2026 MLB lineup rankings: Which teams have the best bats in baseball?

Bradford DoolittleFeb 25, 2026, 07:00 AM ET
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Hall of Famer Rogers Hornsby, not remembered for his soft side, uttered one oft-repeated romantic quote that has stood the test of time:

“People ask me what I do in winter when there’s no baseball,” Hornsby said. “I’ll tell you what I do. I stare out the window and wait for spring.”

I know the feeling, but rather than staring out my window, I do an adult version of something I loved to do when I was a kid. Back then, I’d take my baseball cards from the previous summer and sort them out into team defensive alignments or primary batting orders, depending on my mood.

Then, when I got my copy of “The Sporting News” that had all the moves from the previous week, I’d swap cards from team to team, envisioning what the next summer would look like. These days, I don’t do that with the cards, but I do love to sketch out projected lineups.

With spring training underway, those projections are starting to come into focus. While there will be further iterations between now and Opening Day, let’s take a snapshot of how each team’s lineup fares in the revised MLB landscape.

lad

Base lineup:

1. Shohei Ohtani
2. Kyle Tucker
3. Mookie Betts
4. Freddie Freeman
5. Will Smith
6. Max Muncy
7. Teoscar Hernandez
8. Tommy Edman
9. Andy Pages

Powerful. Patient. Savvy on the bases. Deep, mostly durable. Best in the majors against lefties and righties. Virtually no holes.

It’s going to be another long season for Dodgers opponents.

atl

Base lineup:

1. Ronald Acuna Jr.
2. Drake Baldwin
3. Matt Olson
4. Jurickson Profar
5. Austin Riley
6. Ozzie Albies
7. Michael Harris II
8. Mike Yastrzemski
9. Ha-Seong Kim

The durability grades are based on playing time forecasts at FanGraphs, and if this one turns out to be accurate, we’ll learn why last year’s Braves fell so far short. But the middling depth grade underscores the need for that to happen.

If the Braves’ lineup can stay mostly healthy, it’s a stacked order with no real holes.

nym

Base lineup:

1. Francisco Lindor
2. Juan Soto
3. Bo Bichette
4. Jorge Polanco
5. Marcus Semien
6. Brett Baty
7. Francisco Alvarez
8. Luis Robert Jr.
9. Carson Benge

The Mets finished fifth by team WRC+ last year, then went out and turned over more than half of the lineup. The bottom line is a slightly more prolific group with a little different profile: more aggression, more average, good balance across the board.

Whatever the middle of the lineup ends up looking like, you get the feeling that this crew carries with it the key to the Mets matching or beating last year’s attack.

sea

Base lineup:

1. Brendan Donovan
2. Julio Rodriguez
3. Cal Raleigh
4. Josh Naylor
5. Randy Arozarena
6. Dominic Canzone
7. Luke Raley
8. Cole Young
9. J.P. Crawford

Last season, Seattle’s 113 wRC+ was tied with the Dodgers for second in the majors, trailing only the Yankees. While close observers pointed out the success of the Mariners’ revitalized offense in one of baseball’s roughest home environments, it still feels like the Seattle attack is slipping under the radar.

The key question revolved around who will be positioned to pick up the slack from a Raleigh drop-off, which seems all but certain. Raleigh should still be among the best, but repeating last year’s historic performances is just such a tall order.

tor

Base lineup:

1. George Springer
2. Addison Barger
3. Vladimir Guerrero Jr.
4. Alejandro Kirk
5. Daulton Varsho
6. Jesus Sanchez
7. Kazuma Okamoto
8. Ernie Clement
9. Andres Gimenez

There you see the Blue Jays’ offensive M.O. in grade form. Swing aggressively and do damage on contact. It worked really well last season.

Now, the Blue Jays are tasked with repeating the breakout with Okamoto filling the lineup shoes of departed Bo Bichette.

ath

Base lineup:

1. Nick Kurtz
2. Shea Langeliers
3. Tyler Soderstrom
4. Brent Rooker
5. Jeff McNeil
6. Jacob Wilson
7. Lawrence Butler
8. Max Muncy
9. Denzel Clarke

Slow and strong. Isn’t this kind of what you think about when it comes to a contention-worthy Athletics lineup?

The patience part of the dossier is not really on brand for the A’s, however, and you do wonder if maybe there is some progress to be made in that department considering the youth up and down the batting order.

chc

Base lineup:

1. Michael Busch
2. Alex Bregman
3. Ian Happ
4. Seiya Suzuki
5. Pete Crow-Armstrong
6. Nico Hoerner
7. Moises Ballesteros
8. Dansby Swanson
9. Carson Kelly

The durability and depth grades are presented together for a reason: Scoring low on the first but high on the latter shows a team is built to withstand some injuries.

