When it comes to your fantasy baseball draft prep, there is no better tool than a good, old-fashioned MLB fantasy baseball mock draft. The calendar will flip to March, spring training updates will come flooding in, MLB depth charts will change, and before you know it, you’re walking into your draft room ready to do battle for the 2025 fantasy baseball season.

 

 

 

You can study the fantasy baseball player rankings, fantasy baseball ADP trends and draft strategy articles all you want, but until you see it all in action – until you actually live it – they’re just words and numbers on a page. Are you prepared? You will be if you put your knowledge to the test in a series of quality fantasy baseball mock drafts.

2025 MLB Fantasy Baseball Mock Draft: 12-Team, 5x5 Roto

Your purchase of our 2025 Fantasy Baseball Draft Guide and/or your All-Pro subscription to Fantasy Alarm will get you an invite into some of our upcoming mock drafts, but for this first one (and maybe even the next one here in the Guide), we went to the heavy hitters of the fantasy baseball industry. 

Typically, we’ve only used the Fantasy Alarm team to analyze fantasy baseball mock draft results. The crew is always fantastic, but one thing we noticed is that due to the familiarity with each other, as well as the aligned opinions on so many players, we were presenting you with more of an exercise in pick-sniping than what your home or work league might look like.

Having a pick or two of yours sniped in a draft is par for the course. You could even argue that it's, case-in-point, why MLB fantasy baseball mock drafts can be so valuable and give you a better idea of how your actual 2025 drafts might play out. Nonetheless, we wanted to offer you a chance to see multiple expert opinions and a greater variety of draft strategies in effect.

And wow – did we ever succeed!

We assembled 12 of the greatest fantasy baseball minds from across the industry and locked them into a room to fight it out for 29 rounds. So, let’s dive in. We’ll start with the draft specs, the players and the draft board, and then we’ll get to the analysis of our first 2025 MLB fantasy baseball mock draft of the spring.

 

 

 

MLB Fantasy Baseball Mock Draft 2025 Format & Scoring

  • 12-teams, 29 rounds, snake draft
  • 5x5 roto scoring
    • Hitting Categories: AVG, HR, RBI, runs scored, SB
    • Pitching Categories: Wins, K, WHIP, ERA, Saves
  • Starting Rosters: 2 C, 1 1B, 1 2B, 1 3B, 1 SS, 1 MI, 1 CI, 5 OF, 1 UT, 9 P
  • Bench: 6 players

Our MLB Fantasy Baseball Mock Drafters (In Draft Order)

  1. Derek Carty – THE BAT
  2. Colby Conway – Caught Stealing Fantasy Baseball Podcast
  3. Nick Pollack – Pitcher List
  4. Todd Zola – Mastersball
  5. Howard Bender – Fantasy Alarm/SiriusXM Fantasy Sports Radio
  6. Ariel Cohen – ATC Projections/Beat the Shift Podcast
  7. Lou Landers – DrRoto.com
  8. Jon Impemba – Fantasy Alarm
  9. Justin Mason – The Sleeper & The Bust Podcast
  10. Steve Gardner – USA Today
  11. James Anderson – Rotowire
  12. Eric Karabell – ESPN

If you’re on X (formerly known as Twitter), please give everyone a follow! And check out their sites as well for all of their work! They are all worth it!

 

 

 

The First 2025 Fantasy Baseball Mock Draft Board

The final fantasy baseball mock draft results board is pasted below, but you can also CLICK HERE to open up a new window for easier reference.

It’s a gorgeous board and a huge note of thanks to our friends at RT Sports for hosting, but what can we learn from this MLB fantasy baseball mock draft?

 

 

 

12-Team Fantasy Baseball Mock Draft Results & Strategy

Having just completed a pair of 15-teamers – Tout Wars SOLDS League & BARF Fantasy Baseball – settling in for a 12-team fantasy baseball draft was actually nice and relaxing. The player pool is vast and considering how deep starting pitching always is, I knew I could bulk up on offense first and then lean into pitching. I did just that and love the results, especially when I made sure I used our Fantasy Baseball Cheat Sheet and followed it to the letter!

Power and speed early – that’s the goal. Ideally, you want guys who can stuff the stat sheet in every category, but since no one at first base steals bags anymore, I wanted to make sure I got some extra speed after grabbing Bryce Harper. CJ Abrams, along with Elly De La Cruz, was a nice add and both Jazz Chisholm and Wyatt Langford could each swipe 15-20 bases as well.

