Fantasy Baseball Today - Spencer Strider to the IL! Connelly Early Makes the Red Sox! (3/24 Fantasy Baseball Podcast)
Episode Date: March 24, 2026Spencer Strider is starting the season on the IL with an oblique injury. Jose Suarez will take his spot in the rotation. Connelly Early has made the Red Sox Opening Day roster! Dennis Santana isn't th...e Pirates closer? Subscribe to our YouTube channel: youtube.com/FantasyBaseballToday Download and Follow Fantasy Baseball Today on Spotify: https://sptfy.com/QiKv Follow our FBT team on Twitter: @FBTPod, @CPTowers @CBSScottWhite, @Roto_Frank Join our Facebook group at https://www.facebook.com/groups/fantasybaseballtoday Sign up for the FBT Newsletter at https://www.cbssports.com/newsletters/fantasy-baseball-today/ For more fantasy baseball coverage from CBS Sports, visit https://www.cbssports.com/fantasy/baseball/ To hear more from the CBS Sports Podcast Network, visit https://www.cbssports.com/podcasts/ To learn more about listener data and our privacy practices visit: https://www.audacyinc.com/privacy-policy Learn more about your ad choices. Visit https://podcastchoices.com/adchoices
Transcript
Discussion (0)
Spencer Strider is starting the season on the IL.
Out of nowhere.
Let's discuss up next on Fantasy Baseball Today Express.
Welcome into FBT Express on Tuesday, March 24th.
I am Frank Stample joined by Scott White,
and lots of news came out here on Monday afternoon, Scott,
including to your Atlanta Braves.
Spencer Strider will begin the season on the IL with an oblique strain,
and before everybody loses their minds about Didier Fuentes,
he apparently is going to remain in the bullpen
and veteran lefty Jose Suarez is expected to be
the Braves SP5 early on in the season here.
Scott, so how far did you lower Spencer Strider
in your rankings as a result of this injury?
I lowered him outside of the top 50.
So I think that's about a dozen spots or so
that I moved him down.
And I tend to cluster injured players together.
So I moved him just behind Trey Savage, who of course is also beginning the year on the I.
And they were ranked pretty similarly before they were injured too.
Don't expect it to be a long absence for Strider.
Apparently it's something he only felt when he was pitching, not in between.
So they think they caught it before it became a severe strain.
But we have a lot of questions about Spencer Strider.
beyond just his health.
And so it's not like if you draft him and stash him,
like you're for sure getting this impactful pitcher.
Yeah, there's upside there,
but the fastball didn't look like it was back to form before the injury.
So, yeah, you mentioned Didier Fuentes.
I think it's inevitable he'll join the rotation at some point,
as good as you'd look,
but I think they're trying to preserve his innings
on the front side of the season here,
because obviously they'll be limited.
so just have them in the bullpen for a stretch.
I think it's 13 games and 13 days,
and then they're going to send them to AAA to get them ramped up to start again,
probably slowly, probably the sort of buildup we saw from the Pirates with Baba Chandler last year
and Paul Skeen's the year before,
before introducing Fuentes to the rotation.
Maybe when Bryce Elder proves he doesn't belong or Renaldo Lopez's velocity's been way down
or somebody else gets hurt.
Who knows?
I'm not totally disinterested in Jose Swar as I'll point out briefly.
I'm not going to rank him in the draftable range,
but he gets a lot of whiffs on his fastball,
and that's a good indicator of upside.
He's been around.
He hasn't done much,
but it wouldn't surprise me
if he became a streamable option at some point.
We also learned that Connolly Early
has made the Red Sox opening day roster.
I think for most of the offseason, Scott,
we were just operating that he would start the season
in the minors. We know he comes with a lot of upside, looked really good down the stretch for
the Red Sox last season. We're still not exactly sure what role both he and Johann Oviedo will
have. There has been some speculation that early will be in the rotation. Oviedo, the long
man out of the bullpen. How far did you move Connolly early up with the news that he is in the
rotation? Well, he's on the team. He's not necessarily on the team. That's an important distinction
because you and Chris, I think, moved him up to about 60th.
I thought I moved him up enough, 20 spots to 75.
But you guys moved him up to 60th.
If he was for sure on the rotation, then I might have him where you have him.
And maybe I'll regret not putting him that high.
Because I think Connolly Early is awesome.
I mean, between the minors last year, the four starts he made in the majors,
and then the amount he's pitched this spring,
he looks like a stud.
He misses tons of bats beyond what you see from the scouting reports,
which don't make him out to be that big of a deal.
He is one of those pitchers who transcends the usual evaluation methods for pitchers
because I don't think anyone pitches a world beater on its own,
but he's got a six-pitch arsenal.
They're all capable of missing bats and he mixes them perfectly.
and he just looks like a really good pitcher
beyond just somebody with, you know,
the raw ability to become a good pitcher.
So, yeah, I think early, Connolly Early needs to be drafted late in every league,
and he could end up being a big breakout this year.
All right, let's take a quick break.
We'll be back right after this.
Welcome back in, FBT Express.
Lots of news to go over from Monday.
