Pitchers
We’ve broken down the top prospects to know about in each position save for one, Pitcher. Arguably the most important position on the field in reality and in fantasy realms, starters provide the bulk of the pitching stats to your team and so getting the next up-and-comers on the roster before anyone else can make a big difference no matter the size of the league or format. Given the rate of injuries the last few years, especially on the pitching side (see Mets starters) it’s important to know who’s in the farm system for that respective team before jumping for a guy you’ve never heard of on the waiver wire. This week will be the first of two installments talking about pitchers coming up later this year.
Álex Reyes (STL RHP) - Reyes had been highly touted in the Cardinals system for quite a while before requiring Tommy John surgery near the end of the 2016 season after pitching 46 innings in the majors. Missing the entire 2017 season hasn’t slowed the hype train on him after his rehab assignment in recent weeks has been video game like in its numbers. Reyes has made four rehab starts, spanning four levels and 23 innings, and in that span he posted a 3-0 record with a 0.00 ERA, 0.61 WHIP, 44:7 K:BB ratio and a ridiculous .096 BAA. In his 46 career innings in the bigs, the young righty has a 10.17 K/9, 4.50 BB/9 with a 4-1 record in 12 appearances (five starts) and a 1.57 ERA (2.67 FIP, 4.05 xFIP). Reyes makes his season debut Wednesday for the Cardinals and he should stick in the rotation long-term at this point given the injury to Adam Wainwright . Reyes has a three-pitch mix of a fastball, curveball, and changeup. His fastball is among the most electric in the game, prospect or otherwise, and his upper-70s curve can be a hammer at times with his upper-80s changeup keeping batters on their toes with a third above-average offering. If he’s still available in your league there is no reason not to get him on your roster.
ETA: 2018
Dennis Santana (LAD RHP) - Making news on Wednesday morning is the call-up of Santana to the Dodgers big club following the injury to Kenta Maeda on Tuesday. Santana has been a quick riser this season as he’s already seen Double-A Tulsa and Triple-A Oklahoma City in just 10 starts in 2018 to this point. His story is an interesting one as he was signed as a shortstop out of the Dominican Republic in 2013 before his bat couldn’t play in pro ball and he switched to the mound instead. Since then he has steadily become one of the top pitching prospects for the Dodgers with a 93-95 mph fastball that touches 98 and has tremendous sink to it. HIs slider flashes plus at times but is above-average most of the time and his changeup is still developing to keep lefties off-balance more. In his 10 starts in 2018 before his call-up, Santana posted a 1-3 record with a 2.54 ERA, 1.05 WHIP, .196 BAA, 65:15 K:BB and a 1.58 GB/FB rate over 49.2 innings pitched. Right now he will be used in the pen for the big club but could get starts on occasion as the Dodgers need to fill gaps in their rotation. In the long-term, the 22-year-old righty projects as a number-three starter if his command and control gets better but does have closer upside if he sticks in the pen.
ETA: 2018
Michael Kopech (CWS RHP) - Kopech’s name has been out there since 2015 when he first started really lighting up the radar guns while in the Red Sox system. Since then, he’s only gotten better at filling up the stat lines as a future ace for the White Sox rotation. His 80-grade fastball is his best offering as it sits 96-99 mph comfortably and hits triple-digits repeatedly, even late into starts. Sitting on the fastball leaves you open to miss his two-plane breaking slider that flashes plus-plus at times and misses bats well. Kopech continues to develop his changeup, which is a fringy pitch currently, in order to add to his repertoire on the mound and keep batters even more uncomfortable. The righty has an 11.57 K/9 in his pro career but also has a 4.46 BB/9 in that span too. Now if the only knock on him is his walk rate, that’s a pretty small thing that can ultimately get corrected as he works on fine-tuning his control. With the White Sox pretty well out of it this season, Kopech could get a taste of the bigs later this summer so the White Sox execs can see what they have in their top prospect.
ETA: 2018
Justus Sheffield (NYY LHP) - Sheffield was one of the four prospects the Yankees got back in the Andrew Miller trade and one of two first rounders they extracted from the Indians system. Since coming over in the July 2016 deal, he has progressed steadily through the system, though was sidetracked by an oblique injury at the end of the 2017 season. The 6’0”, 200-pound lefty has played at both Double-A Trenton and Triple-A Scranton/Wilkes-Barre with a combined 1-3 record, 2.03 ERA, 1.13 WHIP, .174 BAA, and a 57:23 K:BB ratio in 44.1 IP over nine starts. His mid-90s fastball has decent run and sink to it while the mid-80s slider is generally considered his best pitch. There is a changeup as well that can miss bats, but not as consistently as the first two pitches in his arsenal. Sheffield is a not a dominating lefty type like Chris Sale or Clayton Kershaw , he is more a number-three type starter with a solid K-rate and one that should be consistently in the 180-200 innings pitched realm. If Domingo Germán continues to struggle, the Yanks could move to insert Sheffield into their rotation at the back-end.
ETA: 2018
Stephen Gonsalves (MIN LHP) - Taken in the fourth round of the 2013 draft out of high school, the 6’5”, 213-pound southpaw has slowly but surely developed into being on the cusp of a call-up to the big club. As is the case with a lot of lanky prep arms, it takes a while to get everything working in cahoots to produce repeatable control. In 2018, he started at Double-A Chattanooga and has since moved to Triple-A Rochester with a combined 7-1 record. 3.04 ERA (4.00 in six Triple-A starts), 1.18 WHIP (1.30 in Triple-A), .184 BAA, 58:26 K:BB ratio and five homers in 10 total starts and 47.1 IP. His tall frame allows him to get good downward plane on his stuff and get deception which allows for his mostly above-average offerings to play up. Gonsalves offers a low-90s fastball with good life to it, a changeup that is his best secondary pitch that stays down in the zone well, and a curve that is still being worked on as an average pitch. The southpaw does have a slider but he doesn’t use it terribly often and it grades out as a 40-grade (below-average) option at the moment and will probably be eliminated when he makes the bigs. What’s stopping him from breaking into a suspect Twins rotation right now? His control. In 2017 between 87.1 innings at Double-A and 22.2 at Triple-A he posted a 2.53 BB/9 which is respectable however in 2018 thus far over 47.1 innings has a 4.95 BB/9 in the same levels. If he reduces those and reduces his 13.1% HR/FB he will be in Minnesota soon.
ETA: 2018
Taylor Clarke (ARI RHP) - Clarke was taken in the third round of the 2015 draft and since then has moved quickly through the system, which isn’t shocking for a polished college arm to do. The righty is now 25 years old (though just turning it two weeks ago) and is in the midst of a slow start at Triple-A Reno; his second stint there. So far in two full pro seasons, Clarke has posted back-to-back 140+ innings campaigns while also being among the leaders in the Arizona system in wins, ERA, and strikeouts despite just an 8.1 K/9 heading into the 2018 campaign. Featuring a low-90s fastball, low-90s slider, a 12-to-6 curve, and a changeup, he is able to keep the barrels of the bats off the ball consistently and produce a decent amount of ground balls (41.6% GB rate in 57.2 IP this year). As he has climbed higher in the system, his BB rate his ticked up consistently until reaching 3.43 this year. Clarke has a 4.21 ERA in 11 starts this year, while pitching at Reno (one of the least pitcher-friendly parks in the PCL), however his May numbers are a lot better. Over six starts this month, a 2.12 ERA, a 40:10 K:BB ratio and 5-1 record have been the results including his start this past Monday in which he went five shutout innings. If Arizona needs another arm in their hampered rotation, Clarke could very well be the first call.
ETA: 2018