English
Español
Fantasy baseball draft season is here and everyone is looking for sleeper picks to win the draft room. The Rotoworld Baseball staff is on the case.
The term "sleeper" means different things to different people and it can also vary depending on the depth of your league, but the best way to look at it is each player's ability to outperform their average draft position. The names you'll see below all have the potential to do exactly that.
⚾️ Coming soon: MLB returns to NBC and Peacock in 2026! In addition to becoming the exclusive home of Sunday Night Baseball, NBC Sports will broadcast MLB Sunday Leadoff, “Opening Day” and Labor Day primetime games, the first round of the MLB Draft, the entire Wild Card round of the postseason, and much more.
⚾ 2026 Fantasy Baseball Sleepers
Sal Stewart — 1B, Cincinnati Reds
Called up at the end of last season to join a Reds team full of average hitters, Stewart immediately stood out, no matter how little manager Terry Francona wanted to admit it. He arrived having hit .309/.383/.524 with 20 homers, 17 steals and a modest 16% strikeout rate between Double- and Triple-A, and he went on to add five more homers in just 55 at-bats for the Reds. That's as many as Gavin Lux had in 446 at-bats. 21 of his 40 balls in play were hit hard. He slugged .545, about 100 points better than any Reds regular, and he probably could have done better; Statcast gave him an expected SLG of .626.
Since then, there's been some debate about where and how much Stewart will play. None of the projection systems are treating him as a full-timer, but it'd be nuts for the Reds not to give him that opportunity. Elly De La Cruz is the only other guy on the Reds with this kind of offensive ceiling. Stewart should hit for average and power, while he'll surely bat lower than Eugenio Suárez for now, he'll probably finish the season as the teams' cleanup hitter. He's a top-10 fantasy first baseman, and he'll be even more valuable if and when he becomes eligible at second base. - Matthew Pouliot
Cade Horton — SP, Chicago Cubs
It’s odd to classify one of the best pitchers of the second half and N.L. Rookie of the Year runner-up as a sleeper. Yet, it seems the fantasy community is projecting far too much regression with an ADP just inside the top 200. While I wouldn’t bank on a repeat of a 2.67 ERA, don’t discount the growth potential for the 24-year-old right-hander. Horton’s strikeout totals might’ve been uninspiring, but his strikeout rate improved in the second half behind a pair of secondaries in his changeup and sweeper that generated outstanding whiff rates. Add in a 6.9% walk rate and elite defense behind him, and the regression could be a lot softer than the projections indicate. - Jorge Montanez
Matthew PouliotKazuma Okamoto — 1B/3B, Toronto Blue Jays
Okamoto arrives with an extensive track record of power production in Japan, supported by enough contact skill to suggest his transition to the majors may be steadier than the typical leap of faith attached to international imports. The 29-year-old third baseman immediately slots into the heart of Toronto’s loaded lineup, creating ample run-producing opportunities with the defending American League champions. Projecting Okamoto for 25 homers with a respectable batting average and strong counting stats doesn’t feel like wishcasting – it feels like a reasonable translation of a proven power bat stepping into a favorable lineup environment in the hitter-friendly AL East. For context, Eugenio Suárez, Junior Caminero, Manny Machado, and José Ramírez were the only third basemen to eclipse 25 homers last season. He’s been drifting beyond pick 275 in early NFBC drafts – nearly 100 selections after Matt Chapman – which feels like a familiar market reflex: when uncertainty looms, fantasy managers instinctively default to familiarity instead of embracing the riskier unknown. - George Bissell
Francisco Alvarez — C, New York Mets
Given the hype attached to Alvarez as a prospect a few years ago, it’s a little crazy that he’s considered a sleeper entering his fourth full season in the majors, but here we are. It’s been a bumpy road for the 24-year-old, including multiple hand injuries and a demotion to Triple-A Syracuse last season, but he was a different hitter upon his return to the majors. After adjusting his swing mechanics in Triple-A, he slashed .276/.360/.561 with eight homers and 21 RBI across his final 41 games. Alvarez had surgery to repair a torn UCL in his thumb after the season, but he had no limitations going into the spring. The optimism for Alvarez lies in his quality of contact, which ranked among the league’s best in hard-hit rate and average exit velocity last season. Alvarez might begin 2026 in the bottom third of the Mets’ revamped lineup. That’s understandable given his injury history and fits and starts offensively, but there’s still a potential 30-homer hitter in here somewhere. At catcher, that upside plays in all leagues. - D.J. Short