And as expected, JJ Weatherholt has made the Cardinals opening day roster.
The expectation is that he'll play second base,
so he'll gain that eligibility at a shallow position.
Still no word yet on Kevin McGonigal,
but I think we're all leaning that he will be on the Tigers roster as well.
Scott, we just wrapped up one of our listener leagues here,
head to head points.
J.J. Weatherholt went at pick 146.
For anyone still drafting, that sounds.
appropriate.
Yeah, I want to see where I actually rank them in head-to-head points
because I did move weather holed up a lot,
even before this announcement, because it seemed inevitable.
I haven't won 63.
So it went a little early, a couple rounds beyond what I rank them.
But think about a head-to-head points format is it's so small that you get to that range
of the draft, like, just shoot for upside, you know?
Like the waiver wire is going to be loaded with those players who aren't going to be difference makers, but I'll keep you afloat.
Weatherholt has the potential to be a difference maker, especially in that format because his play discipline is so good and the possibility for dual eligibility, including one of the weakest position second base, I think makes them absolutely worth the reach.
It's shallower the format, the more justifiable at reach always.
And Kevin McGonigal, yeah, we're leaning that way.
same goes for him
because it sounds like
he's entering with shortstop eligibility
like Weatherholt does. He has the fantastic plate
discipline weatherholt has. It sounds
like, like Weatherholt
McGonigal could pick up eligibility
at a weaker position,
third base. He's been playing some
there this spring.
Colt Keith, they might stick him at DH some days
to allow McGonagall to play third.
I'm sure he'll play some shortstop too,
but third base seems like it could be
in the cards for McGonigal eventually.
Zach Wheeler is scheduled to begin a rehab assignment at AAA on Saturday of this week.
And he recently threw a 29 pitch simulated game on Monday.
Scott, this is obviously a great step.
It's moving in the right direction for Zach Wheeler.
We still just have no idea in terms of data, what he's looked like, velocity.
There have been, there's been nothing so far.
So hopefully we can get some data in that first.
AAA start. It's, again, it's a good step in the right direction, but it's still kind of an
unknown right now for Zach Wheeler. Yeah, and it's too much of an unknown for me at Price.
Look, he may turn out the great be a great pick. He may be the Zach Wheeler. We all remember
when he comes back. But I think the mistake I'm seeing people make when they talk about
drafting Zach Wheeler is just assuming he's going to be the same guy when he gets back.
And you can do that with a lot of injuries. I think people sometimes overreacted.
react to injuries.
But this is not one of those injuries.
This is an injury that doesn't have a great track record in terms of of pitchers bouncing
back with it being exactly the same.
Therassic outlet syndrome.
It's not the worst version of it that the surgery that he had.
The worst one is nerve related.
He had one that was vein related, blood vessel related.
So that helps, but it's still not enough of a track record to say, yeah, Wheeler, he's going
to be fine.
He's going to be the same guy.
there's a very good chance he's not.
And so you're taking kind of double the risk there,
both timeline, which is looking like less of a risk,
but then who's he actually going to be when he gets back?
And this last one, this is the first time we've heard this.
Pirates manager, Don Kelly, said,
Dennis Santana will not be the only reliever that he uses for safe situations.
He mentioned Gregory Soto as well as someone who has closing experience.
Scott, how much do you buy into this should you,
or do you plan to lower Dennis Santana in your rankings?
It's probably literally true that we will at some point
there will be a leverage situation in the eighth inning for the pirates
where Dennis Santana enters.
That's true for Edwin Diaz sometimes too.
I just think it's...
That happened with the role as Chapman in some early games last year.
Yeah, yeah.
I think this is just the line managers are supposed to take in 2026.
I don't think it means it's a full-blown committee.
I don't think it means
you know,
Santana's going to get less
of a save share than we were expecting
for him, really. So it
doesn't change my opinion of them at all. It's not a
particularly high and closer to begin with, but
if your league goes deep
enough into the closing options
to take Santana, I think
you should take them as usual. All right, a couple
other things here. I'll just quickly run through.
Nick Ladolo will play catch on Tuesday.
We'll find out then how this
blister is doing. Brandon
Woodruff will be in the opening day rotation for the Brewers, and he will make his
season debut March 31st against the raise. Blake Snell and Tommy Edmund are targeting late
May returns. Thought maybe it could be an early May, but it sounds like it could be late May for
both of those guys. The Astros are going with a five-man rotation to open the season. Hunter
Brown, Mike Burroughs, Tatsuya I. Mai, Christian Javier, and Lance McCullors, Spencer Arrogatee,
sent to the miners. He'll continue to stretch out, and eventually they plan to use a six
man rotation. Rangers manager,
Skip Schumacher said he's comfortable with
Chris Martin and Robert Garcia in
the closer role and whoever gets the
ninth inning will quote depend on the
situation. Now that might be
a true committee. That one and
definitely stock up for Chris Martin if that's
the case. We weren't really targeting him for saves
at all. Yep. And then speaking of the
Rangers, Kumar Rocker will be the team's
SP5 in the rotation. Jacob
Lats will pitch out of the bullpen.
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