Fantasy Baseball Today - Top 5 Outfield Prospects for 2026 Redraft Leagues! (12/17 Fantasy Baseball podcast)
Episode Date: December 17, 2025Carson Benge could turn into a Christian Yelich lite type player! Owen Caissie has a bunch of power he's ready to display in 2026. Justin Crawford has a similar skillset to his father, Carl Crawford. ...What should we expect from Dylan Beavers with the Orioles and Chase DeLauter with the Guardians? 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)
Which outfield prospects should you be drafting in 2026?
Let's find out next on Fantasy Baseball Today Express.
Welcome in to FBT Express on Tuesday, December 16th.
I am Chris Towers, joined by Scott White, and we are talking about outfield prospects for 2026.
Specifically, I think we're circling in on five guys who should get drafted in most, at least 12 team, roto leagues, five outfielder for a more extensive.
list. Make sure you listen to the full episode of Fantasy Baseball today, wherever you get your
podcast because we went 15 plus deep. We got a couple of names here that we're not talking about
on that list, but we're going to start with one of your top overall outfield prospects and a guy
who seems very, very likely to be in the opening day roster for 2026. And that's Carson Benj of the
New York Mets, turning 23 in January, first round pick from 2024. He has been a topic of some
conversation already this offseason.
I think the Mets trading, Brandon Nimmo, opening up a spot in their outfield.
Carson Benj is part of that discussion, decision-making process.
And Scott, I kind of think that's just a natural comp for Brandon, for Carson Benj.
Yeah.
His former Mets organization mate, Brandon Nimmo.
Yeah, the skill set is similar.
I think the upside could be higher than Mimow.
I like to make a Christian Yelich comp for Carson Binge,
who again, similar profile.
You're talking about, oh, maybe 25 Homer upside, 30 steel upside, good OBP.
That's the upside.
I mean, obviously, I'm not expecting binge to do that year after year.
But great on base skills for this guy.
The numbers, his time at AAA got promoted there late in the season.
And it kind of dragged down his full season numbers.
but prior to that promotion, he hit 308 with a 926 OPS,
reached base at a 414 clip.
Great line drive and opposite field tendencies,
which means he should hit for batting average in addition to walking a lot.
And, okay, that probably means the swing isn't so leverage for power yet,
but he's still homered at a good clip, despite being so line drive and opposite field mind.
I did. So I think we're talking about a really solid hitting profile here for Carson Binge,
and obviously the Mets feel the same way. After one full season in the miners, they're already
talking about maybe having them on the roster.
Yeah, 92.1 mile per hour average exit velocity at AAA, 16% barrel rate. Don't worry so much
about the poor AAA production. Again, the Mets really aren't worried too much about that.
Let's move on to another 23-year-old outfield prospect this time.
Owen Casey of the Chicago Cubs, and there might be a little bit of fatigue setting in for Casey.
We've been talking about him for a couple of years.
He spent two full years, basically, at AAA, which you don't see a lot of prospects do that these days.
I feel like that was pretty common in the 90s and earlier, but most of my adult life as a baseball fan.
It's pretty rare to see guys spend that much time at AAA, but he's still only 23.
recart Owen Casey.
Big time power potential here.
286 batting average,
22 homers in 99 games at AAA last season,
hits the ball very hard.
There's some swing and miss,
28, 29% strikeout rates at AAA.
But the question here is,
can he keep the strikeouts in check enough
to really matter for fantasy?
And what does the ceiling outcome look like for Owen Casey?
Yeah, I think he can.
I think the strikeout rates are always going to run high,
but you look at some of the other indicators of plate discipline.
And he comes out looking decent.
I don't think he's going to be a sitting duck against major league pitchers.
The walk rate should be high.
It's a three true outcomes profile for Owen Casey.
But I think it's the wrong time to have fatigue for him,
if that's the issue, because the power production was theoretical for most of his time.
miners. Look at how hard he hits the ball. If he could just optimize for power, hit the ball
at the correct angles. Well, he did do that this year. A better pull air rate. He finally delivered
the big home run total. Everyone was projecting for Owen Casey. And he should have a clear
path to playing time with Kyle Tucker expected to leave via free agency. I think in all five outfield
leagues, you should draft Casey. And he's probably being a little undervalued as a sleeper right now.
All right, we will talk more outfield prospects right after this break.
All right, let's move on from a guy with a lot of power to a guy who isn't really trying to hit the ball over the fence.
Justin Crawford, son of Carl Crawford.
