Urquidy seemingly has the fourth starter's role locked down, and he offers and intriguing pitch mix, with an above-average fastball and changeup, with a decent slider.It's unlikely that the soon to be 25-year-old will develop into a consistent fantasy starter given his inconsistency, but he certainly has enough upside, as he showed in the playoffs, to warrant rostering in all fantasy leagues. But given the postponement of the season, it seems unlikely to threaten Verlander's availability for Opening Day, whenever that may be. Cruz will be 40 this year, never plays the field and is starting to miss more time to injuries.
The Pirates ranked 20th in 2019 in runs scored, while the Diamondbacks ranked 11th, and PNC Park was one of the worst parks for righty batters last season.
But, either way, the price on Kimbrel should be the cheapest in years, and if you're waiting on saves, he's as good an option to take a chance on as anyone. His walk rate and strikeout rate rose and fell just a tad from his peak, a trend that fantasy owners can expect to continue.
Click here to view every team's outlook in 2020, including predictions, projections and, yes, a preview of the 2030 preview. Fantasy Impact
There are better pitchers to consider late in your draft. . But Cole's fastball and slider are beyond elite, and he should be the top pitcher taken in fantasy drafts. Bogaerts had an outstanding 2019 season, obliterating his career-high in home runs and RBI and getting his batting average back over .300. He has seemed on the cusp of a breakout for years, but the bottom line is that he has never hit better than .258 or slugged more than 23 homers.
With dual-eligibility coming, Segura shouldn't be forgotten on draft day. Unfortunately, we're a long way away from there, as the St. Louis bullpen situation is a giant question mark at the moment given Carlos Martinez and Alex Reyes. Gallen was so absurdly dominant in Triple-A in 2019 that his MLB performance, while highly impressive, felt slightly disappointing. For now, avoid drafting DeShields, who doesn't appear to have a place to play in any event. He combined power (41 homers), speed (37 stolen bases), and his spot batting atop an outstanding lineup (127 runs, 101 RBI) to put up one of the all-around great seasons. With an extremely low strikeout rate, his numbers (4.16 ERA, 1.22 WHIP) don't warrant a roster spot. The sample is too small to know if Manaea really took a step forward, particularly given his significantly higher FIP and xFIP. Scherzer is entering his age-36 season and is a max effort pitcher, so the fact that we finally saw a bit of a breakdown (Scherzer has reached at least 200 innings in his six previous seasons) is concerning. Lugo is worth drafting for his ratios alone, but the potential for saves makes him an ideal candidate for a late-round selection.
Ray is certainly rosterable but close your eyes when he's pitching. Draft him for his potential and hope to see it this year, but don't bank on the production.
The Dodgers have moved him back and forth from the bullpen to the starting rotation to manipulate his innings and avoid paying him bonuses for years. But he really turned it on in the latter half of the season, pitching to a 2.65 ERA and 1.08 WHIP in the second half.
Is that worth the complete lack of production he offers in three other categories?
Thus, his nearly 50 percent strikeout rate is likely here to stay, and that makes Hader the top reliever to draft in fantasy, even if his occasional multi-inning role means he won't get every save chance.
Hader throws his fastball about 83 percent of the time and batters just can't hit it.