Player Positional Rankings: MLS Fantasy Round 15

MLS Fantasy Round 15 brings us the second massive DGW of the 2025 season, and if you’re like me, you’ll be laser-focused on chaos mitigation because this round is going to be especially tricky due to player availability and rolling lockout timing. In Round 13, I explained some effective ways to approach a DGW, specifically addressing formations using switcheroos, autoroos and keeperoos. Pretty useful, right?

Right … except this is where I’m going to tell you to temporarily forget all that stuff and just run an autoroo this week. The timing of games makes switcheroos all but impossible. Sure, there are a couple of serviceable switcheroo options for attacking players, but you’ll only get to preview points from the first 40 minutes of your bench defenders before all the fallbacks you’d ideally want are locked out.

I mean, the DGW defense switcheroo options this week range from inadvisable to nonexistent. Apologies to all the Quakes and Galaxy homers reading this article, but you’re never talking me into picking from either of your defenses this round. It’s just not happening. Which pretty much leaves Minnesota as the only remaining fallback defense having two games. Sure, you might get super lucky pulling that particular trigger, but with two away matches against formidable Western Conference rivals, I highly recommend reengaging the safety, putting the gun down and assuming the position for even thinking about it. For context, I’m a die-hard MNUFC supporter, and I’m saying this knowing the Loons’ road defense has been decent this season. I’m even saying it knowing the ‘Caps will almost certainly roll out their B team on Wednesday. In my book, none of it matters in terms of acceptable risk. First of all, the Whitecaps are good at soccer. They currently sit atop the Supporters’ Shield table, they’re playing for the CONCACAF Champions Cup next weekend, and they brought a heavily-rotated squad into Allianz just a few weeks ago and totally embarrassed the Loons with a 3-1 road win that wasn’t as close as the score suggests. Hard pass, despite what the bookmakers would have you believe. Second, all Loons players are allergic to Rave Green. It’s probably a scientific fact. They play like the Sounders’ kits are made of actual Kryptonite instead of just being the same obnoxious color. Minnesota United have never won a league match at Lumen Field, having been outscored 22-5 in 10 matches since 2017. They’ve only ever beaten the Sounders once in the history of the club, a measly 1-0 win in Minnesota way back in prehistoric 2021 (we got lucky). So, it’s probably a really good idea to just put the Loons totally out of your mind this week … unless you’re inexplicably capable of enduring utter failure and crippling disappointment. You know, just like the Loons do every single time they play Seattle.

So, with pretty much no DGW defenders or goalkeepers who any reasonably sane manager would want to use as fallback players in a switcheroo, your best bet this week is to pick three strong, early defenders in a five-at-the-back autoroo formation, benching three attackers plus a strong early goalkeeper and using two LAFC defenders and a LAFC goalkeeper as scrubs (LAFC is on a bye). If you trust Anders Dreyer’s, Gabriel Pec’s, Marco Reus’ or Cristian Espinoza’s form and matchups, you can put one of them on your pitch as an attacking fallback/scrub candidate to ensure that you don’t strand any points on your bench. Also, since it’s rather difficult to predict whether most of the round’s preferred attackers will avoid rotation, you’ll want to bench those most likely to get rested. The question becomes whether you consider Dreyer, Pec, Reus or Espinoza to be strong enough alternatives if you’re forced to pivot. That’s the kind of question that can freeze you in a state of indecision when you only have five minutes before lockouts answer it for you. I hate to say it, but sometimes you have to risk stranding points on your bench due to an uncommon amount of uncertainty, and this is probably one of those times you’ll want to do it on purpose and in advance. That said, if you’re trying to make up ground in the rankings, using one of those fallback attackers I mentioned could prove to be a rather positive differential, and something to consider.

Everything I’ve said so far assumes you’re running all DGW players in your squad, apart from scrubs of course. A viable alternative to using DGW players as fallbacks is (cue drum roll) using SGW players as fallbacks. Portland is probably the only SGW team with a favorable home matchup, though. Maybe a St. Louis attacker can take advantage of a tired San Jose defense on the back end of double away games, but given their poor attacking form, I can’t recommend it. And it’s also possible Brian White comes on late and scores a brace (again). He is a cyborg after all. But only a crazy or desperate person would pick him if he isn’t in the starting lineup. Or who knows, maybe Vancouver will keep a clean sheet against the Loons. Anyway, there are a handful of SGW fallback options, but most of them carry a higher amount of risk than I’m comfortable with, mainly because they only play one game, and they play late enough to dangerously limit any pivot options. Besides, conventional wisdom suggests it’s seriously unlikely that even the best SGW player will outscore an average DGW player, which is why all of my picks this round will be DGW players, and why yours should be, too.

What sets the MLS Fantasy game apart is that it forces you to make some rather difficult decisions, and sometimes those decisions can make or break your season. You can easily find yourself at a 20 point deficit from one bad decision, or at a 20 point advantage from a good one, luck notwithstanding. As the season progresses, the magnitude of your decisions will change depending on where you’re ranked and what your goals and expectations are. Right now, the overall rankings are still pretty tight in terms of point separation, which means it’s still possible to leapfrog dozens of managers in the rankings, or fall dozens of spots in a single round. But with each new round, that point separation expands and it becomes much harder to overcome a significant point deficit to make giant leaps. I mention this because it’s the kind of DGW round where an uncommon number of things could go wrong, and how you handle that could have a serious impact on your season. Let’s make sure it’s a positive impact, and as always, I wish you good luck!

