| | | | Friday, March 22, 2024 | | Don't panic. | | It has to be said every year at the start of the baseball season, because some people never seem to hear it, so I'll say it again: Don't panic. | | If you drafted Yoshinobu Yamamoto as a top-10 starting pitcher, that might be hard to hear after he was tagged for five runs and chased after just a single inning in his MLB debut Wednesday as the Padres beat the Dodgers 15-11. It was an ignominious start to a much-hyped pitcher's career, and coming off a rocky spring, you might be wondering if you just wasted a top-50 pick on a pitcher who won't be nearly worth it. | | And … I mean, maybe! I can't see into the future any better than you can, and it's certainly possible that Yamamoto is about to go down as one of the biggest busts in MLB history. But one start, in a game and series where every other starting pitcher struggles with their command, is obviously too early to draw any conclusions from. Yamamoto didn't pitch well, obviously, but to my eyes, his stuff still looks very sharp, and it's worth remembering that he's transitioning not just to a new league, but also just made his first career MLB start in a different nation than either the one he pitched in for years prior to this, or the one he's going to spend the next decade-plus pitching in. And he's doing that while adjusting to a new ball, new teammates, and a whole host of different factors we can't even begin to understand. | | | | Which is all to say … don't panic. Yamamoto looked terrible, but Joe Musgrove didn't look great either. Tyler Glasnow was bouncing some breaking balls and struggled with control the day before, and Yu Darvish wasn't great either. Maybe all four of those incredibly talented pitchers are about to struggle mightily all season long; maybe all four of them are frauds; or maybe they were pitching in weird circumstances, at a time when every other pitcher in the league is still in Florida or Arizona working on their craft in front of 6,000 sunburned tourists. | | I'm not moving Yamamoto down my rankings at all because of that start, but if you wanted to take Zac Gallne or Kevin Gausman ahead of him now, I wouldn't complain – they're both right behind Yamamoto in my rankings, after all, and I don't have a super-strong opinion about the difference between the No. 39 and the No. 41 player in my overall rankings. | | I'm also not really moving J.D. Martinez up after he finally signed with the Mets Thursday night. I always assumed Martinez would sign somewhere , and while the Mets now have a pretty interesting lineup, it's not such an obviously incredible landing spot to dramatically change how I view him. I'll move Martinez up from around 225 to around 200 in my rankings, but I'm not moving him ahead of other DH-only bats like Eloy Jimenez or Byron Buxton . He'll probably still need a few weeks to get up to speed, after all, and while Martinez was obviously incredible last season (.271/.321/.571), he's also a 36-year-old who just missed basically all of Spring Training, and had two separate IL stints last season, to boot. | | He should be a very good hitter once again, but it's a much worse lineup than last year's, and having a DH-only bat can really limit your in-season flexibility. That's not a problem if the player is a difference maker, as Martinez can be. But if he falls short at all, the margin for error isn't very wide; remember how excited you were to start Martinez in 2022? Yeah, me neither. He's a fine late-round pick with upside, but not someone you need to run out and draft super-high now that he signed. | | Alright, with those two topics out of the way, let's get one last, big spring roun | | .. | | | | Injuries | | If you can't get on the field, you can't contribute to a Fantasy team. Here's the latest injury news, and how it affects each players' value. | | Blake Snell won't be ready for Opening Day. Don't worry, it's not because of a surprise injury, he just hasn't been built up enough to pitch for the Giants yet, which is what we expected as his free agency stretched into mid-March. He recently threw 60 pitches in a simulated game before signing, but he'll probably need to face hitters in real game action before he pitches in a regular season game. He'll have his schedule set in the coming days, and I'm expecting him to be ready after a few turns through the rotation – let's say early April at this point. | | Bryce Harper (back) hasn't played in a week due to soreness in his lower back, but he's already hitting and fielding and could play in a game as soon as Friday. He'll play first base before Spring Training is over and told MLB.com he'll be ready for Opening Day. I could see