Fantasy Baseball Today - Early 2026 Third Base Rankings! Austin Riley Expectations (10/29 Fantasy Baseball podcast)
Episode Date: October 29, 2025Junior Caminero just had a superb breakout season but now he's headed back to Tropicana Field. We need Austin Riley healthy and Eugenio Suarez out of Seattle. Where will Alex Bregman wind up and where... will Isaac Paredes play for the Astros? 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
Transcript
Discussion (0)
Third base has some potential, but we need guys to stay healthy next season.
Let's discuss on Fantasy Baseball Today Express.
Welcome in to FBT Express on Wednesday, October 29th.
I am Frank Stample joined by Scott White,
and let's take a way too early look at Scott's 26 third base rankings.
And up first, we have no surprise, Jose Ramirez,
followed by Junior Camerero and Jazz Chisholm.
I'm sorry, number two was Junior.
Camero. Camerro.
I want to focus on Camerro from this trio as well, Scott,
because while he had a tremendous breakout season,
45 home runs, the rays are going back to Tropicana Field next season,
which just adds an unknown element that I wish wasn't there for 2026.
Yeah, it does.
And a lot's going to be made, especially looking at his home away splits
from this his monstrous breakout season.
313 batting average, 954 OPS at home, which we're presuming will not be his home anymore,
versus 218 with a 743 OPS on the road.
Now, the home run split was pretty much dead even.
Actually hit one more home run on the road, despite having the much lower batting average and with the OPS.
And that is the aspect that you think would be helped most by George M. Steinbrener Field in Tampa as the power production and was dead even.
I don't know how much the home-away splits really had to do with venue as opposed to just happenstance.
And while Tropicana Field itself, there have been hitters who've suffered from the batting eye there, the dimensions are fine.
And we have no evidence, Junior Commonero will be one of those hitters.
It's just a wrinkle.
It's a wrinkle for a player without much of a track record and who we're counting on a lot after this big season.
second round pick, I presume Junior Common Arrow will be in every league.
But I think, I don't think it should be a major concern.
I mean, this is a top prospect pedigree being realized at age 21.
So the future I think we can confidently say is bright for Common Arrow.
Even if he doesn't hit 45 home runs again, he'll hit enough to be worth the second round pick.
For five and six at third base, you have May Matato.
Austin Riley and Eugenio Suarez.
Scott, I'm going to tell you two things that we need to happen for next season.
We need Austin Riley healthy, and we need E.
E. Johanio Suarez, out of Seattle.
Out of Seattle.
Yeah, that's the big one because he collapsed after that trade, and we knew Seattle.
He had a history there, obviously, and those were some of Eugenio Suarez's worst years.
So we presumed he would struggle there again.
Boy, did he.
After that trade in Seattle, Eohenio Suarez hit 106 with a 469 OPS at home as compared to 280 with a 921 OPS on the road.
That was his time in the Mariners uniform to close up in 2025.
So it was clearly just all that venue.
He hates playing there.
He is 34.
So, you know, we can't just assume he's going to be fine going somewhere else.
but as long as he's out of Seattle,
I think we could draft Swars with a fair amount of confidence.
I rank Riley even higher.
I have more confidence in him even
because he is still in the prime of his career
and obviously he has a long track record of success.
You could say this is two years in a row
where he's underwhelmed,
not that he's been terrible,
but a little less than he was drafted to be
and missed time with injury in both,
which didn't help.
But really, I'm just counting 2025 as the misstep for Riley because 2024, he got off to a slow start, came surging back midseason as he usually does, and then got hurt.
So we just didn't have time to correct the numbers completely.
But the underlying data was very normal for Riley in 2024.
2025, yes, it took a step back.
But I'll give him a pass because he's still in his prime because he has such an extensive track record and because an injury afflicted him in that season as well.
All right.
let's take a quick break. We'll be back right after this.
Welcome back in the FBT Express, looking at way too early third base rankings for next season.
7, 8, and 9. You have Michael Garcia, Alex Bregman, and E Sock Paradis.
Nice breakout season for Garcia. Totally think he's worthy of this ranking.
We do have some questions with this trio.
Alex Bregman sounds like he's going to opt out of his current deal with the Boston Red Sox.
And for Esoc Paratus, the Astros just have this logjam of players on their team.
I have to imagine they're going to find a way to play
Essoc Paredes every day just because he performed very well there last season.
But as of now, they kind of have too many mouths to feed, Scott.
So what do you think happens here with Bregman and Esauk Paredes?
So with Bregman, I think we need to watch his free agency,
presuming he opts out.
We need to watch it even closer, even more closely than Eugenio Suarez.
It's just stay out of Seattle for Bregman.
there are a lot of venues that I think could ruin him.
He's always had the benefit of the short left field porch,
whether in Houston or the Red Sox.
I think there's a good chance he ends up back with the Red Sox.
And, you know, I think the full season line is,
is close to what we should expect than the first half numbers from Bregman before the injury.
But, you know, there is a chance he could deliver a higher batting average
than expected playing a full season at Fenway.
But we got to wait and see where he winds up.
Paredes, it worked out so well about as well as it could have before he got injured and ended up missing the last couple months of the season with a hamstring injury.
He basically was performing at that ballpark exactly like Alex Bregman was before leaving the Astros.
And so I imagine the Astros, they acquired him thinking that's how it would go with this extreme pull tendencies.
and they'll want to hold on to him, I would imagine.
Still very affordable is Isok Peridis.
But they did acquire Carlos Correa while Peretas was hurt, you know, trying to make the playoffs.
And so now they do have that log jam.
Maybe they trade Christian Walker, let Peritas play first base.
Maybe they try Peritas at second, which he's played before.
Maybe they try Correa at second.
There are possibilities.
And I think, you know, even there are questions for these two, Bregman and Peritas.
it's still a lot better than the questions that follow at third base,
a position that drops off precipitously.
10, 11, and 12.
You have Matt Chapman, Jordan Westberg,
and Max Muncie of the Dodgers.
Jordan Westberg feels like the wild card here, Scott.
He performed pretty well when he was on the field this year.
It was 17 homers and 85 games.
That's a 32 homer pace over a full season.
But he has struggled with injury the past couple of years.
So to me, Jordan Westberg kind of feels like a wildcard at this position.
Yeah, I guess you could call him a wild card just because we haven't seen the true full season out of him because of injuries.
But you pace out his numbers, you're talking about a 30 homer guy here if he stays healthy.
And the batting average, you know, the slash line was basically identical from 2024 to 2025.
So I think we know who Jordan Westberg is, a 265 hitter with the potential to hit about 3rd.
HOMER runs, probably not much steals help.
Bad OPP guy, so the run total may not be that impressive.
But overall, really solid hitter, if he can stay healthy.
And there's no reason this early in his career to think he won't ever stay healthy.
It just hasn't happened yet.
So I think if you want to draft Jordan Westberg as your starter at third base, that's perfectly fine.
I may even have him underranked here at 11th, putting him behind Matt.
Chapman, for instance.
I do think there's more upside for Westberg.
I just am guarding against the health injury, the health history a little bit and the
poor on base skills a little bit.
All right.
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Thanks for listening to Fantasy Baseball Today Express.
And we will be back again later this week.
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