Best Ball fantasy baseball offers a fresh take on traditional fantasy sports by eliminating in-season lineup management and shifting the focus entirely to mastering the draft.

Your team’s performance is automatically optimized each week, making the draft the single most important event of your season. Here is how to succeed in Best Ball for 2026.

What Is Best Ball Fantasy Baseball?

Best Ball is a hands-off fantasy baseball format where you draft your team at the start of the season and do not make any lineup changes throughout the year.

Instead of weekly start-sit decisions, the system automatically chooses your best-performing players based on their stats. No more worrying about waivers or trades. Your team is optimized automatically every single week.

Drafting Your Team

Roster Size: Best Ball leagues typically feature strictly limited rosters (usually 20 rounds) with no waivers.

Position Requirements: You will still have standard position requirements. On popular platforms like Underdog Fantasy, the active lineup consists of:

3 Infielders (IF)

3 Outfielders (OF)

3 Pitchers (P)

Draft Style: Drafts are conducted in a snake format or slow-draft style. Since there are no waivers, drafting for depth and upside is essential.

Roster Construction Strategy (The 20-Round Blueprint)

Since you cannot add players later, how you allocate your 20 roster spots is mathematically critical. You need enough depth to cover injuries but enough "firepower" to post massive scores.

Most successful Best Ball teams follow a variation of the "7-7-6" or "8-6-6" build.

1. Pitchers: Draft 7 to 8

Pitchers are the most volatile asset in fantasy. They get hurt more often and have "blowup" starts that score negative points.

The Strategy: You need volume. If you only draft 4 or 5 pitchers, one injury destroys your season. Drafting 7 or 8 ensures that even if two aces go down, you still have 5 or 6 arms throwing innings every week to fill your 3 active Pitcher spots.

2026 Tactic: Target "Stuff" over "Command." With the ABS Challenge System fully implemented in 2026, pitchers can no longer rely on framing to steal strikes. Target pitchers with elite velocity and strikeout rates. In Best Ball points leagues, high strikeout totals mask the damage of walks or earned runs.

2. Infielders: Draft 6 to 7

The Infield position is generally deep, but you need elite ceilings to win tournaments.

The Strategy: Secure 1 or 2 elite anchors early (like Bobby Witt or Elly De La Cruz), then wait. The middle rounds are full of "boring" veterans who play every day. In Best Ball, "boring" accumulation is valuable because it sets a safe floor for your team.

3. Outfielders: Draft 5 to 6

Outfield drops off faster than any other position (the "Outfield Cliff").

The Strategy: Draft Outfielders EARLY. If you wait until Round 10 to draft your first OF, you are left with platoon players who might not play every day. You want 3 outfielders who are locked into everyday roles by round 7.

Fantasy Baseball Best Ball Draft Strategy (2026 Update)

The unique nature of Best Ball combined with the specific variables of the 2026 season requires a tailored strategy.

1. Embrace Volatility (The "Boom/Bust" Principle) In a standard league, a player who strikes out 200 times is frustrating. In Best Ball, that player is valuable if they also hit 40 home runs. Why? Because in the weeks they go cold, the system automatically benches them for a reserve player who performed better.

Target: "Streak" hitters. A player like Oneil Cruz is more valuable in Best Ball than a steady contact hitter like Luis Arraez.

2. The Sacramento "Super Stack" With the Athletics playing their second season in Sutter Health Park, we know it plays like an offensive launchpad (Runs Factor 117 in 2025).

Target: Stack hitters from the A's and their AL West rivals. Having 3 or 4 players from a game in Sacramento increases your odds of catching a massive "boom" week where the teams combine for 20 runs.

3. The Kauffman Stadium Upgrade The Kansas City Royals moved their fences in for the 2026 season.

Target: Historically, Kauffman Stadium suppressed home runs. The new dimensions make Royals power hitters like Vinnie Pasquantino and Salvador Perez undervalued assets. Draft them with confidence knowing their "deep fly outs" from previous years will now be home runs.

Best Practices

ADP Awareness: Keep an eye on Average Draft Position (ADP) but do not be rigid. In Best Ball, you need to construct a roster that correlates. If you draft Bobby Witt, reach a round early for his teammate Vinnie Pasquantino to capture the correlation of those new stadium dimensions.

Schedule Awareness: In daily Best Ball formats, knowing who plays 7 games in a week versus 5 games is critical. Volume drives points.

Diversify Your Drafts: If you enter multiple leagues, mix up your exposure. If you go heavy on A's hitters in one draft, try a different stack (like the Phillies or Braves) in the next.

By leveraging these roster construction rules and understanding the nuances of the 2026 season variables, you can set yourself up for a successful Best Ball campaign.