100 Facts for Fantasy Baseball 2026

This is one of my favorite articles to write – my yearly list of 100 facts for fantasy baseball. This is exactly what it says: a list of 100 facts without opinion or bias. These are pulled from various sources, including Statcast and Fangraphs, based on data from last season that you should consider for your 2026 fantasy baseball drafts.

The season is not here yet, but why not get a head start and jump in a Fantrax Classic Draft contest? Get a jump on the season with a Best Ball league or maybe a Draft and Hold. Or put some green on the line with a new season-long league to try and conquer. There’s no better time than now to get your baseball on!

100 Facts for Fantasy Baseball 2026

Take the following information into account in your own analysis and planning for the 2026 fantasy baseball season. The 100 facts list is divided into hitter and pitcher stats, with the first 50 corresponding to hitters and the last 50 corresponding to pitchers.

1. Four qualified batters were league average or better in all of the following categories in 2025 – K%, BB%, GB%, AVG, OBP, wOBA, avg EV, Barrel%, HardHit%, and Hard Contact%. They were George Springer, Ketel Marte, Freddie Freeman, and Francisco Lindor.
2. Freeman is the only player to repeat that feat from 2024.
3. Among qualified batters, James Wood had the largest gap between his BABIP and batting average, with his .349 BABIP being 94 points higher than his .255 AVG.
4. Wood was one of the hardest hitters in baseball last season, while also having a 23% line drive rate. His pull rate was just 29%, though.
5. Wood also had a 32% strikeout rate, the second-worst among qualified hitters behind Ryan McMahon. McMahon ranked fifth in BABIP vs. AVG.
6. Three qualified players had a higher AVG than BABIP. In order from the largest to the smallest gap, they were Junior Caminero, Jose Ramirez, and Luis Arraez.
7. Among qualified hitters, the largest gap between xBA and AVG last season belonged to Salvador Perez with a .272 xBA and a .236 AVG.
8. According to xBA, the other top-10 underperformers in AVG were Ben Rice, Augustin Ramirez, Luis Garcia Jr., Juan Soto, Jo Adell, Dansby Swanson, Otto Lopez, Josh Bell, and Luis Rengifo.
9. On the opposite end, Jacob Wilson, Sal Frelick, and Trea Turner topped the league in players with a higher AVG than xBA.
10. The other top-10 overperformers in AVG were Jeremy Pena, Hunter Goodman, TJ Friedl, Aaron Judge, Gavin Lux, Brice Turang, and Jordan Beck.
11. Of qualified hitters, Jacob Wilson’s wOBA outperformed his xwOBA by the largest margin. Top-10 wOBA outperformed his xwOBA by the largest margin. Top-10 wOBA overperformers that were also AVG overperformers include Goodman, Frelick, Turner, Friedl, and Pena.
12. Similar to xBA and AVG, Salvador Perez underperformed most according to the difference between his xwOBA and wOBA. Others who were top-10 underperformers in AVG that also underperformed in wOBA include Soto, Garcia, Rice, Bell, Swanson, Lopez, Ramirez, and Adell.
13. Turang owned a .356 BABIP in 2025, the second-highest BABIP in the league last season among qualified hitters. This was the highest of his career by, higher than his 2024 BABIP by 56 points, and higher than his career BABIP by 44 points. Turang struck out more frequently last season than in the past two years. His line drive rate and groundball rate each improved just 1% compared to his career averages, while his HR/FB% did not improve at all. He also pulled the ball 26%, no different than in 2024. His contact rate dropped by 7% from 2024 to 2025, and was lower than his career norm. The only things that dramatically changed for Turang in 2025 were a marked improvement in his hard contact and a lower chase rate.
14. Geraldo Perdomo is the only qualified hitter from 2025 to be top-10 in chase, zone contact, and contact rates. If you expand it to the top-15, then Maikel Garcia makes the cut as well.
15. Nobody ranks in the bottom 10 in all three categories, but Oneil Cruz, McMahon, Jazz Chisholm, Shohei Ohtani, Kyle Schwarber, and Aaron Judge all rank among the worst in z-contact% and contact%.
