Wouldn’t it be great to have a fantasy baseball expert sitting by your side as you navigate your draft? They could help you avoid the draft-day landmines along with pointing out who you should target and even reach for. Well, this is your lucky day! Not only do we offer the Draft Assistant, a tool that allows you to optimize your picks with expert advice during your fantasy baseball drafts, but we also have a few must-have players to target from our team of analysts! Here are the players they aim for in each of their fantasy baseball drafts.
- Fantasy Baseball Mock Draft Simulator
- 2024 Fantasy Baseball Draft Kit
- Fantasy Baseball Draft Rankings
- Fantasy Baseball Projections
Expert Must-Have Fantasy Baseball Draft Picks
Pablo Lopez (SP – MIN)
The one pitcher I will be targeting above all others in 2024 is Pablo Lopez. Partly because you can consistently get him in the third or fourth round of drafts this season, and partly because he’s in line for what looks to be a monster year.
In 2023, Lopez took his pitch arsenal to another level. After doing his due diligence at Driveline in the offseason, his fastball velocity jumped to a career-best 94.9 MPH. He packaged that newfound fastball with a brand new pitch as well… a sweeper. A sweeper that would go on to give him one of the most effective pitch mixes in baseball.
With that new sweeper and beefed-up fastball, Lopez ranked fifth in baseball with a 29.2% strikeout rate and third in K-BB rate at 23.2%. In points leagues, the high K-BB% is great. In 5×5 leagues, the 234 strikeouts are elite. Only 17 pitchers ended the season with 200+ strikeouts last season, the only guys with more than Lopez were Spencer Strider and Kevin Gausman.
2023 was the first season of Lopez’s sweeper which helped give him a dominant out pitch to right-handers. What has been a bit overlooked is the fact that his changeup was just as good against left-handers. It sits a bit more middle-middle against righties than you’d like to see but he doesn’t use it against them enough to be a big issue. He’s one of the few guys with a legitimate “out pitch” to both sides of the plate.
When he’s on, god save the batter who faces him. This is the level of dominance you should be targeting from your SP1. He’s good enough that you can pass on the top guys like Strider and Gerrit Cole and use those first few picks on dominant bats. Leaving the first four rounds with elite hitters plus a starter with the potential to flirt with 250 strikeouts is a formula for success in every fantasy baseball league.
Nolan Gorman (2B – STL)
Second base was one of the thinnest positions in 2023. Not much has changed in 2024. You have the top four options in Mookie Betts, Jose Altuve, Ozzie Albies and Marcus Semien. After that, it doesn’t necessarily get bad, but there is a legitimate drop-off in production.
You have two options when drafting second base. Either take one of the options very early or wait and pray you nail a later-round sleeper that can return enough production to make you happy. For me, Nolan Gorman is the perfect guy for option two.
He had what many would consider a “breakout” in 2023. His 27 home runs were fourth-best amongst second basemen despite playing just 119 games. Not only that, he drove in an impressive 76 and walked at an 11.4% clip. There was a lot to like about his season.
There were certainly things to dislike as well. His 32% strikeout rate wasn’t great and he hit just .236 despite having a manageable .296 BABIP (batting average on balls in play). He’s not ever going to be a guy who makes good contact; he’s going to be a guy who falls more into the quality-over-quantity category. Meaning his batting average will suffer but he can make up for it in other areas.
| 2023 | Position Rank (Min. 450 PA) | |
| Average EV | 91 MPH | 3 |
| Barrel% | 16.5% | 1 |
| Hard Hit% | 48.5% | 1 |
| xSLG | .502 | 2 |
Gorman is currently being taken as the 18th second baseman off the board, 187th overall, according to the consensus ADP. If you want to focus your later picks on other positions like nailing a few top-end OFs, Gorman becomes a good option later on. Especially in category leagues where his later-round power will become very useful. There’s only a handful of guys capable of 30+ home runs after the first couple of rounds, so be mindful of that come draft day.
- Blake Meyer
Check out the rest of Blake’s must-have players to draft 
Francisco Alvarez (C – NYM)
Francisco Alvarez already displayed his 30-homer upside in his 2023 rookie season. Sure, the batting average (BA) (.209) was a disappointment, but he’s turning 23 this season and has minor league slash of .273/384/.529 over 257 games. Young catchers often take offensive hits, spending time learning and perfecting their duties behind the plate. He’s shown up in great shape, and if he even makes incremental progress in ’24 toward his minor league performance, he could easily finish as a top-five catcher this year.
Royce Lewis (3B – MIN)
I know the injury risk is real, but so is the talent. I’m willing to take a risk with Lewis around 50 overall because if he plays 150 games, he’s going to be drafted as a late first-round player in 2025. With the third base ranks being more up for debate, Lewis feels like the right player at the right price at his position to outperform his average draft position (ADP). That’s something some players being drafted in that same range may fall short of in 2024.
