Fantasy Baseball 2025 Redraft Top 500 Rankings & Trade Value Version 2.07
Gleyber Torres' intriguing fantasy upside in Detroit (he has top-10 potential at his position), plus more on Joey Bart and Phil Maton.
Strong spring training stats can be extremely encouraging. And while they aren’t always a surefire predictor of that type of success carrying over in like in the regular season, the positive momentum is certainly never a bad thing. Particularly where a player’s fantasy ceiling and upside for the season are concerned.
That’s the inadvertent theme this week, at least for two of the players mentioned in this column, but more on Gleyber Torres and Joey Bart as well Phil Maton and Gerrit Cole after the freshly updated rankings.
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Gleyber Torres (#224, 26 trade value).
Gleyber Torres had somewhat of a down year last season at the plate, hitting .257 with a .330 on-base percentage, 15 home runs and four stolen bases in 665 plate appearances for the New York Yankees. The infielder also added a 104 wRC+ for the American League East club and saw his barrel rate (6.3%) fall to the lowest it’s been in a full season in his career.
Now with the Detroit Tigers, Torres represents a quality fantasy second base option later in drafts with the upside to be a top-10 option at his position if he’s able to replicate some of his past form at the plate.
Generally a hitter to post reasonably low strikeout rates and solid walk rates, Torres turned in a 9.8% walk rate and a 20.5% strikeout rate for the Yankees last season. It wasn’t quite the 10.0% walk rate and 14.6% strikeout rate that it was in 672 plate appearances in 2023, but it was right in line with Torres’ career numbers (which include a 9.1% walk rate and a 20.3% strikeout rate).
As long as the reasonably high contact rates continue, Torres should be in a good spot post solid counting stats playing a key role in the Tigers lineup.
He should hit regularly in the top half of a Tigers lineup that will feature Riley Greene (.353 xwOBA, 13.4% barrel rate, 47.1% hard-hit rate, 23.1% chase rate, 11.0% walk rate, .445 xwOBAcon) and Kerry Carpenter (.379 xwOBA, .555 xSLG, 17.7% barrel rate, 46.4% hard-hit rate, .487 xwOBAcon) in key roles.
The presence of Greene and Carpenter (who didn’t hit against left-handed pitching much last season) offers Torres a solid floor from a fantasy standpoint. If his quality of contact numbers are anywhere close to what they were in years past, where he’s twice logged a barrel rate over 10.0% in his last four full seasons and hasn’t seen his xwOBA dip below the 53rd percentile league wide in any seasons from 2018 through 2023 (it was .362 in 2023, finishing in the 85th percentile), he could have league-winning upside.
He's off to a strong start in spring training, for what it’s worth, hitting .263 with a .423 on-base percentage, a 23.1% walk rate, a 19.2% strikeout rate, two home runs, a .438 wOBA and a 161 wRC+ in his first 26 plate appearances this spring.
Joey Bart (#296, 16 trade value).
Speaking of strong spring starts, Joey Bart is hitting .429 with a .480 on-base percentage, two home runs, a 12.0% walk rate, a 24.0% strikeout rate, a .500 wOBA and a 200 wRC+ in his first 25 plate appearances.
A couple caveats.
It’s a tiny sample size, for one.
For another, it’s also still spring training stats. Still, the fact that Bart has been successful in a small sample size is certainly a positive heading into the regular season. Much better than if he were struggling at the plate.
Speaking of struggling at the plate. Or, well, not. Not struggling at the plate was exactly what Bart did last season.
He quietly turned in a .265 average, a .337 on-base percentage, 13 home runs, a .330 xwOBA, a 9.4% barrel rate, a 121 wRC+ and a .408 xwOBAcon in 282 plate appearances for the Pirates last season.
At the moment, even with his strong spring coming on the heels of a quality 2024 season, Bart likely isn’t a starting fantasy catcher in standard-sized leagues. That’s partly due to the depth at the position, but also due to Endy Rodriguez’s presence on the roster.
