MLB: Dynasty Rankings Update

The Top 400 Dynasty Rankings were fully updated Monday!

First, I'd like to apologize for the brevity of this article. As always, I'd like to offer a brief reminder that these are loosely for OBP roto dynasty leagues where 30 catchers and 200-plus prospects are rostered.

The nature of the in-season updates to the dynasty rankings is that I spend around 20 hours working on them and then as soon as I publish them I start noticing more things I would change. For instance, I already regret putting Christian Yelich and Cristian Javier as high as I did, and a user correctly pointed out to me that the gap between Keibert Ruiz and Tyler Stephenson shouldn't be as big as I have it. If I went through the rankings once less than 24 hours after publishing them, I'd find plenty more things to change. The point is, these aren't perfect, but there is so much happening and changing with performance, health and role that perfection can't be the goal with an in-season update.

I like to compare dynasty rankings to projections — when done well, they are a very useful tool, but you should also use your own knowledge, research and preferences as part of the process for any roster-related decisions. 

The up/down arrows and "+" signs were added this time, so you can see the big movements of players who were already ranked and the 70 or so players who were added on this update.

There were dozens of players who just missed the cut, and chances are there's someone you think should be on there whom I wouldn't even argue about. Generally, think of anyone you think of as an omission as having value in the 300-400 range.

I absolutely love how much top-end hitting talent there is in the dynasty pool right now. I felt great about listing 26 hitters before the first pitcher. Those 26 hitters are all true dynasty building blocks — guys I would generally not listen to trade offers on unless another hitter in that range was coming back in the deal. It's also noteworthy that the top seven guys were all born in Latin America.

Bo Bichette (19) and Ozzie Albies (32) fell significantly compared to the preseason, in large part because of their mediocre on-base percentages relative to the other top guys. I like each guy a bit more in AVG leagues, but I have some serious buyer's remorse over selecting Albies in the first round of The Highlander.

It's odd to say about a set of dynasty rankings, but a rank I felt the most conviction about was Clay Holmes (112). He was my fifth-ranked reliever and while I have a decent amount of Holmes in redraft and dynasty, I wish I had him everywhere. Before the season I felt that his skills essentially mirrored those of Emmanuel Clase, but it wasn't clear if he was going to be second, third or fourth on the pecking order for saves in New York. Now that he's gotten the chance to close, there's no looking back. Aroldis Chapman could still get some saves if and when he's healthy, but Holmes is the Yankees' closer of the future and probably the best or second-best reliever in baseball (next to Josh Hader).

Two Prospects on the Rise

Ezequiel Duran (214), 3B/2B/SS, Rangers

My rank of Duran at 126 on the Top 400 Prospect Rankings was a bad rank, even though he did have an up arrow. I knew he needed to be bumped up, but I didn't dig deep enough on him. I did that necessary digging once he got the call and I had to decide on bid amounts in my NFBC leagues (got a couple shares) and AL LABR (I won him for $8 out of $100). There are a lot of statistical similarities to Duran and Christopher Morel, the surface stats and the hard-hit data were extremely similar and they were basically the same age and both made the jump from Double-A to the majors on rebuilding clubs. They are also both capable of playing several positions. Duran isn't the straight line runner Morel is, as he is a bit thicker and slightly less twitchy, but he's got a chance to hit for power and average as a rookie.

Jackson Chourio (259), OF, Brewers

It's been a crazy full-season debut so far for Chourio, who is now the top ranked player from his international signing class, barely ahead of Cristian Hernandez (that's a toss up for me). Not only is Chourio performing and showing off clear five-category upside, but he is the only teenager from that class who was sent to a full-season affiliate this spring. Others will undoubtedly get there this season after they master the complex leagues, but Chourio was the one who earned the chance to skip complex ball completely and go from the Dominican Summer League to Single-A.

Youth Movement in Pittsburgh

I'm generally fascinated to see which Pirates hitting prospects emerge as strong dynasty assets at the big-league level. Their system is so stacked that I forgot to add Jack Suwinski to the prospect rankings on the last update, but he enters the dynasty rankings at 392, in part just to make sure he's on your radar as he should have been a borderline top-100 prospect — I did feature him in the hard-hit article a few weeks ago and mentioned him on the episode of Rates + Barrels I was on last month. In addition to Suwinski, I'm also intrigued by Cal Mitchell (303), Tucupita Marcano (391) and Travis Swaggerty (unranked) among others, and I just hope they can find close to everyday playing time for all those guys. Also, Oneil Cruz (144) is heating up at Triple-A, so it should be a fun summer of prospecting in Pittsburgh.

What's Next

Now that the dynasty and prospect rankings updates are complete, I will be spending as much time as possible over the next six weeks prepping for the MLB Draft, which starts July 17. I will once again be providing a draft board with notes on all the top players and I will be pre-writing the analysis for the top 50-75 players. I have some 80-grade guests lined up to come on the podcast and break down the draft in the coming weeks, but I'll be mostly writing advance work, so it might be a while before my next article.

I know I didn't touch on nearly enough guys in this article, but feel free to ask any dynasty/prospect questions in the comments or on Twitter.