The Cubs, it seems, are built to deploy a stable lineup but have plenty of options if the injury bug bites.

nyy

Base lineup:

1. Trent Grisham
2. Aaron Judge
3. Cody Bellinger
4. Ben Rice
5. Giancarlo Stanton
6. Jazz Chisholm Jr.
7. Ryan McMahon
8. Anthony Volpe
9. Austin Wells

The grading curve hands out three F’s in every category, and the Yankees’ projected No. 28 ranking in park-adjusted batting average lands them a failing grade in that department.

This is exciting news for Yankees fans. No, really. Because with No. 1 rankings in power and patience, a bit of good balls-in-play luck in the average column could mean an especially monster-ish Yankees offense. If healthy, that is, and of course the durability grade suggests that should not be taken for granted.

phi

Base lineup:

1. Trea Turner
2. Kyle Schwarber
3. Bryce Harper
4. Alec Bohm
5. Brandon Marsh
6. Adolis Garcia
7. Bryson Stott
8. J.T. Realmuto
9. Justin Crawford

Most of this is pretty self-evident if you watch the Phillies a lot except, perhaps, the No. 1 ranking in the baserunning category. That one at least caught me off guard despite the presence of Turner.

The Phillies ranked sixth in team BsR in 2025 and led the majors in Statcast’s team-level sprint speed score. Now they are trying to work in the fleet Crawford as a regular.

The Phils are phast?

Base lineup:

1. Xander Bogaerts
2. Jackson Merrill
3. Manny Machado
4. Fernando Tatis Jr.
5. Jake Cronenworth
6. Ramon Laureano
7. Gavin Sheets
8. Miguel Andujar
9. Freddy Fermin

If the Padres could pair their hyper-aggressive, high-contact approach with a Blue Jays-like leap in power on contract, this could be an exciting group.

Tatis and Machado are the standouts. Now the Padres need a bounce-back season from Merrill and a throwback season from Bogaerts to double that star count.

ari

Base lineup:

1. Geraldo Perdomo
2. Ketel Marte
3. Corbin Carroll
4. Gabriel Moreno
5. Nolan Arenado
6. Carlos Santana
7. Lourdes Gurriel Jr.
8. Jordan Lawlar
9. Pavin Smith

The Diamondbacks had a dangerous offense last season and remained solid even after trading away Eugenio Suarez and Josh Naylor.

There’s a lot of question marks now, especially with health. Having Arenado and Santana in the order would have been really exciting a few years ago.

bal

Base lineup:

1. Gunnar Henderson
2. Taylor Ward
3. Adley Rutschman
4. Pete Alonso
5. Jordan Westburg
6. Jackson Holliday
7. Dylan Beavers
8. Samuel Basallo
9. Colton Cowser

With the acquisitions of Ward and Alonso, the Orioles have fashioned a take-and-rake profile that Earl Weaver would find most agreeable.

Health is already an issue with Holliday and Westburg dealing with maladies, but in addition to staying on the field, Baltimore badly needs Rutschman to rediscover the superstar track he once seemed destined to follow.

hou

Base lineup:

1. Jeremy Pena
2. Jose Altuve
3. Yordan Alvarez
4. Carlos Correa
5. Yainer Diaz
6. Christian Walker
7. Joey Loperfido
8. Zach Cole
9. Jake Meyers

Healthy versions of Pena and Alvarez would paper over a lot of dings, but this is a shaky profile for Houston’s attack. Paper-thin, slow, overly aggressive and dependent on batting average.

These are not the industry-defining Astros we once knew.

Base lineup:

1. Maikel Garcia
2. Bobby Witt Jr.
3. Vinnie Pasquantino
4. Salvador Perez
5. Jac Caglianone
6. Jonathan India
7. Carter Jensen
8. Isaac Collins
9. Kyle Isbel

This Royals’ season will be a feast for the senses for data nerds.

The Royals have attacked their poor track record for plate discipline by bringing fresh voices to the hitting program. They’ve tried to address the franchise’s long-standing power deficiency by messing with the fences in their home park, which could make Kauffman Stadium a lower-altitude version of Coors Field.

We will see how it works out in the cold, indifferent world of baseball analytics. Either way, at least the Royals are trying.

mil

Base lineup:

1. Jackson Chourio
2. Brice Turang
3. William Contreras
4. Christian Yelich
5. Andrew Vaughn
6. Sal Frelick
7. Luis Rengifo
8. Garrett Mitchell
9. Joey Ortiz

It’s strange-looking profile for the Brewers’ offense.