16. In terms of Runs Above Average on fastballs, no qualified batter was better last season than Judge. This was the case in 2024 as well. He was also sixth best against sliders, the best against cutters, and fifth best against changeups.
17. Trea Turner performed the best against sliders.
18. Pete Crow-Armstrong performed the best against curveballs.
19. Jarren Duran performed the best against splitters.
20. Jose Ramirez was the best against changeups.
21. Matt McLain was the only qualified batter to have negative Runs Above Average grades on every pitch type faced.
22. Bryce Harper, Josh Naylor, Perdomo, Bobby Witt Jr., Michael Busch, Jose Ramirez, Rice, Matt Olson, Ohtani, Byron Buxton, and Soto all had positive RAA grades on all of the pitch types faced.
23. McLain performed the second-worst overall against sliders among qualified hitters. He saw the fourth-most sliders in the league.
24. Similarly, Oneil Cruz was the second worst against curveballs and saw the most in the league.
25. Brooks Lee was bad against changeups, with the third-worst grade against them. He saw the sixth most changeups among qualified batters.
26. Since 2021, two qualified hitters have reached 20 home runs and 20 steals in each season. They are Jose Ramirez and Randy Arozarena.
27. Ramirez has been remarkably consistent during that time frame, finishing with an AVG between .279 and .283 in four of those seasons.
28. Arozarena’s AVG had dropped every season since 2019, but bounced back from a .219 AVG in 2024 to .238 in 2025.
29. Julio Rodriguez, Soto, Chisholm, Lindor, Corbin Carroll, Crow-Armstrong, and Ramirez all had 30-homer-30-steal seasons in 2025. Ramirez was the only one to repeat the feat from 2024, while Lindor and Rodriguez both did it in 2023.
30. Since 2021, Ramirez leads baseball in steals, with 160 in 781 games played.
31. Witt is second in steals during that span, with 148 in 626 games.
32. Trea Turner and Ronald Acuna Jr. each have 144 steals, good for the third most. Turner’s steals came in 725 games, while Acuna’s were spread across 504.
33. Of qualified batters since 2021, Elly De La Cruz has the highest steal rate vs. games played, with 139 steals in 420 games.
34. Since 2021, 12 players have hit 150 or more home runs. In order from most to least, they are Judge, Ohtani, Schwarber, Pete Alonso, Olson, Soto, Eugenio Suarez, Rafael Devers, Vladimir Guerrero Jr., Ramirez, Cal Raleigh, and Salvador Perez.
35. Matt Olson leads qualified batters in games played since 2021.
36. Judge leads qualified batters in RBI, ISO, OBP, wOBA, wRC+, and fWAR during that span. He also ranks second in runs and BB%, and third in AVG.
37. Since 2021, six players rank in the top 10 in average exit velocity, barrel%, and HardHit%. They are Judge, Ohtani, Schwarber, Yordan Alvarez, Giancarlo Stanton, and Oneil Cruz.
38. Five qualified players had a higher hard contact rate than medium contact rate in 2025: Schwarber, Soto, Goodman, Judge, and Ohtani.
39. Judge and Schwarber both repeated this from 2024, where Gunnar Henderson was the only other player to do it.
40. Three players had a higher hard contact rate than a medium contact rate in 2023.
41. Judge was the only player to do it in 2022.
42. In 2021, five players did it. In 2019, 47 players did it.
43. Judge, Bo Bichette, Jacob Wilson, Springer, Pena, Trea Turner, and Yandy Diaz were the only players to post an AVG over .300 last season.
44. Seven players did it in 2024, with Judge being the only one to repeat it in 2025. Bichette and Diaz missed the mark this season, but would have repeated three seasons in a row had they posted slightly better batting averages in 2024.
45. Nine players did it in 2023.
46. Five qualified players had a 30% K rate or worse in 2025: McMahon, Wood, Mike Trout, Oneil Cruz, and Riley Greene. Cruz also met that mark in 2024.
47. Kyle Schwarber has the most strikeouts since 2023. He also has the third most walks since then.
48. Since Juan Soto entered the league in 2018, he has posted a higher walk rate than strikeout rate five times in those eight seasons.
