It's easy to select the best players in the early rounds of your fantasy baseball drafts. However, the mid-to-late rounds add significantly more skill and strategy to each pick, and can give you an opportunity to gain a major advantage over your league-mates.

 

 

 

To help with this aspect of your 2024 fantasy baseball draft prep, we are going to take a look at some guys in the later rounds of your drafts that are great values at their current fantasy baseball ADP. By combining current ADPs with our 2024 fantasy baseball rankings and season-long projections, we've identified some late-round targets and shared them below.

A Quick Preface: What's The Difference Between Late-Round Targets & Sleepers?

There often is confusion about the difference between sleepers and late-round targets. After all, we have a separate list of our favorite 2024 fantasy baseball sleepers.

The difference is this: Sleepers don't have to be late-round targets. Sleepers are significant breakout candidates, regardless of where they're being drafted in the mid-to-late rounds.

Conversely, late-round fantasy baseball targets aren't necessarily sleepers. Late-round targets are exactly that: players who are currently being drafted in the late rounds who can add significant value to your team in one form or another. So a late-round target is exactly that.

The same can apply to single-category contributors. These players are most often found in the later rounds, but don't necessarily need to fall to fit that description. They are players who are strong in a single category, first and foremost.

After you're done looking at your fantasy baseball late-round targets below, check out these other articles above to round out your research. They are all included as part of your 2024 Fantasy Baseball Draft Guide.

2024 Late-Round Fantasy Baseball Hitters

Nolan Gorman, St. Louis Cardinals

Gorman began the 2023 season at a frantic pace, slashing .272/.360/.555 with 13 home runs, 22 runs scored, 41 RBI, four stolen bases and a 26 percent strikeout rate through the month of May. He cooled off considerably from there, and then went on the injured list twice in the span of one month for back and hamstring strains.

After returning from his back injury, he hit just .204 with a 37.9 percent strikeout rate across 58 plate appearances. Overall, he hit 27 home runs and stole seven bases last season in just 119 games, while slashing .236/.328/.478. Gorman actually handled lefties well when given the chance (.839 OPS). The 23-year-old infielder boasts elite power, and in 2023, he posted a 97th percentile barrel rate. 

I’m trying not to buy too much into the fact that Gorman mentioned that during the offseason he was focused on proper nutrition and mobility work to reduce inflammation in his back, but a healthy Gorman over a full season would lend itself to excellent power numbers, and maybe even double-digit stolen bases. Through two years in the bigs, his 162 game average comes out to a line of .232/.317/.454 with 32 home runs, 80 runs scored, 86 RBI, and six stolen bases.

Since January 1, on average, Gorman is going in the 15th-18th round of 10-team leagues, which is far too late for a player of his caliber and elite raw power.

Gavin Lux, Los Angeles Dodgers

After missing all of last year with a torn ACL, Lux enters the 2024 season as the starting shortstop for the Dodgers. Depending on your league settings, he likely already has eligibility at second base and outfield as well, so that will be a third position where you can deploy the talented infielder. Multi-position eligibility is always a plus.

We last saw Lux in 2022, and in 129 games for the Dodgers, he slashed .276/.346/.399 with six home runs, 20 doubles, seven triples, and seven stolen bases. He also had 66 runs scored and 42 RBI that season with a double-digit walk rate. Lux’s strikeout rate was a bit higher in his first couple of seasons in the MLB, but he’s righted that ship in recent years.

It’s possible the Dodgers utilize a platoon at shortstop, but Lux made significant strides against left-handed pitching in 2022, hitting .263 against them. Now, that was alongside only a .354 SLG and .684 OPS, but he’s a solid defender who could force his way into the lineup every single day. Even if he’s part of a platoon, he’ll be on the larger side of it, and thanks to the new rules on the base paths, don’t be surprised when Lux hits 10+ home runs, steals 10+ bases, and hits .260+ this year. 

