Sunday’s fantasy baseball headlines weren’t only dominated by the unexpected trade of Rafael Devers to the San Francisco Giants.
The Atlanta Braves, despite losing in embarrassing fashion, 10-1, to the Colorado Rockies at Truist Park, got the best single-pitcher strikeout total (15) of the week. Right-hander Grant Holmes scored 24 fantasy points in a strong, 6 1/3 inning effort, marking the fourth time in the team’s six games during the past week that they got at least that many out of one of their starting pitchers.
The performance gave Holmes a stunning 43.0% strikeout rate in his past four starts, during which time he has a 49% miss rate on his slider (39% usage of the pitch) and a 48% miss rate on his curveball (13% usage). Those give him a dominating one-two punch for putting away both right- and left-handed hitters, and they make him well worth a pickup in the 72.4% of ESPN leagues in which he remains available.
Holmes now has a 4.02 ERA, a 1.21 WHIP and a 27.9% K rate in his 21 starts for the Braves since beginning to work out of their rotation last July. He has also averaged 11.1 fantasy points per start this season, tied for 34th among qualified starters and ahead of more prominent names like Dylan Cease (10.5), Luis Castillo (10.4) and Tanner Bibee (9.8).
Additionally, consider that Holmes has exceeded 90 pitches (effectively a full-time starter’s workload) in 10 of his last 13 starts, averaging 91.2 across his last six turns. The Braves also pushed Bryce Elder back in their upcoming rotation, a signal that Holmes is now locked in as the team’s No. 4 starter with both Reynaldo Lopez and AJ Smith-Shawver out.
Holmes isn’t the only high-upside pickup to add to your roster for fantasy’s Week 13. Here are more players worth considering:
Evan Carter, OF, Texas Rangers (available in 88.6% of ESPN leagues): Thanks to his home runs (last Tuesday and Thursday) and stolen bases (last Wednesday and Thursday), as well as the return of his contact-oriented swing, Carter amassed 34 fantasy points during fantasy’s Week 12, tied for the fourth-most by any hitter. He’s shaping up as the team’s everyday center fielder with Leody Taveras now gone, and he has moved up to the No. 5 spot in the lineup over his last three starts.
Carter is getting more lift on the ball than he has previously, his 16.7 degree Statcast launch angle his career best and 35.2% ground-ball rate a career low. Plus, he’s in the 96th percentile in terms of sprint speed. He’s as appealing a points-based player as he is a rotisserie pickup with those changes, and bear in mind that he was Kiley McDaniel’s No. 6 overall prospect in baseball as early as the 2024 preseason.
Two-start pitchers to add
Clarke Schmidt (65.9% available) and Will Warren, SPs, New York Yankees (84.5% available): Yankee Stadium’s HR-friendly confines might scare some people off their lesser rotation members, but both of these right-handers have pitched effectively there thus far in 2025. Schmidt has a 3.49 ERA and a 1.24 WHIP in his five starts at home, while Warren has 3.86/1.25 numbers in his five starts at Yankee Stadium. Warren’s numbers also contrast dramatically with his road rates (5.54/1.45 in nine starts).
Yes, the opposing Los Angeles Angels and Baltimore Orioles have been better-hitting offenses of late than they were in the season’s opening weeks, but the Forecaster still grades both average-to-above matchups for right-handed pitchers. In Warren’s case, bear in mind that his 11.3 overall K/9 ratio ranks fifth among pitchers with at least as many as his 14 starts, and the Forecaster grades both the Angels and Orioles as top-10 strikeout matchups for righties.
Deeper-league pickups
Chase Burns, SP, Cincinnati Reds (96.5% available): The No. 2 overall pick from the 2024 amateur draft and McDaniel’s No. 2 pitching and No. 12 overall prospect in his June prospect rankings update, Burns is surging toward his MLB debut. Promoted to Triple-A Louisville during the past week, the right-hander managed seven strikeouts while allowing two runs over 5 1/3 innings in his debut for the Bats, after having posted a 1.29 ERA, an 0.71 WHIP and a 36.4% strikeout rate in eight starts for Double-A Chattanooga.
Considering the Reds are still very much in the National League playoff race — they’re two games over .500, seven games back in the NL Central and only three back of the final wild card — Burns’ electric stuff might be just what the team needs to make a push toward October. He has the ace-caliber talent that fantasy managers with bench space need be speculating upon right now.
Reid Detmers, SP/RP, Los Angeles Angels (96.3% available): After missing out on the Opening Day rotation, Detmers shaped up as more of a long reliever to begin the season, throwing 30-plus pitches in five of his first 15 games. However, he has since established himself as a “go-to guy” in the late frames for the Angels. The lefty has an active streak of 11 scoreless appearances, during which time opponents are batting just .162 against him while striking out 43.9% of the time.
Detmers has a pair of saves, one relief win and six holds during that stretch, which warrants attention when the team’s usual closer, Kenley Jansen, has a 4.94 ERA and .798 OPS allowed, both of those being his worst numbers in any single year. Detmers can be a handy middle reliever in deeper leagues or even as a filler in points leagues when you otherwise lack a starter. His dual-eligibility can be a boon in leagues that split pitching positions.
Emmet Sheehan, SP, Los Angeles Dodgers (98.5% available): The other Dodger making his 2025 rotational debut, Sheehan should make his first start either Tuesday or Wednesday, depending upon the level of rest (four or five days) the team wants him to have. His workload is likely to be closely monitored all season long after he missed the entirety of 2024 due to Tommy John surgery.
This is especially the case since he’s only 25, having totaled 92 2/3, 88 1/3 and 123 1/3 innings across the 2021-23 campaigns (encompassing time at the college, minor and MLB levels, as well as Arizona Fall League work). Sheehan brings immense strikeout potential, as he has a 40.9% career minor league K rate (25.8% in the majors). He also struck out 21-of-47 (44.7%) of the hitters he faced in his four-start minor league rehab stint. That makes him well worth stashing.
