10 Must-Have Breakout Players for Your Roster

mock draft on. All you gotta do is go to fantasypros dot com slash Draft Wizard or go use the app. The app is spectacular and get all the mock drafts you could possibly handle. You can do a mock draft in five minutes, or you could do one for three hours and ignore your job in your family, which is probably not a good idea. Don't do that, but get some mock drafts going, get some practice in, and the Draft Wizard is the place to do that. Again, Fantasypros

dot Com slash Draft Wizard. So with that out of the way and a little bit of business, it's time for a little fun. So let's talk about the top ten twenty twenty three breakouts courtesy of me Joey p. Number ten Nick Lidolo, starting pitcher for the Cincinnati Reds. Over his final thirteen starts, nick Lodolo really found himself and seventy seven eight things. He pitched to a two point nine to two ERA just twenty seven walks with

ninety three ks. That's more than a three and a half to one strikeout to walk ratio practically, and that bodes very well for Nick Lodolo. Now, you'll say it's a tough ballpark to pitch into, which I'll say, well, you had a two eight five VRA at home last year. In fact, it's on the road where things did not work out well over a five VRA on the road that eventually will right itself. And he is only one of two pitchers outside of the top one hundred ADP.

They're earmarked for over projected two hundred strikeouts and Nick Lodolo is one of them. You want to draft this guy this year, get him on your roster. Number nine, justin Steel Chicago Cubs starting pitcher. Now, it's been a while since the Chicago Cubs have really had a starting pitcher homegrown that we could really get excited about after eight years basically in the minor leagues. We are here with Justin Steele, who last year was four and seven but at a three to one eight erara over one

hundred and nineteen innings. I saw him strike out one hundred and twenty six and walk just fifty. Now that's a nine and a half k per nine. That's a really good rate, more than a two and a half to one strikeout to walk ratio. That's what you're looking for. Now. The question with Steele is can he make the innings jump. One nineteen was a career high for him. The previous high was all the way back when he was twenty one,

with ninety eight innings over that span. So now that he is healthy at one nineteen, can he make that jump to one fifty even one sixty. I think he can. And if he does, when you add in some of these new bats and some of this run support is going to get in Chicago, Justin Steele could be a very sneaky fantasy starting pitcher this year who might be ready to break out give you one hundred and fifty plus ks, maybe even give you ten wins if things

break right. Number eight Vinnie pass Guentino, first basement of the Kansas City Royals. My Italian brother. Vinnie pas Guentino had a very good rookie debut, having an eight thirty two ops a one thirty seven WRC plus and establish himself as the cleanup hitter for the Kansas City Royals.

That's a good spot for fantasy productivity. We both know that he also at two ninety five over those seventy two games for the Royals last year and over the minor league track record two hundred and forty six games, a two to ninety two batting average, three eighty two OBP, and a five to sixty nine slugging He also basically walked as much as he's struck out one thirty one to walk one forty three to the k You don't

see that very often in young players. So this is a left handed bat that I think is going to perform well and outperforms ADP in twenty twenty three. Number seven Andres Munos, relief pitcher of the Seattle Mariners. Last year, he pitched you a two forty nine er over sixty five innings, striking out a whopping ninety six batters and walking just fifteen. That's a thirteen point three k per

nine boys and girls. That is very exciting, and there's an opportunity for this twenty four year old to kind of be the next Edwin Diaz, who, let's not forget this is the same organization that bred Edwin Diaz. So Andres Munos at minimum is going to be in a elite set up guy. But he could take over this closer role with an injury or potentially with any sort

of performance issues with Paul Seawall. So keep a close eye on this because Munos, if indeed he does become a closer anytime in the year even halfway, would become an enormous breakout candidate for twenty twenty three. Number six Corbyn Carol outfielder for the Arizona Diamondbacks. Corbin Carroll was ranked as the number three prospect by the MLB Pipeline when the d Backs promoted him to the bigs last

year in August. In one hundred and three at bats for Arizona, he hit two sixty with a three thirty OVP and a five hundred slugging percentage, and he has elite level speed. I'm talking top shelf. We're talking the guys that you want on your rodo rosters. So if you're playing in that format, Corbyn Carroll is worth a little bit of an overpay. Coming into the year, He's going to have a clear path do with everyday job and a good chance he's the NL rookie of the

Year in waiting. And Corbin Carroll's power. It's for real, folks. Just because he's a smaller player, do not discount the power of Corbyn Carroll. He had a five eighty eight slugging over one hundred and forty two minor league games. Well, come down to earth a little bit, yes, but he still got popping. When he add that to the speed, Corbyn Carroll could be an enormous breakout player in twenty twenty three. Number five Josh Young, third baseman, Texas Rangers.