His run production should be strong as well. Even if he hits ninth, he’s going to score a boatload of runs, because he’ll have the luxury of being on base for the likes of Mookie Betts, Freddie Freeman, and Shohei Ohtani. 

Lux is going to be a jack-of-all-trades or “good at everything but great at nothing” fantasy asset in 2024. He’s going to do a little bit of everything across the board for your fantasy team - and you need players like that, especially in the late rounds of your fantasy baseball dradts.

Giancarlo Stanton, New York Yankees

While Stanton is no longer the fantasy asset he once was, the price has become so suppressed that he's usually still on the board after the 20th round in 10-team leagues. Injuries have wreaked havoc on him throughout most of his career, but ever since heading to the Bronx, he’s been a frequent flier on the injured list.

After playing in 158 games for the Yankees in his first season back in 2018, he’s appeared in more than 115 games just once since (139 games in 2021). Despite the injuries and the recent drop-off in his batting average, he has still hit 24 or more home runs in three straight seasons, and his average exit velocity and barrel rate were in the 94th percentile or better last season.

That top-end exit velocity is elite. Only Aaron Judge and Ronald Acuna had a higher average exit velocity on their 50 hardest hit balls than Stanton did last season.

There’s hope that a leaner, slimmer Stanton in 2024 will lend itself to more availability in the lineup, and that would be insanely lucrative for fantasy managers taking a chance on Stanton later on in drafts. Despite the injuries that have cost him nearly 35 percent of the team’s regular season games over the last two seasons, his 162-game average across the 2022-2023 season comes out to 42 home runs and 106 RBI.

He’s a bit of a one-trick pony for fantasy, but few players outside of the top 250 have the power upside that Stanton possesses. This makes him a fantastic late-round fantasy baseball target - and with a bit of sleeper-caliber upside, too.

Brenton Doyle, Colorado Rockies

This one is for those of you in very, very deep mixed leagues, or NL-only formats.

Amongst the Colorado outfielders, Nolan Jones is going to catch the eye of everyone, and rightfully so. However, don’t sleep on Brenton Doyle in the latter rounds of your draft. He’s going to be the starting center fielder for the Rockies, and he’s a terrific defender. He can cover a ton of ground in center, and his defensive prowess will afford him time to work through things at the plate.

At face value, his 10 home runs and 22 stolen bases in 126 games last year is quite good. However, he ranked in the 10th percentile or worst in the following categories: xwOBA, xBA, xSLG, Whiff%, K%, and BB%.

Interestingly enough, he hit for a higher average away from Coors Field last season. His end-of-season form also is noteworthy. He ended the year on a high note, hitting .261 with a .467 SLG, 27.8 percent strikeout rate, and five stolen bases over the last month of the season.

He has added some weight to his frame, and maybe that somehow translates to some added power. Regardless of what he weighs, if he’s going to hit a ground ball nearly 50 percent of the time, we have to suppress his power projections a bit.

Nonetheless, I’m intrigued by potential development in his offensive profile at the best park for hitters in Major League Baseball, and he’s a great source of cheap speed. Due to the strikeout rate that is destined to be north of 30 percent, he’s a bit of a liability in terms of batting average, but the speed is legit, and will be his biggest contribution to fantasy managers. If things go right for Doyle in 2024, he could hit 12-15 home runs and get into the mid-to-upper twenties with his stolen base total.

I’ll leave you with this. Our projections here at Fantasy Alarm (at time of writing) indicate that 40 players are projected to hit at least 16 home runs and steal 15 bases in 2024. Thirteen of those 40 players are drafted within the Top 25. Twenty-four are drafted within the Top 100. Thirty-seven of these 40 players are drafted within the Top 240.

Doyle’s ADP is outside of the top 500. Per NFBC, at time of writing, the earliest he’s been picked is 288, which would be in the 29th round of 10-team leagues. This makes Doyle the epitome of a player worth taking a flier on in the late rounds of your 2024 fantasy baseball drafts.

