Fantasy Baseball Spring Training Roundup (3/14)

Spring training is a wild time for fantasy players, as we see considerable overreactions to tiny sample sizes, changes in player value due to velocity jumps or drops and other big swings. We aim to cover notable news, value changes or other important nuggets. We’ve got you covered!

AL East

New York Yankees: Gerrit Cole, SP, 86 and Dropping Like a Lead Balloon

As expected, the Yankees will be without Cole this season, and you are obviously taking him off your redraft board. As for dynasty, he’ll be 35 and coming off TJ the next time he’s able to take the ball. I’m not sure that’s someone I want to invest in heavily. We all have our own individual tolerances for risk, but you’ll want to do some soul searching before attempting a longer-term evaluation of Cole.

Boston Red Sox: Lucas Giolito (SP, 367) Connor Wong (C, 230)

Come on. The guy just cannot catch a break. Last having toed the rubber in 2023, Giolito immediately got injured upon his potential return for the 2025 season. If there’s a silver lining, it’s that the injury is to a lower extremity and not his torso, back or throwing arm. But when the best news a player has after the spring training debut is *which* body part is injured, it’s not what you want.

Update: Giolito now to start the season on IL: 

Connor Wong is actually totally fine, but when I went to go see why he was scratched in his latest game, there were a bunch of tweets concerned that he was going to lose all the weight he worked so hard to put on in the offseason. So in a roundabout way, Wong, was (at least momentarily), in the BSOHL.

Baltimore Orioles: Gunnar Henderson (SS, 8) 

Things are looking a little bit better for Henderson as he makes incremental progress toward being game-ready by Opening Day. We don’t want him to be rushed back, of course, and intercostal injuries should reasonably give pause to even the most aggressive of fantasy owners. But this is still a directionally correct outcome, and we should celebrate it to the degree we deem appropriate. Will still need to be very cautious here and monitor the remainder of his spring. 

Tampa Bay Rays: Yandy Díaz 1B, 198)

It sounds as though Yandy Díaz may drop down the batting order a bit, which would make sense given the many flight-of-foot options the Rays have at their disposal that could set the table for him instead. Richie Palacios, Josh Lowe and José Caballero might all spend time in the leadoff spot in different matchups, and all of them are likely just keeping a seat warm for eventual leadoff candidates Carson Williams or Chandler Simpson. 

Toronto Blue Jays: Max Scherzer (SP, 349)

The last thing you want for an older competitor like Scherzer is to start the season with an injury, but that seems to be what is happening. Scherzer had his Wednesday start pushed back due to pain in the thumb on his throwing hand. While this is not likely to be a serious injury, it’s something to monitor for one of everyone’s favorite geriatric hurlers.

AL Central

Cleveland Guardians: Gavin Williams (SP, 240)

Gavin Williams is a popular enough name already in fantasy circles, but he has become a spring fling of the more analytical side of the industry, having posted a ridiculous 46.9% whiff rate through eight innings worth of work. He’s struck out 16 and walked only two in those appearances. If you’re looking for a middle-round name with a lot of upside, Williams should definitely be on your radar.

Detroit Tigers: Casey Mize (SP, 454)

Just another former No. 1 overall pick having an electric, untouchable spring after having battled injuries and mediocrity in previous years. He’s using a very hard splitter with extreme success (67% whiff rate) this spring and could put together a peak Kevin Gausman type repertoire if he’s given enough leash to flourish this season. As it stands, he is the Tigers’ fourth starter and a rotation mainstay, and early success should cement that role even with Jackson Jobe waiting in the wings. 

Minnesota Twins: Willi Castro (2B/3B/SS/OF, 224)

You down with MPE? Yeah you know me!

Willi Castro, our multi-position-eligibility lord and savior, has been dubbed the Twins starting 2B, which is a vote of confidence for regular playing time wherever you choose to deploy him in your fantasy lineup. This newfound reliability should help Castro produce more volume, and because he switch-hits he *should* be less impacted by Rocco Baldelli’s eagerness to pinch hit based on handedness matchups.

This also probably means a little less playing time for Edouard Julien and Brooks Lee, who will likely see some time on the strong side of the platoon one way or another. 

Chicago White Sox: Grant Taylor (SP, 451)

Grant Taylor’s last outing wasn’t technically on my watch, but some of the reaction to it was, and well, you can just watch the video because you should generally be aware of the dude. I would imagine he would get at least one more outing with the big club before being reassigned to the minor leagues, and he’s no lock to be up in 2025. But if there is an opportunity to join a rotation a bit ahead of schedule, it would be for the 2025 White Sox.

Kansas City Royals: Bobby Witt Jr. (SS, 1)

The fantasy community holds its collective breath as we wait to find out more about Witt’s status. As of now, all we know is that he took a pitch to the hand/wrist/forearm and was removed from the game The team account did not say that he was removed as a precautionary measure, which unfortunately is notable. 

Update: X-Rays are negative. Rejoice.

