If you’re looking for pitchers to target for your 2026 fantasy baseball season, make sure you keep close tabs on these three players. If they find a way to fall into your lap on draft day, you’d be making a smart move by selecting them.
Why Yoshinobu Yamamoto is a Top Fantasy Target for 2026
There’s a lot of talk about Shohei Ohtani ahead of the 2026 season in his return to a full workload as a pitcher, but Yamamoto can’t be overlooked. The star hurler, who is tentatively penciled in to be the Dodgers’ Opening Day starter on March 26 against the Arizona Diamondbacks, posted a 2.49 ERA and a 0.99 WHIP across 30 starts and 173.2 innings in 2025, posting 10.4 K/9 and eclipsing the 200-strikeout mark for the first time in his career. The numbers are certainly promising for the 27-year-old right-hander.
Yamamoto is considered to be a step below the three pitchers who are seen as first-round locks: Tarik Skubal, Paul Skenes, and Garrett Crochet. However, drafting Yamamoto in the second round, or even in the third one, if he falls into your lap, would be outstanding. Yamamoto thrives in all the categories that are required from a pitcher in most fantasy formats.
He can strike out opponents with ease, posting a 10.4 K/9 or higher in his two years in the majors and barely walks opponents with a BB/9 of 3.1 or lower in both years as well. Couple that with a 2.66 career ERA and a 1.032 career WHIP, and he’s an ace in every way you look at him. If you have the chance to take him, don’t hesitate to do so.
MacKenzie Gore’s Fantasy Value After Trade to Texas Rangers
Gore was traded from the Washington Nationals to the Rangers in the offseason, and the 27-year-old southpaw figures to be the third or fourth starter for Texas. He’s been durable after making at least 30 starts in back-to-back seasons, and the numbers are a bit underwhelming: He’s yet to post an ERA below 3.90 in his four seasons in the majors, although the 1.35 WHIP was a career-best mark.
He’s not going to be a top-end starter for Texas, but he could provide decent fantasy value, and certainly a better outlook compared to the one he had in Washington.
Gore had a career-best 10.4 K/9 in 2025, and his 3.6 BB/9 was the second-best mark of his career. The fact that he posted those numbers with a .325 BABIP (the second-worst mark of his career) suggests that he could be in line for even better results with a better defense behind him and some luck. Plus, Gore was the only starting pitcher with three pitches eliciting a whiff rate of at least 50% in 2025.
Globe Life Field ranks as the second-best park for pitchers, according to Statcast, as opposed to Nationals Park (12th-worst). All those signs make Gore a pitcher to target if he falls your way in most drafts. With an ADP of around No. 146, Gore could be a hurler worth looking at around the 11th or 12th round.
Drafting Houston Astros Reliever Josh Hader Despite Injury
The lone reason why Hader is expected to go around the seventh or eighth round is the fact that he’ll open the season on the injured list due to left biceps inflammation. Astros manager Joe Espada recently stated that Hader will begin the season on the injured list, and that should be enough to see him slide a few rounds in comparison to other elite relievers, such as Edwin Diaz, Mason Miller, and even Aroldis Chapman.
However, if you’re around the eighth round and Hader is still on the board, you should draft him immediately. He offers tremendous value at that spot, considering his ADP is around No. 100, and he’s a player worth waiting for a few weeks if he proves to be healthy once he returns. Hader is one of the top candidates among relievers to outperform his ADP, especially if he’s able to repeat the numbers he delivered in 2025: a 2.05 ERA and a 0.85 WHIP.
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