Fantasy Baseball Draft Strategy: Later 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.

Fantasy Baseball Draft Strategies

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.