This is ‘The Watchlist.’
This column is designed to help you monitor and pick up dynasty fantasy baseball players in the coming weeks and months. Whether they’re waiver wire or trade targets, these are the players you’ll want to add now before becoming the hot waiver commodity or trade target, whether that’s later in the offseason or when spring training rolls around.
Using underlying and advanced metrics, ‘The Watchlist’ will help you get ahead of the competition in your league and reap the rewards later from your pickups.
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Fantasy Baseball Watchlist
The players could be anyone from a prospect in an ideal situation close to the Majors, a reliever in a saves + holds league or even a starter doing well with misleading surface-level stats like ERA.
They might even be hitters with quality underlying stats. Or they could be none of those types of players and a different kind of player entirely. The point is that they’ll help you find success in your fantasy league while staying ahead of the curve against your league mates.
Gary Sanchez (C, DH – BAL)
Gary Sanchez likely won’t unseat Adley Rutschman in the Baltimore Orioles lineup.
Let’s get that out of the way first.
But, Sanchez might have one of the higher ceilings, relatively speaking, of reserve catchers (or backup hitters in general) in the Majors.
For one, Baltimore has shown a willingness to give Rutschman considerable time at the designated hitter spot. Of the 26-year-old’s 148 appearances last season, 45 came at that position.
Furthermore, James McCann made 66 appearances and logged 233 plate appearances as Baltimore’s reserve catcher last season.
McCann hit .234 with a .279 on-base percentage (OBP), eight home runs and a stolen base in 233 plate appearances, logging a .313 xwOBA, an 8.6% barrel rate and a 24% strikeout rate in the process.
While Sanchez has a history of much higher strikeout rates — his career strikeout rate is at 26.8% — he hasn’t dipped below 27% since the 2018 campaign.
Still, the 32-year-old veteran could be in a position to make much more of a fantasy impact for the Orioles.
Sanchez hit .220 with a .307 OBP in 280 plate appearances for the Milwaukee Brewers last season, but he continued to show quality power numbers, collecting a 10.5% barrel rate and a 44.2% hard-hit rate in the process.
Given his power potential, there’s a chance Sanchez surpasses McCann’s plate appearances total with designated hitter work as well, although that’s purely speculative on my part.
Plug the veteran’s quality of contact numbers into one of the league’s best lineups — Baltimore trailed only the Dodgers and Yankees in collective wRC+ last season — and the slugger should have plenty of opportunities to log RBI and runs scored should the quality of contact numbers continue, even in a part-time role.
Elsewhere, switching from American Family Field to Camden Yards isn’t the most ideal swap, but of the 30 MLB ballparks, Sanchez’ expected home run tally by ballpark is higher than his 191 home runs in just eight ballparks, per Statcast. One of them is American Family Field (200), but another is Baltimore’s Oriole Park at Camden Yards (193).
He’s an ideal short-term addition in two-catcher dynasty leagues with the upside of being a top-10 catcher overall, regardless of format, if he steps into a full-time role in Baltimore.
Cody Bradford (SP – TEX)
Other fantasy managers in your league might look at starting pitcher Cody Bradford and the Texas Rangers’ rotation situation and see a pitcher who could get buried on the depth chart.
After all, Texas’ rotation is headlined by Nathan Eovaldi and Jacob deGrom. Tyler Mahle is on hand. So too is Jon Gray. Kumar Rocker could play a significant role. Jack Leiter made his Major League debut this past season and Emiliano Teodo isn’t far off after finishing 2024 in Double-A.
And all of those things about the other Texas Rangers starters are true.
It’s all true.
But what’s also true (or could be, rather), is that Bradford could see plenty of opportunity in the Rangers’ rotation.
Starting at the top of the rotation, deGrom, when healthy, is excellent. However, he hasn’t made more than 15 starts in a season in the last four years. Mahle, meanwhile, missed time in 2023 due to Tommy John surgery and had his 2024 season cut short in August due to right shoulder tightness.
The Rangers may also want to limit Rocker’s innings in his first full Major League season, as many teams do with young starters. Though that’s all purely speculative on my part.
At any rate, this is certainly not a situation like the one in Seattle where the Mariners finished last year with five starters making 149 out of 162 total starts. There should be opportunities for Bradford.
And when the 26-year-old saw extended opportunities last year, he usually provided fantasy results. In 76.1 innings encompassing 14 total appearances, 13 of which were starts, Bradford logged a 3.54 ERA and a 3.59 FIP for the Rangers. The right-hander tacked on six pitcher wins, and while he didn’t overwhelm with a 22.7% strikeout rate, he also allowed a rather minuscule 4.2% walk rate.
The ability to limit mistakes — holding opposing batters to a 34.8% hard-hit rate last season certainly didn’t hurt either — helped Bradford find plenty of success in 2024 and could help him find even more success in 2025.
Finding enough quality fantasy contributors via the waiver wire over time can have a significant cumulative effect over time where your fantasy team’s place in the standings is concerned.
And while Bradford’s fantasy ceiling isn’t as high as others thanks to a lower strikeout rate, he brings little risk, particularly if he’s undervalued by the rest of your league and is available via the waiver wire.
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