Fantasy Baseball: Bold predictions from Rotoworld staff for 2025 MLB season

NBC Sports

19-03-2025

In our last group article, we got a look under the hood at some of the players the Rotoworld Baseball staff has drafted the most going into the 2025 MLB season. It was an opportunity to see which players we're planting our flags on for this year. Now, it's time to take things one step further with our fantasy bold predictions for the season ahead.
'Bold' is always a subjective term, so some of these might stand out more than others, but there's a kernel in each of these choices which separates itself from what you'll find in terms of each player's average draft position.
Finding these players — and the value that comes along with them — are what often leads to fantasy championships. Pay close attention if you still have a draft ahead of you.
Rotoworld Staff,
Dylan Crews will steal 60 bases
Crews, the second overall pick in the 2023 MLB Draft out of LSU, stole 12 bases in 31 games in his debut. The 23-year-old struggled at the plate hitting .218 with a .288 OBP. Entering 2024, Crews has been handed an everyday job at the top of the lineup. Sure, he could be sent down if he has a .288 OBP again, but what if he doesn't? If he gets on base at a reasonable clip, he's going to steal a lot of bases. Crews' sprint speed of 29.3 ft/s is in the 93rd percentile and the Nationals were the most aggressive team stealing bases last year, leading the league with 233 steals. - Nick Shlain
Oneil Cruz returns first round value
It's no secret that Cruz has some of the gaudiest raw power in the league. Last season, he was responsible for the four individual hardest hit balls, eight of the 11 hardest, and 15 of the 30 hardest across all batted ball events. He also hit 24 balls in play at least 115 MPH. Giancarlo Stanton had the next most with 17. Cruz also hit four and his 21 home runs further than 450 feet. Aaron Judge and Shohei Ohtani were the only players with more 450 ft blasts, and they combined for 112 total homers. Any minimal gains Cruz can make with his contact rate will put him squarely in position to exceed 30 or possibly 40 home runs. Moreover, Cruz became a much more willing base stealer over the second half last year as he swiped 15 bags without getting caught after only taking eight attempts before the All-Star break. He's already attempted seven steals this spring and seems primed to run more than his projections would indicate. It's not totally out of bounds to see him hit something like 35 HR with a .270 batting average and 30 stolen bases. That's a first round player. - James Schiano
Emiliano Teodo will lead the Rangers in saves this season
Let's go completely off the board. I'll give the Rangers a ton of credit for keeping this one close to the vest this spring, citing a desire to continue developing Teodo as a traditional starter in the upper minors as justification for leaving him off their season-opening roster. The 24-year-old prospect's triple-digit fastball velocity makes it easy to envision him excelling in the ninth inning down the road, like how the division-rival Athletics recently transformed top prospect Mason Miller from volatile starter to elite stopper. The Rangers haven't put a ton of roadblocks in his path to a high-leverage role by letting Kirby Yates leave in free agency and failing to re-sign David Robertson. They brought in longtime setup specialist Chris Martin to close, but he's battled shoulder issues for years and turns 39 in a couple months. I'm willing to roll the dice on the talent here and gamble that the Rangers eventually turn things over to the most talented arm in their relief mix. - George Bissell
Jack Leiter delivers the most fantasy value of any AL rookie and also wins the AL Rookie of the Year Award
This is a bit of a bold prediction since Leiter currently has the 6th-best odds to win AL Rookie of the Year, with guys like Jasson Dominguez, Jackson Jobe, and Coby Mayo, among others, all seen as better bets. I see a path where Leiter produces more fantasy value than all of them. His fastball has been electric this season, sitting at 98 mph in his outings. He also added a sinker to pound the strike zone with and modified his changeup into a kick-change that looks dynamic. I think he starts the season in the Rangers' rotation, which gives him to chance to cement his status for the remainder of the season. He made real strides at Triple-A last year, and the only thing holding him back as been inconsistent command. I think his mechanical tweaks can help him iron that out and he can take off in 2025. - Eric Samulski
Matthew Pouliot,
Cristopher Sánchez will finish as a top-15 fantasy starting pitcher
Sánchez has already displayed excellent run-suppression skills with his extreme ground ball rate while giving plenty of volume with an 181-inning season. The path to him propelling to the top of the pitcher ranks lies in his WHIP and strikeouts. The 28-year-old left-hander appears poised to make that leap. Sánchez has demonstrated outstanding control, walking just 5.8% of batters last season after producing a 4% walk rate in 2023. His 1.24 WHIP was mostly the product of an inflated .313 BABIP that's bound for regression. Still, generating more swing and miss would bode well for lowering his WHIP and getting more strikeouts. He's doing just that this spring with increased fastball velocity, striking out 17 batters over 11 2/3 innings across his four spring starts. If he can maintain his velocity gain into the regular season, he could flourish into a fantasy ace. - Jorge Montanez
Jake Fraley combines for 50 home runs + stolen bases
The dynamic 29-year-old struggled through injury, illness and a complete loss of power during the 2024 season, and he still managed to sock five dingers and steal 20 bases in 382 plate appearances. He'll be a fixture in the Reds' lineup against right-handed pitching and it would shock me if he managed to steal fewer than 30 bases if he avoids the injured list. I'm hoping for a small bounce back in power, so maybe a 15/35 season is in the cards, but 10/40 isn't out of the question either. It's baffling to me that he's still going right around pick 400 through the first 11 NFBC Main Event drafts. He has found his way onto the roster of every team that I have drafted so far. - David Shovein
Austin Riley leads the NL in homers
Shohei Ohtani is the obvious favorite to lead the NL in home runs again, yet he comes with some extra injury concerns this year as he returns to pitching and tries to accommodate his surgically repaired left (non-throwing) shoulder. So, if not Ohtani, why not Riley? The Braves third baseman hit 38 homers in 2022 and 37 in 2023. That he's currently penciled in as a No. 2 hitter for a team that hates giving regulars days off gives him a shot at reaching 700 plate appearances. Riley had a somewhat disappointing 2024 season that was brought to an early end by a broken hamate bone suffered on a HBP, but he was still hitting the ball as hard as ever. In fact, his 96th-percentile average exit velocity and hard-hit rates were career bests. Mostly, he just didn't pull his flyballs quite as often as usual. If he can get back to that, 40 homers should be in the cards and a run at 50 can't be ruled out. - Matthew Pouliot
Dylan Crews will be a top-20 fantasy outfielder
Obviously there's risk in believing a player that is entering his first full MLB season will have this much success, and it's worth pointing out that Crews wasn't great in his first taste of action at the highest level. That being said, this is a player who has the tools to hit for average, power and steal bases while getting a chance to play everyday and hit near the top of the lineup for the Nationals. You don't want to go too crazy with spring training stats, but the fact that Crews hit .324 and stole three bases over his first dozen games in the Grapefruit League doesn't hurt my confidence, either. I wouldn't draft Crews as my second outfielder, I'm just not going to be surprised at all when he finishes in that range. - Christopher Crawford