prioritizing Matt Olson ahead of him at this point, but I'm not seriously considering moving Harper down in my rankings at this point. | | Aaron Judge (abdomen) made his return to the lineup Thursday after sitting out nine days, and expects to be fully ready for Opening Day. He was playing in center field in his return, so it doesn't seem like the injury will limit him at all once the games start to matter. He's had a lot of trouble staying healthy over the years, but Judge is still a viable first-round pick, with as much upside as anyone not named Ronald Acuña. | | Kevin Gausman (shoulder) might only miss a turn or two to open the season. Gausman threw two innings and 36 pitches in a simulated game Wednesday, telling reporters he felt "pretty good" in his first bit of competitive action since being shut down with right shoulder fatigue. He won't be ready for Opening Day – Jose Berrios is the first starter for the Blue Jays – but Gausman may not need much longer than that. He'll likely start the team's final spring game with a goal of throwing three innings, and will be re-evaluated after that. That could put him on track for a start during the team's first series of the season, but it might make more sense to hold him back one more turn. Either way, it shouldn't be long until we see Gausman, who remains a top-12 starter in drafts this weekend. | | | | Corey Seager (abdomen) and Josh Jung (calf) both look like they'll be ready for Opening Day. Jung took part in a minor-league game as a DH earlier this week, while Seager did live batting practice for the first time. Neither is guaranteed to be ready for Opening Day, but Jung looks like he's on track to play in the team's final two exhibition games against the Red Sox on Monday and Tuesday, while the Rangers have already said Seager might be activated even without playing in a game. Buy the dip on both this weekend. | | We're waiting on Eury Perez (elbow) updates. The Marlins have leaked absolutely nothing so far, but Perez has visited with a specialist who performed Sandy Alcantara 's Tommy John surgery last season, which is an ominous sign. At this point, my personal expectation is we won't see Perez this season but that's just based on me being pessimistic. I'll draft him in the reserve rounds of my remaining drafts, but not any earlier. Maybe I'll regret it if this injury ends up being relatively minor, but my hopes are not high. | | Matt McLain (shoulder) is going to start the season on the IL, but that's still all we know at this point. He's going to get a second opinion on his left shoulder after an MRI showed "something," and the fact that the Reds traded for utility infielder Santiago Espinal Wednesday seems like a sign that they're not expecting him back soon. The Reds once-enviable depth has been really tested, first by Noelvi Marte's 80-game PED suspension, and then by an injury to TJ Friedl (wrist). Shortstop prospect Edwin Arroyo also had season-ending shoulder surgery this week. Hopefully we get an update on McLain soon, but if you're looking for replacements, I wrote about five to target in my Preseason Trade Values column . | | Jhoan Duran (oblique) will start the season on the IL. Duran has a "moderate" oblique strain, and according to BaseballProspectus' Recovery Dashboard tool , pitchers miss 47 days on average with oblique strains, with a median return to play time of 37 days. So, a late-April return seems reasonable, but not guaranteed – Tyler Glasnow missed 61 days with his own Grade 2 oblique strain last season. We'll likely see a combination of Brock Stewart and Griffin Jax saving games for the Twins while Duran is out, and both are viable late-round targets for cheap saves. | | Jordan Romano (elbow) had an anti-inflammatory injection in his right elbow earlier in the week, but an MRI showed no structural damage. He's going to try to throw again sometime this weekend, with the hope he can be ready for Opening Day, though that seems unlikely at this point. Nate Pearson, Zach Pop, and Brendon Little were mentioned by manager John Schneider as potential options to fill in if needed, with Erik Swanson also dealing with forearm tightness that has him in doubt for the start of the season. | Kenley Jansen (back/lat) finally made his return to spring action after several delays Thursday, and he looked great. Working one perfect inning, Jansen struck out two and hit 95 mph on the stadium gun, and then told reporters after the game, "I'll be ready" for Opening Day. I've drafted Jansen a bunch when he has fallen to the middle rounds of drafts, and I feel pretty good about that working out. He's still a top-15 closer for me.