Bubba Chandler — SP, Pittsburgh Pirates
There’s an exciting group of young starting pitchers who debuted last season that are taking fantasy drafts by storm. Managers are tripping over themselves to draft Nolan McLean (97 ADP), Chase Burns (113 ADP), Jacob Misiorowski (130 ADP), Cam Schlittler (141 ADP), and Trey Yesavage (152 ADP). Yet, Bubba Chandler (154 ADP) is the last of the bunch to go off the board and has a good chance to be the most effective from this crew. His call-up was delayed last season first by the Pirates manipulating his service time and then by his own poor performance as frustration potentially mounted. Still, his seven-game audition was excellent. Over 31 1/3 innings, he struck out 31 batters, walked four, and had a 0.93 WHIP. His 4.02 ERA was a bit high, but came with a nine-run blow up against the Brewers. Without that, it’d would’ve been a 1.57 ERA and his helium would be out of control. A fastball that flirts with 100 mph sets up a hard slider that dominates righties and a changeup that stymies lefties. There’s a curveball that’s potentially on the way too. It’s not difficult to envision him as a top-30 starter with room for more and his place as the 41st starting pitcher off the board leaves more room for profit compared to most of that second-year starter cohort. - James Schiano
Jordan Lawlar — 3B, Arizona Diamondbacks
This is the year. I feel it. Lawlar came into the 2024 season as the 11th-ranked prospect in baseball after hitting .278/.378/.496 with 20 home runs and 26 steals in 105 games at Double-A and Triple-A in 2023. However, he had thumb surgery at the beginning of that season and was out until June, and then injured his hamstring when he returned. As a result, he was limited to 23 games that season. He then got off to a hot start in 2025, but hamstring injuries again limited Lawlar to 91 total games. His injuries and his paltry .182/.257/.288 slash line with a 35% strikeout rate in 28 MLB games has his ADP outside of the top 300, but I still have faith. For starters, he slashed .313/.403/.564 with 11 home runs and 20 steals in 63 games at Triple-A last season. He posted a 10.8% swinging strike rate at that level and had just a 13.7% mark in his MLB debut, and his Triple-A zone contact and overall contact rates were solid. He has a patient approach (perhaps overly patient at the big league level) and not only pulls the ball often but pulls it in the air as well. That will allow him to get to more power than you think, especially since he had a 113 mph max exit velocity in Triple-A. Lawlar should get every chance to win a starting outfield job this spring, and I think he has the chance to be a 20/25 guy in a full season. - Eric Samulski
Quinn Priester — SP, Milwaukee Brewers
It's tough to gauge what is or isn't a sleeper, but it doesn't seem like Priester is getting enough attention. Even if you ignore his 13-3 record, he's a right-hander who posted a 3.32 ERA over 157 1/3 innings while helping Milwaukee to the best record in the National League. There were very few starters in baseball who did a better job of keeping the ball on the ground last year with a 55.7 percent rate, and he avoided hard contact at a strong rate as well. The one thing Priester didn't do was fan many batters as seen in 132 punchouts in those aforementioned innings, but his 24.5 percent whiff rate suggests that the 20.2 strikeout percentage had at least a smidgen of bad luck. Priester is not an ace, but this is a 25-year-old who has had success, and considering he's a former first-round pick and someone who was widely considered one of the 50 or so best prospects in baseball not that long ago, it shouldn't shock anyone if he takes another step in 2026. - Christopher Crawford
George BissellLuís García Jr. — 2B, Washington Nationals
García may not fit some definitions of a sleeper as all fantasy managers know who is, but he doesn't get anywhere near the respect that he deserves. It feels like he has been around forever because he broke into the big leagues as a 20-year-old and is entering his seventh MLB season, yet he still won't be 26 until August. Over the past two seasons he has hit .267 while averaging 17 home runs and 18 stolen bases and his contributions in the counting stats should be positive as well hitting near the middle of the Nationals' lineup. He qualifies at second base -- perhaps the single most shallow position in fantasy baseball in 2026 -- and will also gain eligibility at first base as that's where he'll be stationed for the Nationals this year. He quietly and capably delivers contributions in all five categories and it's incredibly likely that we have yet to see his true ceiling. When you can grab that type of player after pick 225, it's an absolute win on all fronts. - David Shovein