Fantasy Baseball Today - Four More Tough Players to Rank in 2026! (1/9 Fantasy Baseball podcast)

Episode Date: January 9, 2026

Matt McLain was a stud in 2023! He was not in 2025. Brandon Woodruff reinvented himself but comes with major injury questions. Trent Grisham is coming off a career year but nobody believes it. Noelvi Marte has all the talent but might have playing time risk. 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

We have some more tough players to rank in 2026. Up next on Fantasy Baseball Today Express. Welcome into FBT Express on Friday, January 9th. I am Frank Stamble joined by Scott White, and let's take a look at some tough players to rank this upcoming season. We spoke about a bunch already on the full-lane podcast, but we didn't get to all of them, so here we are, Scott. And we will get into your first name.

That is Matt McLean, who was a stud back in 2023, missed the entire 2024, season came back in 2025, not so much a stud. So where do you rank Matt McLean? Oh, I mean, part of what is difficult about him is yes, he was so studly for that partial rookie season. It was basically a 30-home or 25 steel pace he was on with a good batting average. And so you look at second base, there's so little to get excited about there. Why wouldn't you want to rank the high upside guy optimistically, but I'm not really sure I buy the upside. I'm not really sure I ever did. And also, second base has a lot of players like that who on paper aren't good, but we know

they have a lot of upside Jackson Holiday, Marcus Simeon, you know, even Xavier Edwards, to a degree, like have more upside than they showed last year. And so Matt McLean has a lot of company as far as that goes. And again, I have less faith in the actual skill set for him. Even though the overall upside may be higher based on what he's shown in 23, I have less faith in the overall skill set. So the difficulty in ranking him is, okay, yeah, I could see that 2023 happened also. I suspected there would be some drop off given the high strikeout rate, the modest eggs of velocity readings, and even the low polar rate. But, you know, Cincinnati, he was great, a AAA, that 202.

2023 season two, maybe there's just something I'm missing. Even though I was pessimistic, I never imagined the drop off to be as steep as it was in 2025, you know? And a lot of the underlying data was the same, which is to say not very good still, but the same that made him so good in 2023. So it's just so many different variables to grapple with. I think you could probably tell, by the way, I summed it up that I'm on the pessimistic side for Matt McLean. but I don't really know there's just so much unknown like maybe the drop off last year

was less because the data required it than he was coming off shoulder surgery that cost him all of 2024 and you know he was just rusty or whatever so yeah it's I acknowledge the upside

I think it's kind of low probability but if it clicks particularly at that position I'm going to have him rank too low obviously yeah the ADP the last two weeks for McLean is 219 as the 13th second basement off the board, but it's very bunched up at that position. McLean is at 13th, I mentioned, and Horri Polanco's at 17, and they're all within like 15, 20 picks of each other.

So there are a lot of second baseman going in that range of the ADP right now. Next name up for me, Scott, is Brandon Woodruff, and just such a weird one. He came back from major shoulder surgery, hadn't pitched since 2023. velocity is down nearly three miles per hour. He reinvents himself and he was awesome. 320 ERA.91 whip, 11.6K per 9, 27% K minus walk rate, but he only did it for 12 starts. 64 and 2 thirds innings.

His season ended with a latch drain. He's turning 33 next month as well. I believe in him as a pitcher even with the decreased velocity, but I have no clue how many starts we're going to get. how many innings were going to get. Again, ending the season hurt and the fact that, you know, he was just coming back from major shoulder surgery.

ADP last two weeks, 124 as the 29 starting pitcher off the board. I have him at that same exact spot. If I'm being completely honest, if I'm in a draft right now, I don't know that I actually click draft on his name. I'm just a little bit worried. But do you have any thoughts, got any strong feelings

about Brandon Woodruff at this point in the offseason? He is part of a whole, mess of pitchers there. I think in like the 25 to 35 or 40 even in the rankings where it's kind of the same thing

like ace upside but you can see a lot of ways it could go wrong. I am more optimistic about Woodruff I think maybe than the consensus because for those dozen starts he was back he was as good as he's ever been and he has a long track record of being an ace basically in fantasy. So even with the loss

velocity, I think maybe the addition of Cutter helped to counteract that, but in a way, I would have never imagined. It was so consistent, though. He had more than 11 strikeouts per nine innings. So I think he's kind of, you compare him to someone who we've seen Ace Upside from in the past, but there's even more questions, like a Spencer Strider, for instance. Like, I'd rather have Woodruff than Strider. I feel like I have a much better idea what I'm getting. And you know, the durability questions are kind of just inherent to the position. And I think the price is reasonable even taking those into account. All right, let's take a quick break and we'll be back right after this.