For the rest of the draft, again, my focus for hitters was guys who do both – Matt McLain, Ceddanne Rafaela and Parker Meadows all fit the bill and when I took someone like Mike Trout or Nolan Arenado, I made sure I added in someone like Maikel Garcia for some extra steals. Hitting-wise, I think I have great balance here and expect to have a strong showing in every category.

As for my pitching, I think I did a pretty damn good job as well. Gerrit Cole is a solid anchor-ace, Michael King is expected to be strong this year and I went with a little “rookie” upside with Roki Sasaki. He won’t have much in the way of any two-start weeks given how the Dodgers are expected to handle their pitching staff this season, but the overall results should be strong enough for an SP3. Zac Gallen, Jared Jones, Luis Severino, Tobias Myers and even Chris Bassitt should prove to be strong complements as well. Strikeouts and wins should be a problem.

And as for closers, I’m pretty well-set. Kenley Jansen has no competition for saves in the Angels bullpen, I handcuffed Jason Foley with Tyler Holton to lock in the Tigers’ saves and I even added Ryan Pressly who will be closing for the Cubs this year. I would have preferred to add Porter Hodge, but Colby decided he would snipe me late.

 Again, I love the overall product here. Strong hitting, solid pitching and good bench depth. It was my first draft from the 5-spot and would love to draft for real from there in the future as well. We’ll see what happens in the next mock.

What did the rest of the crew have to say about their 2025 MLB fantasy baseball mock draft experience and results? Here we go, in no particular order:

 

 

 

What Did Colby Conway Have To Say?

The offensive potential for my team is through the roof. A healthy Luis Robert who can stay on the field could take this offense to the next level, and two of the top three catchers gives me a considerable edge at the position in this format. There's plenty of speed and power in the offense, and healthy, bounce back seasons from Josh Jung (Rd 17) and Trevor Story (Rd 27) add to the potential upside. 

The pitching staff has plenty of question marks, but if Kodai Senga is truly healthy, I could be getting a top-15/20 starter with my Rd 13 selection. Luis Castillo and Grayson Rodriguez are an average 1-2 punch (compared to others in the league), and the combination of upside selections (Spencer Arrighetti, Jackson Jobe, Jose Soriano) and "boring" vets (Nick Pivetta, Walker Buehler) rounds out the staff. If you thought the starters had question marks, the relievers have at least seven question marks. 

Do I have a true top closer? Perhaps in Jhoan Duran, but after that, I have Carlos Estevez who may close, Ben Joyce, who is blocked by Kenley Jansen, and Porter Hodge, who may see some save opportunities. Overall, while my pitching is weak, there's upside to play it up a bit, but my offense will be the heartbeat of this team, and there's power, speed, and upside for days on this squad!

How About Jon Impemba?

I went into this draft wanting to see how long I could wait on drafting starting pitching. After many best ball drafts this offseason, this was my first standard draft format with deep rosters. Early in the draft I targeted guys who could offer some power and stolen base upside, so taking the likes of Mookie Betts, Jarren Duran, Oneil Cruz and Ozzie Albies fit the mold and gave me guys with 20-30+ stolen base upside with 20-30+ homer upside as well. The middle rounds I went with power, grabbing Kyle Schwarber, Anthony Santander and Josh Naylor all before drafting my first starting pitcher. 

When it came to pitching, I was more than satisfied to grab Bryce Miller and Aaron Nola in rounds eight and nine and even happier to snag Seth Lugo in round 13. Now, I drafted this team as if this wasn't just for fantasy baseball mock draft results, but a team that I'd be managing for the rest of the season so you have to consider the fact that I'm comfortable playing the waiver wire when it comes to the rest of my pitching staff but getting some back end pitchers like MacKenzie Gore, Mitch Keller and Brayan Bello are fine for late round options that could be used as streaming slots during the year.

From Nick Pollack…

The plan was to focus on hitting for the first seven rounds and do a hard pivot to SP and I love how it turned out. There's so much value in SP in the middle rounds, with Robbie Ray in the 15th showcasing the importance of focusing on hitters early. It also showcased the numerous SP options that are still going at the very end of drafts. 

Jose Soriano, Justin Verlander, Lucas Giolito, Walker Buehler, Hayden Wesneski… I could go on. All of these are excellent arms who would go earlier in drafts in prior years. Hitters dry up quickly, too. There are far fewer quality bats in the second half of the draft and leaning into stability early appears stronger than an early balance with SP value holding up more than hitters.

