Last Updated on February 20, 2026 5:20 am by Anthony Kates | Published: February 20, 2026

In today’s day and age, when fantasy pitcher’s are being drafted higher than every before, it can be tough to buck the trend of taking your SP1 within the first four rounds and wait and wait and wait and wait…before drafting not just your first starter, but essentially your entire rotation.

I am going to show you how you can spend the first ten rounds of your draft addressing your hitting and two elite closers, while still producing an elite group of fantasy starters.

Let’s take a look at some top-40 fantasy starters who were drafted after pick 120 last season (that’s after the tenth round in standard Rotowire Online Championships, which is the average draft position we will be using):

2025 Top 40 Fantasy Starters drafted after pick 120:

#6 – Cristopher Sanchez – 13W, 212K, 2.50 ERA, 1.06 WHIP – 161 ADP
#9 – Nathan Eovaldi – 11W, 129K, 1.73 ERA, 0.85 WHIP – 202 ADP
#10 – Carlos Rodon – 18W, 203K, 3.09 ERA, 1.05 WHIP – 136 ADP
#13 – Nick Pivetta – 13W, 190K, 2.87 ERA, 0.99 WHIP – 186 ADP
#15 – Trevor Rogers – 9W, 103K, 1.81 ERA, 0.90 WHIP – Undrafted (injured)
#17 – Matthew Boyd – 14W, 154K, 3.21 ERA, 1.09 WHIP – 310 ADP
#18 – Drew Rasmussen – 10W, 127K, 2.76 ERA, 1.02 WHIP – 249 ADP
#22 – Kevin Gausman – 10W, 189K, 3.59 ERA, 1.06 WHIP – 160 ADP
#23 – Andrew Abbott – 10W, 149K, 2.87 ERA, 1.15 WHIP – Undrafted
#24 – Cade Horton – 11W, 91K, 2.67 ERA, 1.08 WHIP – Undrafted
#25 – Merrill Kelly – 12W, 167K, 3.52 ERA, 1.11 WHIP – 291 ADP
#26 – Nick Lodolo – 9W, 156K, 3.33 ERA, 1.08 WHIP – 236 ADP
#28 – Jesus Luzardo – 15W, 216K, 3.92 ERA, 1.22 WHIP – 257 ADP
#29 – Gavin Williams – 12W, 173K, 3.06 ERA, 1.27 WHIP – 211 ADP
#31 – Noah Cameron – 9W, 114K, 2.99 ERA, 1.10 WHIP – Undrafted
#32 – Ranger Suarez – 12W, 151K, 3.20 ERA, 1.22 WHIP – 272 ADP
#33 – Kris Bubic – 8W, 116K, 2.55 ERA, 1.18 WHIP – 333 ADP
#35 – Ryne Nelson – 7W, 132K, 3.39 ERA, 1.07 WHIP – 398 ADP
#36 – Quinn Priester – 13W, 132K, 3.32 ERA, 1.24 WHIP – Undrafted
#37 – Jameson Taillon – 11W, 98K, 3.68 ERA, 1.06 WHIP – 326 ADP

That’s exactly half of the top-40 fantasy starting pitchers that were drafted after the tenth round (or not at all). You could have constructed one of the best rotations in your league without grabbing a single starter before the tenth round, leveraging your first ten picks to drafting one of, if not, the best offenses in the league and one of the best one-two closers combos.

How could you do that this year?

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• About the Author
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Anthony Kates

I’m a husband, father and fantasy sports fanatic. I’ve been playing some fantasy sport or other since the fall of 1996, thanks to one of my childhood best friends, Brent. I enjoy watching all major sports, reading fantasy novels, watching TV shows and movies, playing video games and writing about fantasy baseball. I started at Sports Ethos in 2023, just writing one article a week and cutting my teeth in fantasy sports writing and I am now a co-lead of the Fantasy Baseball department, co-host of the Fantasy MLB Today podcast and the author of two weekly articles, our dynasty baseball rankings and a handful of random articles a year. I support the Houston Astros, Dallas Mavericks, Tennessee Titans and all things Texas Longhorns.

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