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Speaker 1Let's talk three way too early sleeper pitchers for next season up next on Fantasy Baseball Today Express. Welcome in to FBT Express on Wednesday. October 7th. I am Frank Sample. Joined by Scott White. Want to take a quick look at three relievers who could be awesome starters next year. We're not guaranteed that they're going to be in their respective teams' rotations. But I think it's trending that way. They have all flashed in the postseason here. And Scott, we will start with Hagen Smith of the White Sox who opened game one at the Guardians with two and two-thirds shutout innings. He had four strikeouts to three walks. He looked great down the stretch in the regular season. 129 ERA. 0.96 whip. Tons of strikeouts. Also lots of walks. But this was a high-end prospect who I think will transition into a starter's role next season.
Speaker 3Yeah. I mean, as good as he was in relief, and I think it got overshadowed a little bit versus some of the other ones we're going to talk about just because Hagen Smith was up so much later. But to have a whip below one even when you're walking five batters per nine. I mean, geez. That batting average against has got to be microscopic. And then also to have 13.2K per nine. It was obviously a good first showing for Hagen Smith. He does still have to resolve the walk issue, which was present throughout his minor league career. But that is something we see young pitchers, particularly with this kind of strikeout upside, overcome all the time. And part of the reason we're so excited about the prospect of these dominant relievers, who obviously have a lot of time, obviously have a starting background, but we've seen teams do this in recent years, treat the bullpen like a sort of a finishing school for not quite developed starters. And I mean, we could go through some of the examples, if you want, of guys who've turned out to be huge successes when they transitioned to the rotation. Griffin Jacks this year. Reid Detmers, I think that's a great example because he spent a few years struggling in the rotation, moved in the bullpen, and last year, 2025, dominated, and then was the best version we've ever seen as a starter in 2026. Peyton Tolley got a little bit of time in the bullpen last year. And then two years ago, a lot of huge examples. Clay Holmes, Chris Bubich, Michael King made that transition into the biggest of all in recent years, Garrett Crochet, who, sure, he was good and relieved, but nobody thought, I shouldn't say nobody, but very few thought, he would make a successful transition to the rotation. And he turned into a no-questions-asked ace.
Speaker 1And I think what makes you feel even better about this for Hagen-Smith, and the next name we're going to talk about, is that the White Sox were the team that did that with Garrett Crochet. So they have experience doing this, and specifically someone like Hagen-Smith, who has a pretty similar repertoire to Garrett Crochet when he first got called up, was mostly fastball slider. Now Crochet has broadened that a little bit, but, I mean, the fourth team in the slider are really, really ridiculous. The underlying stats for both those pitches look really good for Hagen-Smith. His teammate, Grant Taylor, he closed out the game here on Monday night for the White Sox with, nope, excuse me, he did this the other day. It was four shutout innings with six strikeouts, but overall, he has been used a ton here in the postseason for the White Sox. He was used in a variety of roles during the season, kind of as a fireman reliever, sometimes as the closer. But we have already kind of heard whispers that they were planning on transitioning him to a starter for next season. You know, the innings totals that we're going to get from these guys, I think, are, you know, some questions for next year, but the per inning stuff could just be awesome. I think the same could be said for Grant Taylor.
Speaker 3Yeah, and Grant Taylor, I don't know, would I be most confident he's going to make the transition? This was something they talked about as, I don't know if they've talked about it much, since April, but in April, they were talking about, okay, yeah, Grant Taylor's going to get this year in the bullpen, but then the idea is to transition him to the rotation next year. Plans could have changed. He was obviously really dominant in the bullpen, and they have other starting options, probably, that they weren't counting on then. But I would lean yes. I would lean yes on all three of these guys making the transition, and Grant Taylor, I think there's been the most talk with him. He also tended to pitch multiple innings as recently as September. It looks like one, two, three, four, five, six. Six of his eight outings in September were more than an inning. So I think that's a strong indicator for Taylor there, especially.
Speaker 1Yeah, and that game one of the ALDS against the Guardians, he threw four shutout innings with six strikeouts to end that game, to pick up the save. Four shutout innings. I mean, that is amazing stuff there for Grant Taylor. So his overall innings total is up over 90 now between the regular season and the postseason. But he's another one. I mean, you look at the pitch mix, four-seam curve, slider, all three amazing whiff rates, all three great with the batted balls in play as well. So yeah, lots to be excited about there with Hagan Smith and Grant Taylor. Let's take a quick break. When we return, we have one more name that is flashing in the postseason, all season as a reliever. Hopefully, he's a star. He's a starter next year. We'll get to that right after this.
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Speaker 1Welcome back in, FBT Express. We have three relievers who could become awesome starters next year for fantasy. The last name I wanted to mention was Didier Fuentes from your Atlanta Braves, Scott, in game two against the Dodgers in that NLDS. Three and two-thirds, one hit, one run, three strikeouts to zero walks. He's had a great year, all around. He's up to 80 innings total, so it's like maybe they could push him 120, 130. I don't know if this is exactly their plan, but awesome stuff. Really good control this year. He kind of flashed some of that in spring training and we thought, all right, maybe it's going to happen this year. It did as a reliever, but I think maybe next year could be the big breakout for Didier Fuentes.
Speaker 3Yeah, and he had a similar situation like you were talking about with Grant Taylor in game two of the NLDS. Against the Dodgers, even though, you know, by season's end, he was basically a one-inning reliever. He nearly went four perfect innings to close out that game two against the Dodgers. With two outs in the ninth, ended up allowing a solo home run to Max Muncy, so they pulled him. It ended up being three and two-thirds innings, but he was going for that fourth inning and he'd been perfect up to that point. So I think maybe that's an early example of the Braves tipping their hand, when Ted's back in the role. He's so young. young, that it would be kind of crazy to just define him so narrowly as a reliever. He turned 21 in June. So half this year, he's a 20-year-old, you know? But he obviously debuted as a starter last year and struggled. So this seems like a perfect example of, okay, let's let this guy learn the ropes and relieve, and then he should be good to start after he kind of goes through his apprenticeship there.
Speaker 1Yeah, and he made changes this year, too, to his pitch mix, swapping out a sweeper for a slider, started using his splitter a little bit more. I think that splitter needs to be refined a little bit more, but his slider, 38% whiff rate, his four-seam fastball, 29% whiff rate. So the four-seam, the slider, you're definitely excited about there for Fuentes, and then hopefully he could refine this. Splitter a little bit in the offseason, but the Braves, another team, I mean, to their credit, they've done this with some other relievers, not as high in names, but like Grant Holmes has turned out to be a pretty serviceable starting pitcher, and you know, he was kind of a journeyman reliever type. Well, Spencer Strider.
Speaker 3Spencer Strider, yeah, yeah, yeah.
Speaker 1That's fair. Completely like out of sight, out of mind, right? A few years ago. Guy's been hurt so much, but yeah, that was a great example of that as well. I think they did it
Speaker 3with Max Freed, if you want to go
Speaker 1way back. Yeah, so two organizations who know what they're doing in that department, I think all three need to be on our radar for next year. Hagen Smith, Grant Taylor, and Didier Fuentes. For more extensive fantasy baseball coverage, listen to our full-length podcast, Fantasy Baseball Today on Spotify, Apple Podcasts, or anywhere else podcasts are found. Thanks for listening to Fantasy Baseball Today Express, and we'll be back again later this week.
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