Over the first eight weeks of our fantasy baseball pitching sleepers watch lists, we’ve hit on the likes of Luis Gil and Ranger Suarez, two hurlers who have had breakout campaigns in 2024. With Week 9 of the fantasy baseball season nearing, which pitchers are trending upward? Here’s a look at our list of five pitchers to consider targeting.
Logan Allen
We start our 2024 Week 9 fantasy baseball pitchers target list with Guardians lefty Logan Allen, the second time we’ve featured him on one of these lists. Allen’s past three weeks have been rocky, as the left-hander’s yielded 25 hits over his last 20 innings opposite 19 strikeouts. But after a rough start on May 7, Allen’s won three in a row, including two consecutive starts in which he threw 12 combined innings and no earned runs.
Allen will get hit around at times and he doesn’t have an overpowering fastball (15.5” of IVB). Still, he’s got good secondary stuff, including his changeup and sweeping slider, to beat hitters and be successful despite the inconsistencies.
Erick Fedde
What a difference a year can make for Erick Fedde, who’s been one of the game’s better starters since his return from Korea. Fedde, owned in about 50% of Yahoo! leagues as of May 25, owns a sparkling 2.80 ERA and 1.07 WHIP, along with 58 strikeouts over 64.1 IP. Fedde had a spectacular April and he’s continued to pitch well in May, as the righty, armed with a new sweeper, shut down the Orioles for 6.1 shutout frames on May 25.
One knock on Fedde is that the righty will likely not be in on many win opportunities — at least for now. The righty does have one year left on his deal and his breakout could lead to Fedde being a hot name in the trade market.
Sean Manaea
It’s been different for Mets starter Sean Manaea in 2024 — but the results have been solid. A year after re-finding his form in San Francisco, Manaea yielded two or fewer runs in his first nine starts with the Mets and struck out 41 over his first 46.1 IP in Queens. The strikeouts are down, not a shock given that Manaea opted to heavily use his sinker in 2024, a stark contrast from when he completely ditched it with the Giants. Nonetheless, Manaea’s been effective and consistent.
Walks are a concern for Manaea. However, that’s yet to be a concerning issue for the lefty at this point. And for those thinking about the short-term, Manaea will miss the Dodgers this upcoming week and face Arizona this upcoming weekend.
Reese Olson
Another starter who returns to this list is Reese Olson. We stated last month that Olson’s batted-ball metrics weren’t great but the whiff numbers were. Fast forward to late May and everything’s come together for the righty. Olson has limited barreled-up baseballs this season and the chase (30.9%) & whiff (27.3%) are also above average.
In his most recent start on May 25, the Blue Jays were shut down by Olson, who owns a 1.92 ERA on the season. Olson gave up just one unearned run over 6.1 IP and notched his first victory of 2024.
Gavin Williams
We’ll end our Week 9 fantasy baseball waiver wire pitchers target list with Gavin Williams, who’s missed all of 2024 to this point. Williams initially injured himself with a weighted ball in Spring Training, then was shut down due to elbow discomfort. But after two months on the IL, the Guardians confirmed that the former ECU star will begin a rehab assignment during the final week of May.
When healthy, Williams boasts an electric four-seamer that’s hard and plays up even more with above-average extension. Last season, the 24-year-old went 3-5 with a 3.29 ERA and 81 strikeouts over 82 innings.