Dynasty Fantasy Baseball | Excelling Rookies Under 25 Years Old: Yoshinobu Yamamoto, Jared Jones, Luis Gil and Kyle Harrison
Discussing some of the top-pitching rookies in the MLB, and how to approach them in fantasy leagues.
Last week, I wrote up a story on some of the better-hitting MLB rookies under the age of 25. Today, I’m back to talk about some of the excelling rookies pitchers under the age of 25.
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Pitching Prospects
I’ll go in order of the four pitcher's earned run averages. After seeing the title and the pitchers who would be covered in this story, you might be surprised to see New York Yankees’ Luis Gil at the top of the list.
Gil has been a breakout star for the Yankees, sitting with a 5-1 record and 2.39 ERA across his first nine starts. Coming into the season, Gil had just seven MLB career starts and a 3.78 ERA, but also hadn’t pitched in 2022.
Along with his low ERA and strong record, Gil has a whopping 62 strikeouts over 49 innings. Really the only blemishes for Gil so far this season have been a lot of walks, with 27 already (which equates to five walks every nine innings).
Gil went from not even being a part of the top-400 players in the FantasySP Average Draft Position list to currently owned in 92% of fantasy leagues. He’s been nothing short of spectacular.
Over his past four starts, Gill has only allowed two earned runs, while punching out 27 batters in 24 1/3 innings. He should be in starting lineups every time he pitches and his fantasy value is rising quickly.
In dynasty leagues, Gil has turned into a really intriguing asset. He was mostly unknown before the season, so he was probably only owned in deeper dynasty leagues. Since he was a waiver wire add (most likely), I think it makes most sense to just hang on to Gil and enjoy his success this season.
The only reason I’d consider trading Gil is if my team was in a rebuild and I wasn’t ready to compete right now. The longer Gil continues to pitch well, the higher his value will go, so that's the risk you’d have to take if you want to get more in a trade for him.
Pittsburgh Pirates’ Jared Jones has been fantastic this season. He’s likely going to be drowned out for headlines with teammate Paul Skenes now in the MLB and pitching well.
In his first MLB season, Jones is 3-4, but with a strong 2.89 earned run average across nine starts. He’s struck out 63 batters over 53 innings, while walking just seven.
Command was a big-time concern for Jones coming into the season, but he owns one of the best walks per nine innings marks in the entire league. He’s striking out plenty of batters and not allowing many runs.
Jones has made it at least five innings in every start, and struck out seven or more batters in seven of the nine outings. He’s another player that went from an afterthought in fantasy drafts to a lock for starting rotations when he’s on the bump. His own percentage is 96 now.
Jones was on the radar of dynasty owners coming into the season, and likely was owned in a bunch of leagues. He definitely should be now, and Jones looks like an asset to build around for years to come.
Jones is only 22 years old and his best pitching should be a couple years out still. I wouldn’t call Jones untouchable, but he’d be hard to pry off my team. He’s already a fantasy asset, so contending teams can benefit from him. And then even if your fantasy team is a couple years away from competing, he’s young enough that he should still be a big-time fantasy asset for when it’s time for a fantasy team to compete.
The next player we need to discuss is Los Angeles Dodgers’ Yoshinobu Yamamoto. He’s not a typical rookie, but is 25 years old, so he falls into my criteria for this story.
Many wondered how Yamamoto would fare in his first MLB season. It’s safe to say he’s settled in just fine, with a 5-1 record and 3.17 ERA across 10 starts this season. He’s struck out 61 batters over 54 innings, while walking only 11 batters.
He’s on pace for a fantastic season and has been pretty consistent all season. He had a rough outing in the Seoul Series, giving up five runs in a single inning of work. Yamamoto has allowed four runs in two starts, three runs in one start, two runs in two starts and no runs in four outings.
He’s pitched at least five innings in each game since his MLB debut, including five starts at six or more innings. Yamamoto has five or more strikeouts in all but one start (his first one), tallying seven or more Ks in four contests.
Yamamoto was pretty highly-regarded coming into fantasy drafts, and he’s exceeded expectations to this point, I’d say. He was drafted around pick 35 on average.
Much like in the case with Gil, Yamamoto is going to be most appealing to dynasty teams ready to compete now. I wouldn’t necessarily want to trade him if my team was years off from competing, because Yamamoto has a better chance to stick in the MLB than Gil, but at the same time, if you can speed up your rebuilding process with a great return for Yamamoto, I say go for it.
Just make sure you are completely satisfied with the return. If you aren't, just keep rostering Yamamoto and make a move when the deal is too good to pass on.
The last pitcher we’ll discuss today is San Francisco Giants’ Kyle Harrison. He’s 22 years old and has been solid in his second taste of the MLB.
In 10 starts this season, Harrison is 4-1 with a 3.60 ERA. He’s struck out 49 batters over 55 innings, while walking 19 batters.
Harrison got seven starts in during the 2023 season, going 1-1 with a 4.15 ERA and 35 Ks over 34 2/3 innings. I mentioned in spring training that his MLB experience last year should help him this season, and it appears to be doing just that.
He’s only failed to reach five innings in one start. He’s gone over six innings five times. The most runs he’s allowed in a start this season is four, and that’s only happened once - Harrison has tossed two shutouts and has three more games at two or less runs allowed.
He’s been a borderline quality start pitcher almost every time out, often just falling short on the innings. Harrison isn’t a huge strikeout pitcher, but has four or more in eight of his starts.
Harrison was drafted around pick 190 this season, so he was on fantasy owner’s radars. He was definitely owned in a lot of dynasty leagues, and still should be today. Harrison has a 72 for his own percentage, which is fair seeing some lower-strikeout performances with not a lot of innings either.
Still, Harrison’s outlook for dynasty leagues is pretty good. There’s still plenty of room to improve for the lefty, and being only 22 years old, he’s got a lot of time to improve in a bunch of ways.
A lot of dynasty owners are probably going to try to buy Harrison low (even though he’s not pitching poorly). But a contending time might be willing to ship Harrison out because he’s not quite ready to lead a fantasy rotation yet. I personally would do my best to hang on to Harrison, but also would say he’s tradeable compared to some of the other names we’ve discussed today.
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