Gamers in need of batting average or on-base percentage (OBP) help later in fantasy baseball drafts are in luck. The following players are sleepers for batting average and OBP. The four highlighted players have an average draft position (ADP) of 228 or higher, meaning they’re typically available after the 19th round in 12-team mixed leagues.
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Fantasy Baseball Sleepers
Sleepers for Batting Average
Brendan Donovan (2B, SS, OF – SEA) | ADP: 237.8
Brendan Donovan isn’t an electrifying player. He doesn’t wow fantasy baseball gamers and baseball fans with jaw-dropping power or blistering speed. Donovan is a quality hitter with a little bit of power and excellent bat-to-ball skills.
According to FanGraphs, among qualified batters in 2025, Donovan was tied for 18th in batting average (.287), 14th in strikeout rate (13%) and 10th in swinging-strike rate (5.3%). He does an outstanding job of putting the ball in play.
Donovan’s batted-ball quality was also stellar last year. According to Baseball Savant, among qualified hitters in 2025, Donovan was tied for 19th in expected batting average (.280 xBA).
Last year wasn’t an outlier for Donovan, either. Among qualified hitters since 2023, Donovan is tied for 18th in batting average (.282), tied for 13th in strikeout rate (13.1%), seventh in swinging-strike rate (5.5%) and tied for 18th in expected batting average (.279) in 1,538 plate appearances.
FanGraph’s RosterResource projects Donovan to sit atop Seattle’s lineup, which will allow his batting average to be more impactful by logging more plate appearances. He’ll also play third base for the Mariners, which will add another position of eligibility to his ledger, making him a genuine Swiss Army Knife on fantasy baseball squads. Donovan’s best asset is his batting average, and his multi-position eligibility is a bonus.
Jung Hoo Lee (OF – SF) | ADP: 258
Jung Hoo Lee might not immediately come to mind as an asset for batting average. In 775 plate appearances for the Giants since coming stateside in 2024, Lee has recorded only a .265 batting average.
A look under the hood is more encouraging, though. Among batters with at least 700 plate appearances since 2024, Lee is seventh in strikeout rate (10.8%), sixth in swinging-strike rate (5.1%) and tied for 20th in expected batting average (.277). Lee’s .287 batting average on balls in play (BABIP) is comfortably behind Gunnar Henderson‘s .324 BABIP and Brendan Donovan’s .307 BABIP since 2024.
While there’s more to BABIP than speed, Lee is a bit slower than Henderson and faster than Donovan. According to Baseball Savant, Henderson had a sprint speed of 28.5 feet/second, Lee had a 28.2 feet/second sprint speed, and Donovan had a 26.6 feet/second sprint speed in 2025.
Given their identical expected batting averages and Lee’s rock-solid speed, he’s a candidate to close the gap between his batting average and expected batting average with better BABIP luck in 2026. Lee is a sleeper for batting average because of his ADP and due to his mediocre batting average through his first 775 plate appearances in the Majors.
Sleepers for On-Base Percentage (OBP)
Matt Wallner (OF – MIN) | ADP: 301.3
Matt Wallner’s 2025 was suboptimal. Nevertheless, he drilled 22 homers with a 114 wRC+ in 392 plate appearances. Wallner was still an asset offensively, and his patience didn’t go anywhere. Among 242 plate appearances with at least 350 plate appearances in 2025, Wallner was tied for 37th in walk rate (11.7%).
Sadly, Wallner’s .202 batting average and .228 BABIP dragged down his OBP to .311 in 2025. Perhaps it was merely a down year for Wallner, though. In 515 plate appearances in 2023 and 2024 combined, Wallner had a 10.1% walk rate, a .254 batting average, a .358 BABIP, a .231 xBA and a .371 OBP. The slugging outfielder also belted 27 homers in those 515 plate appearances. If Wallner can bounce back, he can be a steal for OBP-needy gamers.
Nolan Schanuel (1B – LAA) | ADP: 329.6
Nolan Schanuel was the 11th overall pick in the 2023 MLB Amateur Draft. Despite the draft pedigree and his defensive placement at first base, Schanuel isn’t a prototypical masher.
Instead, Schanuel has just 26 homers in 1,303 career plate appearances since debuting in 2023. He hit 13 homers in 607 plate appearances in 2024 and 12 home runs in 564 plate appearances in 2025. Where Schanuel shines is putting the ball in play (14.8% strikeout rate for his career and a 12.6% strikeout rate in 2025) and working walks (11.3% walk rate for his career and a 10.5% walk rate in 2025).
The left-handed-hitting first baseman improved his batting average from .250 in 2024 to .264 in 2025. Schanuel’s expected batting average also climbed from .253 in 2024 to .263 in 2025. He has a .260 xBA for his career. His career batting average and expected batting average aren’t especially impressive, and they weren’t exciting in 2025.
Still, pairing Schanuel’s adequate batting average with his patience has yielded a .353 OBP in his career. He also had a .353 OBP in 2025. Schanuel turned 24 years old on February 14th. He could grow into a bit more power, and his batting average could benefit from a bit more pop, too. Schanuel is an OBP asset in his present form, and any step forward in his age-24 season would be gravy.
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Josh Shepardson is a featured writer at FantasyPros. For more from Josh, check out his archive and follow him @BChad50.