Fantasy baseball draft season is upon us and we are looking for sleepers and busts everywhere. More important than that, we need to start examining who our targets are at every position. We have seven of them for you below.
Fantasy baseball draft season is upon us and we are looking for sleepers and busts everywhere. More important than that, we need to start examining who our targets are at every position. We have seven of them for you below.
Willson Contreras is coming off of a season where he broke his arm because the Cardinals told him to move further up in the box when he was catching. While this was a terrible occurrence, it prompted them to move him away from the position.
Contreras will now play every day at first base or DH, which is amazing for his fantasy value. He is coming off of a season in which he hit 15 home runs in 358 plate appearances. He could now top 550 plate appearances for the first time in his career. That volume is rare and extremely valuable at the catcher position.
In football, defense wins championships. In fantasy baseball, volume wins championships. Marcus Semien has missed four games over the last four seasons. That extends to seven games missed since 2018 if you don’t include the 2020 shortened season.
Semien had a down year last season, but many Rangers struggled with a World Series hangover. I expect Semien and most of his teammates to rebound.
Francisco Lindor was one steal away from his second straight 30/30 season. Yet, he is somehow still not a first-round pick. He now gets to hit in front of both Juan Soto and Pete Alonso.
Lindor was a bit unlucky in the batting average department last season, hitting .273 with an expected batting average of (xBA) .283. He could be due for a little bit of a batting average rise. All of this spells what should be a fantastic season for Lindor.
Lawrence Butler is coming off of a breakout second half where he hit .300/.345/.533 with 13 home runs and 12 stolen bases in 258 plate appearances. The most impressive part of it was the growth in his hit tool.
Butler went from an 80% zone contact rate to an 85% rate in the second half. This makes the breakout more believable. He is also moving from Oakland to a more neutral park in Sacramento, which will be massive for his power potential, as the Oakland Coliseum was one of the worst parks in baseball for power.
Spencer Schwellenbach struggled a bit in his first few starts, but a lot of that was just bad luck. From August on, he had a 2.73 ERA in 66 innings with 67 strikeouts. He has amazing command and control with a full arsenal.
Schwellenbach has more strikeout upside as well. I am a big believer that he will be a top-tier pitcher in 2025.
The days of “not paying for saves” are over. You either pay for them at the draft table or you pay for them during the season. I prefer to get them at the draft table.
Raisel Iglesias is a top-tier closer on a good team, but he isn’t priced as a top-five closer, which is a mistake. I love him as the first closer on any team.
Justin Mason is the lead fantasy writer and analyst for Friendswithfantasybenefits.com. He is a writer at Fangraphs and Fantasy Pros. You can hear him on the Radio on the FWFB, TGFBI and the Sleeper and the Bust Podcasts. He also runs The Great Fantasy Baseball Invitational and the Bay Area Roto Fantasy (BARF) league.
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