Abstract In prior studies, a very minimal Yukawa sector within the SO(10) Grand Unified Theory framework has been identified, comprising of Higgs fields belonging to a real 10 H , a real 120 H , and a 126 ¯ H $$ {\overline{126}}_H $$ dimensional representations. In this work, within this minimal framework, we have obtained fits to fermion masses and mixings while successfully reproducing the cosmological baryon asymmetry via leptogenesis. The right-handed neutrino (N i ) mass spectrum obtained from the fit is strongly hierarchical, suggesting that B − L asymmetry is dominantly produced from N 2 dynamics while N 1 is responsible for erasing the excess asymmetry. With this rather constrained Yukawa sector, fits are obtained both for normal and inverted ordered neutrino mass spectra, consistent with leptonic CP-violating phase δ CP indicated by global fits of neutrino oscillation data, while also satisfying the current limits from neutrinoless double beta decay experiments. In particular, the leptonic CP-violating phase has a preference to be in the range δ CP ≃ (230 – 300)°. We also show the consistency of the framework with gauge coupling unification and proton lifetime limits.