Fantasy Baseball 2025 Mock Draft: Strategy and Cheatsheet for Opening Rounds

The 2025 MLB season will be here before you know it.

If you haven't carved out your fantasy baseball strategy yet, what's the holdup?

The Los Angeles Dodgers and Chicago Cubs will get things rolling at the Tokyo Series in less than a week. The rest of the baseball world won't be too far behind.

Time is of the essence as it pertains to pre-draft research, so let's not waste any more of it. To help simplify your selection-making, we're running through a 10-team, three-round mock draft, laying out our points league rankings and finishing with some strategic tips to maximize your early round picks.

3-Round, 10-Team Mock Draft

Round 1

1. Shohei Ohtani, SP/DH, LAD

2. Tarik Skubal, SP, DET

3. Bobby Witt Jr., SS, KC

4. Aaron Judge, OF, NYY

5. Elly De La Cruz, SS, CIN

6. José Ramírez, 3B, CLE

7. Mookie Betts, SS/OF, LAD

8. Juan Soto, OF, NYM

9. Gunnar Henderson, SS, BAL

10. Kyle Tucker, OF, CHI

Round 2

11. Vladimir Guerrero Jr., 1B, TOR

12. Corbin Carroll, OF, ARI

13. Paul Skenes, SP, PIT

14. Francisco Lindor, SS, NYM

15. Fernando Tatís Jr., OF, SD

16. Yordan Alvarez, OF, HOU

17. Julio Rodríguez, OF, SEA

18. Jackson Chourio, OF, MIL

19. Ronald Acuña Jr., OF, ATL

20. Zack Wheeler, SP, PHI

Round 3

21. Jarren Duran, OF, BOS

22. Chris Sale, SP, ATL

23. Bryce Harper, 1B, PHI

24. Jazz Chisholm Jr., 3B/OF, NYY

25. Freddie Freeman, 1B, LAD

26. Trea Turner, SS, PHI

27. Matt Olson, 1B, ATL

28. Ketel Marte, 2B, ARI

29. Kyle Schwarber, OF, PHI

30. Manny Machado, 3B, SD

Points League Rankings

Mike Carlson/MLB Photos via Getty Images

Top 30

1. Shohei Ohtani, SP/DH, LAD

2. Bobby Witt Jr., SS, KC

3. Aaron Judge, OF, NYY

4. José Ramírez, 3B, CLE

5. Elly De La Cruz, SS, CIN

6. Juan Soto, OF, NYM

7. Kyle Tucker, OF, CHI

8. Mookie Betts, SS/OF, LAD

9. Gunnar Henderson, SS, BAL

10. Francisco Lindor, SS, NYM

11. Vladimir Guerrero Jr., 1B, TOR

12. Fernando Tatís Jr., OF, SD

13. Corbin Carroll, OF, ARI

14. Tarik Skubal, SP, DET

15. Paul Skenes, SP, PIT

16. Yordan Alvarez, OF, HOU

17. Julio Rodríguez, OF, SEA

18. Jackson Chourio, OF, MIL

19. Ronald Acuña Jr., OF, ATL

20. Zack Wheeler, SP, PHI

21. Bryce Harper, 1B, PHI

22. Freddie Freeman, 1B, LAD

23. Ketel Marte, 2B, ARI

24. Trea Turner, SS, PHI

25. Chris Sale, SP, ATL

26. Jazz Chisholm Jr., 3B/OF, NYY

27. Rafael Devers, 3B, BOS

28. Jarren Duran, OF, BOS

29. Jackson Merrill, OF, SD

30. Manny Machado, 3B, SD

Early Round Strategies

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Prioritize safety over upside.

The aim for every fantasy manager is to add players who can overperform their draft cost, thus increasing the overall value of your club. To do that, you'll have to take some swings on upside, but the time to do it is not at the start of your draft.

Here, you need to land legitimate difference-makers, since most everyone else will be building their foundation here, too. Want to bet on a bounce-back season, wager on an injury risk or pin your hopes to the next ascending prospect? Don't squander an early pick on that big of a gamble. Swinging and missing on one of your first draft picks could potentially spoil your season before it even gets started.

Balance your roster.

Unless you're planning on punting a particular category, you'll be aiming to field a team that is good-to-great across the board. Get that process started early, as those first few selections should do the heaviest lifting for your production.

In a perfect world, you'd have a lineup loaded with five-tool players, but in reality, there aren't nearly enough of them to go around. So, when building the base of your team, try not to overpower specific areas and instead focus on covering weaknesses. If you neglect certain categories in the early rounds, you might wind up chasing them the rest of the draft and perhaps doing so with specialists who will hurt (or at least not help) you in other areas.

Take the values as they come.

While you can (and should) take a plan into your draft, remember you're drafting against people—not ranking lists or average draft positions. There will almost certainly be some deviations from the norm, and when those start to happen, be ready to pounce on the values they create.

Even if a player isn't an obvious fit for your build, don't ignore an obvious bargain. Adding a first-round talent in the middle of the second round is always a wise move. If it requires some roster-specific reaches later in the draft, this won't hurt as much as the early values will help.