2026 Fantasy Baseball: Key developments and prospect call-ups since football season began

Look, I've been around a while. I've seen some things.

Among them ... flaky Fantasy folks who are all too willing to abandon a lost cause in pursuit of some other flight of fancy, this one concerning the brown ball with the pointy ends.

But you know what? The flakes are not snakes, and that makes them my friend. In the spirit of friendship, then, I'm bequeathing them this tome. It chronicles everything they might have missed when they averted their gaze to the land of laces.

Land of laces? I'm talking about football! It stole you from baseball before baseball was done. And yeah, baseball kept going. Big things have happened since you tuned out, whether it was mid-August or early September, and I'm here to catch you up on it.

But it's a lot, so buckle in.

Players who gained the most

- If you tuned out at any point in August, you'll be surprised to discover just how early Jared Jones goes in 2027 drafts. He may have struggled to keep his ERA below 5.00 for the first three months back from UCL surgery, but the final one was scintillating, showing the full extent of his upside with a 0.93 ERA, 0.59 WHIP and 12.4 K/9 in five starts. - Chances are, you missed the introduction of Mason Montgomery : ace closer. The left-hander only recorded his third save Aug. 3 but wound up with 18 on the year. All the more impressive is that his final 38 appearances yielded a 1.22 ERA, 0.70 WHIP and 14.8 K/9. - After a so-so start to his rookie campaign, Henry Bolte surged to the finish line with a .307 batting average, eight home runs, nine steals and .876 OPS between August and September. The strange part is that his two biggest flaws didn't really improve. He had a 28.4 percent strikeout rate and 59.4 percent ground ball rate during that time, as compared to a 28.1 percent strikeout rate and 61.7 percent ground ball rate overall. He makes high-quality contact, though, and presents the sort of athleticism that points to a high ceiling. - Andrew Painter made his return from the minors with six strong innings on July 31, so you may have already heard about the adjustments to his arsenal, namely replacing a splitter with a changeup. Well, I'm here to tell you that the changeup remained a stellar offering to the end, accounting for a 3.65 ERA, 1.15 WHIP and 9.0 K/9 over his final 11 starts. Those aren't ace numbers, but they'll ensure the 23-year-old is drafted in 2027 even though his overall numbers paint (get it?) a much grimmer picture. - You probably remember Luke Keaschall as one of the biggest misfires for the analyst class, his roster rate dropping to 66 percent at one point as he hit just .245 with two home runs and a .645 OPS over the first three months. You may have missed the signs of life he began showing in July, which turned into a sustained hot streak in which he slashed .324/.422/.508 with eight home runs over the final three months. The exit velocities remained suspect, but the pull-air rate improved enough to allow for some modest power, like he showed in the minors. Add a little pop to his existing plate discipline, contact skills and speed, and it's not crazy to think his best outcome looks a little like Brice Turang . - Another trendy breakout pick who fizzled right out of the gate (or so you may recall), Carter Jensen batted under .200 in three of the first five months ... and then exploded for a .338 (27 for 80) batting average, eight home runs and 1.194 OPS in September. The rookie got the lion's share of starts behind the plate, confining Salvador Perez mostly to DH, and is clearly the Royals ' future at the position. He's also likely a top-10 Fantasy option for years to come. - A freak knee injury in July landed Zack Gelof on the IL for a month and seemed to take the wind out of his sails, seeing as he hit just .189 (14 for 74) when he returned in August. But his September served as a fitting capstone to his breakout season. He not only batted .269 (25 for 93) with eight homers, six steals and a .914 OPS but also delivered his highest average exit velocity (92.7 mph) and lowest strikeout rate (22.5 percent) of any month. - Remember Lawrence Butler ? He got his sea legs back in August and September, batting .282 (55-for-195) with 11 home runs and an .848 OPS. A wider stance is largely to credit for the turnaround. However, it likely had just as much to do with him getting right physically after having right patellar tendon surgery last October. - If you knew of Javier Sanoja prior to reading this article, you knew him as the quintessential utility player who might endear himself to the Marlins fan base but has no relevance whatsoever to Fantasy. And that shows that you weren't paying attention to the final two months, when he hit .339 (64 for 189) with eight homers, five steals and a .931 OPS. By that point, he was getting everyday at-bats -- a necessary step for Fantasy relevance -- but was there some kind of underlying skill change to explain the breakthrough? Look, he's always made oodles of contact, his 8 percent strikeout rate ranking behind only Luis Arraez and Chandler Simpson in 2026 (minimum 450 at-bats). Can you think of something else Arraez and Simpson have in common? - Ty France's roster rate barely changed during his best three-month stretch, peaking at 59 percent, so whether you tuned out for football or not, you may not be aware of what I'm about to tell you. From July 1 through the end of the season, France hit .313 (84 for 268) with 11 homers and an .884 OPS. He wasn't doing poorly before then either, bringing his final stat line to a .295 batting average, 21 homers and an .865 OPS. A lot of you kept using first basemen with worse numbers than that. I'm not saying France should be drafted as if he'll put up the same numbers, but provided he signs with a team that intends to play him every day (probably the Padres again), he should be drafted in some capacity. - Aaron Nola was hurtling toward a second straight year with an ERA over 6.00 when he suddenly locked in again, delivering a 2.77 ERA, 1.14 WHIP and 9.1 K/9 over his final 10 starts. I couldn't even begin to explain why -- I tried and failed to as it was happening -- but then, I couldn't really explain what knocked him off the rails in the first place. I suspect that the margins for him are exceptionally slim, relying on impeccable command that's difficult to sustain for long stretches. He won't be a big-ticket item for 2027, but he won't be someone you can completely ignore, either. - That Griffin Conine had impact power was no secret. The unknown variables were whether he'd make enough contact to deliver on that power and whether he'd get much of a chance to with the Marlins. Well, he started more games than not down the stretch and showed that the power will indeed play, even while striking out 29 percent of the time. Of his 18 home runs, 14 came in the second half, during which he slashed .263/.349/.488. - Andrew Alvarez likely elevated himself from spot starter to rotation fixture with his performance down the stretch, putting together a 2.78 ERA, 1.07 WHIP and 9.2 K/9 in his final 10 starts. That K/9 rate may not seem like much, but for a pitcher with a 50 percent ground ball rate (full-season mark), it's a harbinger of a good ERA. - You wouldn't think Ryan Johnson would be of much use in Fantasy given that strikeouts aren't really a part of his game, but he went on a nice run to close out 2026, compiling a 2.92 ERA, 1.18 WHIP and 7.5 K/9 in nine starts. The stretch coincided with the Angels swapping out their pitching coach, and the new guy (Tim Leveque) allowed Johnson to return to his old pregame routine, despite how unorthodox it was. His pregame routine included doing handstands in the bullpen and throwing the ball from foul pole to foul pole. Leveque also got Johnson to throw more cutters, which led to more weak contact in the air. That's a volatile approach, but it could theoretically make Johnson a WHIP specialist, even with modest strikeout rates.

