2026 Fantasy Baseball 3B Strategy: Studs, sleepers and draft plan

We may have a problem here.

There are times when third base is loaded. It tends to invite larger gentlemen with stronger arms, after all, and with that comes powerful swings, generally speaking. But in those times when defense is more in vogue, third base will end up losing some of its best bats to other, less premium positions.

That’s the state the position is in now, and judging by the third base picture in the minors, it’s not improving anytime soon. Surely, some of the current shortstop class will end up migrating, for the same reason some third basemen migrate to first base, but when sizing up the true third basemen in the minors right now, only one stands out: Jacob Reimer. And he’s blocked about three times over for the Mets.

• Position Strategies: C | 1B | 2B | 3B | SS | OF | SP | RP
• Position Tiers: C | 1B | 2B | 3B | SS | OF | SP | RP

So no help is on the horizon, but to be totally fair, third base isn’t devoid of star power. When we get to The Studs, you’ll see that they run deeper than at most other infield positions. The problem is the precipitous drop-off that follows. Third base is the position where, no matter the size of the league, someone isn’t going to be happy with who he drafts there.

And the deeper the league, the worse it is. Unlike at, say, second base, where some of the most interesting options only matter for deeper leagues, third base just goes dark. Once the attractive options are gone, limited though they are, all that’s left to do is cling to whatever at-bats you can find.

The state of the position for 2026, then, is one of urgency. You should be game planning for third base because the penalty for going soft there is compounded by the reward for going hard. Some in your league will have a good third baseman. Some won’t, and there won’t be many gradients in between. That gap between the haves and have-nots may be what decides championships in 2026.

Marking the line between the haves and have-nots is easy, but the haves then have to deliver on it. And not everyone here is a lock to do so. Jazz Chisholm is a known injury risk, not to mention even more of a standout at second base, where he’s perhaps more likely to be drafted. Manny Machado is now 33 and in a state of gradual decline. Austin Riley is coming off back-to-back disappointing, injury-plagued years. Eugenio Suarez just hit .189 with a .682 OPS in his second half with the Mariners.

Even the first- and second-round options — Jose Ramirez and Junior Caminero, respectively — aren’t entirely worry-free. At 33, Ramirez is the second-oldest of the consensus first-rounders (behind Aaron Judge) and could theoretically begin to show it. Meanwhile, some have raised concerns about Caminero’s return to Tropicana Field, noting that he hit about 100 points higher at the Rays‘ temporary home than on the road last year. To me, though, both of those concerns would fall into the “borrowing trouble” category rather than raising legitimate red flags. If they concern you, then you’re really not going to like what follows, and I’ve taken to prioritizing Ramirez and Caminero in their respective rounds for that reason, recently moving Ramirez ahead of Juan Soto in my rankings and Caminero ahead of Nick Kurtz.

Among the others listed here, I’m most drawn to Riley and Suarez, who are both coming at a discount relative to my expectations. Riley is still in his prime at 28, has continued to deliver the same premium exit velocities, and had three consecutive MVP-caliber seasons prior to the last two, both of which were marred by injury. Suarez, meanwhile, just seems like he can’t hit at T-Mobile Park, a venue known to create sight problems for certain hitters. He hit .280 with a .921 OPS in his 24 road games with the Mariners and hit nearly 50 homers overall. His signing with the Reds should have relieved whatever concerns existed, but his draft stock remains suppressed.

Lesser, but potentially viable, options: Alec Bohm, PHI; Caleb Durbin, BOS

These players are … fine, but they’re clearly a step back from the previous group in terms of upside. And they won’t last long, to get back to my original point about third base. Some might balk at me putting Alex Bregman here, given that his ADP is higher than Suarez’s, but if you haven’t heard, he’s a bust pick for me. I just don’t think the way he comes about power is going to work at Wrigley Field, with its deep outfield corners and punishing winds. Others might object to me having Max Muncy here, given his presumptive platoon status, but I don’t think it’s going to be as strict as down the stretch last year, when the Dodgers were easing him back from injury. Still, I wouldn’t exactly be thrilled to draft him in a Rotisserie league. Both he and Bregman rate much better in Head-to-Head points.

