Fantasy Baseball Today - Early 2026 Second Base Rankings! Is Brice Turang's Power Legit? (10/24 Fantasy Baseball podcast)
Episode Date: October 24, 2025Jazz Chisholm and Ketel Marte are the clear top two at second base. Brice Turang made big power strides but how much do we trust it? Ozzie Albies is a huge wild card heading into 2026. 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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Second base in 2026. It's not the best. Let's discuss on Fantasy Baseball Today Express.
Welcome in to FBT Express on Friday, October 24th. I am Frank Stample. Join by Scott White.
Let's take a way too early look at Scott's 2026 second base rankings. And at the top, Scott,
we have two names that stand alone. Jazz Chisholm and Ket feels like a pretty clear top two. Jazz is first.
in Roto slash category leagues.
Kutel Marte moves up to number one in Head Dead Points Leagues.
Yeah, that's exactly right.
And they are, I think, the two surefire difference makers at second base,
which is pretty clearly the weakest position for 2026.
And so there is going to be incentive, I think, to reach a little for them in the name of
position scarcity.
The shallower the league, I think the more justifiable it is.
but obviously there's risk to it
especially since Jats Chesman could tell Marte,
neither is a stranger to the IL.
So on top of maybe just overpaying for the production
because it's coming at a weak position,
you're going to lose 15 to 25 games from them,
if not more.
So yeah, clearly the top two,
but show a little restraint
even recognizing the bad stuff that follows.
Three through six in your second base rankings,
you have Bryce Terang, Jose Altuve,
Nico Horner, and Brandon Lau.
To me, Bryce Tarang is the clear standout here.
He took a big step forward this past season
in terms of quality of contact
that led to more power, a higher batting average.
The next question, Scott,
how much do we trust it heading into 2026?
Yeah, so Bryce Turrace.
Rang, I think, could end up being just as good as Jazz Chesim, Teltel Marte.
He showed that kind of upside with this breakout season.
And I think there's upside beyond even what he did in 2025, because the gains in terms of how
already hit the ball were significant among the biggest of any player, an additional four
miles per hour on both his average and max exit velocity.
it didn't, it wasn't translating to the sort of power you'd expect from those exit velocities until August when he hit 10 of his 18 home runs on the year.
That was the one month that Bryce Terang actually excelled at pulling the ball in the air.
The other five months he was terrible at it, so he was kind of wasting that exit velocity.
So that next step is going to be critical for Terang to actually seize upon these velocity gains.
Can he do better at pulling the ball on the air?
For one month, he showed he could.
and that is something that hitters can get better at.
So I'm hopeful it'll happen for him.
The other thing about Bryce Terang is he,
remember, he stole 50 bases in 2024.
That number was about cut in half in 2025
as he was hitting the ball so much harder,
but can he combine those two things?
Can we get the best of both worlds?
Can Terang be a 20-homer 40 steel guy,
who, by the way, is pretty good at batting average too?
If he does live up to that, then maybe he's just the best second baseman in fantasy.
There's definitely a lot to dream on here with Bryce Terang.
All right, let's take a quick break.
We'll be back right after this.
Welcome back in FBT Express.
We are taking a look at Scott's way too early second base rankings for next season.
And we move on to 7, 8, and 9.
We have Ozzy Albies, Luke Keishel and Jorge Polanco.
All three of these players, Scott seem like wild cards at the position.
Albies was coming on strong in the second half
and then he suffered a fractured ham ape bone to end his season
Luke Keishel at top prospect who flashed
good plate discipline, bat to ball skills, lots of speed
and Jorge Polanco formerly a standout
at the position he has not been able to stay healthy
he finally stayed on the field and had a very productive season
so these three players in particular Scott feel like
maybe they can flip the position a little bit
they do add a little bit of a wild card element here
Yeah, and these three players, you know, are only 7, 8, 9 here, but they feel like the last three you might want to draft as your starter, at least in a shallower league with no middle end field spot.
And yet there's a ton of risk with all three.
I think Ozzie Albies is maybe the most interesting player, is in the conversation at least for most interesting player regardless of position for 2026 because I think a lot of people are going to be tempted to write.
him off after back-to-back disappointing injury-plagued seasons.
But he was, it was revealed mid-season that Albis was impacted by the fractured wrist he
suffered late in 2024.
He was still impacted by it for the start of 2025.
In the second half, he looked more like typical Ozzy Albis, 272, nine homers, seven steals,
a 769 OPS.
That's great.
But then he fractured his handmate bone, which even more so than a broken wrist can have
negative effects when the player comes back from it.
So will Albi's power again be suppressed for the start of
2026 just like it was in 2025?
Anybody's guess, obviously you'll feel bad about drafting him here
if it is, but if it isn't, if he's just
if he just shakes off the broken handmate bone, he looks like the
Albies we saw in the second half, then he's going to be a great value
here because that's another player.
who could potentially be the top player at this position
if everything goes right.
All right, and the last three at the position here
that you have ranked 10, 11, and 12.
We have Glaber Torres, Jackson Holiday,
and Marcus Semyon.
Glaver Torres entering free agency once again,
solid season with the Tigers.
If we look at the other two,
Jackson Holiday took a pretty big step forward
from his rookie disappointment.
He's also still just 21 years old,
turning 22 in the offseason.
Um, will Jackson Holiday take another step forward, Scott?
And, uh, for Marcus Semyon, is he toast? Is he just done? What do you think?
Uh, it's your guess is good as mine for both of those. I, I don't, beyond just the fact that he's 21, I guess it'll be 22 next year, Jackson holiday.
And he has huge prospect pedigree as a former number one overall pick. Beyond those two facts, there is nothing definitive that makes me say, yes, holiday will take.
a big step forward. He did make huge strides from 2024 to 2025, but he went from kind of
of terrible at everything to still not very good, which is why he only ranks 11th at this week
position. And yet he is the highest rank for me among the second baseman that we're just not
sure if they're any good because of that potentially, that sky high ceiling that he still
presumed to have at his age.
As for Marcus Simeon, of course, he's been a fantasy standout for a long time.
It's two years in a row that were pretty disappointing.
And he's 35 now.
So back-to-back, underwhelming years from a 35-year-old, usually we're thinking he's just done.
I have some hesitation to declare that final verdict with Marcus Simeon because the underlying data has remained flat throughout.
He's been, according to Stackas, the same guy he's always been, the last two years.
which is why he got a lot of the benefit of the doubt heading into 2025.
And then you look at what happened to him in 2025.
Slow start, as is pretty typical for Marcus Simeon.
Got real hot midseason, cooled off again.
But then he broke his foot, I think, before we had a chance to see how he was going to close out the year.
If he was going to get hot again, give us a lot of optimism heading into 2026.
I'm not saying I have optimism for Simeon,
but at this very weak position,
I'm willing to rank him as high as 12th,
because I still see the potential for impact here.
And, you know, it's a low probability play,
whether you go with him or Matt McLean or Xavier Edwards,
but I can see it a little clear how it would play out in a good way for Simeon.
All right.
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