Dynasty: Joshua Baez. The FanRanked staff dynasty board has Baez ahead, Baez #159 and Emerson #201, and the expert consensus agrees (#196 and #147). The community agrees too, FRV 54.8 to 49.4.
JD on Grady Emerson (Aug 25, 2026): I've seen a lot of people rank Grady as the number one prospect coming out of this draft and I think it's a relatively fair take, especially given the Rays track record. He still hasn't gotten his first hit yet, going 0-10 with 4 walks in 14 plate appearances, but that's largely meaningless with such a tiny sample size. I'm not willing to pay the price of him being the most valuable first-year player coming out of the 2026 draft, but he still looks like a top 5 guy in this class for the time being.
JD on Joshua Baez (Aug 20, 2026): It's pretty incredible that Baez hit 3 HR in his first game and now looks like he can't hit a baseball. He hit 34 home runs in AAA this year and looks like he will easily eclipse the 40-home run mark between the two levels this year. Pretty good for a player who wasn't really an upper-echelon prospect outside of a few sources heading into the year. Long term I think he will be a pretty productive bat for the Cardinals with plenty of power and a questionable hit tool that will probably lead to low averages and a lot of strikeouts. I think he'll definitely carve out a good role for himself but will be susceptible to peaks and valleys. The good news is that he doesn't have the Jordan Walker problem where he likes to beat balls into the ground for fun so he probably won't have the same initial issues that Walker had when he first came to the big leagues.
Data as of . Consensus boards refresh daily; the staff board moves when it is republished.
| Metric | Grady Emerson | Joshua Baez |
|---|---|---|
| Team | TB | STL |
| Position | SS | OF |
| Age | 18 | 23 |
| Staff Dynasty Rank | #201 | #159 |
| Dynasty Consensus Rank | #196 | #147 |
| Redraft Consensus Rank | - | - |
| Prospect Consensus Rank | #31 | #37 |
| FRV (FanRanked Value) | 49.4 | 54.8 |
| Expert Sources | 17 | 20 |
| Dynasty Rank Range | #108–#270 | #133–#189 |
| Rest-of-Season Value | - | - |
| $ Earned Year to Date | - | - |
| ROS Rank (Top 300) | - | - |
| 30-Day Consensus Move | Down 53 spots | Down 16 spots |
| Stat | Grady Emerson | Joshua Baez |
|---|---|---|
| PA | - | 108 |
| HR | - | 7 |
| R | - | 18 |
| RBI | - | 18 |
| SB | - | 2 |
| AVG | - | .230 |
| OBP | - | .278 |
| SLG | - | .510 |
| OPS | - | .788 |
| wOBA | - | .335 |
| xwOBA | - | .303 |
Price a Grady Emerson-for-Joshua Baez trade in the Dynasty Trade Calculator · compare their rest-of-season dollars in the Roto & Redraft Trade Analyzer