Fantasy Baseball Draft Outlook: Elly De La Cruz, Gavin Stone, Bryce Harper, Wyatt Langford (2024)

While this isn’t your typical “breakouts” article, it’s meant to serve the same purpose. Fantasy X-Factors are players who will be difference makers for both their team and your fantasy baseball team. Sometimes that player may be a second-rounder looking to take their game to the next level. Other times it could be an 18th-rounder with the potential to end up as a top-five talent at the position.

With that in mind, let’s cut the intro short and get straight into the list. Here are all of our fantasy baseball draft X-Factors. Below we dive into a few notable names from the list.

Fantasy Baseball X-Factors

Wyatt Langford (OF)

There aren’t many baseball names hotter than Wyatt Langford at the moment. He went from second overall pick to blazing through the minors in just a couple of months. Langford is the true definition of a five-tool player. He’s done everything he can to prove that this spring training.

Enter the same song and dance about spring training not supposed to matter here, but, sometimes a player can perform so well you might take extra notice. Five big-time home runs, a .378 batting average and a 1.198 OPS will do that. Even with fellow Rookie of the Year hopeful Evan Carter on the roster, Langford has found ways to outshine the rest of his World Series champion teammates. He’s flying up draft boards currently. by this time next year, we could be talking about him as a potential first-round pick.

Bryce Harper (1B)

Bryce Harper went into 2023 coming off an elbow surgery that typically negates any good a player does at the plate. To be fair, it did in the beginning. Especially since Harper decided to be Superman and come back too early. He returned in May and hit just five home runs over his first 73 games. He had a sparkling .289 batting average but was essentially void of power.

The power kicked back in after that (sort of) and now we’re faced with a dilemma. Has Bryce Harper become a 20-25 home run guy who can hit .300 and play a good first base? Or does Bryce Harper still possess that 35+ home run ability and can flirt with .300? I think he has that power. If so, there’s reason to believe he can return first-round value.

Gavin Stone (SP)

The 2024 Dodgers are going to be must-watch television. It feels like everyone on their team is an MVP candidate and the ones that aren’t are still perennial All-Star caliber players. Then you have Gavin Stone.

2023 was a rough year for him, amassing a 9.00 ERA and a 5.9% K-BB rate in 31 major league innings. This spring he looks like a new man. Granted, spring numbers need to be taken lightly, but he’s striking people out at an impressive rate. His 24.2% K-BB rate is elite and after officially being named the Dodgers’ fifth starter, the sky may be the limit for Stone. He’s very cheap in drafts and may end the year as the biggest breakout pitcher of 2024.

Elly De La Cruz (SS)

It should come as no surprise to hear Elly De La Cruz is arguably the most polarizing player in fantasy baseball. He proved last season the elite upside is real. Hitting 35 XBH and recording 35 stolen bases in just 98 games will do that. The problem is the strikeouts. A 40.2% strikeout rate against lefties and 31.1% against righties left much to be desired.

He improved his swing decisions drastically in the second half of 2023. If he can continue that trend and get the strikeout rate in check, he has the quality contact numbers and speed to be worthy of his current second-round ADP.