Happy baseball season, everyone! Hope springs eternal for MLB players and fans alike in the month of April, with small samples offering the opportunity to dream big. Hey, even a little delusion is healthy every once in a while. For example, I’m currently in the process of convincing myself that Yandy Díaz, one of my most rostered players, is going to hit 25 homers again while also becoming the first player to hit .400 since Ted Williams before he went off to serve in World War II. Don’t worry, I’m mostly joking.
I will be taking on this article every other week after a couple of years as part of the Patience or Panic team. Patience or Panic acts as a foil to this series, as the author examines struggling players and predicts whether their luck will turn around. I hope that my experience in researching those articles will serve me well here, as I’ll be looking at many of the same stats to forecast whether performance will continue as is or regress. This time of year, we have so little to go on, so it does feel a little bit like a shot in the dark. But, I’ll do my best to steer you in the right direction, sorting each player into one of the following categories: “not legit,” “probably not legit,” “too early to tell,” “possibly legit,” and “legit.”
Cam Schlittler, SP, NYY
To kick off 2026, Schlittler picked up right where he left off last postseason. He got a win during the Yankees’ opening weekend domination of the Giants, striking out eight across 5.1 one-hit innings. Schlittler has steadily gained velocity throughout his time as a pro, and he appears poised to take another step forward in that regard this year. In his first start, he was sitting above 98 on both his four-seamer and sinker, up at least a half tick on both pitches from last year’s major league sample. To make things even more impressive, his average fastball velo last year in the majors was more than a tick higher than it was in 2025 in AAA! This guy is the definition of projectable.
Aside from the velocity improvements, Schlittler’s arsenal is also looking more refined. He’s added an inch of induced vertical break to his four-seamer while cutting an inch from his sinker and adding over two inches of run, no small feat given the added velocity means less time to break. The biggest change has come on his cutter, which functioned more like a hard slider last year. Now, he has it sitting three ticks harder at 95 MPH, but with plenty of movement separation from the other two fastballs. His arsenal reminds me of a higher-octane Drew Rasmussen or prime Lance Lynn, two guys who offer pristine ratios and mow through lineups at their best.
Verdict: Legit. Call me crazy for coming to such a strong conclusion after one start, but Schlittler already has everything he needs to succeed in his arsenal, and he’s pitching for a winning ball club. I am already feeling some FOMO because I didn’t draft him anywhere. He’s cracked the top 20 of Nick’s list and is an auto-start until his performances indicate otherwise.
Chase DeLauter, OF, CLE
Chase DeLauter’s brief MLB career has already produced a couple of historic moments. Last fall, he became the sixth player in the modern era to debut during the playoffs. This weekend, he entered more rarified air, joining Trevor Story as one of only two players to hit four home runs in his first three career regular-season games. If that alone wasn’t impressive enough, he did so in Seattle, the worst park in the league for hitters.
DeLauter has cooled off a bit since then, going hitless in his last eight at-bats heading into Tuesday’s action. This leaves him with a .286/.318/.857 slash line but an unsightly 31.8% strikeout rate. DeLauter has never had strikeout issues in the minors, but he has whiffed slightly more each season as a pro. I wouldn’t expect the contact issues to persist to this extent as he settles in, but he’s also not going to walk more than he strikes out, as he did at almost every level in the minors. I see the K rate normalizing around 22% this season.
Verdict: Possibly legit. Despite far fewer professional reps than his peers, DeLauter has had no issue adjusting to major league pitching. We already see that the power will play. Unfortunately, that’s his only path to top-150 upside in this Guardians offense. DeLauter gets a bump in OBP leagues, but he won’t run, and I expect Cleveland to get him off his feet against some lefties to keep him healthy. As a result, the counting stats may suffer a bit. That being said, those are relatively minor concerns to raise for a rookie, and anything close to a top 150 season would be a win. I could see DeLauter posting a similar line to 2025 Kyle Manzardo (531 PA, 47 R, 27 HR, 70 RBI, 2 SB, .234 AVG) with an average closer to .260. Manzardo’s production last year over nearly a full season shows the counting stat limitations that solid, but not spectacular, hitters face in Cleveland.
Emerson Hancock, SP, SEA
Hancock dazzled in the first Sunday Night Baseball game of the Peacock era, firing six hitless innings with nine strikeouts at home against the Guardians. A former top-10 pick, Hancock wouldn’t have even been in the starting rotation were it not for a Bryce Miller oblique injury. So far, he’s making the most of that opportunity.
After producing at a replacement level during his first couple of stints in the big leagues, Hancock appears to have remade himself during the offseason. He’s always had a poor four-seamer and primarily featured a sinker, but that may no longer be the case. Hancock has lowered his four-seam release point a couple of inches from last year, when he was already below league average, yet he’s added several inches of induced vertical break to the pitch. This helps the offering play much better up in the zone, taking it from a below-average height-adjusted vertical approach angle (HAVAA) to a well above-average one (0.8 to 1.3). Leading with the four-seamer instead of the sinker should also help Hancock against lefties, as his career 6.5% K-BB% against them is putrid.
On the other hand, Hancock’s velocity in this start was down more than a full tick, and he was facing a weak Guardians offense. He also only generated 12 whiffs, which tells me that he wasn’t overpowering guys and probably didn’t deserve nine strikeouts.
Verdict: Probably not legit. As Nick pointed out in his SP roundup, Hancock has made some real changes to his arsenal and approach from seasons past. But there still isn’t enough here to buy into. In my mind, these arsenal changes take him from a complete fantasy afterthought to an occasionally intriguing home streamer in deeper leagues. Hancock may have some useful moments, but this could have been the softest matchup he will get all season. What I’ve seen so far has me skeptical that this is anything more than one great start in an ideal matchup
