2023 Fantasy Baseball Late-Round Starting Pitcher Values: Freddy Peralta, Michael Kopech Lead The Way!
When it comes to starting pitching in fantasy baseball, you can really go one of two ways. You can either stock up on studs early or you can load up on position players and target high-upside pitchers late in your draft. I’m being a little hyperbolic there (there’s a good middle ground I’ll cover in a second), but I generally lean into the latter category there.
Why do I lean toward the latter strategy? Pitching is generally more volatile than hitting from year to year, and I want to make sure I’m spending my early-round picks wisely. As I mentioned, there’s a good middle ground where you can grab one or two good pitchers in the first 5-7 rounds of your draft, but there are always high-upside pitchers you can grab late to fill in the rest of your rotation. Worst-case scenario? A few of them bust and you go surfing the waiver wire – which honestly isn’t even that much of a “worst”-case scenario.
With that said, let’s look at some of the later-round values I’m seeing among the starting pitchers out there.
2023 Fantasy Baseball Late-Round Starting Pitcher Values
Brady Singer, Kansas City Royals
Singer finished the 2022 season with 10 wins, a 3.23 ERA, 1.14 WHIP, and 150 strikeouts. That’s not exactly league-winning stuff, but it’s still pretty darn good. Especially when you consider how he ended the season (6-2 with a 2.53 ERA and 1.05 WHIP after the All-Star Break). While Singer’s upside is a tad limited due to his likely low(ish) win total on the hapless Royals, you can currently get him around 130th in your draft as the 40-45th pitcher selected. I’m not sure if we can technically call that “late-round”, but it’s not exactly early either so let’s run with it.
Freddy Peralta, Milwaukee Brewers
Peralta was an absolute stud in 2021, but suffered some injuries last season and only appeared in 18 games. Still just 26 years old, Peralta will get another shot in the Brewers rotation after posting a 3.58 ERA and a 1.04 WHIP last season (compared with a 2.81 ERA and a 0.97 WHIP in 2021). While durability questions remain, Peralta still has a career K/9 of over 12 (that’s really good) and can be had in the 140-150 range in your draft – somewhere around the 40th pitcher selected. That’s a great spot to take a player who has top-10 upside if everything goes his way this season.
Marcus Stroman, Chicago Cubs
Stroman has never quite lived up to the hype he had as a prospect, but he’s still better than his current ADP of around 150 (somewhere around the 50th pitcher drafted). While Stroman’s upside is a bit limited due to his (bad) team and his relatively low strikeout rate, he hasn’t posted an ERA north of 3.77 for four straight years and has finished with a WHIP of 1.15 for two straight seasons. He’s never been the most durable pitcher (and suffered some shoulder issues last season), but he’s only 31 years old and is a solid back-end fantasy starter.
Michael Kopech, Chicago White Sox
We’ve been talking about Michael Kopech for so long that it feels like he should be entering his 30’s, but he’s still just 26 years old. While he hasn’t quite lived up to his expectations, he’s been absolutely dominant as a reliever and it’s worth taking a flier on him at his current ADP (152) to see if he can finally put it all together. Kopech has an elite strikeout rate and keeps walks to a minimum, but has been bit by the long ball thus far in his career. All that said, Kopech hasn’t posted an ERA above 3.54 or a WHIP above 1.19 over the last two seasons, so he’s more than worth a late-round pick as he provides a similar top-10 upside to Peralta if everything works out.
Noah Syndergaard, Los Angeles Dodgers
Syndergaard has fallen off quite a bit since his early Mets days and finished last season with an ERA of 3.94 and a WHIP of 1.25. That’s not exactly promising stuff for a 30-year-old, but he should get some cheap wins on what looks to be a dominant Dodgers team and it’s not like he’s ancient either. You can essentially get him for free with a current ADP of 186, and there’s no real downside. If everything goes wrong, you can just move on and drop him for a waiver wire guy without worrying about wasting any draft capital.
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End-of-Draft Dart Throws
Taijuan Walker, Philadelphia Phillies
I promise I didn’t intentionally load up on formerly hyped-up prospects, but here’s another one! Still just 30 years old, Walker hasn’t had the career he was supposed to. However, he’s coming off one of the best seasons of his career in which he finished with 12 wins, a 3.49 ERA, a 1.19 WHIP, and 132 strikeouts. He’s on a good team in the Phillies and should see an inflated win total because of that. And the best part is he’s basically free in your draft as you can likely get him with one of your last picks. And again, if things go South, you can just move on and find another flier on waivers.
Garrett Whitlock, Boston Red Sox
This isn’t the compliment it sounds like, but Whitlock might be the best starting pitcher on the Red Sox right now. The 26-year-old has shuffled back and forth between starter and reliever over his two-year career, but the Red Sox seem to be committed to rolling with him in their rotation to start 2023. He finished 2022 with a 3.45 ERA and 1.02 WHIP while putting up 9.4 strikeouts every nine innings. Whitlock is risky, but he’s another pitcher you can basically get for free at the end of your draft, and (this is an extreme best-case scenario) he has the stuff to be a top-25 fantasy starter.
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