| | Sonny Gray (hamstring) will face hitters in a minor-league game Friday, and while he's been ruled out for Opening Day, it sounds like Gray could still be ready for the first series of the season or shortly thereafter if he avoids any setbacks. Buy the dip! | | Kodai Senga will restart his throwing program sometime this week. He has been cleared by doctors upon follow-up imaging on his shoulder, and has just a few hurdles left to clear before he can begin throwing. Senga will likely still miss all of April even if he begins throwing next week, but the expectation is still that he can return sometime in May if he avoids setbacks. I'm ranking him around 150, but trying to see if I can let him fall closer to 200 before I take him, especially since I also like guys like Walker Buehler and Justin Verlander, and I don't want to be overexposed to pitchers who won't be available to start the season. | | Speaking of Verlander (shoulder), he faced hitters for the first time in a live batting practice session Wednesday, getting 20 pitches in the competitive session. Verlander will likely have at least one more live BP session before pitching in a game, which will not happen during the exhibition schedule, which means he will have to go on a minor-league rehab assignment as he works his way back into game shape. Verlander had his start to spring delayed after feeling some soreness in his shoulder before camp, and it looks like he'll be out until at least mid-April if he avoids any setbacks. | | Eduardo Rodriguez (lat) left this start Tuesday due to lat tightness, but he hasn't been ruled out for the start of the season yet, per manager Torey Lovullo. It sounds like Rodriguez avoided a serious injury, but I'm still a little hesitant to buy in – though I also hadn't drafted Rodriguez in any of my leagues before the injury, so I guess it didn't really change much. | | Eloy Jimenez (foot) is day to day with a bruise right foot after fouling a pitch off the foot during a game Wednesday. He was hitting .347/.375/.500 before the injury, but now it looks like there's a chance his spring might be over – even if the injury isn't serious, do the White Sox really have much to gain from pushing a guy with his injury history for the final few games of the spring? | | Danny Jansen (wrist) is dealing with a fractured wrist that will keep him out to open the season, though he's expected to begin throwing this week, which would seem to indicate it's not a terribly serious injury. Alejandro Kirk should open the season as the unquestioned No. 1 catcher, but if Jansen only misses a week or two of actual games, Kirk's runway may not be as long as we thought initially. | | Jonathan Aranda (finger) will start the season on the IL after being diagnosed with a broken right ring finger. This comes after Johnny DeLuca suffered a fractured right hand, and will cost Aranda, the team's expected Opening Day DH 4-6 weeks of recovery. Aranda is worth stashing on the IL wherever you can after a strong spring, and his injury could open an opportunity for another deep sleeper, Austin Shenton, who hit .304/.423/.584 last season between Double-A and Triple-A. A name to watch. | | Alex Cobb (hip) will make his spring debut Friday, with the expectation he will throw three innings during a split-squad game. That could put Cobb just a few weeks away from being able to return for the Giants, significantly ahead of schedule. Cobb has had an ERA between 3.76 and 3.87 in each of the past three seasons and can be a viable option in all leagues when healthy, so consider stashing him. | | Jose Urquidy (elbow) has an MRI that revealed no structural damage to his UCL this week, a good sign after his spring scare. Urquidy is still shut down from throwing for the next couple of weeks, but if he avoids any kind of setbacks, he could be ready to pitch in the majors sometime in May, perhaps. He's a stash candidate in deeper leagues, though with so many injured players out there right now, I would need to have a spare IL spot to even consider it. | | DJ LeMahieu (foot) told reporters, "I'm pretty much ready" for Opening Day, which means he could still be in the Opening Day lineup even if he doesn't play in any of the team's remaining exhibition games. LeMahieu is expected to bat leadoff for the Yankees and could be a solid source of runs if he can get (and stay) healthy. | | Nate Lowe (oblique) will be out until mid-April due to his right oblique strain. I'm stashing him where I have him, because even if Lowe doesn't bounce back to 2022 levels, he's a useful Fantasy option in that lineup. | | Velocity Readings | | Throwing harder is better, especially during the spring, when most pitchers are still rounding up. It's not