2026 Position Previews: Third Base
A detailed look at third base for 2026 fantasy baseball leagues
View full position previews series here.
Overview
Third base isn’t nearly as deep as the outfield or shortstop, but it’s a better situation than what we found at second base. And there are guys up and down the board that I’m pretty convicted on, both positively and negatively.
So I’ve got a really good feel for the position and a clear attack plan. Let’s just hope that I’m right!
Tier One
I’ve been doing big tiers so far during this, but I can’t really get there for third base. J-Ram is so clearly the top guy. Jazz Chisholm is my #2, and J-Ram does everything that Jazz does, plus a way higher batting average and OBP. So how could we put them in the same tier? I can’t do it!
The only reasonable hesitation on Ramirez would be the age. But then you see that he’s done some of his best work (at least for the fantasy game) in these last two seasons, and you stop worrying much about that. The guy was born to be a first round fantasy baseball pick.
Tier Two
2 | Jazz Chisholm
3 | Junior Caminero
I don’t want to downplay these two guys too much. They both returned round one kind of stuff last year, and they’re young (Jazz is 28, Caminero is just 22). But you can see that they do pull up well shy of what J-Ram gives you.
Jazz can do similar HR + SB things as J-Ram, and Caminero has more raw power, but Jazz gives you a mediocre batting average (at best), and Caminero isn’t a steals guy and he’s heading back to a much tougher place to hit.
I do particularly like having Jazz this year since he can fill in at two positions that can be tough to fill. That really opens things up for you. If you have him, it basically doubles the player pool for replacement values to fix a problem you’re likely to have. If you can find a breakout 2B or a breakout 3B on waivers, you just slide Jazz right over to the other spot and then you’re rolling.
The ADP movement on Caminero has been interesting. He started early draft season as late-first/early-second round pick. Now he’s sliding back to the middle of the second round, and he’s even gone at #21 recently.
That’s moving in the right direction. I really didn’t think there was much profit potential as a guy you’re taking as your first hitter. But in the third-round, obviously there’s a lot more room for that. And we need to understand how skilled the guy is. The park helped him last year, yes, but this is a dude who is going to hit a ton of homers no matter where he is. Lots has been made of his home/road splits last year.
→ Home: .313/.356/.595, 22 HR
→ Road: .218/.266/.477, 23 HR
Two key points on that. One, the homers didn’t slow down on the road. And that’s the main reason you’re drafting him right? For 40+ dinger potential and the truckload of RBI that comes with? But if you think he’ll hit .230 or something, then you can almost call him a very expensive Giancarlo Stanton type of guy (without the injury certainty). But it helps to see that he had a .197 BABIP on the road.
A lot of people are saying Caminero is a potential bust. And at an ADP of 13, I could make that case myself. But some people think it’s possible for him to hit .240 with 34 homers and 80 RBI or something this year, and that’s just not going to happen when this dude is healthy. He’s too good for that. And I wouldn’t be surprised at all to see him hit .280 this year with 45 more bombs. If he’s getting into the late-third round or something in your league, I wouldn’t hesitate on that.
Tier Three
4 | Manny Machado
5 | Austin Riley
6 | Maikel Garcia
There’s a drop-off after these three. I’m not sure if I’m calling it the cliff (there will be a post about this cliff stuff soon), but it’s a real change. So I’m trying to get one of these six third basemen in my leagues.
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