The power grade might surprise you, but it shouldn’t. Despite the Brewers’ homer-happy home venue, Milwaukee ranked just 22nd in long balls. The offense was really good anyway. The patience grade is more surprising, as the Brewers were an excellent on-base team in 2025, even beyond their elite average.

The Brewers lost some of their top walk guys from last season (Isaac Collins, Rhys Hoskins among them) so a dip on offense might be in the offing.

Base lineup:

1. Brandon Nimmo
2. Wyatt Langford
3. Corey Seager
4. Joc Pederson
5. Jake Burger
6. Josh Jung
7. Josh Smith
8. Danny Jansen
9. Evan Carter

It’s a new-look offense for the Rangers, who are banking on better plate discipline and better health from a group that has struggled to stay on the field.

Can Langford make the leap from good to elite? If so, that would make this portrait a lot more promising.

Base lineup:

1. Luis Arraez
2. Rafael Devers
3. Willy Adames
4. Matt Chapman
5. Jung Hoo Lee
6. Heliot Ramos
7. Harrison Bader
8. Bryce Eldridge
9. Patrick Bailey

Apparently, the Giants are too slow to get injured, so expect to see a lot of the same players standing around day after day playing station-to-station offense for a team with middling power.

The depth of the lineup, illustrated here by the star count, looks like a plus.

min

Base lineup:

1. Byron Buxton
2. Luke Keaschall
3. Josh Bell
4. Royce Lewis
5. Ryan Jeffers
6. Matt Wallner
7. Victor Caratini
8. Trevor Larnach
9. Brooks Lee

An atypical season of health might not lift the Twins’ offense into the elite, but it would at least give us a better sense of who they are.

Alas, with the bad early pitching news (Pablo Lopez, Joe Ryan), Minnesota’s hopes for contention might hinge on these hitters staying on the field and building on that foundation of above-average power.

bos

Base lineup:

1. Roman Anthony
2. Trevor Story
3. Jarren Duran
4. Willson Contreras
5. Wilyer Abreu
6. Caleb Durbin
7. Marcelo Mayer
8. Ceddanne Rafaela
9. Carlos Narvaez

This is the second-most surprising ranking for me, after Detroit a couple of spots down, but after digging into it to make sure it wasn’t a product of baseball analyst error, it is what it is.

There is a lot of upside with this group, from those displayed and others — such as Kristian Campbell, Triston Casas and Masataka Yoshida — who are not. But it is a group that a year ago opened with Alex Bregman and Rafael Devers as fixtures in the lineup. Now, they’re not here.

The kids will have to step up.

laa

Base lineup:

1. Zach Neto
2. Nolan Schanuel
3. Mike Trout
4. Yoan Moncada
5. Jo Adell
6. Josh Lowe
7. Jorge Soler
8. Logan O’Hoppe
9. Christian Moore

If you squint, you can see some upside from this group of nine hitting the high side of their probability range in the power and patience departments.

But with every injury, the Halos have to dig deeper into a razor-thin depth chart. It’s not the kind of thing that has worked out for them very often.

Base lineup:

1. Gavin Lux
2. Yandy Diaz
3. Jonathan Aranda
4. Junior Caminero
5. Cedric Mullins
6. Jake Fraley
7. Taylor Walls
8. Chandler Simpson
9. Nick Fortes

The Rays are the main example of why you might want to think of the durability category as a measure of stability rather than health. It’s both, really.

The Rays spread their playing time around to so many contributors that it makes them look fragile in an exercise like this. But the quality of the depth isn’t great on paper, either, so maybe that doesn’t matter.

As I’ve written before, we’re at the point where the Rays need to prove they are still ahead of the analytical curve.

det

Base lineup:

1. Parker Meadows
2. Gleyber Torres
3. Riley Greene
4. Spencer Torkelson
5. Kerry Carpenter
6. Wenceel Perez
7. Zach McKinstry
8. Dillon Dingler
9. Colt Keith

I love this profile because I’m certain it’s going to be wildly off — and I think it’ll be off because the Tigers keep iterating their lineup as the season goes along.

It’s a hard thing to predict. For example, in two weeks it might make sense to plug Kevin McGonigle in as an every-day player. Right now, it’s probably jumping the gun. Yet McGonigle’s forecast is one of the reasons why Detroit’s depth rating is MLB’s best.

So if the injuries come, the Tigers might actually get better as they unfurl their fill-ins. It’s a team that is a lot of fun even beyond its standout rotation.

pit

Base lineup:

1. Oneil Cruz
2. Brandon Lowe
3. Bryan Reynolds
4. Ryan O’Hearn
5. Marcell Ozuna
6. Spencer Horwitz
7. Joey Bart
8. Jared Triolo
9. Nick Gonzales

The Pirates finished 29th in wRC+ last season. Despite a busy offseason, there was just no way to lift Pittsburgh into an elite offensive projection.