everything, but you'd rather see higher velocity readings than lower. Here's what stood out this week: | | I've written about Bailey Ober a few times this spring already, but it's worth highlighting again for this last spring roundup, because there's a lot of upside here, seemingly. He earned high praise from Bryce Harper after an early spring appearance during which he hit 94.8 mph, the hardest pitch of Ober's career. Ober is up about 1.5-2 mph from last year's 91.3 mph average, and he was already a strikeout-per-inning guy before this; he's at 16 in 10 innings this spring. No, Bailey Ober isn't going to go out and pitch like Spencer Strider. But he gives hitters fits with his command of four pitches and the incredible extension he generates with his 6-foot-9 stature, and if he can sustain this velocity jump, Ober might have another level to reach after his breakout 2023. | | When Cole Irvin showed up to camp throwing harder than he ever had before, I was intrigued. He was already a useful Fantasy pitcher in the past as a command-and-control oriented soft-tosser, and injuries had seemingly locked him into spot in the Orioles rotation, so I was willing to spend a late-round pick here and there on a potential mini-breakout. But the results have been pretty awful so far this spring, with 10 runs and 10 walks in 12.1 innings of work, with just eight strikeouts. It could be that Irvin is just working on things, but Irvin's velocity was back down to 2023 levels in his most recent start this week and he still walked five in 3.2 innings. I don't want to give up on any pitcher based on a bad spring start or two, but given that my interest level in Irvin was never all that high to begin with, it's back down where it was before the spring now. | | Now Jack Flaherty is someone I think might actually be worth getting excited about. He's been hitting 97 and averaging between 94 and 95 mph, and he's been dominant this spring, striking out 35% of opposing hitters while allowing only nine hits and four walks in 13.2 innings. Does this automatically mean he's back to his 2019 ace levels again just because his velocity is? Of course not, nothing is ever that simple. But I had little interest in Flaherty coming into the spring, and now I have enough to move him into the top 70 of my pitcher rankings, nestled right between Reid Detmers and Luis Severino, two of my other favorite sleepers. | | Mason Miller had plenty of velocity as a starter, averaging 98.3 mph with his fastball, but we were hoping he might have an extra gear in his move to the bullpen, and that's what we've seen this spring. He's hitting 103 and has averaged 99.9 mph with his fastball, and he's fired six shutout innings with nine strikeouts so far. The Athletics haven't anointed him the closer yet, and they may not do so until he shows he can do it in high-leverage situations. But my bet is he's already the closer, and we'll see that very early on in the season – and I legitimately think he might be one of the best relievers in baseball already. | | Jackson Jobe won't be in the Tigers rotation, and he probably isn't next in line, either. But life finds a way, and it tends to find a way for uber-talented young pitchers who are literally the hardest throwing pitchers in spring training than any other pitcher. It was only one short outing in front of the Statcast cameras, but Jobe averaged 100.2 mph in that lone outing, a couple ticks up from where he's been for most of his pro career. Jobe is a consensus top-25 prospect who has struck out 28% of opposing hitters as a pro even before this apparent velocity jump. There's a chance he's just the best pitching prospect in baseball if this sticks, and we're going to see him at some point this season if he stays healthy. Remember that name. | | Lineup News | | Lineups in spring are just snapshots, but they can still tell us something about how a team wants to deploy their hitters. Here are the latest hints. | | Anthony Rendon, leadoff hitter? New Angels manager Ron Washington is considering that move after expressing some frustration with the number of one-pitch at-bats from Luis Rengifo this spring. Rendon has long been a terrific on-base player when healthy, but he hasn't hit leadoff since 2015. Obviously, Rendon needs to hit well to justify that spot, but it's worth noting he did have a .361 OBP last season and could score a decent number of runs ahead of Mike Trout at the top of the lineup. Personally, I would like to see Zachary Neto or Nolan Schanuel at the top of the lineup for the Angels, but Washington wants to stick with Neto in the No. 9 spot, at least at first. I think he has some upside, but hitting ninth for an extended