This is ‘The Watchlist.’
This column is designed to help you monitor and pick up 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 spring training, when Opening Day rolls around or during the regular season.
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.
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 they’ll help you find success in your fantasy league while staying ahead of the curve against your league mates.
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Fantasy Baseball Watchlist
Brandon Drury (1B, 2B, 3B – CWS)
Brandon Drury is in camp with the Chicago White Sox on a Minor League deal.
He also struggled immensely at the plate last season, hitting .169 with a .242 on-base percentage (OBP), four home runs, a stolen base and a 34 wRC+ in 360 plate appearances for the Los Angeles Angels.
While Drury still has to make the White Sox and carve out a regular role, the potential opportunity here for the veteran infielder is significant.
The current Whtie Sox lineup, as constructed, doesn’t have too much in the way of potential long-term solutions. Luis Robert Jr. could be that based on an upside standpoint, but the 27-year-old also stands out as a speculative trade candidate.
Miguel Vargas and Colson Montgomery could be long-term solutions for the White Sox, but neither has established themselves in the Majors yet.
The 32-year-old Drury won’t suddenly become a long-term option for the Whtie Sox, but like Mike Tauchman, Josh Rojas and potentially Joey Gallo, he could see significant playing time in the first half as a veteran placeholder.
We’ve seen the veteran thrive in similar situations before. Joining the Reds ahead of 2022, the infielder hit .274 with a .335 on-base percentage, 20 home runs and a pair of stolen bases in 385 plate appearances for the National League Central club.
And while a 20-home run first half might not repeat itself, Drury has shown he can thrive in the right fantasy environments from a ballpark standpoint.
That was certainly true of Cincinnati’s Great American Ball Park, and it could be true of Chicago’s Guaranteed Rate Field. In the Statcast era, Drury has connected on 109 home runs. During that span, his expected home run tally by park for Guaranteed Rate Field is 119 (per Statcast data), the fourth-highest among all ballparks for Drury, behind only the ballparks in Colorado, Cincinnati and Milwaukee.
The infielder still has to make Chicago’s Opening Day roster and lineup, but he’s just a year removed from consecutive seasons with double-digit barrel rates (it was 10.4% in 2022 and 11% in 2023). He could find plenty of success in the White Sox’s home stadium.
If he can make the White Sox, Drury would be more of a deeper league option at first, but just as with 2022, he would have the potential to hit his way into more fantasy prominence.
Cam Booser (RP – CWS)
Sticking with the White Sox, Chicago still seems likely to stay anchored at the bottom of the American League Central standings in 2025. Still, there should be opportunities for saves in Chicago — saves that could make a significant difference for fantasy managers, even if they aren’t as plentiful as say a closer on a contending team.
Even on a team that struggled considerably last season, the White Sox combined for 21 saves. Michael Kopech led the way with nine while John Brebbia, Tanner Banks and Jordan Leasure all registered two apiece. No other Chicago reliever had more than one save.
Looking to high-leverage, ninth-inning appearances by relievers, the White Sox had 36 of those such appearances last season. Kopech once again led the way (this time with 16 high-leverage, ninth-inning appearances) while Brebbia registered five.
Kopech (in Los Angeles with the Dodgers) and Brebbia (in Detroit with the Tigers) are no longer on the team’s roster. Of the team’s 36 high-leverage, ninth-inning relief appearances, pitchers who accounted for 27 of them are no longer on Chicago’s 40-man roster.
Switching back to the saves, relievers who accounted for 16 of Chicago’s 21 saves are no longer on the club’s 40-man roster.
Enter Cam Booser.
Acquired in the offseason in a trade with the Boston Red Sox, Booser represents the team’s only significant bullpen addition after adding several veteran players on short-term deals in the lineup and rotation.
The 32-year-old made 43 appearances for the Red Sox last season, recording a 3.38 ERA and 3.80 FIP in 42.2 innings of work. He added a save, a pair of pitcher wins and five holds in the process.
While his 23.5% strikeout rate doesn’t jump off the page, Booser registered a 34.3% chase rate and a 28.9% whiff rate on the season. If he can turn in similar numbers, as well as a hard-hit rate around his 2024 metric in that category (36.3%), he shouldn’t have any problems turning in a quality season.
Like Drury making the White Sox’s Opening Day roster, it’s not a surefire thing Booser is the White Sox closer to start the year. However, Booser’s ability to generate swings and misses and limit hard contact make him arguably Chicago’s best reliever at the moment.
Keep an eye on the White Sox bullpen situation as spring training continues, as Booser could be an under-the-radar saves option early in the season, which many of your league mates may overlook due to the team he plays for.
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