The 2026 MLB season is almost here and that means you’re likely prepping for your fantasy baseball draft. One of the best ways to prepare is to do as many mock drafts as possible. Of course, sometimes it’s tough to find an accurate representation of your league settings by using the public mock draft lobby.
Not to fear! If you’re a Yahoo Fantasy+ subscriber, you have access to the Instant Mock Draft tool, allowing you to practice your draft in seconds. You can test different strategies, pick from various draft slots and experiment with roster construction as many times as you want, anytime, instantly. Now is a great time to subscribe to Yahoo Fantasy+, so you can use the wealth of tools for your draft prep.
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In this series, we’re going to be using the Instant Mock Draft tool to pick from each of the 12 slots in a 12-team fantasy baseball league. In this piece, we’ll be drafting from the No. 5 overall pick.
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Note: We’re using Yahoo’s default points league settings for these mock drafts.
Full Roster
C: Kyle Teel, White Sox
1B: Pete Alonso, Orioles
2B: Jazz Chisholm Jr., Yankees
SS: Corey Seager, Rangers
3B: Colson Montgomery, White Sox
OF: Ronald Acuña Jr., Braves
OF: Pete Crow-Armstrong, Cubs
OF: Riley Greene, Tigers
UTIL: Jo Adell, Angels
UTIL: Dylan Crews, Nationals
SP: Kevin Gausman, Blue Jays
SP: Spencer Strider, Braves
RP: Aroldis Chapman, Red Sox
RP: Jeff Hoffman, Blue Jays
P: Ryan Pepiot, Rays
P: Carlos Rodón, Yankees
P: Bubba Chandler, Pirates
P: Casey Mize, Tigers
Bench: Ryan Jeffers, Twins
Bench: Daylen Lile, Nationals
Bench: Andrés Giménez, Blue Jays
Bench: Jordan Beck, Rockies
Bench: Corbin Burnes, Diamondbacks
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Don’t bite on SP in the first: I’m not buying the top starters in the first round. At least not in points formats. I think you’ll be able to find some SPs who can jump up into the upper-echelon of fantasy somewhere in the middle rounds. So I went with Acuña as the bat with the most upside among José Ramírez, Julio Rodríguez, Kyle Tucker, etc.
Acuña is still just 28 years old and the last time he was fully healthy, he won NL MVP in what is considered one of the best single seasons ever. Yahoo analyst Fred Zinkie described Acuna as “an easy pick” for his article examining the players with the best shot at finishing No. 1 overall in fantasy baseball this season, ahead of Aaron Judge and Shohei Ohtani. If Acuña can just stay healthy — which is a concern after the past few seasons — he can really pay off.
[Join or create a Yahoo Fantasy Baseball league for the 2026 MLB season]
Smooth Jazz: The projections don’t favor Jazz Chisholm Jr. much and he usually falls down the draft board. I’m also in agreement and don’t love the pick, Yankees bias in consideration here. But Chisholm should have a good shot of getting back to 30 homers this season and he’s talked about his excitement around this season. Chisholm is playing for a payday and has prime placement in one of the best lineups in baseball. Taking him in the third round still feels very high but so is his ceiling. Plus, dual-infield eligibility is appealing, given my 3B situation.
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ChiSox? Really? Let’s talk about that situation and circle back to some of the other picks. I really like Colson Montgomery this season. The White Sox are still going to be pretty bad but luckily, that doesn’t matter in fantasy. Montgomery’s numbers in a small sample (71 games) were pretty eye-opening — 21 HRs, 55 RBI and an .840 OPS. His .355 wOBA would have ranked in the top-30 in 2025 had he qualified.
That likely comes down over the course of 162 games but if Montgomery keeps up that HR pace, he’s among the league leaders. The ceiling feels extremely high for a player widely going overlooked in drafts. Zinkie has Monty as one of his proactive picks in his 3B preview for this season; be sure to check that out before your draft.
I also like Teel as a late-round catcher option (shout out to Scott Pianowski, who has Teel as an IF sleeper).
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Hitting Our Stride: Strider is another Braves player I’m hoping stays healthy and gets back on track. That seems to be the case so far this spring with Strider’s velocity and movement looking good so far. He has six Ks in 4.1 IP this spring and was able to get over 120 IP last season, coming off major injury.
Are we going to get 20 wins and 281 strikeouts as we did in 2023? Probably not. I reached a bit but Strider is going around the 10th round in Yahoo drafts, which feels like a gift if he can get back to anything close to 2023.
Here are a few other quick-hitters:
-Dylan Crews and Daylen Lile are both highlighted by Zinkie atop his OF breakouts for 2026. I went a little OF wild in this draft, but that’s where the money is, right?
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-Ryan Pepiot was the first name mentioned by Corbin Young on his SP sleepers for this season. I like targeting Rays’ starters given the move back to the Trop, plus Tampa Bay is usually surprisingly competitive.
-No one is talking about Jordan Beck. I guess because he strikes out a lot, but he also plays most of his games at Coors Field and has decent category coverage. I don’t mind him taking up the last spot on my bench if he can be a 20/20 guy.
-Rodon and Burnes are stashes with upside. We waited a bit at SP and the staff overall carries a lot of risk. But Rodón and Burnes have ace-type upside; I’d just need to stay afloat for a few months.
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Takeaways with drafting No. 5: This team has a lot of offensive upside, though the pitching is shaky. If players like PCA, Monty, Acuña, Jo Adell, Riley Greene, Chisholm and Crews end up panning out, we could be hoisting some imaginary hardware at the end of the season.