And what's fun about that is it's kind of the same player.
Right?
Like every speedy corner outfielder doesn't hit for a lot of power,
but hits the ball hard, has a good approach to the play, and just a ton of speed.
speed.
Yep.
A ton of speed,
ton of batting average potential.
That's the way it's played out for Justin Crawford so far in the minors.
And that is a profile that hasn't worked as well in the majors over the past 10, 15 years.
So kind of beyond Carl Crawford, it worked for him.
But then that profile kind of started to disappear.
It's making a little bit of a comeback the last two years with guys like Chandler Simpson and Xavier Edwards.
and so I think that gives me some hope.
Crawford, Justin Crawford could work, polarizing though he is.
And I actually think he has better hitter qualities than those two even.
He hits the ball harder.
You could see him growing into some power.
I mean, right now he puts so many balls on the ground.
It's part of the reason why his batting average is so high.
But if he learns to elevate to any degree, then he could hit double-double-term.
digit homers with consistency. I mean, his dad kind of followed the same trajectory.
Had 19 home runs one year in the majors. Once he got to the point where he could hit 15 plus
with some regular regularity, Carl Crawford became a first rounder in fantasy because the
batting average and speed were so good. I don't know that it's going to play out that way for
Justin, but there are so many ways this could go right and the Phillies are already talking about
potentially having them as their center fielder to begin the year. Not sure defense
that's the best plan, but clearly he's in their plans.
Clearly they're ready to give him some playing time.
And I think in Roto leagues, could be Nico Horner-esque.
Yeah.
Yeah, he could be.
All right.
Let's move on to a couple guys that we didn't really talk about on the full episode,
but who are going to have the chance to make an impact in 2026.
We'll start off with Dylan Beavers of the Baltimore Orioles,
who we saw a decent amount of towards the end of last season.
And he more than held his own.
The batting average only 227, but he walked a lot, 375 OBP, four homers, two steals in those 35 games.
That was after he had 18 homers and 23 steals at AAA in 94 games.
What kind of impact could Dylan Beaver make as a rookie still, I guess?
And how much concern do you have that he's just a platoon bat in Baltimore?
I think that the concern there is pretty high.
His struggles against left-handers were apparent in the minors,
and now they have so many options.
They already were overloaded,
and now they've brought in Pete Alonzo and Taylor Ward.
So I don't know that there's going to be room for beavers on the opening day roster period,
much less as an everyday player.
But he played pretty well down the stretch.
The plate discipline seemed to translate.
he was a player who made a mechanical adjustment last year in terms of the way he shifts his weight,
which allowed him to turn on fastballs better.
We saw the power production improve,
and the plate discipline always stood out for Dylan Beavers.
So there is a lot to like here, but is he ever going to get the playing time to be a 2020 player?
is he is are the Orioles ready to turn over a job to him now?
I think those are the lingering questions for Dylan Beavers.
All right.
Let's move on to Chase Deloiter, who I don't think there's much question he's going to play a big role for the Guardians in 2026.
They threw him out there in the postseason with no major league experience last year.
If you had told me when Chase DeLauder was drafted in 2023 that he would make the majors after only 138 games as a
professional. Yeah, that sounded right. He was supposed to be a fast mover.
Unfortunately, it's taken three full years because Chase the Latter just cannot stay healthy.
He's played 130, 140 games, I guess, if you include the two postseason games he played last
season as a professional over the course of three seasons. He's been great.
302 batting average, only 80 strikeouts, 70 walks, 20 homers.
We don't really know who Chase the Latter is because he's missed so much time, but I'm
still pretty excited about the talent profile here.
What do you expect from Chase the Latter in 2026?
I mean, you say there's not much doubt he's going to play a big role.
Well, the doubt would be, will he be healthy enough to play a big role since he's shown no,
three times he's broken the same foot.
And then last year was a sport tourney.
It was a broken hamate bone.
It was, it's always something for Chase DeLotter, which doesn't mean it's always going to be.
but I don't know how you could feel optimistic about his chances to stay healthy.
And he's lost a lot of development time because of all the injuries.
So I'm thinking if it all goes right, it's hard to say because we have so little information.
But what I'm imagining is sort of a Brian Reynolds type, maybe with more batting average.
And so that's why...
That's a top 100 player?
Yeah, it's a top 100 player.
But I don't know that Chase DeLauder
has the kind of upside
to be an early rounder in fantasy.
Sure.
All right, that's...
Anything else?
Go ahead. No, that's it.
That's going to do it for FBT Express
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