Sports Ethos Fantasy Baseball Flag Plants – Pitchers

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  • By SportsEthos Staff

    Last Updated on March 25, 2026 3:34 pm by Anthony Kates | Published: March 25, 2026

    The team here at Sports Ethos is going position-by-position to plant their flag on what players they fully trust and will draft whenever, and wherever possible.

    These are more than just sleepers.

    These are the dudes our experts fully trust and want on as many rosters as possible.

    We continue our series with our top pitchers.

    Larry Vannozzi

    I am rarely the one who drafts a closer first, preferring to pounce only after the first few are taken.

    There is a closer who perfectly fits my target area this year – it’s Jhoan Duran of the Phillies. It doesn’t take a deep dive into his stats to be convinced about Duran. After all, the guy has a 100+ mph fastball and has been excellent ever since his 2022 debut with the Twins. His outstanding career 1.09 WHIP and 31% K% attracted the Phillies to trade away prospect SP Mick Abel at last year’s trade deadline to acquire Duran.

    Duran is my RP flag plant this year due to one important difference from last year. Duran spent half of last year with a losing Twins team but now he’ll be locking down games for yet another strong Phillies squad for the entire season. He was able to save 32 games last year despite being on the Twins in the first half. He has a great chance to save at least 35 games for a winning Phillies team this season.

    Anthony Kates

    Logan Gilbert – Mariners – I know what you’re thinking. “Oh, really sticking your neck out, planting your flag on the eighth SP being draft, way to be bold.” But let me defend myself with one thing: I think Gilbert is the fourth best fantasy starter and will have a career year in 2026.

    Gilbert supercharged his strikeout rate last season, jumping from 9.49 K/9 in 2024 to 11.89 in 2025, with his walk rate jumping merely 0.5 BB/9 in the process. He missed nearly two months with a Grade 1 right elbow flexor strain, which derailed a phenomenal start to the season (6GS, 30.1IP, 44:6 K:BB, 3HRA, 2.37 ERA), but from the time he returned from his injury (June 16) until the end of the season, he had the third best strikeout rate, 23rd best walk rate and 11th best xFIP (29th best ERA). He only won five of his final 19 starts, even though he played for a division winning team and had an ERA three-quarters of a run lower than Zac Gallen, who won four more games over that same time frame. Health plus an elite strikeout rate plus elite walk rate and high volume (185-plus innings pitched for three straight seasons before 2025) equals a top-4 performer.

    Griffin Jax – Rays – Though he had poor ratios in 2025, Jax has been one of the best relievers in baseball over the last three seasons, tying Aroldis Chapman for the most fWAR generated by a reliever, with 5.5. Since raising his strikeout rate in 2024, he has struck out the fifth most batters in relief over the past two seasons, he’s one of 16 relievers with 62-plus combined saves and holds over the two seasons and has has the second lowest xFIP and third lowest FIP.

    And though the Rays do tend to run a sort of closer-by-committee situation more often than not, Pete Fairbanks did have two-thirds of their saves over the past two seasons, so if Jax both starts the season as the closer and performs as well as he has the last three seasons, then he will have a strong shot at staying in the role even when Edwin Uceta is healthy (the presumed next-in-line).

    Nathan Baker

    Kodai Senga

    Senga’s 2025 season was a tale two halves; posting a 1.39 ERA before the All-Star break, and a 6.56 ERA after it. The explanation for the drop off is quite simple; Senga injured his hamstring attempting to corral a wild throw at first base on June 13th, which led to six weeks on the injured list, and a premature return that saw his reduced velocity and command yield terrible results. His 280 ADP can only be explained by his demotion to the minor leagues at the end of the season, because with the velocity back up to 99 mph in spring training, Senga projects as an ace going into the season, and a fantasy SP2/3 due to the walks and lack of double start weeks.

    Riley O’Brien

    For relief pitchers in 5×5 categories leagues, opportunity is more important than ability, and O’Brien is ranked far lower than any other closer at 286. Yes, the Cardinals won’t yield a tremendous number of opportunities, but even getting 25 saves would be far better than the alternatives in this range, and the same chances shouldn’t be that much lower than Pete Fairbanks and Emilio Pagan in the 125-135 range. Save yourself the early pick on another reliever, take the chance on Zack Wheeler or Jacob Misiorowski in that range, and then draft O’Brien just inside the top 300.

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    March 25, 2026, 3:34 pm