The 2024 season is rapidly approaching, and what better way to quench your thirst for fantasy baseball than to dive right into a dynasty or keeper league! These take the fantasy baseball experience to the next level, balancing success today with building a roster that can sustain that success for the long haul. To give you a head start, I've provided rankings that can help a new dynasty/keeper manager handle an inaugural draft, just as they can help an experienced dynasty or keeper manager make final roster cut-down decisions. It's in this space where I rank players for the next five-plus seasons, serving as an effective price guide for dynasty and keeper leagues.
The rankings formula
This Dynasty 300 update uses the following player valuation formula:
2024 performance: 20%.
2025 performance: 20%.
2026 performance: 20%.
2027 performance: 20%.
2028 performance and beyond: 20%.
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, deciding on keepers or preparing for their upcoming drafts. For those in redraft/single-year leagues, my points-league rankings for 2024 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?