AL Only League Strategy & Targets
I do my best to give some thoughts on how I'd approach AL Only leagues.
I’m giving you a quick and lazy NL and AL Only league analysis. As I said last time, there are many people better suited for this, since I’ve never played in these leagues. But what I can do is give you those trade candidates to downgrade and then tell you my favorite late-round options at each position since you’ll be taking a lot of guys who go very late in normal leagues.
Trade Candidates
It’s a small risk, but a risk nonetheless. A handful of very relevant fantasy names will be traded to the other league in July, and that can really derail your team. I wouldn’t be moving guys very much due to this risk, but it’s something to at least have in mind if you’re trying to break a tie or something:
Vladimir Guerrero Jr., Blue Jays
Bo Bichette, Blue Jays
Max Scherzer, Blue Jays
Framber Valdez, Astros
Devin Williams, Yankees
Gleyber Torres, Tigers
Luis Rengifo, Angels
Willi Castro, Twins
Zach Eflin, Orioles
Kenley Jansen, Angels
Vlad is the big one. It seems pretty likely he won’t be in Toronto in 2026, so the Jays will be looking to move him at the deadline if they aren’t in the playoff race.
I think it’s somewhat reasonable to avoid Devin Williams. I would think the Yankees will be in the playoff picture, but it’s not a slam dunk. Williams will be the best reliever on the market next offseason, so he’ll have some pretty nice trade value.
Some other ones who you probably don’t want to draft, or at least you won’t miss them if they do get traded:
Carlos Santana, Guardians
Chris Bassitt, Blue Jays
Charlie Morton, Orioles
Tyler Mahle, Rangers
Starting Pitcher
There’s a lot to like at the top of the board. The large tier one I’d draw:
Skubal
Gilbert
Crochet
Kirby
Ragans
Cole
Valdez
And even after that, there are a ton of names to like (Ober, Ryan, Miller, Castillo, Rodriguez). So you can ease into SP a bit. There are about 20 SPs I feel very good about, so I’d be looking to have two of the top 20 SPs off the board.
Some of the later-round guys I’d be looking at (the ADPs I give are for normal drafts, so you can more or less cut them in half to get an idea about where they’ll go in AL Only):
Gavin Williams (ADP 240)
Jeffrey SpringS (250)
Drew Rasmussen (250)
Reese Olson (260)
Jackson Jobe (260)
David Festa (300)
Jose Soriano (344)
Sean Burke (400)
Zebby Matthews (420)
Tyler Mahle (440)
Cade Povich (475)
Jack Leiter (525)
Caden Dana (585)
Kyle Bradish (614) - IL stash
Will Warren (630)
Kenta Maeda (650)
There is a lot to like at SP in the American League. Don’t wait too long, but you don’t have to go crazy early on. There are a lot of late names I feel pretty good about.
Catcher
If possible, I’d try to get one of the top seven names. They seem to stand out above the rest:
Diaz
Rutschman
Perez
Raleigh
Langeliers
O’Hoppe
Wells
The fallback options for safety would be Wong and Kirk. The late round options, if you’re punting it:
Bo Naylor (300)
Kyle Higashioka (400)
Edgar Query (470)
Kyle Teel (540)
Dillon Dingler (590)