'Way Too Early' 2026 Top 25 Rankings

Plus: Top 75 portal rankings, trade deadline targets and fits & more

July 23, 2025

'Way Too Early' 2026 Top 25 Rankings

While the 2026 season is a ways off, much of the offseason’s most significant movement—coaching changes, the transfer portal and the MLB Draft—is now behind us. With that in mind, our ‘Way Too Early’ Top 25 ranking serves as an early look at how we believe the nation’s top programs stack up entering the fall.

Our sneak-peek rankings are topped by UCLA, which made a run to Omaha last month and will feature the return of Baseball America’s 2025 College Player of the Year, Roch Cholowsky.

We approached this exercise with a slightly higher tolerance for risk than we typically would come February, factoring in potential breakouts, coaching impact and unproven but high-upside transfers. This list will look different when our official preseason Top 25 is released, but for now, it reflects where things stand as the dust settles from a busy summer.

PORTAL RANKINGS UPDATE

Top 75 Transfer Portal Rankings

With the 2025 Draft now over, we've once more updated our ranking of the top players having entered the portal for next year.

Our latest update expands the list to 75 players. Stay tuned for another update next week and also be sure to check out the latest updates to our 2025 transfer portal tracker here.

DRAFT CHAT AT 2 P.M.

Post-MLB Draft Chat With Carlos Collazo

With the dust settling on the 2025 MLB Draft, it’s a good time to survey what was while also looking ahead to what could be.

With that in mind, Baseball America draft expert Carlos Collazo will be hosting a draft chat at 2 p.m. ET on Wednesday to answer your burning questions about what went down with the 2025 class and what to look forward to in 2026.

In the meantime, be sure to check out the BA draft pick tracker, which is being updated with signing bonus totals for players as they’re reported. You can find team-by-team bonus pool amounts here.

Everything To Know Before The Trade Deadline

The MLB Trade deadline is set for Thursday, July 31. That leaves just over a week for contending teams to scour the market in search of playoff-push additions and for rebuilding teams to sniff out potential system-altering prospect hauls. Here’s what you need to know before the deadline hits:

TRENDING NOW AT BASEBALL AMERICA

👀 ICYMI: We updated our Top 30s for all teams with 2025 draft picks.

⚾️ Jacob Rudner profiled UCLA’s old-school approach to roster construction.

📈 J.J. Cooper wrote about Nick Kurtz’s historic rookie campaign with the A’s.

🎙️ The latest College Baseball Podcast discussed top portal classes & more.

💬 Geoff Pontes hosted this week’s Hot Sheet chat.

FOLLOW BA ON SOCIAL

LIKE WHAT YOU SEE? BECOME A BA SUBSCRIBER TODAY

Join the thousands of fans, players, coaches and front office personnel who are the backbone of the Baseball America community by subscribing today.