So if we take out both the low and high endpoints that are controversial for one reason or another, we’re left with three names, all of whom spent a significant portion of 2025 on the IL and one of whom, Isaac Paredes, doesn’t even have a dedicated lineup spot at the moment. In theory, my favorite here is Paredes — I think he might be more Alex Bregman than Alex Bregman, even, with the way his extreme platoon tendencies play at Daikin Park — but if the Astros‘ remedy to their infield glut is to trade him to a team without such a shallow left field corner, well, he doesn’t belong in this group anymore. And if not, he’s scratching and clawing for every at-bat he can get.

Jordan Westburg still looks like a 30-homer bat if he could only stay healthy for a full season, but just as Bregman and Muncy lose something in 5×5 Rotisserie, Westburg takes a hit in Head-to-Head points thanks to his microscopic walk rate. In that format, I might actually prefer Matt Chapman, who’s somehow both the most stable and most flawed of this group.

Bohm only gets an honorable mention (as a “lesser, but potentially viable, option”) because no one is drafting him except under duress these days (241st overall), but I actually think he’s become underrated and could be described as the ultimate fallback option at this position. He was going 100 picks earlier last year, and all that actually changed for him in the interim was that he spent some time on the IL, lowering his totals. He still rates as a strong source of batting average and RBI and fares well in points leagues, too, because of his low strikeout rate. It’s a deeper play, but a promising one.

*minor-league stats
^foreign stats

I’ve filled out this category pretty well, but don’t be misled. We’ve seen enough of most of these guys to know that they probably stink. Sure, Nolan Gorman is promised a job now. Yeah, Jonathan India will be working with closer fences in Kansas City. True, Willi Castro has the benefit of Coors Field. But come on. If you’re staking your season on any one of them, you’ve already lost.

The two I can muster genuine enthusiasm for are Noelvi Marte and Kazuma Okamoto, but the problem for Marte is that he’s being drafted more like a sure thing than a sleeper. I could have gotten behind that when he was hitting .300 with an .856 OPS on Aug. 24, but did nobody see him hit .193 with a .549 OPS and a 33 percent strikeout rate over his final 29 games? We don’t really know who the 24-year-old is yet. You could say the same for the 29-year-old Okamoto, of course, but his track record in Japan speaks volumes. He actually had a higher wRC+ there than Aaron Judge had here last year. It was inflated by an injury-shortened season, but still. And while he doesn’t come as decorated as Munetaka Murakami, his contact skills are actually a strength rather than a debilitating weakness. I think it’s going to work out, and actually wouldn’t mind drafting Okamoto as my starter at third.

I know some still believe in Royce Lewis, but the past couple years have been so miserable for him, on top of the injury risk, that I can’t muster enthusiasm anymore. I have some affinity for Brett Baty still, particularly after he hit .308 with seven homers and an .866 OPS over the final two months, but unless the Mets give him the starting right field job (unlikely over prospect Carson Benge), he’s destined to split at-bats with Mark Vientos again. Jordan Lawlar might finally get his shot for the Diamondbacks, albeit in left field, but has struggled so mightily against everything but fastballs that I couldn’t treat him as anything more than a lottery ticket at this point.

*minor-league stats

I’d say there are more base-stealers here than usual, but the best are either drafted so early that you can’t really game plan for them (with Jose Ramirez, Jazz Chisholm, or Maikel Garcia falling into that category) or have major concerns about their playing time. You can see that this is another reason why Noelvi Marte is generating so much interest, though. The real game-changer would be Jordan Lawlar, who has a consistent track record of running in the minors and swiped last year’s 20 bases in just 63 minor league games, but we’re well acquainted with his struggles by now.