Fantasy Baseball 2026 Sleeper Picks to Target Deep in Your Draft

Early picks in fantasy baseball typically drive a lot of the pre-draft discussions.

As they probably should. That is, after all, where established MLB stars get dispersed, so if you botch those picks, you probably just cost yourself a shot at contending.

That said, fantasy championships are never won in the early rounds. Barring injuries, most fantasy managers will add value in those selection spots. Where you need to separate, then, is by extracting value from the later rounds.

That's where sleepers enter the conversation. These are players who have chances to outperform their draft costs by a significant, potentially league-winning margin. So, let's highlight three worth having on your radar as you head into your talent grab.

Andrew Vaughn, 1B, Milwaukee Brewers

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Once a celebrated prospect, Vaughn had essentially lost every bit of his luster by the time he was unceremoniously traded from the Chicago White Sox to the Brewers last July. It was the kind of deal that only fantasy diehards really noted.

Or that's how it seemed at the time, anyway. Turns out, though, the scenery-change could have been nothing short of a career-saver for Vaughn.

Deployed in a better lineup and standing atop clearly much greener grass, the first baseman put behind his old contact issues and suddenly morphed into a .308 hitter for the Brewers. And since he was surrounded by better batters, his run production immediately spiked, as he managed 46 RBI in just 64 games with his new team.

Why shouldn't the good times keep rolling? He's still potentially holding down a prime spot in a loaded lineup, hitting behind the likes of Jackson Chourio, Brice Turang, William Contreras and Christian Yelich. If Vaughn's contact skills sustain, and his power perks up a tiny bit, he has a real shot at delivering a 20-homer, 100-RBI stat line.

Dylan Crews, OF, Washington Nationals

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Not even three years ago, the Nationals saw enough in Crews to make him the No. 2 pick of the 2023 MLB draft. Now, fantasy managers can add that same toolsy talent to their roster with one of the final picks of the top 200 (average draft position: 197th, per FantasyPros).

If you're attributing the decline to Crews' lack of production, you're spot on. He's been a general disappointment across his first season-plus in the big leagues, posting a woeful .211/.282/.352 slash line over 116 career contests.

Hopefully, a number jumped out to you there, and hopefully, it wasn't any part of that slash line. Rather, it was the 116 games he's played, an amount in no way, shape or form big enough to make huge proclamations about the player he is or the kind of career he will have.

He is 24 years old and nearly untested at this level. He could be as awesome as we all initially assumed he would be, in other words, that ascension just might be a bit behind everyone's preferred schedule. No one would be complaining about those early struggles, though, if things start to click, and he's suddenly providing 20 homers and 30 steals—optimistic but doable stats for someone with his skills.

Jake McCarthy, OF, Colorado Rockies

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McCarthy is, for now, a name only deep-league managers need to know. If you're playing in a standard-sized league, you can get him with your last pick or even just make him someone to watch on the waiver wire.

This could all change in a hurry, though.

Because while his 2025 season was a mess (he was injured, demoted and not very productive when he played), he was pretty awesome the three years prior. He hit a combined .273 between the 2022 and 2024 campaigns while delivering 74 steals and 271 combined runs and RBI across 340 games. For context, those are per-162-game averages of 35 steals and 129 combined runs and RBI.

Sounds interesting, right? Well, let's make it interestinger (totally a word, folks—don't look it up) and note how he'll be playing half his games in the hitter-haven that is Coors Field and maybe hitting atop a Rockies lineup that should have a few thumpers behind him. He could be a sneaky-good source of batting average, stolen bases and runs scored, and it costs literally nothing for you to find out if he will be.