For those new to fantasy baseball, the terms “BN” or “BE” when looking at the lineup can be a bit confusing. New players should know what this means, as not knowing can affect one’s final results in a fantasy baseball league significantly. Luckily, there’s a simple explanation. Here’s what the terms “BN” or “BE” mean.

Meaning of BE & BN in fantasy baseball

The terms “BE” or “BN” in fantasy baseball are usually short for the bench in fantasy baseball. The bench is where players not currently starting sit on one’s roster.

During a fantasy baseball draft, teams must fill out a roster of both starters and a bench. The number of total players one is allowed to have on the bench is dependent on the format of the league.

In fantasy baseball, most formats typically have a limit on the number of players that can be active on one team’s lineup. For example, teams can have one catcher, one first baseman, one second baseman start, etc. plus a set number of pitchers.

The bench should include a number of both position players and pitchers. Even though one can typically only start one position player at each position plus several pitchers on a given day, having a bench — and a reliable one on that — will make things much easier should any particular player go on the IL and miss a significant amount of time.

We should note that stats accumulated by players on the bench do not count towards one’s total stats in head-to-head and roto leagues. Only players who are starting will have their stats count towards the cumulative total.

Thus, one must choose carefully as to which players are started on any given day or week.