Welcome back in FBT Express taking a look at some tough players to rank here in 2026. Next name up for you, Scott, is Trent Grisham back with my Yankees and perhaps they didn't want it to happen because they extended the qualifying offer. I'm not so sure they expected Trent. Grisham to accept that, but he's 29 years old. He's coming off that mid-career breakout, hit 34 home runs, which is exactly double his previous career high, which was 17. Like George Springer, it's kind of tough because the underlying numbers back all of it up, but it's the first time we've seen underlying numbers like that from Trank Grisham. So where are you at currently

on Grisham for this season? Yeah, it reminds me a lot of jerks and pro far going into last season. where the guy is a pretty lengthy track record of being mediocre and then just explodes with must-start type numbers. But then when you dig into the data, yeah, the estimators back it up, but like there isn't some vast improvement in any one area. It's just, okay, the polar rate was a little better, the strikeout rate and walk rate, they were a little better. And all those little improvements add up to production.

unlike we've ever seen. I mean, 34 home runs, Trent Grisham. That's the most questionable part of it all, the 34 home runs. You say, left-handed hit or Yankee Stadium, maybe it makes sense,

but then you look at the home-away splits. He was doing most of it on the road. So, and then you factor in that, let's say, they re-signed Cody Bellinger, who's the odd man out? They've talked about wanting to play

Jason Dominguez every day. How easily would it be for Grisham on his one-year deal to get squeezed out. I think these are all fair concerns. And I thought maybe by ranking him behind guys like, I don't know, Taylor Ward, I was going to be on the more pessimistic end of this calculation. But to go back to that jerk's profile comparison from last year, the ADP for Trent Grisham is insane.

And on the pessimistic side, insane. He's going after like Jordan Beck. You know, he's going after Colton Couser. Like, I don't understand that. I don't understand. Like, I'm talking about since he was, because sometimes the early ADP players who don't sign, I think this happened to profile some,

they slide just because they don't have a team yet. But Grisham's pretty much the whole off season. We've known he's backed with the Yankees. And the ADP hasn't improved at all. Nobody wants anything to do with this. this guy who had 34 home runs last year. And so, you know, even though I'm kind of scared by all the questions surrounding it, I think there's enough reason to mostly buy into what he's doing that, like,

I'm going to take him ahead of Beck and Kouser and probably a couple dozen other outfielders that are going ahead of him in ATP. All right. Last day I'm going to talk about here is Noelvi-Marté. Second year back from the suspension was much better, though he's missed nearly two months with a left oblique injury. Honestly, he was cruising. He looked great for most of the season. And then September came and he just took a nose dive. 191 batting average, 502 OPS, 33% strikeout rate. I think Nelvi Marte is very talented. I also think there's a lot

of risk here. I think there's injury risk. I think there is pressure on the bat to perform because if he struggles at all like he did early in the season, like he did in September, then he might get squeezed out. The Reds have a bunch of players that are trying to figure out where to move all these guys around, and his glove is really, really bad out in the outfield. So there is pressure on that bat to perform. I have him as my ninth-third baseman, just third base is such a bad position right now. And my 35th outfielder, so it's a little bit lower than consensus right now.

But I've struggled with Marte. I think he's talented, Scott, but I think there are multiple risk factors with him. Yeah, I agree. I think what makes him less difficult to rank, as you point out, is third base is, there's just such a steep drop-off after the first 10 or so that it's like, okay, well, at least Marte has upside. I'll just slot him in there and hope for the best. And that's kind of the approach I'm taking with him. It's been, there have been a couple stretches in his career already where I thought, yes, this is it. Noel V. Marte season, if that's something the kids say anymore, SCN.

And then he falls off so hard that it's like, okay, well, I clearly jumped the gun on that. And that's what happened at the end of last season, too. But the upside, I think, is clearly there. It's just a matter of consistency. And there will come a point in drafts where I think it's obvious that, okay, I've missed the boat at third base. This is my best hope to hopefully get something worth. while.

All right. For more extensive fantasy baseball coverage, listen to our full-lane podcast, Fantasy Baseball today on Spotify, Apple Podcasts, or anywhere else podcasts are found. Thanks for listening to Fantasy Baseball Today Express, and we will be back again next week. Bye-bye. On podcasts.