Fantasy baseball 2023 dynasty rankings: Top 400, from Shohei Ohtani to Jarlin Susana

This might disappoint some of you, but I was never the President of the United States (fictional or non-fictional), so this might take some getting used to. I have, though, hosted my own fantasy baseball show and fantasy prospect show “Prospect One” for longer than two presidential terms. My name is Chris Welsh (not the former Reds pitcher, though that confusion has happened more than once), and I am very happy to present to you fantasy baseball dynasty ranks for 2023.

Let’s talk about the ranks first. My ranks are based on category leagues. My ranks also reflect more of a three-year window approach. You will see a mixture of high-end prospects who are close, or at the majors, at the top. Younger, still proving it bats/arms are given some benefit of the doubt as well. The young bats/arms really are the most difficult for everyone to process the value when looking at a dynasty or a keeper league. Now throw in players who are three years, or even maybe a little further, into the mix. Now things get tricky. Using my three-year window as a baseline, you could imagine those types of prospects would be of little value, but I disagree. The value of having the best of the best in a dynasty is huge. Not just major leagues, but prospects too.

Let’s use Druw Jones as an example. Jones is coming off not only being a Top 2 pick in the MLB draft, but also as the No. 1 overall pick in FYPD (first year player draft) drafts. What is the wrinkle? He hurt his shoulder, had surgery and missed his pro debut. Let’s build out the three-year scenario. Best case scenario, the teenage phenom reaches High-A in 2023. In 2024, let’s say he does half a year at High-A and half at Double-A. Now, in 2025 (Year 3) he starts at double-A, moves to Triple-A, and Arizona sees the incentive to wait for him to come in September so he is rookie eligible to start 2026. That didn’t help us a whole bunch during that three-year period, but during that time, if he became the No. 1 prospect in baseball, we already know that value at any point is easily worth a Top-50 asset in dynasty, and maybe a ton more. If we don’t do the trade, we might have the top rookie in 2026 and maybe a first round pick.

This takes us to another very important point. Win now versus build for the future. I personally always lean to win now. The reasons are pretty easy:

1.) C.R.E.A.M. (Cash Rules Everything Around Me) dolla dolla bills ya’ll.

2.) Maybe the league just folds after a few years.

3.) If you keep your ears to the ground, you can replenish a minor league system with your FYPD pretty well, and if you use an open universe pick-up system, you can jump on hot performing players at any time.

However you approach dynasty, here is a piece of advice, and why I don’t have a Top 600 or Top 800 list. When you realize who you are in your draft, win-now, all-rookies, under-28 etc… move your attention to those type of lists. If you are all about that win now, maybe focus on a re-draft list, or as I tell many with my own list, once you get to 100-150 worth of players, move over to a redraft list. The same applies to going young or maybe all-prospects. Maybe put focus on the dynasty list around 100-150, and then move to a prospect based list (maybe my personal Top 500 prospect list). I am about to give you 400 names for a dynasty, but once you get past 250-300, you are just balancing values and not need, at least when it comes to ranking. That’s just my process though.

Here is a disclaimer for you all as you scroll through my dynasty ranks. I do not hate your team. I do not hate your favorite player. I do not hate your favorite prospect. I did not personally attempt to attack you with the numerical rank of the players. My list is ever evolving. In fact, I do a monthly update on my personal Patreon (inthisleague.com). Pretty much from the moment I say I am finished with an update, I then want to start tinkering and messing with it again. This is my biggest pre season update to this point, but there may still be moves to make as we move closer to the season, and camps begin to start up. Hopefully my ranks can provide you with some blue prints in your draft construction but, at the end of the day, that championship victory will be all you, my friends.

Final Note: Shohei Ohtani is 1-1 assuming you play in a daily moves league where he is one person (insane that in 2023 he is still two people some places). I don’t care about his age at 1-1 versus anyone else. If you get that hitter and that pitcher version every week, he’s a cheat code. If you are in a weekly moves league, Ohtani would move to No. 7. If you are looking at two different Ohtani’s, the hitter version would sit between 10-16, and the pitcher version would probably sit between 50-70.

Have a question about dynasty ranks? You can find me on twitter @isitthewelsh

(Top photo: Mary DeCicco/MLB Photos via Getty Images)