stretch would certainly limit his appeal. | | Kyle Tucker could hit third for the Astros. Manager Joe Espada told reporters he is "considering" making that move with the lineup, slotting Tucker in behind Jose Altuve and Yordan Alvarez, with Alex Bregman dropping back to the cleanup spot. Tucker finally started hitting toward the top of the lineup last season, spending 56 games in the No. 3 spot, and hitting there behind Alvarez full time could push his value even higher. | | When he's been in the lineup lately this spring, Brendan Rodgers has been hitting either third or fourth for the Rockies, typically swapping spots with Nolan Jones . Rodgers is a post-post-post-hype sleeper at this point, but if he can tap into any of the upside he once showed as a prospect, he could emerge as a viable waiver-wire add. It's also worth noting that, when lineup mainstays like Kris Bryant and Ryan McMahon have been in there, Ezequiel Tovar has typically hit sixth or seventh this spring, so that's where I'm expecting him to open the season. He's a post-hype sleeper himself, and he could move up the lineup if he starts off well, but he's going to have to earn that opportunity, it seems. | | Parker Meadows has some sleeper appeal heading into his first full season, and it looks like he might hit leadoff for the Tigers this season, something he's done in nine of his 10 appearances since the start of March. Meadows wasn't great in his first taste of the majors, but he did steal eight bases and hit three homers in 37 games; he could seemingly be a 15-30 guy at the top of an improving lineup. After him, it looks like it'll be Riley Green, Spencer Torkelson, and Kerry Carpenter rounding out the top four, with Mark Canha and Colt Keith to open the season, though I could also see Keith moving up the order if the top prospect hits the ground running. | | Is Roman Laureano the cleanup hitter for the Guardians? They had a split-squad game on Tuesday of this week, and it sure looks like one of them was their Opening Day lineup, with sure things like Steven Kwan, Jose Ramirez, and Josh Naylor at the top of the lineup. Followed by Laureano, who signed for $5.15 million with the Guardians after signing there last season. I may be reading too much into that, and it's not like I'm going to go out and draft Laureano because of that. But it's worth noting. | | Position Battles | | The cream rises to the top. Here's are the position battle updates from this week. | | Cardinals CF: Top prospect Victor Scott has had a very good spring to make it a competition, but former top prospect Dylan Carlson has gotten hot and has probably done enough to send Scott back down to the minors to open the season. The team hasn't made an official decision yet, to be clear, this is just me reading the tea leaves; Scott hasn't played at Triple-A yet, and I'm guessing the organization was hoping they'd get a reason not to call him up yet, and Carlson's .865 OPS might be enough. I hope I'm wrong, and even if I'm not, I think it'll be weeks, not months, before we see Scott and his game-breaking speed up with the big-league squad. | | White Sox rotation: Garret Crochet not only made the White Sox rotation – he's their Opening Day starter! He hasn't started a non-exhibition game since 2020 when he was in college, so I'm not expecting Crochet to go out there and pitch deep into games right away – he hasn't recorded more than 11 outs in a game this spring, after all. But Crochet has been very good, with 12 strikeouts over nine scoreless innings, and I'm targeting him in the later rounds in case the former top prospect lives up to his former hype. And, with Michael Kopech moving back to the bullpen – where he is a candidate for saves and a late-round sleeper himself – it looks like Michael Soroka has a rotation spot locked up, too. The former Rookie of the Year runner up has thrown just 46 innings in the majors since his rookie season, and was awful last year with the Braves, but he's had a very good spring himself and could be someone we're rushing to add on waivers in April if he gets off to a nice start. In 15-team leagues where you have a roster spot to play with, consider beating the rush. | | Dodgers rotation: Tyler Glasnow and Yoshinobu Yamamoto were not great in their debuts, but they should remain at the top of the rotation when the Dodgers begin their domestic schedule, with Bobby Miller, James Paxton, and Gavin Stone slotting in behind them. Emmett Sheehan once seemed likely to be in the rotation, but he was added to the IL with right forearm inflammation this week and could be out a while, it seems. Stone is a very intriguing sleeper now. | | Tigers No. 4/5 SP: Reese