Fantasy Baseball Categories League Primer & Draft Advice (2026)

With fantasy football in the rearview mirror, it’s time to set our sights on the fantasy baseball season. There are three popular league styles in fantasy baseball:

Points
Head-to-head categories (H2H)
Rotisserie categories (roto)

Today, let’s focus on category leagues and the key differences you need to know as you head into your fantasy baseball drafts.

Fantasy Baseball Categories League Primer

League Setup

Knowing the ins and outs of your league’s settings is vital to being an efficient fantasy manager. Rosters, scoring, playoffs and even the free agent process can change from league to league and alter your draft strategy.

Rosters

Traditional roto leagues have larger rosters, including an extra catcher, middle infielder, corner infielder, two outfielders and two Flex spots, over a standard MLB lineup. Head-to-head category leagues usually have larger rosters than points leagues, but smaller than roto leagues.

Traditional roto leagues really drive up the value of catchers, specifically. In a league where every team is starting two, it helps to have a difference-maker at a historically weak offensive position. Head-to-head leagues generally devalue players with injury history as fantasy managers can’t afford to miss a month or so from a top player.

Scoring

Category leagues are going to be similar in scoring, but can be altered slightly. The traditional categories:

Runs
Home Runs
RBI
Stolen Bases
Batting Average
Wins
ERA
WHIP
Strikeouts
Saves

In roto leagues, it is very tough to stray from a balanced approach. In order for a team to win a roto league while punting a category, they would need to place first or second in nearly every other category. That’s hard enough to do when you’re trying your best to win every category.

However, in head-to-head leagues, punting a category is standard practice. When you are only playing one week at a time, you need to assess your opponent’s strengths and weaknesses, and sometimes giving up a category to chase others can pay off.

Head-to-head category leagues are also unique in the way matchups are recorded. The traditional way is to award the winner of each matchup a win and the loser a loss, regardless of categories won. A team that won seven categories and lost three would be 1-0, the same as a team that won their matchup by one category.

A newer and, in my opinion, better way is to record each category as a win or a loss. The winning team would be 7-3 and the losing team 3-7. This keeps teams competitive longer and gives them an easier path to dig themselves out of an early hole.

Postseason

Roto leagues are unique in that they don’t have a fantasy playoffs. They run up until the end of the season with all the stats accumulating.

Head-to-head leagues bring the matchups and competitiveness of fantasy football to the baseball world. Using your FAAB budget and waiver wire claims wisely can be the difference between winning and losing a matchup in the playoffs. Of course, you have to make the playoffs first, but getting an edge on your opponent on the fantasy baseball waiver wire can be huge. Riding the hot hand at the end of the season has won many people fantasy championships.

Draft Advice

Some players are category league standouts compared to where they are valued in points leagues. Points leagues put an emphasis on players with good on-base percentages (OBP) and pitchers with lots of innings. Category leagues put the value on surface-level stats.

Hitters like Elly De La Cruz, Julio Rodriguez, James Wood, CJ Abrams and Oneil Cruz all get a solid boost in category leagues. The common ground with these players is pretty obvious: Low OBP. But the categorical upside is elite.

Over the past two years, De La Cruz has been an elite source of runs and steals, averaging 103 and 52, respectively. Rodriguez has averaged 91 runs, 26 homers, 81 RBI and 27 steals since 2024. Abrams, Wood,and Cruz haven’t been at the same elite level, but 80+ runs, 20+ home runs, 70+ RBI and 20+ steals are on the table with these talents.

Closers are often pushed up in category drafts. Saves are 10% of the scoring, so it becomes imperative to get someone you can count on who won’t hurt you in the other categories. Edwin Diaz, Andres Munoz and Mason Miller are all being drafted in the top 50 players of category leagues.