Fantasy Baseball Draft Strategy: Early, Middle & Late Rounds (2025)

Fantasy baseball drafts can be an enigma to even the most experienced managers. They sometimes have close to 30 rounds, and it is easy to get lost after the top players fall off the board. Below, you will find a broad draft strategy applicable to all fantasy baseball league formats.

Early, Middle & Late Round Fantasy Baseball Draft Strategies

The Start

The key to the beginning of the draft is to be prepared. Be ready for your favorite player to get sniped right before your turn. You will be frustrated. You will want to make impulsive decisions. Don’t.

First, familiarize yourself with the average draft position (ADP) of players. Note players who interest you and watch where they are projected to be drafted. Keep in mind that the ADP of players is 1). Always shifting and; 2). An average of all fantasy leagues and can not predict outliers like your Cubs fan league-mate drafting Kyle Tucker first overall.

After you glance at fantasy baseball ADP, I recommend creating a ranking of enough players to fill the first two rounds of your draft. This list will be 20 players in 10-player leagues and 24 players in 12-player leagues. Use this ranking to target the best players available in the first two rounds of the draft. It is a good idea to avoid pitchers in these first rounds.

Since fantasy baseball lineups are so big your first picks do not matter as much as they do in fantasy football leagues. You do not have to shoot for the stars. Your first picks will ideally be reliable players who can serve as the foundation of your lineup, such as Juan Soto or Francisco Lindor — proven and healthy commodities. Go through the first rounds of the draft collecting consistently good players to anchor your team. Place a special focus on positional scarcity, such as outfielders in leagues with five outfielders. This is not the time to find upside. There will be plenty of upside later in the draft.

I recommend drafting a lot of consistent hitters during these early rounds and perhaps an ace pitcher or two.

The Middle

Some would call the middle of the draft the boring section. The middle is where you ensure you have an operational lineup for Opening Day.

The very early middle draft is where I recommend taking more hitters. The well-known superstars will be long gone by now, but there is plenty of value left. Try to snag some hitters who fly under the radar after the early rounds close.

The mid-to-late middle draft is the time to target starting pitchers. Select starter after starter. Hopefully, you already snagged a starting pitcher or two as anchors earlier. Now you can grab solid (but not great) pitchers to fill the ranks. However, if a tantalizing hitter falls through the cracks, do not be afraid to draft him instead of a pitcher. Try to draft about two starting pitchers short of how many starters your team needs (around seven if there are nine total)

Waiting to draft pitchers is key. Every season, elite pitchers emerge who were available on most waivers like Paul Skenes and Garrett Crochet in 2024. Drafting a handful of starters in the middle draft allows a team to compete with a rotation while also providing the option to drop these pitchers for promising waiver claims. Fantasy managers should draft with the future in mind.

Be flexible throughout the middle of the draft to make sure you exit the rounds with a well-rounded team ready to compete. Try to target starters in the middle of the draft, but be open to talented players who slip past their fantasy ADP.

The End

Teams are made and broken in the final rounds of the draft. While your league-mates wonder who these random late-round players are, you need to be ready to draft sleepers. Research beforehand to know who your top sleepers are. The end of the draft is where you fill your last few starting spots and your bench with high-upside talent.

Targeting upside might be banking on a veteran like Paul Goldschmidt to have a bounce-back year or a youngster like Jackson Jobe to take off. The worst-case scenario for these draft picks is dropping them for someone equally as promising on the waiver wire. Take chances during the late rounds. They might just pay off.

At the end of the draft, I also recommend targeting relievers. This facet of the strategy is format-dependent, and a good closer should be drafted earlier in categories where closers mean a lot. Because closers are extremely volatile year-to-year, I recommend waiting until late to draft decent closers with the expectation of replacing them on waivers. Just like there are elite pitchers who emerge from waivers every season, valuable closers come out of nowhere on waivers in the early season.

Use the end of your draft for upside, relievers and to round out your roster.

Conclusion

Following this strategy should set your team up for day one success, but remember the season is not won overnight. Even if a draft goes perfectly, no fantasy manager begins the season with an All-Star team across the board. Be ready to watch the waiver wire and make trades using our fantasy baseball trade analyzer throughout the season to fill holes in your roster and compensate for injuries.

Good luck this season.