49. Since that time, only Soto and Arraez have higher career walk rates than strikeout rates.
50. According to Fangraphs’ baserunning metric Bsr, Corbin Carroll was the best baserunner among qualified hitters in 2025. He was also the best in 2024. The best in 2023? Corbin Carroll.
51. Of 208 qualified pitchers from 2021 to 2025, one pitcher ranks top-10 in all of the seven following stats: K/9, K%, K/BB, K-BB, ERA, xFIP, and SIERA… Jacob deGrom.
52. Tyler Glasnow, Garrett Crochet, and Chris Sale each rank top-10 in five of those categories during that span.
53. George Kirby’s 3.6 walk rate is the lowest in baseball since 2021.
54. Zack Littell had the best walk rate in 2025 among qualified pitchers.
55. Outside of Kirby, and not counting the 2020 season, Josh Tomlin, Phil Hughes, Bartolo Colon, Cliff Lee, Brad Radke, David Wells, and Carlos Silva are the only players to have a walk rate under 3% in a season since 2005.
56. DeGrom’s 35.4% K rate since 2021 is the best in baseball among qualified pitchers. His 11.9 K/9 rate during that period is the third-best behind Spencer Strider and Bryan Abreu.
57. Framber Valdez has the most wins in baseball since 2021 with 68. His 902 IP ranks fifth most since then.
58. The lowest cumulative ERA among qualified starters since 2021 belongs to Paul Skenes with a 1.96 ERA.
59. Among all qualified pitchers since then, Emmanuel Clase ranks first at 1.84.
60. DeGrom has the lowest xFIP since 2021 at 2.51. He has a 2.46 ERA since then.
61. Zack Wheeler has the highest fWAR among pitchers since 2021.
62. According to Fangraphs’ pitch value chart, six qualified pitchers had all of their pitches grade positively in 2024: deGrom, Yoshinobu Yamamoto, Max Fried, Nick Pivetta, Freddy Peralta, and Crochet.
63. If you expand the qualifying threshold to 150 IP for pitchers in 2025, Drew Rasmussen’s 2.76 ERA would rank eighth-best last season.
64. Among qualified pitchers, Jake Irvin’s 5.70 ERA ranked as the worst in baseball in 2025. The nationals also rostered the pitcher with the second-worst ERA – Mitchell Parker (5.68). Since 2023, Washington has rostered a pitcher with an ERA among the three worst in every season.
65. In terms of xERA and SIERA, Irvin and Parker swap positions for worst and second worst.
66. Jesus Luzardo, Dylan Cease, Tanner Bibee, Dean Kremer, Shane Baz, Sonny Gray, Kyle Hendricks, Nick Martinez, Jose Soriano, Zac Gallen, Andre Pallante, and Irvin all had higher ERAs than xERAs.
67. Cease had the largest gap between ERA and xERA, with a 4.55 ERA and a 3.45 xERA. He now pitches for the Blue Jays.
68. Logan Webb, Gray, Luzardo, Valdez, Soriano, Cease, David Peterson, Chris Bassitt, Baz, Will Warren, Brandon Pfaadt, Gallen, Pallante, Mitch Keller, Bibee, Sandy Alcantara, Kyle Freeland, Hendricks, and Parker all had higher ERAs than xFIPs.
69. Pfaadt’s ERA and xFIP had the largest divide. He had a 5.24 ERA and a 4.01 xFIP.
70. Pfaadt, Gray, Alcantara, Cease, Baz, Pallante, Irvin, Gallen, Freeland, Luzardo, Parker, Warren, Soriano, Peterson, Bibee, Webb, Bassitt, Hendricks, and Joe Ryan all had higher ERAs than SIERAs.
71. The largest ERA vs. SIERA gap was Pfaadt’s, whose 5.24 ERA was over a run higher than his 4.12 SIERA.
72. Gavin Williams outperformed his ERA (3.05) by the largest margin in terms of xERA (4.28).
73. Andrew Abbott outperformed his ERA (2.86) by the largest margin in terms of xFIP (4.30).
74. Abbott also outperformed his ERA by the largest margin in terms of SIERA (4.20).
75. Nine qualified pitchers were league average or better in K/9, BB/9, HR/9, GB%, and LOB% in 2025. They were Crochet, Skenes, Yamamoto, Bassitt, Webb, Fried, Valdez, Hunter Brown, and Cristopher Sanchez.
