Greene, Painter among best late-round fantasy baseball sleepers

It’s that time of year: pitchers and catchers have reported, every player is in the best shape of his life and fantasy baseball drafts are fast approaching.

We’ll soon see surprises on the depth chart and unexpected injuries; either way, the spring schedule always provides fantasy players with valuable new information.

While the first few rounds are where you pick up your star hitters — or a pitcher or two, depending on your strategy — it’s the end of the draft that shapes the depth of your team.

Let’s take a look at some of the best late-round sleepers to target this spring:

Riley Greene — OF, Detroit Tigers

It’s true Greene’s 2022 rookie numbers were, largely, uninspiring. His slash line was .253/.321/.362 over 93 games, and he added five home runs to go with one stolen base — unremarkable considering he was a highly-touted prospect as a 21-year-old.

Remember, though: he crushed a foul ball off his own foot and effectively spent the entire season getting back into shape. Add in the slightly modified dimensions at Comerica Park in Detroit plus a new hitting coach and the recipe for a massive bounce-back season is there.

With an average draft position (ADP) of 189th overall, he has a chance to be a bargain.

Ryan McMahon — 2B/3B, Colorado Rockies

Given McMahon’s ADP of 215th overall, it almost feels obvious to say a versatile, power-hitting infielder who plays at Coors Field will likely outperform his draft position — but we’ll say it anyway.

Fantasy baseball loves some positional versatility. That McMahon will likely get second and third base eligibility for most of the season is a huge point in his favour since you can move him around your fantasy infield as needed.

Given that he has underperformed (a bit) in the high mountain altitude over the past few seasons, even a slight uptick would put him in the top 12 third basemen in the sport.

Andrew Painter — SP, Philadelphia Phillies

When you’re a top pick and you dominate opposing players — even at class-A — it’s hard not to take notice, even within the long-simmering world that is the minor league affiliate system of Major League Baseball. Painter not only did that, posting a 1.56 ERA and 155 strikeouts in 103.2 innings last year, but he managed to continue his relative dominance as he climbed his way to double-A.

There’s always the question of "how long can he go" when it comes to prospects, but in eight starts Painter went six innings or more and hit seven innings pitched in three outings as well.

He may be only 19 years old (he turns 20 on April 10) but the Phillies really do have room at the back end of the rotation. If either Bailey Falter or Ranger Suarez stumbles a bit, there’s no reason Painter couldn’t fill out one of those spots. At an ADP of 327th overall, it’s a tantalizing stash.

Bryson Stott — 2B/SS, Philadelphia Phillies

Double dipping on a team that just lost the World Series may not bear fruit but hear me out. While Stott didn’t see regular playing time until June of last year, he stole 12 bases once he played his way into the starting second baseman spot.

He probably won’t get too much use at shortstop with Trea Turner in town, but with the new rules potentially allowing for more stolen base attempts, his ADP of 259th overall seems low.

Logan O’Hoppe — C, Los Angeles Angels

We’ll have to continue monitoring this as spring training progresses but after a trade from Philadelphia to Los Angeles, the young catching prospect is now going to be given the chance to grab the starting spot. Kurt Suzuki has retired after a 16-year MLB career, and while Max Stassi is now entrenched as the starter, O’Hoppe’s destruction of minor-league pitching was so spectacular that he actually bypassed triple-A and got a direct call-up to the majors to end the 2022 season.

If you’re not aiming for top-end catchers like J.T. Realmuto, Salvador Perez and Adley Rutschman, O’Hoppe’s ADP of 295th overall might be hard to pass up in the later rounds.