Rodriguez, 25, has yet to see an extended look in the Majors other than a 204 plate appearance stint in 2023 (he missed significant time in 2024 while recovering from UCL surgery) and is enjoying a productive spring himself. The catcher is batting .368 with a .478 on-base percentage, a home run, a 17.4% walk rate, an 8.7% strikeout rate, a .211 ISO, a .466 wOBA and a 178 wRC+.
Again, a tiny sample size, but this doesn’t seem like a situation where Rodriguez barely plays to start the year, at least speculatively speaking.
For what it’s worth, Rodriguez is worth a look in deeper leagues with more than 15 teams as a potential starting option and is very much worth considering for a bench spot if you both have one available and are rebuilding in dynasty formats. The 25-year-old also has previous experience playing first base, second base and in the outfield.
Phil Maton (#468, 6 trade value).
Ryan Helsley was very good last season, pitching to a 2.04 ERA, a 2.41 FIP, a 2.3 fWAR, a 29.7% strikeout rate and an 8.6% walk rate in 65 appearances spanning 66.1 innings of work last season. He also finished in the 84th percentile or better in both hard-hit rate (33.9%, 84th percentile) and whiff rate (31.5%, 88th percentile).
However, Helsley also was the only Cardinals reliever with an fWAR over the 0.8 mark.
For reference, Ryan Fernandez (3.51 ERA, 3.35 FIP in 66.2 relief innings) was at 0.8. After Fernandez, no other Cardinals reliever finished with an fWAR north of the 0.4 mark.
So, reinforcements were certainly needed.
Enter Phil Maton, who just signed a one-year deal with the Cardinals.
The 31-year-old is coming off a 2024 season in which he pitched to a 3.66 ERA and a 4.26 FIP in 71 appearances spanning 64 innings for the Tampa Bay Rays and New York Mets last season. He posted a career-low 22.6% strikeout rate, and posted a somewhat high 9.1% walk rate, but also did well in terms of limiting damage.
Maton finished in the 65th percentile or better in barrel rate (7.0%, 65th percentile), ground ball rate (47.1%, 75th percentile) and hard-hit rate (88th percentile).
On paper, he immediately becomes St. Louis’ most interesting save stash option, should Helsley miss time or be traded. Of course, that latter scenario could theoretically open up close to a half season’s worth of save opportunities for Maton if the Cardinals struggle in the standings and trade veterans in July and if the team decides to go with him as their closer if Helsley is traded and also if Maton himself isn’t traded at that point in the event of a bunch of veteran getting dealt.
So yeah, that’s a pretty narrow pathway for Maton to get regular saves. But, Helsley accumulated 49 of the team’s 56 saves last season – no other reliever had more than two – and the team is reasonably short on established late-inning arms outside of their closer.
Phil Maton is a name to keep an eye on in the coming weeks and months.
The Gerrit Cole Injury Impact:
Quick aside, Gerrit Cole is obviously no longer in these rankings with the news that he’ll miss the season due to Tommy John surgery. If you’re interested in the potential impact that has on Cole’s dynasty trade value moving forward, click here:
For now, for redraft purposes, it looks like Will Warren is in a good spot to open the season in the rotation. If that’s the case, the 25-year-old starter could be worth a look as a late-round rotation option at the very end of drafts, or as an early-season waiver wire option.
Fantasy Baseball Dynasty Top 700 Rankings & Trade Value Version 2.08
Starting pitching injuries are unfortunately, part of the game. They also play a role in the calculus of how we evaluate pitchers where long-term dynasty value is concerned.
Beware the Open Roster Spot (Or lack thereof)
Oh and one more quick note, beware the open roster spot, or lack thereof rather, in trades.
While a two-for-one or even a three-for-one or four-for-two deal might line up from a trade value standpoint, the roster spots are worth considering. Essentially, if you’re having to cut someone, it turns into you giving up another player or players in addition to potentially the best player in the deal. It’s obviously a different story if you’re working with a flexible roster or open roster spots, but it adds another layer to deals that can potentially change the calculus of things considerably.