• Teams on a DGW:
  • Home + Home: CIN, LAG, MIA, NYRB, SEA, TOR
  • Home + Away: ATL, ATX, CLB, DCU, NYC
  • Away + Home: DAL, HOU, MTL, NSH, ORL, SDFC
  • Away + Away: CLT, MIN, NER, PHI, RSL, SJE
• Teams on a SGW: CHI, COL, POR, SKC, STL, VAN
• Teams on a BYE: LAFC

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Get more advice on the MLS Fantasy Insider Podcast – Round 15 DGW Preview

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Note: (?) means the player might not start due to injury, lack of fitness, availability status or loss of starting spot. (OOP) means the player is expected to play out of position. (!!) means the player is one booking away from suspension.

GOALKEEPERS

PLAYER	TEAM	OPPONENT	VALUE
1. Roman Celentano	CIN	vs DAL, vs DCU	$7.50m
2. Carlos Coronel	NYRB	vs CLT, vs ATL	$8.40m
3. Stefan Frei	SEA	vs SDFC, vs MIN	$7.40m

Sleeper Goalkeepers

PLAYER	TEAM	OPPONENT	VALUE
1. Oscar Ustari	MIA	vs MTL, vs CLB	$4.70m
2. Pedro Gallese	ORL	@ ATL, vs CHI	$9.00m

DEFENDERS

PLAYER	TEAM	OPPONENT	VALUE
1. Luca Orellano	CIN	vs DAL, vs DCU	$9.10m
2. Jordi Alba (OOP)	MIA	vs MTL, vs CLB	$7.20m
3. Alex Freeman	ORL	@ ATL, vs CHI	$9.60m
4. Omar Valencia	NYRB	vs CLT, vs ATL	$8.30m
5. Noah Eile	NYRB	vs CLT, vs ATL	$8.70m
6. Griffin Dorsey (!!)	HOU	@ NYC, vs SKC	$9.00m
7. Miles Robinson	CIN	vs DAL, vs DCU	$7.80m
8. Alex Roldan	SEA	vs SDFC, vs MIN	$6.60m
9. Kim Kee-Hee	SEA	vs SDFC, vs MIN	$6.10m
10. Kai Wagner	PHI	@ TOR, @ DAL	$11.40m

Sleeper Defenders

PLAYER	TEAM	OPPONENT	VALUE
1. Walker Zimmerman (?)	NSH	@ CLB, vs NYC	$8.60m
2. DeJuan Jones	SJE	@ LAG, @ STL	$7.50m
3. Lukas Engel	CIN	vs DAL, vs DCU	$5.70m

MIDFIELDERS

PLAYER	TEAM	OPPONENT	VALUE
1. Evander	CIN	vs DAL, vs DCU	$13.10m
2. Albert Rusnak	SEA	vs SDFC, vs MIN	$13.60m
3. Martin Ojeda	ORL	@ ATL, vs CHI	$11.90m
4. Anders Dreyer	SDFC	@ SEA, vs ATX	$12.90m
5. Hany Mukhtar	NSH	@ CLB, vs NYC	$12.50m
6. Cristian Espinoza	SJE	@ LAG, @ STL	$12.80m
7. Marco Reus	LAG	vs SJE, vs RSL	$9.30m
8. Emil Forsberg	NYRB	vs CLT, vs ATL	$10.10m
9. Carles Gil	NER	@ DCU, @ MTL	$12.60m
10. Jack McGlynn	HOU	@ NYC, vs SKC	$11.90m

Sleeper Midfielders

PLAYER	TEAM	OPPONENT	VALUE
1. Marco Pašalić	ORL	@ ATL, vs CHI	$10.10m
2. Pep Biel	CLT	@ NYRB, @ TOR	$11.00m
3. Gerardo Valenzuela	CIN	vs DAL, vs DCU	$6.80m

FORWARDS

PLAYER	TEAM	OPPONENT	VALUE
1. Lionel Messi	MIA	vs MTL, vs CLB	$13.30m
2. Luis Muriel	ORL	@ ATL, vs CHI	$11.20m
3. Kevin Denkey (!!)	CIN	vs DAL, vs DCU	$10.40m
4. Diego Rossi	CLB	vs NSH, @ MIA	$12.40m
5. Alonso Martinez	NYC	vs HOU, @ NSH	$11.40m
6. Chucky Lozano (!!)	SDFC	@ SEA, vs ATX	$11.50m
7. Gabriel Pec	LAG	vs SJE, vs RSL	$7.40m
8. Sam Surridge	NSH	@ CLB, vs NYC	$11.00m
9. Tai Baribo	PHI	@ TOR, @ DAL	$9.80m
10. Eric Maxim Choupo-Moting	NYRB	vs CLT, vs ATL	$9.30m

Sleeper Forwards

PLAYER	TEAM	OPPONENT	VALUE
1. Josef Martinez	SJE	@ LAG, @ STL	$9.20m
2. Danny Musovski (?)	SEA	vs SDFC, vs MIN	$7.40m
3. Brandon Vazquez	ATX	vs RSL, @ SDFC	$8.70m

CAPTAIN

PLAYER	TEAM	OPPONENT	VALUE
1. Lionel Messi	MIA	vs MTL, vs CLB	$13.30m
2. Evander	CIN	vs DAL, vs DCU	$13.10m
3. Albert Rusnak	SEA	vs SDFC, vs MIN	$13.60m
4. Martin Ojeda	ORL	@ ATL, vs CHI	$11.90m