Fantasy Baseball Today - Three Relievers Who Could Be Starting Pitcher Sleepers in 2027! (10/7 Fantasy Baseball Podcast)

Episode Date: October 7, 2026

There are three relievers dominating in the playoffs who would be starters next season! Hagen Smith is a nasty lefty with prospect pedigree. Grant Taylor looks ready for a starter's role. Will the Braves make Didier Fuentes a starter?Subscribe to our YouTube channel: ⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠youtube.com/FantasyBaseballToday⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠Sign up for the newsletter at ⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠https://www.cbssports.com/newsletters

Let's talk three way too early sleeper pitchers for next season. Up next on Fantasy Baseball Today Express. Welcome into FBT Express on Wednesday, October 7th. I am, for example, joined by Scott White. I want to take a quick look at three relievers, who could be awesome starters next year. We're not guaranteed that they're going to be in their respective teams' rotations, but I think it's trending that way.

They have all flashed in the postseason here. And Scott, we will start with Hagen Smith of the White Sox, who opened game one at the Guardians with two and two thirds, shutout innings. He had four strikeouts to three walks. He looked great down the stretch in the regular season, 129 ERA, 0.96 whip, tons of strikeouts, also lots of walks.

But this was a high-end prospect who I think will transition into his starter's role next season. Yeah, I mean, as good as he was in relief, and I think it got overshadowed a little bit versus some of the other ones we're going to talk about, just because Hagen Smith was up so much late. but to have a whip below one, even when you're walking five batters per nine.

I mean, geez, that batting average against has got to be microscopic. And then also to have 13.2K per 9. It was obviously a good for showing for Hagen Smith. He does still have to resolve the walk issue, which was present throughout his minor league career. But that is something we see young pitchers, particularly with this kind of strikeout upside,

to overcome all the time. And, you know, part of the reason we're so excited about the prospect of these dominant relievers who obviously have a starting background, but they're, we've seen teams do this in recent years treat the bullpen like a sort of a finishing school for not quite developed starters. And, I mean, we could go through some of the examples, if you want, of guys who've taken, turned out to be huge successes when they transitioned to the rotation. Griffin Jacks this year.

Reed Detmers, I think that's a great example because he spent a few years struggling in the rotation. Moved in the bullpen last year, 2025, dominated, and then was the best version we've ever seen as a starter in 2026. Peyton totally got a little bit of time in the bullpen last year. And then two years ago, a lot of huge examples. Clay Holmes, Chris Bubich, Michael King, made that transition into the biggest of all in recent years. Crochet, who sure he was good and relieved, but nobody thought, I shouldn't say nobody, but very few thought he would make a successful transition to the rotation. And he turned into a no questions asked ace.

And I think what makes you feel even better about this for Hagen Smith and the next name we're going to talk about is that the White Sox were the team that did that with Caracchay. So they have experienced doing this. And specifically someone like Hagen Smith, who has a. pretty similar repertoire to Garrett Crochet when he first got called up

was like mostly fastball slider now Crochet has you know broaden that a little bit but I mean the fourth team in the slider are really

really ridiculous the underlying stats for both those pitches look really good for Hagen Smith his teammate Grant Taylor he closed out the game

here on Monday night for the White Sox with uh nope excuse me he did this the other day it was four shotout innings with six strikeouts

but overall he closed out he has been used a ton here in the postseason for the White Sox. He was used in a variety of roles during the season kind of as a fireman reliever, sometimes as the closer. But we've already kind of heard whispers that they were planning on transitioning him

to a starter for next season. You know, the innings totals that we're going to get from these guys, I think, are, you know, some questions for next year. But the per inning stuff could just be awesome. I think the same could be said for Grant Taylor. Yeah, and Grant Taylor,

I don't know. Would I be most confident he's going to make the transition? This was something they talked about as, I don't know if they've talked about it much since April, but in April they were talking about, okay, yeah, Grant Taylor's going to get this year in the bullpen, but then the idea is to transition him to the rotation next year. Plans could have changed. It was obviously really dominant in the bullpen, and they have other starting options probably that they weren't counting on then. But I would lean yes. I would lean yes on all three of these guys making the transition.

