Fantasy Baseball: Andrew Painter has victorious debut, Shohei Ohtani returns to the mound and more
· Yahoo Sports
We’re just a week into the fresh 2026 baseball season and so many rookies are making their mark. And it’s time to add Andrew Painter to the list.
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Painter is another post-hype kid to talk about. He was a top 10 prospect on most boards entering 2023, but elbow problems and eventual Tommy John surgery knocked him out for a couple of years. He was healthy enough to return to a full season last year, but the results were mediocre — 5.26 ERA, 1.49 WHIP over 26 starts. We understand if you ignored Painter during draft season.
Painter made the Philadelphia rotation off a solid spring, for whatever 11.2 innings might mean to you (7 H, 3 R, 2 BB, 8 K). The more emphatic statement came Tuesday in his major-league debut, where he stopped the Nationals over 5.1 innings (4 H, 1 R, 1 BB, 8 K). The fastball was popping (high of 98.7 mph), the breaking stuff electric. You can see why Painter projects to be a No. 1 or No. 2 starter someday, health permitting.
The fantasy world has taken notice, of course. Painter chased up to 42% rostered after Tuesday’s win, and he’s worth a look even in shallow formats, working at San Francisco in his next turn.
Shohei Ohtani returns to the mound
Given how unstoppable Shohei Ohtani is on offense, sometimes it’s easy to forget he’s a dominant pitcher, too. Ohtani served up some of that dominance against Cleveland on Tuesday, allowing just one hit over six scoreless innings. He walked three, struck out six, threw 87 pitches in all.
If you look at the best pitchers in baseball since the beginning of 2021, Ohtani is all over the leaderboard. Among pitchers with 400 or more innings, he ranks fifth in strikeout rate, 11th in WHIP and third in ERA. In some alternative universe where Ohtani is only asked to pitch, he’d be a legitimate Cy Young contender in any healthy season.
It will be interesting to see how far the Dodgers push Ohtani on the mound this year. He obviously didn’t pitch at all in 2024, and last year he was limited to 47 regular-season innings. The Angels used Ohtani more in this area, with three seasons between 132 and 166 innings. Of course, there were physical breakdowns, too.
Because the Dodgers have a deep pitching staff and are a near-lock to make the playoffs, I suspect Ohtani won’t get past 110-130 innings or so. But anyone holding shares of Ohtani the pitcher would likely take that workload.
Snakes’ rookie staking his claim
Injuries have forced rookie Jose Fernandez into the Arizona lineup. And apparently, Fernandez has designs on sticking around. He conked two home runs Tuesday as the Snakes ran down the Tigers, including the game-flipping tater off Kenley Jansen. It was part of a three-hit day, and led to four RBI.
We saw some of this pop in spring training — three homers, .840 slugging. And Fernandez did accumulate 17 homers and 12 steals in 122 games last year, meandering through the minors. At times, his approach was too aggressive, as he’s battled with strikeouts for much of his pro career. But we’re still talking about someone who is only 22, far from a finished prospect.
If you want to kick some tires on Fernandez’s plausible upside, he’s ready to add in 93% of Yahoo leagues.
Paul Sewald looks like the closer to add in Arizona
While Fernandez helped the Diamondbacks gain the lead Tuesday, it was Paul Sewald who closed up shop, striking out the side in the ninth. Sewald now has two saves in as many days, cementing his status as the Arizona closer. I’m surprised the market has been slow to accept Sewald, who is rostered in about one-third of Yahoo leagues. Holding the ninth inning is most of the battle with respect to fantasy closers.