Every year, each MLB team does all they can to build starting pitching depth. For fantasy baseball, the adage “you can never have enough pitching” also rings true. Like MLB teams, fantasy teams need to stash plenty of depth at the position, as you get to the end of your drafts, keep an eye on these three fantasy baseball sleepers at starting pitchers from the American League.
Whether you prefer season-long leagues, DFS contests, or DraftKings Best Ball, DK Network will have you covered throughout the upcoming season. To begin our coverage, we went through potential breakouts at each position: AL SP Breakouts, NL SP Breakouts, AL OF Breakouts, NL OF Breakouts, Catcher Breakouts, 1B Breakouts, 2B Breakouts, 3B Breakouts and SS Breakouts. In my AL starting pitchers, I highlighted Hunter Brown, Taj Bradley and Osvaldo Bido as potential breakouts. In addition to those three players, here are three more fantasy baseball sleepers I’m targeting at SP from the AL.
Jack Flaherty, Detroit Tigers
Jumpin’ Jack revitalized his career last year with the Tigers, was traded to the Dodgers where he won the World Series, and jumped back to Detroit this offseason as a free agent. He’s currently being drafted outside the top 40 starting pitchers, according to ADP, but he has plenty of potential to be one of the better fantasy baseball sleepers available in that range.
Flaherty is headed into his ninth MLB season, but he’s still only 29 years old. While teams were hesitant to give him a long-term deal, their concerns were more with the back end of the contract, than his performance this year. Rather than a long deal, he signed a short-term deal in Detroit. The contract is frontloaded and pays Flaherty $25M in 2025. After the year, he can opt out of the second year of the contract or earn at least $10M in 2026. If he makes 15 starts, he unlocks up to an additional $10M in incentive bonuses if he makes 15 starts this season.
Flaherty made 28 starts last year, going a combined 13-7 with a 3.17 ERA, 3.48 FIP and 10.8 K/9. It was a new personal best for wins for Flaherty and had his second-best strikeout rate and innings total.
In seven games at home, with the Tigers, Flaherty had a 3.50 ERA with 55 strikeouts in 43 2/3 innings. He allowed more than three runs in one of his last 13 starts with the Tigers, compiling a 2.21 ERA, 2.51 xFIP and 11.3 K/9 over a dominant stretch.
Health is always a concern with Flaherty, but he has plenty of incentive to have another big year. Even if he does regress a little bit in 2025, he’s still a very valuable fantasy baseball sleeper at his current position.
Seth Lugo, Kansas City Royals
The Royals added Lugo as a free agent before last season, and the veteran was nothing short of outstanding for them. He spent much of his career as a reliever, but he has been a full-time starting pitcher for the last two seasons. While he’s 35 coming into this season, he has less mileage than many pitchers at this age since he hasn’t logged as many innings.
Last year, he finished second in all the MLB in innings pitched with over 200 innings for the first time in his career. He also finished in the top 20 in strikeouts, the top 15 in walk rate and the top 10 in home run rate. He was runner-up to Tarik Skubal for AL Cy Young, but Skubal has the third-highest ADP of starting pitchers while Lugo is all the way outside the top 45.
Lugo made 26 starts the previous year with the Padres and was solid, going 8-7 with a 3.57 ERA and 3.83 FIP. There are several explanations for his improvement including a much better defense behind him and a home park that fits his strengths. He also added two new pitches to his selection before last year, using both his new cutter and new splitter very effectively.
Even his 2023 numbers are very solid for where he’s going in most drafts with the wins being the main difference. Like Flaherty, Lugo could regress a little from his career year, but he has enough value to be one of the best fantasy baseball sleepers at his current investment cost.
Noah Schultz, Chicago White Sox
The White Sox may not be much fun to watch again this season, but they do have some intriguing young prospects led by Schultz. He was recently ranked the No. 16 prospect in all of baseball, and the 6-foot-9 lanky lefty has drawn comparisons to Randy Johnson and Chris Sale.
He is a Chicago-area native and was the team’s first-round pick in the 2022 MLB Draft. In 2023, he had 38 strikeouts in 27 innings across 10 starts in Single-A. He built on that last year with a 2.24 ERA and 115 strikeouts in 88 1/3 innings across High-A and Double-A.
He hasn’t pitched at Triple-A at all yet, and the White Sox have managed his workload very carefully so far in his career. It isn’t certain exactly where he’ll start the season and if or when he’ll make an impact, but he has the raw tools to make a splash when he reaches the MLB. The White Sox will need all the help they can get in their rotation, and if he excels at Triple-A the fans will start calling for him to make his MLB debut.
While he’s a huge unknown, Schultz could emerge as one of the most important fantasy baseball sleepers at some point in the season. Grabbing him late or stashing him in a bench spot could end up being an amazing value.