 

 

 

In The Words Of James Anderson…

I didn't go into the mock with any specific strategies beyond my usual inclination to go hitters early and make sure I've got good catchers and closers, especially in a 12-team fantasy baseball league, which for me is shallow. The thinking is that you're probably not going to get good catchers or closers on the wire or late in drafts, but you'll be able to add solid players at other positions in-season and in the endgame of a 12-team league. 

I feel like going hitters early is a must, as I still got two SP1s in Dylan Cease and Blake Snell after bringing in a few elite position players first. I rostered one bench position player (Garrett Mitchell) and had five starting pitchers on my bench, as I expect to miss on a couple of those late starters, so I wanted as many starters with upside as I could get.

From The Mind Of Steve Gardner…

The first impression I had about the mock draft was that everyone seemed really hesitant to jump in on pitchers. Having the 10th pick, I figured one of Paul Skenes or Tarik Skubal would be taken ahead of me in the first round, but that wasn’t the case. I was pretty thrilled to get Kyle Tucker there at No. 10 and get Skubal – my top-ranked pitcher – on the way back in Round 2. Logan Gilbert ended up being the only other pitcher taken in the first 27 picks.

The pitching run never really materialized until the fourth round – and with Skubal at the top of my rotation, I went with four consecutive hitters in Rounds 3-6.  Colby Conway in the No. 2 spot took the anti-pitching strategy to the extreme, drafting hitters with his first seven selections – and still ended up with a pretty decent staff. Maybe that’s the primary takeaway from this draft: The depth in pitching this season means you really don’t have to overdraft the top-tier starters because several good ones will likely fall to you in the middle and late rounds.

As for hitting, I’ve found myself passing on corner infielders early in favor of outfielders and middle infielders. That seemed to happen again, even though I may have pulled the trigger a little early on 2B/3B-eligible Jordan Westburg in Round 6.

Heard This From Eric Karabell…

Picking last in Round 1, I figured Paul Skenes would be there, and he was.  Feels good to start with an ace and Fernando Tatis, who has first round upside. After that, I wanted to secure several power options, and I love Brent Rooker and Junior Caminero.  Matt Shaw may be the NL Rookie of the Year. Several reliable starting pitchers fell too far, and I made sure to get two good closers.

 

 

 

Todd Zola Recounts…

Well, that was interesting. For years, I have preached to put yourself in an uncomfortable spot in a mock, so you don't get stuck in a routine.  Via my own carelessness, I was auto-drafted two pitchers in Rounds 3 and 4. 

They were really good, and deserved the draft spots, but just aren't usually my thing. It was fun, and challenging, and at times frustrating, looking at different players at different positions that usually aren't on my radar. Past that, I steered into the daily moves settings with a bunch of relievers I'd have active in lieu of a starter.

Ariel Cohen Said…

My strategy as always is to accumulate value. I’m good with taking old boring veterans such as George Springer, with a few shots at upside late.

In my recent drafts, I’ve noticed that power and RBI are scarce later on, whereas stolen bases are more plentiful than they have been recently. I locked down power early with Juan Soto, Yordan Alvarez, Rafael Devers and Marcel Ozuna. I had to make up the speed later on in the draft – and I was able to do so with Luis Garcia Jr., Xavier Edwards, Lane Thomas and Andres Gimenez.

The pitching that I drafted in this mock wasn’t my typical team – but I thought they were good value picks – Kirby, Yamamoto, Peralta, R. Lopez etc. I also made sure to secure three closers as this was a 12-team mixed league.

All in all, I did a good job of accumulating the categories, without taking on much risk in the draft.

Finally, From Lou Landers…

I went with four bats in the first four rounds (Gunnar Henderson, Jackson Chourio, Manny Machado, and Pete Alonso). It was my intention to do that, and I was able to draft a combination of reliability and upside. After that, I wanted to get a front-line starter and a closer who isn’t in jeopardy of losing their job (Corbin Burnes and Josh Hader).

Once I had accomplished that, I didn’t draft by positional need; I focused more on drafting for categories while still maintaining my balance of reliability and upside. That is a strategy I have been using over the past couple of years, and I find that it always keeps me competitive.

Based on where I took them and how I expect them to perform, my favorite picks of my draft are:

What About From You?

What does this MLB fantasy baseball 12-team mock draft tell you about the upcoming season? Which expert do you think ended up with the best team?

Let us know in the Fantasy Alarm Discord and check back soon as we continue to gather fantasy baseball mock draft results for all league formats all the way up to Opening Day!