If you missed my initial deep sleepers list, I've got 15 from the AL and 15 from the NL for you to check out. Here are 10 more I'm adding to my late-round targets list, especially in deeper leagues.
- Victor Scott, OF, Cardinals – Scott still feels like a long shot to actually make the Cardinals Opening Day roster, but it's feeling like less of a sure thing with each passing day. Tommy Edman is unlikely to be ready for Opening Day as he continues to recover slowly from offseason wrist surgery, and now Lars Nootbaar has a couple of fractured ribs due to a spring injury, putting the Cardinals down potentially two outfielders to open the season. They've got depth with Dylan Carlson and Alec Burleson around, but if they want to take a bigger swing, Scott could be worth a look. A top-100 prospect, Scott was one of the best defensive outfielders in the minors last season while hitting .303/.369/.425, but what makes him especially intriguing for Fantasy is the 94 steals on an 87% success rate. Scott records pretty average exit velocities, which makes betting on the speed even easier; this might not be an Esteury Ruiz situation, where he's a potential zero outside of the SB category. Scott has a legitimate game-breaking skill, and I took him with one of my last picks in The Great Fantasy Baseball Invitational draft, a 15-team, 29-round Roto league. He's worth stashing in those deep formats just in case.
- Gavin Stone, SP, Dodgers – Stone dealt with a blister on his right foot last season that screwed up his mechanics and led to a disastrous season for the former top prospect. But he put on weight, worked on new pitches, and thinks he solved the mechanical issues that plagued him last season, with an eye on living up to the considerable promise he showed pre-2023 – Stone was a consensus top-60 prospect after posting a 1.48 ERA with 168 strikeouts in 121.2 innings in 2022. If he can rediscover any of that form, he could win 15 games with this Dodgers offense backing him, and with Emmett Sheehan dealing with a shoulder issue, the opportunity is there to open the season.
- Ryan Weathers, SP, Marlins – A.J. Puk has pitched his way out of the deep sleepers discussion, and you should absolutely consider taking the former top prospect who ranks third among all pitchers in strikeouts this spring with 15 in 8.1 innings of work. But if you want an even later target from the Marlins rotation, consider Weathers, whose 17 strikeouts in 13.2 innings of work this spring actually lead baseball. Weathers is a former top prospect in his own right, appearing on MLB.com's list in 2019 and Baseball America's in 2021, but he's still just 24 years old, and is showing some of that upside in camp. Weathers shut the Astros out over five innings Sunday, striking out seven and walking none, and he's been throwing harder this spring, averaging 96.5 mph with his fastball a start earlier this spring. With Cabrera's injury potentially opening up a spot in Miami's rotation, I'm actually pretty excited to see what Weathers can do with an opportunity. I'll also note that I wouldn't mind seeing Max Meyer get an opportunity at some point, though I'd guess the Marlins will be careful with his innings early on as he returns from Tommy John surgery, potentially ticketing him for the bullpen.
- Jared Jones, SP, Pirates – Velocity has never been an issue for Jones; control has been. He has just one walk over his past two outings for the Pirates as he competes for a spot in their rotation, and he's up to six strikeouts with three walks in 7.1 innings so far. Jones struck out 10.4 per nine innings between Double-A and Triple-A last season, and if he figures the control out, there could be significant upside here.
- Leody Taveras, OF, Rangers – I think if you polled most Fantasy players right now, they'd choose to get Taveras out of the picture for the Rangers to open up a spot for Wyatt Langford, but I'm not sure the Rangers see it that way. Taveras is a good outfielder, and while he doesn't have the upside Langford does, he did have 14 homers and 14 steals in 554 plate appearances last season and might just be a rock-solid starting outfielder. That's less exciting than the potential Langford could grow into, but it's also being massively overlooked – Taveras was a top-50 outfielder in Roto last season.
- Logan Allen, SP, Guardians – Allen wasn't overwhelmingly impressive as a rookie, but I'm a bit surprised at how little interest there has been in him so far this spring. He was slowed by a shoulder issue early in spring, but he's made two starts without incident over the past week and looks in line to open the season in the Guardians rotation. Allen didn't show a ton of swing-and-miss upside as a rookie, hence the chilly reception of the Fantasy community to him in drafts. But betting on talented young pitchers on the Guardians has been a winning strategy in the past, and Allen has an elite changeup and a couple of promising breaking balls to build on, in an organization that tends to maximize its young pitching.
- Joe Boyle, SP, Athletics – In his first 84 innings last season, Boyle issued 75 walks in the Reds organization. In 57.2 innings since joining the A's organization (including this spring), he has 26 walks, a drop from 8.0 per nine to just 4.1. Now, 4.1 is still pretty high for most pitchers, but Boyle might just have the stuff to get away with it – he's struck out 35.4% of batters faced as a professional, the kind of number we typically reserve for high-end relievers. It's still a relatively small sample size of success to go on, but Boyle's tantalizing upside is worth betting on in deeper leagues.
- DJ LeMahieu, 1B, Yankees – Look, he's never getting anywhere close to a top-five MVP finish ever again, so that's not what I'm talking about here. I'm talking about the guy hitting ahead of Juan Soto and Aaron Judge this season. If LeMahieu can stay healthy, he might score 90 runs even if he isn't any good. If he actually manages to hit, say, .275 with double-digit homers, he might score 100-plus runs.
- Graham Pauley, 3B, Padres – Pauley doesn't light up the exit velocity readings, but he's coming off a pretty tremendous first full pro season, hitting .308/.393/.593 while getting all the way to Double-A. He only played 20 games at that level, and in more organizations, that might lead to either a repeat assignment at Double-A or, if the org wants to be aggressive, a trip to Triple-A. With the Padres, it might mean he breaks camp with the big team, especially with Manny Machado unlikely to be able to play third base early in the season as he recovers from elbow surgery. That leaves a hole at third base that the 23-year-old Pauley could fill, and his .308/.419/.539 line this spring has him in the conversation. Pauley could be a 15-15 corner infielder available for free even in the deepest of leagues.
- Anthony Bender, RP, Marlins – Tanner Scott is having an absolutely awful spring, having failed to finish an inning in any of his four outings with seven walks to three strikeouts in 1.2 innings of work. The Marlins don't seem too concerned, but given Scott's inability to consistently throw strikes before 2023, I am. There isn't an obvious No. 2 candidate for saves on the Marlins if Scott doesn't work the ninth, and unless they want to turn Max Meyer into a late-inning weapon – a role I think he would absolutely dominate in, for the record – Bender might be the next best thing. He emerged as the closer in April of 2022 before injuries kind of derailed things for him, but Bender has a 2.90 ERA and 1.116 WHIP with 88 strikeouts in 80.2 MLB innings and could be the answer if Scott's struggles continue.