Sighs of relief

- Seeing Alex Bregman hit .246 with a .716 OPS in his first 115 games for the Cubs likely had you concerned, particularly since some people ( not naming names! ) predicted he'd be a bust at Wrigley Field. But then he went into turbo mode and hit .322 (49 for 152) with 16 home runs, a 1.126 OPS and more walks (19) than strikeouts (18) in his final 40 games for his new club, ultimately delivering his best numbers since his near-MVP 2019. There are layers to this sigh of relief, too, because the more pressing concern was that he took a teammate's foul ball off the face while waiting to bat Sept. 20, which caused gruesome swelling ( click at your own risk ). He was back in the lineup five days later, though, and went 4 for 4 with two homers in just his second game back. - I'll admit there was a point midseason when I concluded that the Red Sox version of Rafael Devers was no more, having been replaced by an all-or-nothing slugger akin to Jake Burger . If you heard me then, hear me now: I was wrong. Turns out the 29-year-old just needed to spend some time in the cage shortening his swing, and in doing so, he indeed reclaimed his former Red Sox glory, batting .281 (65 for 231) with 22 homers and a 1.006 OPS over the final three months. You may have caught a first glimpse of it in July, but I'll have you know that it continued up until he succumbed to core muscle surgery in September. Perhaps the most convincing part of Devers' turnaround is that he struck out just 20 percent of the time during it, compared to 29 percent previously. - Depending on when you tuned out in August, you may recall some chatter about Ronald Acuna being diminished from years of injury and no longer deserving of an early-round mulligan. Well, he quieted that chatter with a massive finish prompted by some cage work he did on an impromptu day off Aug. 27. From that point forward, he hit .337 (34 for 101) with seven homers, three steals and a .997 OPS. He struck out just 16 percent of the time, down from 24 percent previously. I'm not saying we should expect him to perform like he did in his MVP 2023 season, but I am saying that he may be a steal in Round 2 next year. - Fernando Tatis didn't hit his first home run until May 30 and had just five going into the All-Star break, making him appear to be one of this year's biggest early-round busts. Perhaps you'll be shocked to learn, then, that he finished sixth among all hitters in Head-to-Head points leagues and fourth in Rotisserie. How? He wound up hitting .307 (78 for 254) with 20 homers, 15 steals and a .996 OPS in the second half, with September being his best month of all. There's a concrete explanation for it -- he reverted to his old mechanics after experimenting with a closed stance early on -- I think the buy-in next year will be heavy. - Ah, Jackson Merrill ... another one of my preseason bust calls that suddenly went from very right to very wrong. As with Alex Bregman, you would have missed it if you tuned out early, but his little hot streak to begin the second half led to a complete return to form in which he slashed .304/.339/.569. As with Tatis, the correction was a matter of him reverting to his old mechanics after the Padres attempted to do something new with him . Hopefully, they've learned to leave well enough alone. - If you tuned out later in August, then you may have been left with the impression that Zack Wheeler didn't come away from thoracic outlet surgery unscathed after all, his season unraveling after such a promising start. But his 8.51 ERA and 1.93 WHIP in six bumpy starts gave way to a 1.67 ERA and 0.93 WHIP in his final six starts. His overall numbers (3.00 ERA, 1.05 WHIP, 10.7 K/9) were very much in line with the typical Wheeler season. - Following a career-best 2025 with a career-worst 2026 made Cal Raleigh arguably this year's biggest bust, but he did finish strong, batting .256 (30 for 117) with 10 homers and a .935 OPS over his final 32 games. It reportedly coi

_Originally reported by [CBS Sports](https://www.cbssports.com/fantasy/baseball/news/2026-fantasy-baseball-what-you-missed-after-football-started/)._