2024 Late-Round Fantasy Baseball Pitchers

Bryce Miller, Seattle Mariners

Miller is going to be a trendy pick for a potential “breakout pitcher” in 2024. However, at time of writing, his ADP is 188.09, meaning he’s a 19th round pick in 10-team leagues and 16th round pick in 12-team setups, This makes him a great value in fantasy drafts.

His final seven starts of the season saw him post a 5.88 ERA, but he had a 3.78 ERA and 17.7 K-BB% through the first 18 starts. His four-seamer and slider both posted a whiff rate of at least 24 percent last season.

Despite having six pitches in his repertoire already, it’s reported that he’s adding in a splitter for 2024. The young righty could use another pitch to miss bats, or at the very least, generate more ground balls. It could be an intriguing addition to an already expansive repertoire.

Additionally, despite a couple rough starts at the end of the season, from August 1 onwards, he posted a 4.02 FIP and a miniscule 4.6 percent walk rate. Furthermore, he was one of just three qualified starting pitchers during the aforementioned stretch to post at least a 115 Stuff+ and 105 Location+.

After throwing 150+ IP between the minors and majors last year, he’s ready to handle 160+ IP this season. He should help your team’s ratios this season, and I believe there’s still meat left on the bone in the strikeout department.

Miller is more than capable of giving fantasy managers 10+ wins with an ERA in the upper-threes and an upper-teens K-BB rate. He is a solid late-round fantasy baseball pitcher to target in 2024.

Yuki Matsui, San Diego Padres

If you like to wait on closers - or just want to speculate on who could earn saves later on your draft - Matsui should be one of the pitchers on your draft board.

In 10-12-team leagues, he can likely be one of your last couple of picks. While his frame is rather small, his potential upside is far from it.

He was the youngest pitcher to earn 200 saves in Nippon Professional Baseball, amassing a 2.43 ERA for his career. Matsui and his left-handed splitter are going to be a tall task for opposing hitters in MLB, too. 

In Matsui’s debut in the spring, he needed just 12 pitches to strike out the side, and his splitter was sharp.

Now for the elephant in the room: Robert Suarez  in town for San Diego, Suarez is being drafted before Matsui, but Matsui is the pitcher that I’ll be drafting on my fantasy teams.

With his splitter leading the way, he should induce a lot of whiffs and ground balls, which should earn the team’s trust in high-leverage spots relatively quickly. He is a late-round fantasy target for anyone looking for a relief pitcher with a closer's upside.

Frankie Montas, Cincinnati Reds

I didn’t want to overlap someone from our 2024 fantasy baseball sleepers article, but I couldn’t help myself here.

Montas is one of my absolute favorite values on the draft board. If his shoulder can hold up, I believe he can survive the unfriendly confines of Great American Ball Park.

When he’s at his best, he’s a ground ball machine who also will also strike out more than one batter per inning. From 2019-2022, he posted a 44.3 percent ground ball rate and 25.4 percent strikeout rate. For a frame of reference, some other notable players to reach those marks over the last four seasons are Corbin Burnes, Aaron Nola, Luis Castillo, and Zack Wheeler.

With your last pick or two in a 10-12 team league format, Montas is worth a late-round flier. Health-willing, we could see shades of the old Montas who was quite productive for fantasy purposes.

If we can get 130+ innings with an ERA around 4.00 plus more than one strikeout per inning, the right-hander's ROI could be immense.

Fantasy Baseball Late-Round Draft Targets Secured - Now What?

One of the best things you can do for the upcoming fantasy baseball season is to get in some fantasy baseball mock drafts to test out different strategies and get a rough idea of where some of your favorite sleepers and late-round targets are being drafted. 

Check out our staff's first 2024 Fantasy Baseball Mock Draft to see where things shook out for them, and be sure to check back as we update our entire Draft Guide daily all the way through Opening Day.