- Joe Pisapia
Check out the rest of Joe’s must-have players to draft
Anthony Rizzo (1B – NYY)
Rizzo is a smash pick for me at his late ADP. He is coming off a season in which the stat line looks terrible, including a .244 batting average and 12 home runs over 99 games. We must remember he played many of those games with a concussion.
Before getting hurt, Rizzo was raking. Over the season’s first two months (opening day to May 31), he hit .304 with 11 home runs, 30 runs scored, and 32 RBI. He had a 10.5% barrel rate, .880 OPS, and 146 wRC+. Rizzo is reportedly healthy now. He will be hitting in the middle of the Yankees lineup and should be a strong fantasy asset at first base or corner infield.
- KC Bubba
Check out the rest of KC Bubba’s must-have players to draft
Zach Eflin (SP – TB)
Zach Eflin is coming off a breakout season in which he threw a career-high in innings with a career-best in strikeouts, wins, ERA and WHIP. There is always risk in terms of health, as Eflin has struggled with injuries in the past. Still, the underlying numbers were even better than the amazing surface stats, so I am taking the gamble everywhere I can.
Daulton Varsho (OF – TOR)
Daulton Varsho is coming off of a disappointing season in Toronto, where he hit just .220/285/.389 with 20 home runs and 16 stolen bases. He also lost catching eligibility, which hurts his value. However, his underlying numbers are much better than you’d expect. He made big gains in zone contact and his exit velocities. He got unlucky in BABIP and HR/FB rate. There is a lot to like for a player who is going way too late in drafts.
- Justin Mason
Check out the rest of Justin’s must-have players to draft
George Kirby (SP – SEA)
The current craze is for extreme strikeout pitches. I’m down with this, of course, but many (not all) heavy strikeout pitchers come with ERA/WHIP concerns. Kirby isn’t the elite strikeout guy, but he is one of the highest-floor pitchers in baseball. He had the lowest walk rate in baseball at 2.5% in 2023. He added velocity to his fastball and put up a 3.35 ERA over 190 innings. His biggest problem is pitching to so much contact that he doesn’t walk batters. It’s a quirk in his game that could lead to instability if that control were to waver. We haven’t seen that yet. What we have seen are pitch additions like his split-finger, which sported the highest WHIFF rate of any pitch he threw, and talk of pitch additions (this year, the desire to throw a knuckle-curve). What perks my interest here though, is his continued ability to grow as a pitcher, is one strikeout change away from going from a top 8-12 pitcher to one of the very best. Maybe you shave off a little upside by taking him early, but I believe he does provide the floor where you can more comfortably take later shots on guys like Cole Ragans or Bobby Miller, who may have a little volatility but huge strikeout upside.
Michael Harris (OF – ATL)
We may have more of them these days, but 20/20 guys still don’t grow on trees, at least not yet. Harris just about accomplished this last year. Harris struggled to make the contact he wanted to early in the year but turned a first-half hitting just .255 into a.325 second half. He finished the year with a .293 average, but amazingly had an xBA higher at .304 which was one of the best in the entire league. Harris had an impressive 48% hard-hit rate and lowered his groundball rate in the second half. A lot of this has led to impressive projections. ATC has him over 20/20 and a .281 batting average. According to ATC, there are only three other outfielders projections, and there are only three other outfielders projected to go 20/20 with a .280 average or higher. All three of those hitters, Ronald Acuna, Julio Rodriguez, and Kyle Tucker are top-8 picks. Michael Harris’ ADP is just around 30th overall. Yes, please.
- The Welsh
Check out the rest of The Welsh’s must-have players to draft
Corey Seager (SS – TEX)
Seager has landed at the top of many lists this offseason, so you probably already know the refrain. Defenses shifted the ninth-most against him in 2022, and a career-low BABIP decimated his batting average. His 33 home runs were a career-high, but most projections have him hovering around 30 again this year. At the beginning of the draft season, I was so excited to get him in the 7th round, but now, you’re lucky to see him in the fifth in a 12-team league. Do it anyway. He is the shortstop to roster in 2023.
Andres Munoz (RP – SEA)
Wild horses will not stop me from drafting Andres Munoz.
A “closer committee” will not stop me from drafting Andres Munoz.
At this point, I’m willing to make his Statcast page (see above) my desktop photo and order it as artwork for my office.
He is my must-have must have.
- Kelly Kirby
Check out the rest of Kelly’s must-have players to draft
More Expert Fantasy Baseball Draft Advice
Fantasy Baseball Draft Cheat Sheets
- The Welsh’s Cheat Sheet
- Joe Pisapia’s Cheat Sheet
- Justin Mason’s Cheat Sheet
- Mason’s Cheat Sheet for HR & SB
- Kelly Kirby’s Cheat Sheet
- Blake Meyer’s Cheat Sheet
- Mason’s High-Stakes Leagues Draft Strategy (Premium)
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