Olson, Matt Manning, and Casey Mize are competing for two of the final three spots for the Tigers, and I'm not sure how they're gonna pick; they've all had terrific springs, with velocity up across the board and ERAs of 3.68 or better. I'm guess Olson is the most likely candidate for No. 4, which leaves two former first-round picks in Mize and Manning to battle it out. Manning has probably been a bit better this spring, but it seems like a legitimate coin flip between the two of them, and they're both interesting last-round targets. | | Marlins rotation: With injuries delaying Braxton Garrett and Edward Cabrera's start to the season, plus Eury Perez's uncertainty, it looks like the Marlins have more than enough room for A.J. Puk , Ryan Weathers, and Trevor Rogers. Heck, they might even have room for Max Meyer , though they've already optioned him to minor-league camp, so it seems more likely we'll see Brian Hoeing or George Soriano as the fifth starter to open the season. Puk, Rogers, and Weathers are all worth targeting in the later rounds in that order, with Puk probably worth a top-250 pick this days. | | Reds No. 5 SP: plus Nick Lodolo: Lodolo looks set to make his season debut on April 10, so the Reds are going to have to boot someone from the rotation when that happens. Which means Nick Martinez and Andrew Abbott will be pitching for their jobs for the first couple of turns through the rotation. Abbott is the higher upside option, so I'm rooting for him, though Martinez has had a couple of pretty interesting seasons pitching in long relief. Could both pitchers make things tough enough on the Reds that Graham Ashcraft 's (4.76 ERA last season, 4.81 for his career) job is in jeopardy? That might be the best outcome for Fantasy, though Martinez's experience in the bullpen could also make for a more natural switch. | | Twins No. 5 SP: Louie Varland will fill out the Twins rotation. That news comes after the team announced that Anthony DeSclafani will open the season on the IL with a forearm injury, and it's a decision Fantasy players need to know about. Varland has been very good in his minor-league career, sporting a 2.96 ERA and 29% strikeout rate, and could be a pretty interesting sleeper. | | Braves No. 5 SP: Reynaldo Lopez is the Braves No. 5 SP. I'm not particularly interested in Lopez, but he did legitimately beat out Bryce Elder and A.J. Smith-Shawver for the spot in the spring. | | Royals No. 5 starter: Alec Marsh won the competition, with Jordan Lyles moved to the bullpen and Daniel Lynch sent down. Marsh is not without some appeal, which primarily centers around a legitimately very good sweeper that garnered a 45% whiff rate last season. The problem is … he just hasn't been very good, either in the majors or the minors – he has an ERA over 5.60 at both levels. He's an AL-only target when waivers run this week, but probably not more than that. | | Cubs rotation: Jordan Wicks and Javier Assad will be the No. 4 and 5 starters for the Cubs, with Drew Smyly set to begin the season in the bullpen and Jameson Taillon looking likely to open on the IL with a back injury. Taillon may not miss much more time than that, so they'll have to make another decision, and if I had to make a choice between them, I'd defer to Wicks' better minor-league track record, though he's certainly only an NL-only option for now. | | Prospects Gaining Hype | | The best prospects make themselves undeniable. Here's who is turning heads on the camp. | | Jackson Chourio, OF, Brewers – Not that there was much suspense after the Brewers gave him a massive contract before his debut, but Chourio has made the Opening Day roster. He hasn't gotten nearly as much hype as some of the big name prospects this spring, but he hasn't looked overmatched either, hitting .286/.314/.347 with a 21.5% strikeout rate. We're hoping for more power after Chourio hit 22 homers in 122 games at Double-A, but I think that'll be there eventually. For now, I'm expecting plenty of steals (Chourio stole 44 in the minors last season) and hopefully enough pop and average to be helpful. He just turned 20 a few weeks ago, so there's plenty of upside here, albeit with a decent amount of risk, too. | | Jackson Holliday, SS, Orioles – The Orioles are playing things close to the chest this spring with regards to Holliday's status, and this is certainly one team with enough depth that you can see the justification for giving Holliday another look at the minors, more so they can get a look at the likes of Heston Kjerstad, Kyle Stowers , or Coby Mayo – top prospects in their own right, though probably less important to the organization's long-term outlook than Holliday. But if they want