Fantasy Baseball Today - Early 2026 Outfield Rankings Part 1! How High on Buxton & Springer? (11/4 Fantasy Baseball podcast)
Episode Date: November 4, 2025Let's take a look at the top 15 outfielders. Ronald Acuña over Corbin Carroll and Julio Rodriguez? Pete Crow-Armstrong really struggled down the stretch. How high should we rank Byron Buxton and Geor...ge Springer? Subscribe to our YouTube channel: youtube.com/FantasyBaseballToday Download and Follow Fantasy Baseball Today on Spotify: https://sptfy.com/QiKv Get awesome Fantasy Baseball Today merch here: http://bit.ly/3y8dUqi Follow FBT on TikTok: https://www.tiktok.com/@fbtpod?_t=8WyMkPdKOJ1&_r=1 Follow our FBT team on Twitter: @FBTPod, @CPTowers @CBSScottWhite, @Roto_Frank Join our Facebook group at https://www.facebook.com/groups/fantasybaseballtoday Sign up for the FBT Newsletter at https://www.cbssports.com/newsletters/fantasy-baseball-today/ For more fantasy baseball coverage from CBS Sports, visit https://www.cbssports.com/fantasy/baseball/ To hear more from the CBS Sports Podcast Network, visit https://www.cbssports.com/podcasts/ To learn more about listener data and our privacy practices visit: https://www.audacyinc.com/privacy-policy Learn more about your ad choices. Visit https://podcastchoices.com/adchoices
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Let's take an early look at outfield rankings part one.
Up next on Fantasy Baseball Today Express.
Welcome in to FBT Express on Tuesday, November 4th.
I am, for example, joined by Scott White, way too early.
2026 outfield rankings, part one.
We're going to try to get through 12, 15 names today.
We'll talk about some other names on tomorrow's episode,
but Scott, your top three outfielders for next season.
You have Aaron Judge Juan Soto.
No surprise there.
Ronald de Cunia number three.
I think it's pretty interesting,
Acuna over Carol Tucker J-Rod.
Why is that?
Well, I am remembering what happened to Ronald O'Cunia
the last time he came back from a torn ACL.
That was in 2022, him coming back.
And it was kind of underwhelming
in terms of his performance.
The power specifically suffered quite a bit.
And I was a little too careful ranking him
the following year.
And he went on to have arguably the best fantasy season in history.
So I am trying not to repeat that mistake.
Again, he came back from a torn ACL.
And again, it was a little underwhelming.
Actually hit better overall, but it was, you know, some ups and downs and his stolen base
total suffered.
But another year removed from that procedure, I think.
We'll see Ronald de Kuhnial look more like himself.
and when he looks like himself,
then he is not just a top three outfielder,
a top three player overall,
maybe even the top overall players.
So it's a little more of a gamble
than I generally like to make in the early rounds,
but I don't want to get caught underestimating him again, basically.
Four, five, and six, you have Corbyn, Carol,
Kyle Tucker, and Julio Rodriguez,
all three names deservedly in this range.
Kyle Tucker, I guess, is the one that could potentially move
up a little bit, maybe down a little bit, depending on where he lands in free agency. For example,
going to the Yankees, you know, we could potentially dream on, you know, 40 plus home runs, 30
steals. If you go somewhere like San Francisco, then we're probably lowering our expectations,
at least in terms of power for Kyle Tucker. Yep, that's a good point. Also, I think getting out of
Riggily, as long as he doesn't go to a place like San Francisco, I think it'll only help. Of the 22
homers he hit in 2025, only seven were a home in Wrigley, which, you know, we've talked about it
with Issock Paredes during a short stint there. The corners, the outfield corners are, are so much
deeper than the average ballpark that a player who relies on pull side power can really suffer
there. And I think we saw that from Kyle Tucker this past year. The final number still ended up
being good.
Obviously, things took a rough turn there as he was playing with,
I'm trying to remember what it was.
It was his thumb.
It was a ring finger fracture.
A ring finger.
Okay.
He had a fracture that he was playing through and the numbers took a tumble.
But now, the underlying data looks great.
He has a great track record.
I think we can trust Tucker to be a stud.
It's just how much of a stud.
and that will be tied to where he lands.
7, 8, and 9, you have Fernando Tatsy Jr., Jackson, Churio,
and Pete Crow Armstrong, PCA.
If we would have done this at mid-season,
he might have ranked as a top five or six outfielder,
but struggled over the final two months of the season,
even with all that.
31 homers, 35 steals.