The baseline is a lot better, though, and this version does not pencil Konnor Griffin into the base lineup projection. Obviously if he works his way into that, the upside of this improved baseline increases considerably.

cin

Base lineup:

1. TJ Friedl
2. Noelvi Marte
3. Elly De La Cruz
4. Eugenio Suarez
5. Sal Stewart
6. Tyler Stephenson
7. JJ Bleday
8. Matt McLain
9. Ke’Bryan Hayes

Suarez hit 49 homers last season and now returns to Great American Ball Park, one of baseball’s launching pads, where he has hit more than twice as many homers as any other venue. So think of what Cincinnati’s power grade looked like before.

The grade against righties is rough, however, and it’s a reflection of Cincinnati’s lack of lefty swingers, both in quantity and quality.

stl

Base lineup:

1. Lars Nootbaar
2. Ivan Herrera
3. Alec Burleson
4. Nolan Gorman
5. Masyn Winn
6. JJ Wetherholt
7. Jordan Walker
8. Pedro Pages
9. Victor Scott II

It’s a very young and unproven lineup. You might have to go back decades to find a St. Louis lineup with such a short collective track record.

But if Wetherholt becomes what the Cardinals hope he can become, we might look at this transitional lineup as the beginning of something truly interesting.

cle

Base lineup:

1. Steven Kwan
2. Gabriel Arias
3. Jose Ramirez
4. Kyle Manzardo
5. Rhys Hoskins
6. George Valera
7. Chase DeLauter
8. Bo Naylor
9. Brayan Rocchio

It’s such a weird group. Roster Resource has the Guardians platooning at four positions. So despite the collective talent of lefty swingers Manzardo, Valera, DeLauter and Naylor, they all have righty partners to face southpaws in this configuration. Yet the Guardians don’t profile to hit lefties at all.

The takeaway: Cleveland needs that quartet of young hitters to step up so that the platooning isn’t necessary. Or it needs better righty hitters on the bench. The first option would bode better for the long term.

chw

Base lineup:

1. Chase Meidroth
2. Kyle Teel
3. Colson Montgomery
4. Munetaka Murakami
5. Miguel Vargas
6. Austin Hays
7. Andrew Benintendi
8. Edgar Quero
9. Brooks Baldwin

Despite the grades here, there is a lot of power potential in this overhauled group of ChiSox, beginning with the dangerous Murakami.

Next year, maybe we’ll be introducing Braden Montgomery and Roch Cholowsky into the mix. The trend arrow is pointing up.

was

Base lineup:

1. CJ Abrams
2. Dylan Crews
3. James Wood
4. Daylen Lile
5. Luis Garcia Jr.
6. Keibert Ruiz
7. Brady House
8. Nasim Nunez
9. Jacob Young

The Nationals have James Wood and some collective speed. The cupboard isn’t completely bare.

mia

Base lineup:

1. Jakob Marsee
2. Xavier Edwards
3. Kyle Stowers
4. Agustin Ramirez
5. Griffin Conine
6. Otto Lopez
7. Liam Hicks
8. Connor Norby
9. Owen Caissie

The Marlins can be better than this, but obviously this is a low baseline.

The foundation for a breakout would be laid in the middle of the order, with full seasons from Stowers and Ramirez, and Caissie acclimating to the majors quickly and moving up from this bottom-of-the-order projection.

col

Base lineup:

1. Ezequiel Tovar
2. Willi Castro
3. Hunter Goodman
4. Jordan Beck
5. Troy Johnston
6. Brenton Doyle
7. Mickey Moniak
8. Jake McCarthy
9. Edouard Julien

It’s a brand new operation and, goodness knows, there is plenty of space for innovation.

Grades glossary

Note: All grades are based on park-neutral projections. Grades are assigned according to a version of a bell curve using their ranking in each category.

Hit: Team batting average

Patience: Portion of OBP based on walks and HBPs

Power: Slugging percentage minus batting average (isolated power)

Baserunning: Based on Fangraphs’ BsR metric

Durability: Percentage of plate appearances projected to go to the base lineup. This category could also be called “Stability”

Depth: Aggregate wRC+ for all players projected by Fangraphs to receive plate appearances who are not part of a base lineup, either as an every-day regular or as part of a platoon

vsR: Lineup wRC+ against right-handed pitchers

vsL: Lineup wRC+ against left-handed pitchers

Stars: Batting order slots projected to land in the top 10, based on weighted runs created

Holes: Batting order slots projected to land in the bottom 10, based on weighted runs created

2026 MLB lineup rankings: Which teams have the best bats in baseball?

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