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          Fantasy baseball dynasty rankings: Top 300 players for 2023 and beyond

          Fantasy managers have a lot to be impressed by with Julio Rodriguez. Steph Chambers/Getty Images
          • Tristan H. Cockcroft
          Jul 12, 2023, 04:00 PM

          It's trading season in fantasy baseball, as the stretch run is just around the corner.

          In dynasty and keeper leagues, it's a critical time for judging your team's competitive state for the remainder of this year. If you're not a legitimate contender for the title, it's a smart time to make trades to strengthen your roster for a run in 2024. Remember, the longer you wait, the more flooded the trade market might become with other teams also throwing in the towel, so take a look at your roster today and make your call: "All-in" or "turn the page"?

          To help you on your way with honing your roster, either for a championship run or a rebuild, this column should help your player valuations. In this space, I rank players for the next five-plus seasons, serving as an effective price guide for dynasty and keeper leagues.

          The rankings formula

          This midseason Dynasty 300 update uses the following player valuation formula:

          • Rest-of-2023 performance: 10%.

          • 2024 performance: 22.5%.

          • 2025 performance: 22.5%.

          • 2026 performance: 22.5%.

          • 2027 performance and beyond: 22.5%.

          The rationale behind these weights is to provide a long-term projection of player values, in order to help fantasy managers in dynasty/keeper leagues who are weighing trades or trying to decide on end-of-season keepers. For those in redraft/single-year leagues, my points-league rankings for the remainder of 2023 alone can be found here. This page, however, is for fantasy managers who need to forecast deep into the future.

          Several factors can influence these values. Here are some of the other things to consider:

          • Your league's format itself: Is your dynasty league a traditional roto or points-based league? Does it use ESPN's standard settings, or more traditional or even deeper roster settings? These rankings take a more points-based lean, to mirror our standard game, but since they project over a long range, they do bring into consideration player values over a broader set of formats.

          • Number of keepers: How many players can you keep each year, and must every team keep the same number?

          • Player pricing: Is your league a draft or salary-cap format, and do you price players by draft round or for a dollar amount -- or is price not part of the keeper equation?

          • Contract factors: Are there limits on the number of years you can keep a player and/or are there guaranteed contracts, and is there price inflation?

          • Farm teams: Does your league include minor league/farm-team slots and how are these players factored into the keeper system?

          • Team competitiveness: Are you a contender, rebuilder or something in between?

          Dynasty 300

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          Elly De La Cruz is someone to build your dynasty team around.

          Elly De La Cruz moved significantly in my recent Dynasty 300 rankings update.

          Note: "Elig. Pos." is the player's eligible position(s) for 2023 in an ESPN league. Positional eligibility is determined based upon a minimum of 20 games -- otherwise, the position the player appeared at most -- in 2022, or 10 games played in 2023. Players' projected future positions -- for 2024 and beyond -- are considered in the ranking. Players' listed ages are as of July 12, 2023.

          Players' peak rankings in past keeper lists ("Prv. Peak") are also provided; these lists have been published semiannually since 2010 and triannually since 2014 (except mid-2022), with preseason ("Pre"), midseason ("Mid") and end-of-season ("End") designated to differentiate the times of the years in question. For example, Rafael Devers is listed with a peak of 7 in "Mid 20," meaning that, before this edition, his best all-time rank had been 7th, in the 2020 midseason list (Devers also garnered a No. 7 ranking in both the end-of-2019 and preseason-2020 lists, but for these purposes, the peak ranking represents the most recent time the player reached said peak.) A "--" means that the player has never before made the top 300 overall.

          Catcher

          First base

          Second base

          Shortstop

          Third base

          Outfield

          Designated hitter

          Starting pitcher

          Relief pitcher