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Welcome back to our infield hitter fantasy baseball value picks and sleepers for 2025 best ball leagues. In case you missed it, you can also check out my starting pitcher value picks and sleepers article as well for 2025 best ball formats.
It's an exciting time of year, as the 2025 fantasy baseball season is right around the corner. Some fantasy baseball managers have already been drafting for months, but many others have yet to get started. Either way, fantasy baseball's best ball leagues are a great way to dive in. Best ball drafts and best ball ADPs can give you a good sense of where players are being drafted, and where we can find fantasy baseball draft values.
One of my favorite things about best ball leagues is you can draft numerous teams, since there is no work to be done after the draft. Best ball leagues require no management at all. Every week of the season, your optimal fantasy lineup is automatically determined by the platform. This means there are no waiver wire pickups, trades, setting lineups, or moving players on and off IL spots. These rules do change the draft strategy since you need enough roster depth at each position -- to ensure guaranteed plate appearances and innings -- as you can't replace injured players with healthy options on the waiver wire. With that being said, here’s a list of some of my fantasy baseball draft targets for best ball hitters.
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Infield Hitters: Value Picks for 2025
For this article, we are going to focus on Fantrax's best ball scoring, as it is one of the more popular platforms to play on. The table below shows you how it is scored. Be sure to also bookmark our Fantrax fantasy baseball rankings for best ball leagues.
| Group | Category | Points |
| H | H | 1 |
| H | HR | 3 |
| H | R | 1 |
| H | RBI | 1 |
| H | SB | 3 |
| H | BB | 1 |
| P | ER | -1.5 |
| P | IP | 1.5 |
| P | QS | 3 |
| P | SV | 6 |
| P | K | 1.5 |
| P | W | 3 |
| P | H+BB | -0.5 |
*ADP is reflective of Fantrax
Cal Raleigh, C, Seattle Mariners
ADP: 82
Raleigh mashes and is coming off his second straight 30-home run season, which would likely be three if he had more than 415 plate appearances in 2022. Raleigh's 15.4 percent barrel rate is among the best in baseball. Sure, Raleigh has low batting averages year-over-year, but in the best ball format, that does not matter.
Given how the scoring system works, Raleigh pushed William Contreras for the top catcher in best ball scoring in 2024 and wound up as the 43rd-best player overall. Having a leg up at catcher is huge over the competition. The position drops off hard, and if you talk about a 12-team format. Raleigh scored 204 points more than the No. 12 catcher.
The power is there, as Raleigh is only 28 years old, and you have to imagine he hits 30 or more home runs again in 2025. Considering how closely he scores to Contreras in this format, getting him 50 picks later is a steal.
Cal Raleigh has tied the great Mike Cameron for 20th on the M's career HR list with 87
Next up, Dan Wilson- 88 pic.twitter.com/J02PrT96mK
— Gary Hill Jr. (@GaryHillJr) September 2, 2024
Eugenio Suarez, 3B, Arizona Diamondbacks
ADP: 132
The third base position is shallow, and Suarez plays extremely well in the best ball format. In fact, he finished the year as the fourth-best third baseman in 2024, only behind Jose Ramirez, Manny Machado, and Matt Chapman. A lot of the production came in the second half, but production is still production, and he possibly won some team championships.
Suarez is a certified second-half hitter, putting up 20 of his 30 home runs over his final 251 plate appearances. Over that span, he also slashed an impressive .307/.341/.602 and pushed his RBI total over 100 for the season.
Three of his last four seasons have seen him put up 30 home runs or more, and the only year he did not was in 2023 with Seattle, which is one of the worst places to hit.
Projections don't love Suarez for 2025, but I'm buying another 30 home run season, especially after seeing Suarez post an 11.3 percent barrel rate and a 40.5 percent sweet-spot rate. Outperforming his 132 ADP feels like a given.
Eugenio Suarez is a great ADP value around pick 180 and a great trade target in dynasty for contending teams.
Surarez ranks 6th in HR and 6th in RBI since 2018 OD.
Last 7 Full Seasons average: 80 R, 32 HR, 93 RBI#FantasyBaseball pic.twitter.com/n1hkwCyBVI— Eric Cross (@EricCrossMLB) February 17, 2025
Jonathan India, 2B, Kansas City Royals
ADP: 181
India has a new home in Kansas City, which is a major ballpark downgrade from Cincinnati. He excels in a couple of areas, launch angles and plate discipline. India is going to get on base and is a threat on the base paths. The exit velocities are not good, but he negates them by getting the ball on good angles and to the pull side.
If there is a format that India excels in, it is Fantrax's best ball scoring, where even in a down year, he still wound up as the sixth-best second baseman and 75th-ranked overall player. Even with the move to Kansas City, I actually think there is room for India to put up better numbers.
Projected to lead off, India will score a ton of runs hitting in front of Bobby Witt Jr. He also stands a chance to break the 15 home run barrier, which he has not done since his rookie season. At the price tag, India is a solid buy.
Isaac Paredes, 3B, Houston Astros
ADP: 216
After hitting 31 home runs in 2023, Paredes was pacing for close to that mark again, as he hit 16 in the first half of 2024 with the Rays before being traded to the Cubs at the deadline.
After the trade, Paredes hit just three home runs in 212 plate appearances with the Cubs. This could be because Wrigley Field has a left-field foul pole of 355 feet. Of the three home runs he hit in a Cubs uniform, just one was at home, and that was Paredes's only extra-base hit with Chicago.
Now, with the Astros, we know how hitter-friendly it can be for right-handed bats who can pull the ball. The Crawford Boxes in Daikin Park (formerly Minute Maid) is 315 feet. Paredes can feast again!
Paredes is never going to light up the exit velocity charts and will have a lot of blue balls on his savant page. Who cares. Paredes pulled a league-best 65 percent of his fly balls and had an average exit velocity near 92 mph on those batted ball types. The contact is strong, and Paredes has one of the better sweet-spot rates in the game.
Expect a 25-30 home run season for Paredes this year and the next three years he is in Houston. Also, who is to say he couldn’t add more power? He is entering the prime of his career, turning 26 years old later this month.
T-minus 42 days until Opening Day!!
In 2023, former #Rays INF Isaac Paredes posted a 4.2 bWAR, hitting a career-high 31 HR along with 98 RBI and a 130 OPS+
Paredes finished top-20 in AL MVP voting that season #RaysUp pic.twitter.com/5n7Y52GY3g
— Rays The Roof (@RaysTheRoofTB) February 15, 2025
Ryan McMahon, 3B, Colorado Rockies
ADP: 234
McMahon is who he is at this point, entering his age 30 season. But coming off his fourth straight 20-home run season, McMahon has also been pretty consistent in terms of batting average, OBP, and counting stats. His 234 ADP is relatively low despite the fact he finished just outside the top 100 overall for best ball last season.
The interesting thing is McMahon's home-road splits are not typical of what you see out of a Rockies hitter. Having a .720 OPS at home and a .723 OPS on the road is interesting. That has not always been the case, though, as McMahon has a career .814 OPS at home and .673 on the road.
This can actually play to your advantage, though, in best ball. Given the computer scoring, you will get all of McMahon's best weeks, especially while he is playing at home. But if he has a bad week on the road, it does not hurt you. Grabbing him in the 20th round of a 12-team draft feels worth it, just from that perspective.
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