I was so excited for Josh Young last year and then then he got hurt. What a miserable set of circumstances. But that does not mean we forget, and instead we're going to start the high train all over again for Josh Young because he's coming into a lineup now that's got Marcus Simeon. That's got Corey Seeger, that's got players around him. Finally, oh yeah, and at a least Garcia two.

And this guy can really hit. If you go look at the minor league section there for him, you're talking about a three hundred hitter in the minor leagues with a three eighty OBP and a five hundred slugging. That is an elite level type hitter. He just needs some time to grow at the major league level. And he is going to be the everyday third basement for the Texas Rangers, hitting a lineup that could be surprisingly good on a team it could be surprisingly competitive. I think

there's a breakout here potentially. Four Josh Young in twenty twenty three, at age twenty five. This is a guy you'll want to draft. Number four. Ryan Mountcastle, outfielder for the Baltimore Orioles. Now, I know what you're gonna say, Joe, this guy's already kind of broken out. He's an established player. I think there's another gear though, in Ryan Mountcastle. He had thirty three home runs in twenty twenty one. Last year that dipped to twenty two home runs, and I

know some adjustments to the ballpark, not necessarily the greatest thing. However, I think there's a version of Ryan Mauncastle we haven't seen yet where he brings that average back up. Because in the minor leagues this player was a two ninety five hitter. But check out these stats. He had an x LUG of five oh nine, which was the eighth best in the league last year. His two fifty batting average meh, but he had a two seventy seven expected batting average and the third biggest home run to X

home run differential five point six. So we're talking about another gear potentially of this player with a higher batting average and maybe even some more power than we saw last year. Put it all together for a thirty five two to eighty season, I think he might. That would make Ryan Mountcastle a breakout star in twenty twenty three.

Number three George Kirby, starting pitcher Seattle Mariners now last year, over twenty five starts in his rookie season, Kirby went eight and five with a nine k per nine and a three thirty nine ERA, but his FIP was even better at two point nine to nine, suggesting scary as it seems, George Kirby could even take another step forward

this year. Some of the projections on him, you're looking at somewhere around one hundred and fifty to one hundred and sixty innings, and I think that is very reasonable for George Kirby this season. If you look at the minor league track record, he was dominant there. He had a one point zero seven whip over thirty games pitched in the minor leagues for the Seattle Mariners. This Mariner rotation could be very good here with Castillo at the top and then guys like Logan Gilbert and George Kirby.

Oh yeah, and some guy named Robbie Ray. Two. George Kirby doesn't have any pressure on him out of that fourth spot, and I think this guy could be an absolute steal in drafts and an incredible breakout performer in twenty twenty three. Number two Andrew Vaughn, First Basement Chicago White Sox. Now, I've been waiting a long time for this. I've been a big fan of Andrew Vaughns ever since his college days, and now he's finally getting his starting role.

With Jose Abreu gone to Houston, Andrew Vaughn is the everyday first basement. This is a guy that just had fifty seven games, just two hundred and fifty four plate appearances in the minor leagues. He's been learning on the job for the last two years. Cut him some slack. Last year he had two to seventy one with a seven to fifty ops, but he had seventeen homers and seventy six RBI. And I'm telling you this guy is ready.

Now that he's back playing his everyday position as he should be, Andrew Vaughn is ready to take that next step forward. This is his age twenty five season. And Andrew Vaughn has the power, the plate, discipline, the total package to get it done. And I think he's going to be a breakout in twenty twenty three and the number one breakout for twenty twenty three Onneal Cruz short,

it's not Pittsburgh Pirates. Now. Last year we were tough on Oneal Cruise because we didn't know when he was going to show up in the show and how he was going to react to the higher end pitching. Well, we were right. He did struggle early on and it did take him a while to get there. However, when the dust settled over eighty seven games, he did hit

seventeen homers and steal ten paces. If he progresses the way we saw him down the stretch, it's well within reason to think this is a player that could reach the thirty homer twenty stolen based threshold in twenty twenty three. We'll see what the batting average gives us, but this is a player with big time potential despite the shortcomings in the lineup. With lineup protection, Cruise looks like a breakout star and a potential league winner in twenty twenty three.

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