Joe Orrico’s Most Rostered Players

With Opening Day finally here, draft season has officially come to a close. I’ve been drafting on and off since November and ended up with about 20 teams this season.

In this article, I’ll be breaking down the players that ended up on at least 40% of my rosters, and highlighting why they were targets of mine over the past several months of drafting.

Max Muncy (LAD)

I’ve never been a huge Max Muncy fan from a fantasy point of view, but he ended up as my most rostered player in 2026. A lot of this comes down to his vision. Apparently, Muncy struggled to see the ball over the course of his career, particularly picking up spin out of the pitchers hand.

He began wearing glasses on April 30th of last season, and his production drastically changed. In 72 games, Muncy slashed .268/.406/.563 (.969 OPS) with a 166 wRC+, 19 HR, a 17.7 BB%, 17.3 K%, 14.5 Barrel%, and 53.6% hard hit rate. It was the best offensive stretch of his career, despite dealing with injuries in the second half. When he was on the field, he was raking, and I expect that to continue into 2026.

Muncy will be situated in the middle of the Dodgers’ lineup which easily projects as the best in baseball. I think we can see a 30 HR, 100 RBI season from Muncy with an improved batting average given his vision troubles are in the rearview. His ADP was outside the top 200 for all of draft season and considering how weak third base is, I scooped him up wherever I could.

Jorge Polanco

Polanco is tied with Muncy as my most rostered player in NFBC leagues. Similarly to Muncy, the price just never made sense to me throughout draft season.

He played 138 games for the Mariners in 2025 and had arguably the best season of his career. Polanco hit 26 HR while slashing .265/.326/.495 (.821 OPS) with a 132 wRC+. He gets a massive ballpark upgrade getting out of Seattle and will slot in as the Mets’ cleanup hitter behind Francisco Lindor, Juan Soto, and Bo Bichette.

Second base is just about as bad as third this season, and Polanco became a huge target for me when I didn’t land a cornerstone keystone option. The main concern is health, as Polanco has had some trouble staying on the field throughout his career, but his cost was too good to pass up. Like Muncy, his ADP never consistently rose inside the Top 200 picks.

Cade Cavalli

Cavalli has been a polarizing name this offseason but I made him my most rostered starting pitcher in 2026. I am a strong believer in his underlying skills and prospect pedigree.

His surface numbers weren’t great in 2025, but we have to remember that he missed two full seasons recovering from Tommy John Surgery and other arm ailments. His Stuff+ graded out at 104 overall, including three offering of at least to 102 (FA, SI, KC). Those pitches make up ~80% of usage. He had excellent velocity on his fastball as well, sitting between 96-97 MPH on average.

Even with his poor results in 2025, Cavalli did a great job limiting hard contact against (4.4 Barrel%, 87.7 MPH Avg Exit Velo), 41.3% hard hit). He induces a ton of groundballs (55%) and his 12.4 SwStr% suggests that there is a lot more strikeout potential than people are giving him credit for.

He has a clear runway to make 30+ starts this season as the ace of the Nationals rotation, and I believe he will end up as one of the bigger bargains from draft season.

Kyle Tucker

Tucker was my preferred target when I had a late first-round pick this season, which was essentially all of them (curse you, KDS gods!). The only real concern is the consecutive years that have been plagued by injuries. But when you consider his abilities and the talent around him, Tucker could easily finish as a top five player this season.

He has immense power and will be playing half of his games at one of the friendliest parks in baseball following a year at Wrigley, which isn’t terribly kind to left-handed bats. A 30/30 season feels very likely, and hitting in the middle of the Dodgers’ lineup should set him up for ~100 runs and RBI.

As long as he stays healthy, Tucker will smash and make people wonder why they were ever passing on him at the 1/2 turn.

Jakob Marsee

I fell in love with Marsee’s game watching him down the stretch in 2025, and a lot of that came down to his plate discipline. While it was a relatively small sample size, Marsee had a 19.9% O-Swing, 89.2% Z-Contact, and 7.3 SwStr%. These are the plate skills you hope to see from a 10-year veteran, let alone a rookie in his first cup of Major League coffee, and it helped him hit .292.

Players with that approach can be empty batting average assets, but Marsee has a more complete game than that. He had an 8% barrel rate and 41.4% hard hit rate in 2025, which is fantastic for his style of player. He hit five homers in 55 MLB games, after he hit 14 over 98 AAA games prior to his call-up. Marsee also stole 61 bases between the minors and majors last season, and most projection systems have him contributing 30+ in 2025.

This is a player who can contribute in all five categories and will be at (or near) the top of a constantly improving lineup all season. I think he’s going to be a special player.

Tyler Soderstrom

Soderstrom impressed me more than almost any other player in 2025. He was the hottest player in April, hitting .284 with nine home runs. Then, the power cooled off and Soderstrom was asked to play a new position, left field, to accommodate Nick Kurtz’s arrival. He wasn’t as much of a hot topic for the final few months of the season.

And yet, I’d argue he was much more impressive than what he did in April. Learning a new position on the fly, Soderstrom put up 10 DRS, 5 OAA, and 3 FRV as a left fielder. While his second half wasn’t as impressive from a pure power standpoint, he actually improved as a hitter:

First half: 18 HR .262/.339/.462 (.801 OPS), 120 wRC+

Second half: 7 HR, .300/.358/.495 (.853 OPS), 134 wRC+

The public perception was that he fell off down the stretch when in reality, he actually had a better offensive output in the second half. His dual 1B/OF eligibility made him more valuable to have during the course of a draft, and will be nice for in-season roster flexibility. With another year coming up in Sutter Health Park, Soderstrom should be in for another massive season.