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Friday’s “Freeway Series” opener between the Los Angeles Angels and Los Angeles Dodgers featured a pair of masterpieces by emerging starters. Both rank among the top 25 in fantasy points among pitchers over the past three weeks, and both remain available in more than 60% of ESPN leagues.
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Roki Sasaki, SP, Dodgers (38.8% rostered in ESPN leagues): The name you know, as Sasaki was the most prominent of the 2025 class of players coming over from Japan and the author of a postseason 0.84 ERA and three saves. Until recently, however, his MLB career had been rife with disappointment and he raised all sorts of questions about his 2026 fantasy potential after posting a ghastly 15.58 ERA and 28.8% walk rate in four spring training starts. Only one month ago, his rotation spot genuinely seemed in jeopardy after he posted a 5.88 ERA in his first seven turns.
However, in his four outings since, Sasaki has been excellent, posting a 1.48 ERA with 32.2% and 5.6% walk rates. While that stretch has been bookended by easy matchups against the Angels (around games at Milwaukee and agains the Phillies), it’s been highlighted by an improvement in his raw stuff. During this time, he has averaged 97.6 mph with his four-seam fastball while generating 48% miss rates with his slider and 30% with his splitter (27% usage of each).
Now 19 starts (and 11 relief appearances, if you count his nine from the 2025 playoffs) into his MLB career, Sasaki seems to be figuring it out and reclaiming prospective ace potential.
Reid Detmers, RP/SP, Angels (25.5% rostered): The more surprising Friday outcome of the two dueling starters, Detmers shut out the loaded Dodgers lineup for six innings, giving him 65 fantasy points across his past three turns. A relief pitcher for the entirety of 2025, the Angels decided to give him another chance to start during spring training, where he emerged a member of the team’s rotation more due to the team’s limited alternatives rather than due to his own performance (5.40 ERA in four starts). Detmers’ 2026 season-to-date has reflected up-and-down outings, but lately he seems to be fully harnessing his elite swing-and-miss potential.
Detmers has generated a 38% whiff rate in his last three starts, baseball’s best during that time span, thanks in large part to his breaking pitches (curveball and slider, together marking 39% usage) which have combined for a whopping 24 swings-and-misses during that time — only Braxton Ashcraft (30) and Jacob deGrom (29) have more with those two specific pitches. Detmers is quietly turning into an elite source of strikeouts, which puts him firmly on the fantasy radar.
Alex Lange of the Royals has already notched three saves in June. Jesse Johnson-Imagn ImagesThe Kansas City Royals have struggled to find consistency during the ninth inning all season, starting the year with Carlos Estevez, who had one of the most miserable spring trainings in recent memory and landed on the IL during opening week, then following with Lucas Erceg and his 6.75 ERA and six blown saves in 17 opportunities over the two months that followed. More recently, the Royals appear to have found a more trusted option to close, one who warrants universal pickup.
Alex Lange, RP, Royals (2.9% rostered): If his name sounds familiar, it should. Lange, a former Tiger, finished the 2022 season with the majors’ second-best whiff rate (44.1%), which at the time seemingly made him a breakthrough closer candidate. While things didn’t proceed smoothly for him back then, this season he has emerged off the scrap heap for the Royals, thanks to three swing-and-miss pitches (slider, sinker and changeup) to diversify his repertoire.
Lange saved three games for the Royals over the past week — he probably didn’t close Sunday’s game only out of a need for rest due to the heavy recent usage — and might well be the team’s go-to option in the ninth moving forward. His high walk rate and so-so ability to minimize hard contact does make him a volatile long-term closer option, but based upon recent returns, he should be rostered everywhere for now.
Editor’s Picks
Deep (12-team mixed): Jacob Gonzalez, 2B/3B, Chicago White Sox (3.0% rostered): Munetaka Murakami’s hamstring injury, one that is likely to keep him out into July, has paved the way for Gonzalez to secure the strong side of Chicago’s first base platoon, as the rookie has started all six of the team’s games there against right-handed pitchers, including batting sixth in five of them (he slotted ninth in the other).
While never regarded a top-shelf prospect, Gonzalez has shown solid power thus far, hitting his first home run on Saturday and posting a 54% hard-hit rate on 13 batted balls. He was batting a robust .317/.419/.668 with 19 homers in 52 games for Triple-A Charlotte at the time of his recall, and he can steal a base or three, too.
Deeper (15-team mixed): Spencer Jones, OF, New York Yankees (5.1% rostered): To be clear upfront, I’m not a big believer in Jones’ early big-league career potential, as his skill set seems like that of a player who will face a lengthy adjustment period to MLB pitching due to his unusual hitting approach and penchant for whiffs. But such are 15-team-plus fantasy pickups, and the young slugger brings one of the highest ceilings among free agents you’ll find in this valuation tier which makes him worth stashing.
Jones has homered once every 12.4 at-bats in the minors since the beginning of last season — Aaron Judge’s average in the majors in that time is once per 10.8 — and Judge’s injury does create a potential short-term opportunity for the rookie. That reported, Jones will need to make a swift impact, as his playing time could be in jeopardy once Giancarlo Stanton and Jasson Dominguez are ready to rejoin the active roster in the next couple of weeks.
Deepest (AL- and NL-only leagues): LuJames Groover, 3B, Arizona Diamondbacks (0.2% rostered): We’ve reached the “cool-name rationale” portion of the pickups column. All kidding aside, Groover’s good approach at the plate makes him worthy of stashing in leagues this deep, as he hit .322/.421/.452 with 14.5% walk and 79.3% contact rates in 56 games for Triple-A Reno before his recall.
He’s capable of filling in at either infield corner and, while Ildemaro Vargas’ injury (suffered in a Thursday collision at first base) doesn’t seem likely to sideline him for much longer, Groover could be a useful platoon partner for Pavin Smith in what would be a DH/1B rotation involving all three players.
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