And Grant Taylor, I think there's been the most talk with him. He also tended to pitch multiple innings. It is recently a September. It looks like one, two, three, four, five, six. Six of his eight outings in September were more than an inning. So I think that's a strong indicator. for Taylor there especially. Yeah, and that game one of the ALDS against the Guardians,

he threw four shutout innings with six strikeouts to end that game to pick up the save, like four shutout innings. I mean, that is amazing stuff there for Grant Taylor. So his overall innings total is up over 90 now between the regular season and the postseason. But he's another one. I mean, you look at the pitch makes four scene curve slider, all three amazing whiff rates, all three great with batting balls in play as well. So, yeah, lots of be excited about there with Hagen Smith and Grant Taylor.

Let's take a quick break. When we return, we have one more name that is flashing in the postseason, all season as a reliever. Hopefully he's a starter next year. We'll get to that right after this. The Stratotech tea from Viori is one of those shirts you put on once and immediately get why people love it. It's incredibly soft.

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We have three relievers who could become awesome starters next year for fantasy. The last name I wanted to mention was Didier Fuentes from your Atlanta Bravescott in game two against the Dodgers in that. NLDS, three and two thirds, one hit, one run, three strikeouts to zero walks. He's had a great year all around. He's up to 80 innings total. So it's like maybe they can push them 120, 1.30. I don't know if this is exactly their plan, but awesome stuff, really good control this year.

He kind of flashed some of that in spring training and we thought, all right, maybe it's going to happen this year. It did as a reliever, but I think maybe next year could be the big breakout for Didier Fuentes. Yeah. had a similar situation like you were talking about with Grant Taylor in game two of the NLDS against the Dodgers, even though, you know, by season's end, he was basically a one-inning reliever. He nearly went four perfect innings to close out that game two against the Dodgers. With two outs in the ninth, ended up allowing a solo home run to Max Muncie, so they pulled him. It ended up being three and two-thirds innings, but he was going for that fourth inning and he'd been perfect up to that point.

So I think maybe that's an early example of the Braves tipping their hand, moving Fuentes back in the role. He's so young that it would be kind of crazy to just define him so narrowly as a reliever. He's he turned 21 in June. So half this year he's a 20-year-old, you know? Yeah. But he obviously debuted as a starter last year and struggled. this seems like a perfect example of, okay, let's let this guy learn the ropes and relief,

and then he should be good to start after he kind of goes through his apprenticeship there. Yeah, and he made changes this year, too, to his pitch mix, swapping out a sweeper for a slider, started using his splitter a little bit more. I think that splitter needs to be refined a little bit more, but his slider, 38% whiff rate is four-seem fastball, 29% width rate. So the fourth seam, the slider, you're definitely excited about, there for Fuentes and then hopefully he could refine the splitter a little bit in the offseason. But the Braves and other team, I mean, to their credit, they, they've done this with some other

relievers, not as high in names, but like Grant Holmes has turned out to be a pretty serviceable starting pitcher. And, you know, he was kind of a journeyman reliever type. Well, Spencer Strider. Spencer Strider. Yeah, yeah, yeah. That's fair. Completely like out of sight out of mind, right? A few years ago. Guys been hurt so much. But yeah, that, that was a great, a great example of that as well. I think they did it with Max Fried if you want to go way back. Yeah, yeah.

So two organizations who know what they're doing in that department, I think all three needs to be on our radar for next year. Hagen Smith, Grant Taylor, and Didier Fuentes. For more extensive fantasy baseball coverage, listen to our full-lane podcast, Fantasy Baseball Today on Spotify, Apple Podcasts, or anywhere else podcasts are found. Thanks for listening to Fantasy Baseball Today Express. And we'll be back again later this week.

Bye-bye. Thank you.