to put their best 26 guys out there on Opening Day, it's pretty hard to argue Holliday wouldn't belong after hitting .326/.370/.628 this spring. There's been more swing-and-miss in the spring than you'd prefer to see – 30.4% strikeout rate as of Thursday – and I wonder what the immediate Fantasy upside is for a 20-year-old who only hit 12 homers last season. But he's the No. 1 prospect in baseball for a reason, and I think he'll be on the roster from Day 1 and is worth a top-150 pick in drafts this weekend – and he'll go even higher than that if he gets announced as an Opening Day starter. | | Wyatt Langford, OF, Rangers – Langford is now the first player with six or more homers in a spring training at 22 or younger since Freddie Freeman and Ryan Zimmerman . That's pretty good company to keep. The Rangers are still playing coy about Langford's Opening Day role, but nobody is buying it anymore – Langford's ADP in 16 drafts on NFBC Wednesday was 78.56. I'll be honest: I'm not going to pay that price for him, but I also can't say he can't or won't earn it. He's clearly an incredibly talented hitter, but it's the sixth-highest ADP for a rookie over the past 10 seasons, and the highest for one who hasn't made his MLB debut yet. | | Ceddanne Rafaela , OF, Red Sox – I haven't written about Rafaela much this spring, and to be honest, it's because I just don't know how I feel about him. His minor-league numbers are terrific, coming off a season where he had 20 homers and 36 steals between Double-A and Triple-A as a 22-year-old, which should make him a very good Fantasy option if he can live up to them. But his prospect rankings are all over the place – FanGraphs has him as a top-50 guy, while Baseball America ranks him 94th – and it's because there are just a ton of questions about how the bat will play against major-league pitching. The fact that he hit .241/.281/.386 in 28 games with pretty miserable quality-of-contact metrics and poor plate discipline in the majors last season certainly doesn't help. But it looks like he's going to make the Red Sox roster and might be eligible at second and shortstop in addition to the outfield could make him very intriguing for Fantasy. He probably doesn't need to be drafted in H2H points leagues, but Rafaela should be on your late-round radar in any category-based format. | | Chase DeLauter , OF, Guardians – DeLauter has played all of six games above Double-A in his career, and yet here we sit, less than a week from Opening Day, and he's seemingly still in the mix for a spot on the Guardians Opening Day roster. Hitting .520/.600/1.040 in the spring with more walks than strikeouts will do that. Ultimately, I expect the Guardians to go with their collection of has-beens and never-weres to open the season, while DeLauter gets one last test in the minors. But, after hitting just five homers in 57 games last season, he had five in 23 games in the Arizona Fall League and has four in 13 spring games, a sign that he might be starting to tap into his raw power, which is really the last thing scouts have wanted to see from DeLauter. At this point, I expect him to be on the roster well before Summer. | | Jared Jones, SP, Pirates – Jones isn't locked into a rotation spot, but it seems all but certain as he's yet to allow a run in 11.1 innings this spring. Jones has incredible stuff, and often has a hard time harnessing it, but that hasn't been that big of an issue this spring, with just four walks in 11.1 innings of work. He should be drafted in the reserve rounds as an upside pitcher pick in most drafts the rest of the way. | | Brooks Lee, SS, Twins – It seems incredibly likely that Lee will start the season in the minors, especially after he left Thursday's game with back spasms. But the Twins have given him a long look this spring, and if there was an obvious opening on the infield, he'd probably be getting ready for his MLB debut. As is, the Twins are set on the left side with Royce Lewis and Carlos Correa, and they seem likely to roll with Edouard Julien as the strong side of a platoon at second base while Lee gets a bit more work at Triple-A – he hit .237/.304/.428 there last season. But the second an opportunity opens up for him, either through injury or Julien struggling, Lee should be up. He's not worth stashing in most leagues – Scott ranks 11 prospects ahead of him on his stash list – but you should definitely keep the name in mind for an early-season callup. | | | | | | | | CBS Sports HQ X March Madness | | March Madness Live | Bringing you the BEST coverage of the Big Dance. Tune in for 24/7 tournament highlights, analysis & much more.
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