Here’s the first offseason edition of my top 300 for 2027. I’m just now getting started on my player projections, so this is a preliminary list that will change a great deal in the coming months.

Included are a pair of Japanese players expected to be posted this winter, third baseman/outfielder Teruaki Sato and starting pitcher Kaima Taira. Both should check climb the list after officially joining teams. I still think there’s some reason for concern that the expected lockout could scare off some players looking to make the move to the U.S.

Free agents are listed without teams, and players whose contracts have options have asterisks next to their teams. Included in the rankings table is where I had each player listed in my mostly-for-fun 2027 rankings from the All-Star break.

2027 Fantasy Baseball Top 300 overall ranks

**Updated Oct. 19**

October 19 Notes

- My initial pass through here left me with 324 players for 300 spots. The near misses:

C: Moisés Ballesteros
1B: Ryan Mountcastle, Ralphy Velazquez
2B: Brett Baty, Pedro Ramírez
3B: Nolan Arenado, Christian Encarnacion-Strand, Joshua Kuroda-Grauer
SS: Carlos Correa, Andrés Giménez
OF: Kevin Alcantara, Heriberto Hernández, Heliot Ramos, Anthony Santander, Ryan Waldschmidt
DH: Jorge Polanco
SP: Shane Baz, Robert Gasser, Emerson Hancock, Casey Mize, Spencer Strider, Justin Wrobleski
RP: Ben Joyce, Abner Uribe

- I’m not nearly 100 percent sold on this, but Elly De La Cruz takes the top spot for now. His average bat speed went from 74.5 mph in 2025 to 75.2 mph in the first half of 2026 to 77.3 mph in the second half. His average exit velocity jumped from 91.0 mph in 2025 to 94.7 mph this year. In September alone, he averaged 99.5 mph off the bat with nine homers and 17 barrels. I think he’s all set to make a run at 40 homers at age 25, and if that happens, maybe he’ll want 40 steals, too. I would like the Reds get him a little more help in the lineup, but we’ll see.

- I was already going to have Vladimir Guerrero Jr. higher than most (maybe all), but the revelation that he underwent LASIK surgery after the season got him bumped back up some here. It seems like another piece of the puzzle as to why the results weren’t there for him this year even though his bat speed held steady and he finished with his best ever strikeout rate. His back likely had something to do with it, too.

- Here’s a fun one: of all the Rockies with 200 plate appearances this season, who had the highest xwOBA? It wasn’t Hunter Goodman (.321) or Jake McCarthy (.321) or TJ Rumfield (.333). At .338, it was Edouard Julien, who the team gave up on in August and who then passed through waivers unclaimed. Which was fine. I’m not going to try to sell anyone on Julien. And I have decided for now, at least, to go with what I assume will be the consensus and put Goodman as my No. 1 catcher. I don’t imagine I’ll be drafting him anywhere, though. Goodman’s 41 homers this year came with a 30 percent strikeout rate that was considerably worse than last year. He had only 50 barrels, which was the same number from when he hit 31 homers in 2025. He finished the year tied for sixth in the majors in homers, tied for 26th in barrels and tied for 89th in hard-hit balls. I don’t doubt that Goodman will remain a valuable run producer, but his exit velocity numbers aren’t elite, the Rockies are probably going to have a poor offense yet again and the team might follow through on trading him next time around.

- The Athletics’ Henry Bolte checks in at 76th for now. I’m scared of what kind of projection I might give him. We’re talking about an outfielder with 95th percentile bat speed and 100th percentile sprint speed who will play one more season in a ballpark that’s basically Coors Field without the road-game hangover effect. He’s going to strike out too much and hit far too many grounders, but he could make a run at 30/30 anyway.

- Jac Caglianone is up to 87th here after placing 137th at the All-Star break. I imagine many will have him higher still in the spring, and maybe I will, too. However, I’d definitely feel better about him as a full-time first baseman or DH than I do as a right fielder. He missed bits of time with shoulder, groin, ankle and elbow injuries during the final four months of the season, and at least three of the four problems were the result of outfield mishaps.

- I’m putting Grant Taylor at No. 176 for now. He’d be higher if I assumed the White Sox would leave him in the pen, but I hope they’ll try him as a starter. He’ll probably be in the 210-230 range if that happens. I assume he’d have considerable mixed-league value as a starter early on, but he would be an injury risk, and, because of workload concerns, he probably would wind up getting moved back to the pen at some point if he remained healthy.

- I was initially thinking Royce Lewis (No. 265) wouldn’t make the cut after a rough year that included a spike in his strikeout rate, and I’m still not sure the Twins shouldn’t move on. However, his bat speed was back up to where it was in 2023, putting him in the 86th percentile of major leaguers, and he did wind up going 16-for-17 stealing bases. That he started swinging harder almost certainly did take a toll on his strikeout rate, but he was somewhat unlucky to wind up with just 15 homers on 36 barrels.