76. Valdez was also the only qualified pitcher to be league average or better in those categories in 2024 as well.
77. Of those nine qualified pitchers, Crochet, Skenes, Brown, Sanchez, Yamamoto, and Fried all met those marks with a sub-3 ERA too.
78. Webb, Crochet, and Sanchez were the only pitchers to top 200 IP in 2025.
79. Webb also did it in 2024.
80. Five pitchers did it in 2023, including Webb.
81. Michael Wacha had the second-lowest HR/FB% among qualified pitchers last season. His 43% FB rate was the eighth highest. Abbot was third lowest in HR/FB% and third highest in FB%. Matthew Boyd was fourth lowest in HR/FB% and seventh highest in FB%.
82. According to Fangraphs’ pitch values, the best fastball in terms of Runs Above Average among qualified pitchers in 2025 belongs to Bryan Woo. His fastball was tied for second-best in Statcast Run Value.
83. According to Fangraphs’ pitch values, the best slider and cutter belonged to Crochet, while the best curveball was Hunter Brown’s, the best changeup was Tarik Skubal’s, and the best splitter was Yamamoto’s.
84. According to Statcast run value, Sale had the best slider, Rasmussen had the best cutter, Brown had the best curveball, Skubal had the best changeup, and Jhoan Duran had the best splitter.
85. Among qualified pitchers Warren and Pfaadt were the only ones among the 10 worst in average exit velocity, barrel% allowed, and HardHit% allowed.
86. Among qualified pitchers in 2025, Skubal’s 32% K rate was the best in baseball. He also owned the league’s best K-BB%.
87. Dylan Cease had the third highest K% in the league among qualified starters. He also had the third-highest walk rate. Freddy Peralta was the only other qualified pitcher to be top-10 in K% and bottom-10 in BB%.
88. Peralta is also the only qualified pitcher who can claim that performance in 2024 as well.
89. Among qualified starters in 2025, Jake Irvin allowed the most homers in baseball with 38 in 180 IP.
90. For comparison, Skenes tossed 187 IP in 2025 and gave up 11 homers, tied for the fewest in baseball among qualified pitchers.
91. Patrick Corbin has allowed 143 home runs in 834 IP since 2021, the most homers in baseball during that span. 11 pitchers have thrown more innings than Corbin since then. Of those 11 pitchers, five have allowed over 100 home runs. Logan Webb is one of the six pitchers who have allowed fewer than 100 homers during that time frame. In fact, Webb has thrown the most innings since 2021, while allowing 65 home runs. Among pitchers who have thrown at least 450 innings since 2021, Webb’s 65 homers are the 15th fewest.
92. In 2021, there were 15 qualified pitchers who had double-digit K/9 rates. In 2022, there were 10. In 2023, there were also 10. In 2024, there were 11. In 2025, there were 10.
93. One pitcher had a double-digit K/9 rate in all five of those seasons – Dylan Cease. He led qualified pitchers in K/9 in 2025 with an 11.5 K/9 rate.
94. Five relievers have recorded double-digit saves in each season since 2021: Kyle Finnegan, Kenley Jansen, Josh Hader, Raisel Iglesias, and Emmanuel Clase.
95. DeGrom, Skenes, Woo, and Webb were the only qualified pitchers to rank top-15 in Stuff+, Location+, and Pitching+ in 2025.
96. Among qualified starters, Skubal induced the highest whiff rate at 37.9% in 2025.
97. Dylan Cease produced the lowest contact rate among qualified pitchers in 2025, with a 68% contact rate.
98. Skubal owned the league’s best first pitch strike rate and swinging strike rate among qualified starting pitchers in 2025.
99. Among qualified starters in 2025, one pitcher was among the worst 10 in all five of the following categories: chase%, contact%, first pitch strike rate, swinging strike rate, and CSW%. That pitcher was Mitch Keller.
100. Luis Severino was in the bottom 10 in four of them.

Every piece of data you read in this list of 100 facts is devoid of opinion, so take what you will from this and use it as you see fit. As you continue to research for your 2026 fantasy drafts, hopefully, these 100 facts will help you to be successful.