Fantasy Baseball Mock Draft, 1.0: 12-team first round
The Yahoo Fantasy Baseball crew puts together their very first mock draft of the 2025 season. Check out who Andy Behrens, Scott Pianowski, Fred Zinkie and Dalton Del Don picked in our Round 1 exercise.
Pick No. 1: Shohei Ohtani, UTIL, Los Angeles Dodgers
Hey, remember last season when fantasy experts were warning you not to tie up your UTIL spot with an early round pick? Um ... whoops! Ohtani obviously has the highest ceiling in the game, which overrides any positional concerns. — Andy Behrens
Pick No. 2: Bobby Witt Jr., SS, Kansas City Royals
Witt is a 24-year-old at a premium position who finished among the category leaders in every stat we care about last season. He's basically as much of a lock to go 30/30/.300 as anyone in the player pool. — Behrens
Pick No. 3: Aaron Judge, OF, New York Yankees
Judge just delivered 58 homers and it wasn't even his single-season career high. He has weapons-grade power and he lives on base when he's not hitting bombs (.406 career OBP). — Behrens
Pick No. 4: Gunnar Henderson, SS, Baltimore Orioles
Henderson was a five-category overlord in his age-23 season and his Baseball Savant page is full of delicious sliders pushed to the right. He's already a perfect player, and a perfect fantasy pick. — Scott Pianowski
Pick No. 5: Elly De La Cruz, SS, Cincinnati Reds
Elly got better at everything last year. More walks, less strikeouts, better slash line. He led the majors in both steals and attempts, so he's a blast on the bases. De La Cruz is entering his age-23 season and he plays in a glorious hitter's park. Shoot for the moon, gamers. — Pianowski
Pick No. 6: José Ramírez, 3B, Cleveland Guardians
A five-category monster at a notoriously thin position sounds like first-round fun to me. Ramírez will shut down the running sooner or later, but that wasn't a problem in his age-31 season. — Pianowski
Pick No. 7: Kyle Tucker, OF, Chicago Cubs
Tucker has already shown 30-steal speed and his power skills took a notable step forward last year (23 homers in 78 games). Heading into a contract year, Tucker has enough upside to be considered as early as Pick 4. — Fred Zinkie
Pick No. 8: Mookie Betts, 2B/SS/OF, Los Angeles Dodgers
A table-setter with an elite batting eye on baseball's best team, Betts is a virtual lock to be among the league leaders in R+RBI. He will need to recover from a 2024 power dip in order to remain a top-10 player. — Zinkie
Pick No. 9: Corbin Carroll, OF, Arizona Diamondbacks
The inconsistent Carroll may be the riskiest pick of Round 1, but he recovered his power stroke in the second half of 2024 and is already among baseball's best base stealers. — Zinkie
Pick No. 10: Juan Soto, OF, New York Mets
Soto gets a significant downgrade in home parks with the move across New York, but he actually produced more outside of Yankee Stadium last season. He’s simply one of baseball’s best hitters. — Dalton Del Don
Pick No. 11: Julio Rodríguez, OF, Seattle Mariners
Injuries contributed to Rodríguez's disappointing 2024, but perennial slow starts and having to play in MLB’s best pitcher’s park are concerns. Still, JRod is just one season removed from going 30/30 as a 22-year-old, so plenty of upside remains. — Del Don
Pick No. 12: Fernando Tatís Jr., OF, San Diego Padres
Tatís Jr.’s power hasn’t been the same since shoulder surgery, but it started to return during his final two months of an injury-plagued 2024. Tatis Jr. just turned 26 years old. — Del Don