AL West

Texas Rangers: Cody Bradford (SP, 329)

A Rangers pitcher suffered a setback due to an elbow injury, and while it is not Jacob deGrom, Cody Bradford figured to be an integral part of an otherwise all right-handed Rangers rotation. Bradford had an MRI and it came back clean, but we’ll want to monitor closely as time missed might mean an opportunity for Kumar Rocker or Jack Leiter to see some big league action at some point. 

Seattle Mariners: Bryan Woo (SP, 136)

Woo Woo Woo Bryan Woo!

Sometimes the news can just be, ‘hey there’s this guy we really like and he’s doing what we thought he would do and not getting hurt.’ That’s more or less where we’re at with Bryan Woo, who probably has the most meat on the bone of any pitcher in the top 200 to outperform his draft position. The guy simply pounds the zone and gets outs via both the strikeout and ground ball, which is exactly what you want from your pitchers in both fantasy and real life. Following up his 2.1 innings against the Angels last week that resulted in six Ks, Woo went another three innings Wednesday against the Royals, striking out five, walking none and allowing a single unearned run. 

That’s a total of five baserunners in seven innings of work and zero earned runs. If he can just stay healthy, Woo could challenge to be the ace of a staff composed entirely of aces. 

NL East

New York Mets: Tylor Megill (SP, 412) Jeff McNeil (403)

With the myriad injuries to the Mets rotation (it’s what they do!), Megill is once again an option for the rotation, and I’m chuckling to myself a bit because I wrote almost exactly this same blurb last spring when Megill was pushed into the rotation due to injuries creating opportunity. The Mets have a brand. In the 400s, capable rotation pieces with decent strikeout upside that won’t kill your ratios are few and far between, so Megill is certainly compelling. 

In other Mets injury news, Jeff McNeil is now injured – he has a low-grade oblique strain that will sideline him for about a month and obviously cause him to miss Opening Day. Candidates for more PAs in his absence are Luisangel Acuña, Brett Baty, Donovan Walton and Luis de los Santos, with Acuna and Baty being the potentially fantasy relevant members of the bunch.

Atlanta Braves: Orlando Arcia (SS, 445)

In one of the least fantasy-relevant position battles imaginable, Orlando Arcia appears to be in at least some danger of losing his regular gig to Nick Allen (undrafted), whom to his credit, has been hitting like an entirely new player this spring (.471/.526/.706 through 19 PAs). I’m not saying to go grab Allen off your waiver wire necessarily, but if you were planning on allocating an MI slot to Arcia’s feeble contributions, you might want to start making other plans.

Philadelphia Phillies: Trea Turner (SS, 24)

It wouldn’t have any impact on this year’s positional eligibility of course, but it sounds as though Turner is going to have to either improve defensively as a SS or move off of the position, potentially as soon as next season. If you are banking on Turner to return dynasty value due to the relative scarcity of his skill set at the SS position, but can instead only deploy him as an OF, you may want to keep this issue in the back of your mind. 

NL Central

Chicago Cubs: Matt Shaw (3B, 223)

Matt Shaw is heading to Japan, and is presumably penciled into the everyday lineup beginning on Opening Day. Should be able to turn a massive profit at this ADP if he continues to get regular playing time all season. 

St Louis Cardinals: Phil Maton (RP, Undrafted)

Wouldn’t otherwise be noteworthy except for the fact that it is the first thing the Cardinals have done this offseason. So, congrats on doing *something*, Cardinals. (insert “do something” meme)

Cincinnati Reds: Tyler Stephenson (C, 159)

Catchers needing to be pulled from games and needing MRIs on back injuries is bad when it happens in June, but even more ominous when it happens before the season starts. We likely won’t have results by press time, but this would be a blow to the Reds lineup if the oft-injured Stephenson misses time to start the season. Manager Terry Francona seemed to brush off concerns, but we’ll want to keep a close eye on this one. 

Pittsburgh Pirates: Bailey Falter (SP, 709)

Almost immediately after it was announced that Falter would likely start the season in the rotation, he’s having his start skipped out of what is being called an abundance of caution after his body did not respond well to the previous day’s throwing session. Considering he’s only 27, this is of more concern than if he were a fellow old like your author. 

Milwaukee Brewers: Brandon Woodruff (SP, 249)

Making his way back from a long journey and recovery from a devastating shoulder injury, Woodruff faced Padres minor leaguers already and is tracking toward making his first official spring training start this coming Saturday. It will be only a single inning, and the ramp up will likely take quite some time, so I would not expect Woodruff to be fully stretched out until late April at the earliest. But he is still a name that if he stays healthy, should provide quality returns at cost for the vast majority of the season.  

NL West

San Francisco Giants: Heliot Ramos (OF, 208)

In a notable lineup shakeup, Bob Melvin had Heliot Ramos hitting leadoff against LHP Jeffrey Springs of the A’s. This is not necessarily indicative of what to expect in the regular season, as Ramos is still playing a bit of catch up rep wise after getting a late start to the spring. But if implemented long term, it could be a boon to his OBP and R production given the additional PAs and lineup context. 

Los Angeles Dodgers: Dustin May (SP, 394)

The Dodgers have lost Tony Gonsolin to injury for some period of time, and so they will have to have Dustin May (an ace on some teams) fill in as their fifth starter. Poor Dodgers. Just can’t catch a break.