Fantasy Baseball: Are Jack Leiter, Andy Pages worth adding ahead of their MLB debuts?

We’re at all times looking out for prime prospects on the verge of getting referred to as up with the potential to make an affect for Fantasy Baseball – Scott White even writes a weekly column highlighting the highest 5 to stash in your Fantasy benches, highlighted by Rays prospect Junior Caminero final week. However generally, we will not predict how groups are going to alter their prime prospects timelines, resulting in shock callups, and we bought two of these Tuesday afternoon.

The Rangers introduced they’re calling up former No. 2 total decide Jack Leiter to make his MLB debut Thursday in opposition to the Tigers in response to their seemingly endless run of pitcher accidents. And, over within the NL West, the Dodgers are selling outfielder Andy Pages to assist with their very own run of outfield accidents.

Each are coming to the majors with loads of promise, and what figures to be a great deal of hype, even when they weren’t essentially probably the most high-profile prospects on Fantasy radars this season – neither was ranked amongst Scott White’s top-100 Fantasy prospects coming into the season, for instance. However ought to they be considered as must-add Fantasy choices immediately? Let’s look into their profiles to see: 

Rangers calling up pitcher Jack Leiter

Even in case you’re not the kind of one that follows faculty baseball intently, there is a respectable probability you have heard of Leiter – and never simply because sure, his dad is Al Leiter. Leiter was some of the hyped pitching prospects of the previous decade when he got here out of the College of Vanderbilt because the No. 2 decide within the 2021, and whereas it’d appear to be he is proper on schedule to creating his MLB debut lower than three years after he was drafted, the experience right here has not been altogether easy. In any respect.

Leiter struggled with some management points in faculty, however he was so overwhelming dominant (42% strikeout price) that it simply did not matter. Nevertheless, he struggled with an aggressive placement at Double-A in his first skilled season, strolling 13.2% of opposing batters, and issues did not get any higher the next season, when he posted an similar stroll price in a repeat task at Double-A Frisco. He misplaced some velocity and experience on his four-seam fastball and struggled to throw strikes together with his secondary pitches, which created a number of loud contact and tons of walks. 

Nevertheless, he went again to the group’s complicated final summer season and returned together with his fastball and curveball trying extra like they did in faculty, and he had 25 strikeouts to 6 walks over his remaining 4 outings between Double-A and Triple-A. He carried that over into his spring appearances with the Rangers, after which was electrical within the early going at Triple-A, placing out 25 and strolling simply three over 14.1 innings in his first three begins. This has me very serious about seeing what he will seem like as a significant leaguer.

You would possibly take a look at Leiter’s profession 5.25 ERA within the minors and suppose there’s not a lot to get enthusiastic about, nevertheless it’s price remembering that growth is nearly by no means linear, particularly with regards to pitching prospects. Consider somebody like Mackenzie Gore, who went from the highest pitching prospect in baseball to somebody who was left off prime prospects lists solely by 2022, solely to lastly seemingly rediscover his potential ace type as a significant leaguer in 2024. 

That is to not say Leiter goes to be an ace. However it’s to say that how he is pitched thus far in 2024 suggests he is a really completely different pitcher than the one who floundered in his first two skilled seasons. Does that imply he’ll be the man he was drafted to be? Not essentially, however as Eno Sarris famous, he had a few of the finest stuff of any pitcher at Triple-A thus far this season, so I am not going to carry the 2022 and 2023 outcomes in opposition to him an excessive amount of.

The likeliest consequence is likely to be that Leiter comes up, and flashes great things, however in the end simply is not adequate persistently sufficient to stay round because the Rangers rotation will get wholesome. Nevertheless, if we will view a equally up-and-down younger pitcher like Edward Cabrera as a must-add Fantasy possibility – and I’m – I do not see why we should not be excited in regards to the potential Leiter brings to the desk. 

If he lives as much as his ceiling, you are going to be glad you added him earlier than his debut. If not? Properly, most waiver-wire provides find yourself getting dropped anyway. At the least this one has important upside. 

Dodgers calling up outfielder Andy Pages

Pages is the sort of prospect the Dodgers appear to supply in near-endless portions, with plus instruments and on-base abilities and a swing geared to maximizing energy (typically on the expense of contact and batting common). He cracked top-100 lists across the prospect world this offseason regardless of lacking most of final season with a torn labrum in his shoulder in his first sport at Triple-A, and he is been raking down in Oklahoma Metropolis after a robust spring.

Energy is Pages’ calling card, which was why the shoulder damage was such a scary damage, particularly since he did not essentially sport huge exit velocity readings earlier than the damage. However he is been hitting the ball exhausting at Triple-A this season, sporting a 91.3 mph common exit velocity and 110.3 mph max exit velo, with 5 homers in his first 15 video games. That is a superb signal that he is recovered from the damage, and he is anticipated to make his MLB debut Tuesday in opposition to Patrick Corbin.

It is not a profile that ought to essentially result in huge FAB bids and a rush to blow your prime waiver-wire precedence so as to add, not less than not immediately, however with Jason Heyward struggling a setback in his return from a decrease again damage, Pages might get prolonged run right here. He’ll begin in opposition to lefties and a few righties to start with, per MLB.com, but when he proves he can hack it, he might very properly power the group’s hand. 

There most likely will not be a lot velocity in Pages’ profile, and his flyball-heavy method might result in some batting common struggles as properly. However Pages was routinely hitting 20-plus homers in his early 20s, and may very well be a 25-homer man within the majors if all goes proper. Even batting comparatively low within the lineup, distant from the Mookie Betts/Freddie Freeman/Shohei Ohtani trio, Pages ought to profit from a Dodgers lineup that’s going to show over a ton. And, if he hits his potential, he very properly might power the group’s hand to maintain him on the roster the remainder of the way in which.

It is not a must-add participant, definitely not if the likes of Colton Cowser or Jordan Westburg are nonetheless accessible in your league. However in case you’ve bought a roster spot to play with and also you’re in search of upside, Pages has some, for certain.