotted him 6th among the first baseman. After a final push towards the end of the year, his performance did not reflect that caliber of a player and his off-season ranking has reflected that, seeing him slide down to 12th. It may not seem like much of a drop, only five spots, but it very well could be the beginning of a much larger slide or a massive bounce back into the top ten. He rose to such a high value on the backs of his minor league performance across Double-A Northwesty Arkansas and Triple-A Omaha. In less than half of the season he would hit 20 home runs, add 14 doubles, and slash an astounding .337/.408/.617. It seemed every baseball he saw left the yard or was crushed at crowd-pleasing absurd exit velocities, but then came his promotion to the major leagues and a giant struggle at the plate. He closed out his 2025 season playing 62 games in the majors, hitting an abysmal .157/.237/.295 and only seeing seven balls leave the park. His strikeout and walk rates were below average, 22.4% and 7.8% respectively. In fact, the only real good underlying numbers he has in his profile from his time in the major leagues was his swing speed, an insane 77.4 mph. His average exit velocity fell from 93.9 mph at Triple-A to 89.4 mph with the Kansas City Royals, while his average launch angle also saw a big downswing, going from 14.1 degrees to 4.1 degrees. Even his hard hit rate dropped, going from 53.2% to 42.4%. His barrel rate actually improved slightly though, rising from 11.7% to 12%. It’s really anyone’s guess as to how he responds to his troublesome major league debut after a full off-season at the major league level. He fell in the rankings because of his struggles, but his time in the minor leagues paint a far rosier ceiling, one which I am confident we will start to see shine through during the 2026 season. If not, there will be nothing to slow his tumble down this year’s mid-season ranking.

Risers

Ben Rice, New York Yankees, Current Rank: 10, Previous Rank: 18

Ben Rice made a decent jump from the mid-season rankings, improving from 18th to 10th. After a very poor debut season, one which was very similar to Jac Caglianone’s debut season, Rice turned things around in 2025. In 2024, he slashed .171/.264/.349 and only hit seven home runs in 50 games for the New York Yankees. He would bounce back with a vengeance in 2025, slashing .255/.337/.499, 26 home runs, and 28 doubles. Hitting in the famed Yankees lineup also helped him produce some decent counting stats for dynasty owners as well, he chipped in 74 runs and 65 RBI. His statcast numbers back up his play, he was 89th percentile or better in average exit velocity, hard hit rate, barrel rate, launch angle sweet spot rate, and squared up rate. He had transformed himself from a potential free-falling young player into one of the top 10 first baseman in the league. In fact, his improvement may actually be what you could expect to see from Caglianone in 2026, but I digress. Rice upped his hard hit rate from 36.7% to 56.1%, his average exit velocity from 90.0 mph to 93.3 mph, and his launch angle sweet spot rate from 34.9% to 39.3%. Driving a lot of his improvement was his ability to make contact, he increased his contact rate from 74.2 to 78.8 and decreased his strikeout rate considerably, seeing it go from 27% to 18.9%. He had seemingly transformed himself into a star player right before our eyes. What really drove his transformation was the damage he did against fastballs. In 2024, he hit .189 against four-seam fastballs and had a hard hit rate of 42.3%, but in 2025 those numbers had ballooned to .259 and 70.3%. Hitting in a lineup with Aaron Judge, Giancarlo Stanton, and Cody Bellinger will help him to continue to see plenty of fastballs in 2026 and to keep hitting them hard when he does. Expect Rice to maintain his rank by this time next year.

(Brian Labude)