Might be a shrieky player, Scott,
but obviously, you know, PCA proved that the power and speed seems pretty legit
heading into next season.
Yeah, and so I'm trying to value the full season line over any partial season line,
because depending what partial season he looked at,
you're going to come away with a very different impression of Crow Armstrong.
The most recent partial sample was awful, but on balance, he was a 30-30 man
whose batting average wasn't terrible.
So I think the high chase rates we're seeing from Pete Crow Armstrong will make this streakiness part of the profile.
but I think you should draft them as,
I think you can draft them as a number one outfielder,
round three probably in Roto leagues,
and expect,
expect a good number of home runs and stolen bases.
Will we go 30-30 again?
I think he'll get close at least.
And so you don't want to underrate Crow Armstrong
just because of that poor finish.
All right, let's take a quick break.
We'll be back right after this.
Welcome back in the FBT Express, taking an early look at Scott's outfield rankings for next season.
And 10, 11, and 12.
You have James Wood, Byron Buxton, and Wyatt Langford.
James Wood, very similar to Peacrow Armstrong, really struggled in the second half of the season,
a 39% strikeout rate, but he comes with a lot of power, some speed, obviously lots of prospect pedigree there for James Wood.
Byron Buxton, this is an interesting one, Scott.
I mean, people might be surprised to see him rank this high, but
he just gave us a ton of power and speed.
The athleticism is still fully intact.
It's just how many games are we going to get that is impossible to know right now.
Yeah, it is impossible to know for Buxton, and that's always been the story for him.
There have been some inconsistencies performance-wise, too.
There was back-to-back years 2022 and 2023 where Buxton's batting average was quite bad,
and the stolen bases had collapsed as a little too strong,
but he wasn't a plus contributor in a stolen basis.
He was average at best in that category until bouncing back with 24 this past season.
So between the batting average, getting back to a respectable level,
him getting back to being a base dealer,
and staying pretty healthy for the first time in a few years,
Buxton went on to have this massive season.
I want to be skeptical of it.
I want to not, I don't want to overpay for him, obviously.
And I know the history with the injuries and I know where I was drafting Buxton just last year.
But when I consider who I could rank ahead of him here, it's a bunch of outfielders who are decidedly second tier.
And I think I would rather take on a little more risk for the potential high end.
outcome, particularly since we're not even out of the top 12 yet.
You know, some high end outfielders this past year ended up losing eligibility there for
26, including Kyle Schwerber, Christian Yellich, Sean Alvarez, and a few others.
And so the back end of the top 12 here, the outfield feels a little weak.
And that inclines me both with Buxton here, and you're about to mention my number 13.
George Springer, that inclines me to gamble on them a little more.
Let's talk about the next three. George Springer, Cody Bellinger, and Brent Rooker as 13, 14, and 15 in your outfield rankings.
Bellinger could move up a little bit if he returns to the Yankees.
He's a free agent, so we'll see where Cody Bellinger winds up.
But you mentioned the name, George Springer, found the fountain of youth in his age 35 season.
It was crazy.
Hit 309, 32 homers, 18 steals, 959 OPS.
And then into the playoffs, hit 284 with four homers over an additional 16 games.
So I don't know where this came from, Scott.
I know that the hitting coach did great work with the Blue Jays this past season.
Now we're left trying to figure out how much of it was real and what should we expect moving forward.
Nobody could possibly answer that.
Yeah, I know.
First of all.
So it's just a question of how much are you willing to risk for the reward?
Just like I was saying for Buxton.
It's a lot of reward here for Springer.
The second half especially hit 369.
In that second half, Springer averaged more head-to-head points per game than Aaron Judge did for the entire season.
Now, I don't expect George Springer to hit 369 for a full season,
but my point in bringing that up is just to stress how impactful he was in fantasy.
This is a guy who's probably going to just miss the Hall of Fame, George Springer.
I don't think his numbers are quite there.
But he's certainly in the hall of very good.
And this was the second best year he's ever had by OPS.
So it was, the impact was monstrous for a guy who appeared to be on the decline.
I think it's enough to say, well, he's not on the decline, obviously,
because a player on decline doesn't have a year this good.
But because he's 36, it doesn't mean he won't decline next year.
He's at an age where the drop-off could happen any year.
So I would ultimately my takeaway for George Springer is the same as it is for Buxton,
which is do I want to settle for second tier,
second rate production with my,
for what's probably my number one outfielder?
Or do I want to just take on the additional risk of this player who has an unconventional history
and hope he at least comes close to what he just did.
And at least my rankings, by my rankings, I am doing the latter.
All right.
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