The second base position has vacillated between being shallow and deep over the last few fantasy baseball seasons. This season, the position is fairly deep, with some fun, interesting players spread throughout average draft position (ADP), but it lacks top-end talent.
The strategy with drafting second basemen is to wait unless there is a player who is in the top tiers that stands out to you as undervalued. With the depth at the position, there is no reason to pay up for the more expensive talent.
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Fantasy Baseball Second Basemen Primer: Rankings & Tiers
Here are my second basemen tiers for 2026.
Tier 1 & Notes
Jazz Chisholm Jr. is a dynamic player when he is on the field. In just 531 plate appearances last season, he went 31/31. In the season before that, he went 24/40. The issue is that his health seems to be recurring. While he has managed over 500 plate appearances the past two seasons, there is always the risk that he misses half a season or more, which makes him a high-upside gamble.
Ketel Marte is another player you have to pencil in for some time missed, but when he is on the field, he is an elite bat in a very good lineup. He has reached 600+ plate appearances only twice in his 11-year career, but he consistently gets to 550+ plate appearances. Marte offers power and average at a position that is hard to find, which is important given how terrible the position is at the top.
Tier 2 & Notes
Brice Turang had a breakout season in 2025, hitting .288/.359/.435 with 18 home runs and 24 stolen bases. He has a great hit tool, but the power is middling, at best. Home runs will likely come down a little, but there is still room for growth in stolen bases and batting average. Turang will hit high up in a great lineup.
Nico Hoerner was one of the most underrated players in drafts last season because he was coming off surgery in the offseason. He rewarded believers, hitting seven home runs and stealing 29 bases with a .297/.345/.394 triple slash line. Hoerner has very little power, but he can be a massive asset in stolen bases, runs and average.
Tier 3 & Notes
- Matt McLain (2B – CIN)
- Jose Altuve (2B, OF, DH – HOU)
- Luke Keaschall (2B – MIN)
- Ceddanne Rafaela (2B, OF – BOS)
- Ozzie Albies (2B – ATL)
- Jackson Holliday (2B, SS – BAL)
Matt McLain had a disappointing 2025, hitting .220/.300/.343 with 15 home runs and 18 stolen bases a year after missing the entire season with injury. However, he is having a massive spring, hitting .545/.592/1.045 with six home runs and two stolen bases in 49 plate appearances. Obviously, there is some overreacting going on, but I am excited that he appears to be looking like the player he was when he broke out in 2023.
Jose Altuve probably won’t be this low on most people’s lists, but I have some concerns. Last year, we saw his average exit velocity at its lowest mark of his career, and his hard-hit rate was under 31%. His stolen bases were the lowest we have seen in five years, and if those dry up, he just isn’t super enticing anymore. I think we are at the beginning of the end for Altuve, and I am jumping off before it’s too late.
Luke Keaschall is a very interesting former prospect who has a good hit tool and some speed to go with it. However, people are overrating his small sample in the Majors and in spring training. He doesn’t profile for much more than low double-digit homers. While the speed is good, it’s not great. If second base were deeper, he’d probably be going later.
Ceddanne Rafaela is a difficult player to rank. The Red Sox love him, and he is amazing defensively, so you know he is going to play, but his underlying skills are troubling. He swings outside the zone the fifth-most in baseball and is overly aggressive at the plate. This will lead to long slumps and hot streaks, which make him difficult to roster at times, but he has power and speed. When he is hot, he is fun to have on your team.
Ozzie Albies is another difficult player to rank. He has missed time every other year and has not exhibited the power he did earlier in his career. Albies will be a decent accumulator when he is on the field, but it’s hard to believe he will turn back into the stud we saw in 2023.
Jackson Holliday is a former top prospect and is still just 22 years old. He recorded a 17/17 campaign last season. Holliday doesn’t hit the ball extremely hard, and while he will grow into more power at some point, I don’t believe it will be this year. He is likely to miss Opening Day after breaking his hamate bone early in spring training, but he should be back in early April.
Tier 4 & Notes
- Brandon Lowe (2B – PIT)
- Xavier Edwards (2B, SS – MIA)
- Bryson Stott (2B, SS – PHI)
- Brett Baty (2B, 3B – NYM)
- Colt Keith (1B, 2B, 3B, DH – DET)
- Luis Garcia Jr. (2B – WSH)
- Marcus Semien (2B – NYM)
- Jorge Polanco (2B, 3B, DH – NYM)
Brandon Lowe moves from Tampa to Pittsburgh and should hit high up in their lineup. The Pirates won’t be as platoon-happy as the Rays were, but that may be a bad thing for Lowe, who is a career .219 hitter versus lefties. The park will also hurt him, as PNC Park is a tough place for power.
Xavier Edwards doesn’t have much power, but he hits high in the lineup and will steal a bunch of bases for the Marlins. He should hit for a pretty good average, which makes him a nice play for certain constructions later in the draft.
Brett Baty is a former top prospect who had a nice little breakout in 2025, hitting .254/.313/.435 with 18 home runs and eight stolen bases in 432 plate appearances. Baty is starting the year on the strong side of a platoon, but he showed last year he can hit lefties, and he could earn the opportunity to prove it in 2026 again. There is a lot of upside, and his fantasy baseball ADP is pretty tantalizing.
Colt Keith had a disappointing 2025, hitting just 13 home runs with a .256/.333/.413 triple slash line. There is more power and a better hit tool in the profile, but he is being kept in a platoon, and there won’t be a lot of chances for him to break out of that. There is some upside, but it’s becoming harder for him to unlock it.
Luis Garcia Jr. is moving to first base this year so he can pick up that eligibility during the season. He is a pretty good accumulator on an improving offense in a nice park, but the upside for more seems unlikely.
Marcus Semien was a volume monster for years until he finally got hurt and missed time last season. He is heading to the Mets, where he will be in a nice lineup and in a better park, but he is still just an accumulator who needs to stay on the field to be viable in fantasy.
Tier 5 & Notes
- Jeff McNeil (2B, OF – ATH)
- Otto Lopez (2B, SS – MIA)
- Gleyber Torres (2B – DET)
- Willi Castro (2B, 2B, OF – COL)
- Brendan Donovan (2B, SS, OF – SEA)
- Brooks Lee (2B, 3B, SS – MIN)
- Andres Gimenez (2B, SS – TOR)
- Chase Meidroth (2B, 3B, SS – CWS)
- Jose Caballero (2B, 3B, SS, OF – NYY)
- Jonathan India (2B, 3B, OF, DH – KC)
- Nolan Gorman (2B, 3B, DH – STL)
- Tommy Edman (2B, 3B, OF – LAD)
Jeff McNeil was traded to the A’s, which is a massive park upgrade, and his role is much safer now. However, the park upgrade can only help so much as he is not super powerful, and his days of winning batting titles are likely over. McNeil will be a nice accumulator who should return more value than he has in the last couple of seasons, though.
Willi Castro will be a full-time player now that he is out of Minnesota and in Colorado. He doesn’t have much power, but he can hit for average and steal a bunch of bases. Castro has multi-positional eligibility, which is always valuable.
Chase Meidroth doesn’t have much power, but he is a fantastic on-base player with some speed that will lead off for the White Sox.
Jose Caballero will play regularly for the Yankees until Anthony Volpe returns from offseason surgery. He can steal 50+ bases if he gets enough playing time, and he is eligible to play almost everywhere this season.
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