The Razz 30 offseason is a tradition like no other. Owners are slowly reducing their roster of players from 50 (43 spots with unrestricted IL) to the required total of 25, trading for mid-round draft picks and players who could fall on the cutoff. It’s quite a celebration and after a few hundred trades have been made, we’ll start the First-Year-Player Draft.
1. White Sox 3B Munetaka Murakami
2. Blue Jays 3B Kazuma Okamoto
3. Astros RHP Tatsuya Imai
4. Mariners LHP Kade Anderson
I wouldn’t put Murakami in the top group, but he’ll probably go that high in most leagues, and Okamoto will probably go a bit lower as people push the current production up at the top of their drafts. They probably wouldn’t rank so high if they had enough juice in the categories to compete at this point. Even with a remodel I would be tempted to take Okamoto. If he hits right away, you can trade him for more, or just build around him heading into 2027. I’m not advocating long-tail rebuilds anyway. I think the goal should be an 18 to 24 month turnaround, and at some point you should start stacking functional pieces. Why not start with Okamoto? Well, if he doesn’t score in his first MLB season, his value will pretty much be shot. There is some safety in deep players like Ethan Holliday, as he doesn’t need to produce big results to keep his dynasty stock alive for a few years. At least, that’s the theory. However, every competition is different. In the Razz 30, a bad 2026 from Holliday could tank its stock as quickly as a bad 2026 would Okamoto’s.
5. Cubs BY Ethan Conrad
A bit of a surprising choice considering Conrad was a question mark during the draft cycle due to a torn labrum and dislocated shoulder that ended his season. If he were healthy, he probably would have gone higher than 17th overall to the Cubbies. I actually quite like the pick in this class, as Conrad represents perhaps the best upside among college hitters. This league’s unique goaltending rules mean that most teams keep 18 MLB players and seven minor leaguers, so keeping a guy like Eli Willits for four seasons as he climbs the ladder doesn’t have as much appeal here as it would in a more traditional dynasty league where you can keep pretty much anyone as long as you want.
6. Cardinals LHP Liam Doyle
7. Pirates RHP Seth Hernandez
The man who picked Hernandez has a history of taking the best player available and building a nice core that way. Last season he ranked Konnor Griffin twelfth.
8. Yankees SS Dax Kilby
This may also sound like a surprise, but I ranked Kilby 72nd in my last Top 100 update, and I suspect he’ll end up somewhere on most public lists. The Razz 30 also requires each team to select three players from its affiliate, and the man who acquired Kilby manages the Yankees. Three places out of a total of 43 doesn’t sound like much, but we used to have six as a minimum, and having the good players from the real team in your squad can really help a lot. For example, I’ve had Sal Perez with the Royals since I took over for the guy who bailed halfway through the draft. It’s fun. Now I also have Maikel Garcia and Bobby Witt Jr. I feel like I’m the Royals. Nice setup, and now I’m not burning roster spots just to put kids from Kansas City in my minor leagues.
9. Nationals SS Eli Willits
10. Blue Jays SS JoJo Parker
11. Rockies SS Ethan Holliday
12. Giants SS Luis Hernandez
The Rockies traded up to get Ethan Holliday for reasons detailed in the Kilby blurb. It took all day to get it done, but I’m sure he’s happy to have one of the Rockies with true dynasty value. Parker looks a bit like the Konnor Griffin pick, which kind of gave me an uh-oh feeling. Good value for ten.
13. Marlins SS Aiva Arquette
Arquette feels like a steal at 13 years old. I know Miami’s recent history of drafting hitters, especially college bigs like JJ Bleday and Jacob Berry, isn’t encouraging. However, this is a new front office. It feels like there’s a team history penalty, a setting penalty, and a small sample size penalty that conspire to obscure Arquette’s upside. They sent him straight to High-A at the end of the season, and while he didn’t set the world on fire (.240 with 1 HR in 27 games), he still showed plate skills and posted a 103 wRC+. He played a total of 92 matches. A good preparation for a full professional season.
14. Athletics LHP Jamie Arnold
15. Astros-SS Xavier Neyens
16. Athletics SS Johnenssy Colome
17. Nationals SS Gavin Fien
I like Neyens’ choice. 6-foot-4 and 210 pounds from the left side with downfield action, smooth athleticism and double-plus strength. A long way perhaps, but the top is great.
18. Red Sox RHP Kyson Witherspoon
Good choice for this competition. It is a six by six format, with quality starting as an additional category. Pitching can be hard to find.
19. Brewers 3B Andrew Fischer
20. Reds SS Steele Hall
Hall feels like a . . . cowardly choice here.
21. Angels RHP Tyler Bremner
22. Royals 3B Josh Hammond
23. White Sox SS Billy Carlson
24. Phillies BY Francisco Renteria
My choice was 26, and I considered taking Renteria there. After the choice was made for me, I ended up going the other way.
25. Astros BY Ethan Frey
26. Revisions 2B
I didn’t know much about Sung-mun Song when the concept started. By the time it was my turn, I was thrilled to select him and immediately received a trade request from the team that won last season. That felt like a good sign. The short version of Song’s story: He played in the KBO as a teenager, but put his baseball life on hold to serve the required time in the South Korean military in 2020 and 2021. He wasn’t great until he was 27 years old in 2024, when he slashed .340/.409/.518 with just 82 strikeouts in 142 games. Over the past two years, he hit 45 home runs and stole 46 bases in 48 attempts. I’d take that for the Razz 30 Royals.
27. Orioles C Ike Irish
28. Guards BY Jace LaViolette
Nice value here for some college bonkers.
29. Evaders BY Charles Davalan
30. Phillies RHP Gage Wood
But to go broke betting on the Dodgers to develop their draft picks. As a first-rounder out of Arkansas, Davalan should be able to bully Low-A pitchers, but it’s still impressive to see someone hit .500 with five extra base hits in his eight-game pro debut.
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