Here is another check-in on PLV and Fan4+ darlings around the minors. Instead of looking at the biggest names, let’s look at some of the best recent performers who may not have the prospect profile to earn dynasty respect, but could make their real-life value known soon.
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Checking in on Big-name Prospects:
Andrew Painter, 22, Philadelphia Phillies
MiLB Season Stats: 25 GS | 114.0 IP | 5.21 ERA | 23.4% K% | 9.0% BB% | 1.46 WHIP
Weekly Stats: 1 GS | 5.0 IP | 0.00 ERA | 33.3% K% | 0.0% BB% | 0.60 WHIP
Andrew Painter’s 2025 season has been about stacking healthy innings and rediscovering the polish that made him baseball’s most hyped teenage pitcher before Tommy John surgery in July 2023. After nearly two years off a competitive mound, the 22-year-old returned in April, showing the mid-90s fastball and swing-and-miss traits that fueled his rise, then followed the expected rehab ladder from Clearwater to Lehigh Valley.
The box-score line is uneven but instructive. Through 25 games, Painter has logged 114.0 innings with a 5.21 ERA, 117 strikeouts, and a 1.46 WHIP, a performance that is typical for a fresh pitcher in Triple-A’s offense and an organization intent on workload rather than results. He’s had peaks that hint at his ultimate ceiling, including his Sept. 10th start that saw him go five shutout innings with six strikeouts. In what will be one of his last starts this season, Painter looked like the pitcher that makes him Philadelphia’s top prospect and a top-10 prospect in all of baseball. His first taste of Triple-A was indicative of a young pitcher with work to do, but also what people should expect after Painter’s first professional action since 2022.
Stuff-wise, evaluators remain bullish. FanGraphs still lists Painter as a 60 FV starter at Triple-A, an endorsement that signals top-of-the-rotation potential if command and secondaries finish returning post-surgery. His fastball velocity has looked intact by public reports, and the Phillies have emphasized development over promotion as he experiments with shapes and sequencing deep into the season. The curveball and cutter are both MLB-quality pitches, thanks to his overall control and well-above-average velocity.
Context matters for fantasy. Painter is young for the level and making his first full-season push after surgery, a phase where walk rates and pitch efficiency often lag before snapping back. The 23.1% strikeout rate remains comfortably fantasy-viable, and Triple-A run environments can inflate ERAs and WHIPs even when the underlying traits are trending right. The Phillies’ handling this summer—moving him quickly to Triple-A but resisting the call-up drumbeat—suggests they still see a long runway for a rotation anchor rather than a rush to the big league rotation. The stamina is still certainly a work in progress for Painter, who saw his strikeout and walk rates heading in the respective wrong direction in the second half of the season. But that is still understandable, again, due to the long layoff and still knocking off the rust that can only be removed after an entire season of work.
For dynasty managers, that sets a clear lane. Painter’s probability of becoming a major-league starter with impact strikeouts is still high, but the timeline to sustained fantasy value likely centers on 2026, with innings and command calibration the final hurdles. If you’re rebuilding or playing the long game, he remains a premium hold and a trade target if his 2025 ERA has cooled enthusiasm in your league. Contenders hunting 2025 ratios may prefer safer arms, but moving off Painter now risks selling a blue-chip at a trough. The bet is that a healthy offseason, sharper slider/curve command, and fewer deep counts convert the 60-grade ingredients into mid-rotation production with periodic SP1 spikes at peak. In short: buy or hold in all dynasty formats; patience should be rewarded as the workload and feel fully returned.
Take a look under the PLV hood:
Weekly Four-Seam Standouts
As the season wears on, watching how fastballs improve or change down on the farm has been interesting. As new faces break into rotations or minor tweaks turn from blips to consistent factors, it is important to keep an eye on pitch shapes. Pitcher List’s Fan 4+ is a model based on the “Fan-Tastic 4” stats: velocity, extension, induced vertical break (iVB), and height-adjusted vertical approach angle (HAVAA), compared to the average four-seam fastball. What are some marks from Triple-A and Low-A’s Florida State League that jumped off the page this week?
Mick Abel, 24, Minnesota Twins
Weekly Four-Seam Grade: 125 Fan4+ in Sept. 12, 2025, start
MiLB Season Stats: 18 GS | 98.1 IP | 2.20 ERA | 28.6% K% | 10.1% BB% | 1.11 WHIP
After tossing six shutout innings with nine strikeouts in his MLB debut, things have gone downhill for Minnesota Twins right-handed pitcher Mick Abel in 2025. The Phillies traded him to the Twins at the deadline, and two quick blowup starts pushed Abel back to the Triple-A rotation. He hasn’t had a bad Triple-A start since late July, and Abel has little to prove at that level. Abel just turned 24 years old and still has one of the level’s best-performing fastballs. He has a great feel for the pitch, and that was no different in his Sept. 12th start that saw him go four innings while allowing only one earned run and striking out six. Abel averaged 96.5 mph across 36 fastballs thrown, with a 1.4 HAVAA and above-average 6.7 feet of extension. The 14.4 iVB leaves something to be desired, but a .138 xwOBA on a workhorse pitch will certainly play.
Abel still has plenty of developmental runway, and the fastball provides a strong foundation. What needs to change? That is a question the Twins looked to answer when they acquired the 15th overall pick in the 2020 MLB Draft earlier this summer. For now, Abel closes out the season in St. Paul and looks to join a rather youthful Twins rotational picture in the near future.
Roki Sasaki, 23, Los Angeles Dodgers
Weekly Four-Seam Grade: 125 Fan4+ in Sept. 9, 2025, start
MiLB Season Stats: 5 GS | 18.2 IP | 6.75 ERA | 18.2% K% | 13.6% BB% | 1.71 WHIP
Los Angeles Dodgers fans, for all the team’s success, have had some very frustrating periods of starting pitching issues. One such problem came every five days when Roki Sasaki was still in the majors and looking like a rookie in many senses of the word. A shoulder injury sent him to the 60-day injured list earlier this season, and many fans moved on. It turns out that wasn’t the wrong approach, as Sasaki is still having plenty of issues down in Triple-A Oklahoma City, where he just made his fifth rehab start. Nothing has come easy for the Japanese righty in 2025, and a reported calf injury after his Sept. 9th start is just another issue to add to the pile. The results and surrounding metrics haven’t been great in Sasaki’s minor-league action, but his fastball looked much better in his latest start. The velocity was up and averaging 98.3 mph, the extension was farther out at 7.2 feet, and the location wasn’t too bad either. The Dodgers still have plenty of work to do with Sasaki this winter before entertaining a MLB return, but Sasaki needs to get healthy first and foremost.
Roki Sasaki (@Dodgers) turns up the heat in his latest @OKC_comets rehab start 👀
🔵 6 pitches at 100+ mph
🔵 16 whiffs (35 swings)
🔵 8 K’s (season high) in 4 2/3 IP pic.twitter.com/eds48qMOw8— Minor League Baseball (@MiLB) September 10, 2025
Gage Wood, 21, Philadelphia Phillies
Weekly Four-Seam Grade: 122 Fan4+ in Sept. 11, 2025, start
MiLB Season Stats: 1 GS | 2.0 IP | 4.50 ERA | 55.6% K% | 22.2% BB% | 1.50 WHIP
Phillies 2025 first-round pick Gage Wood didn’t make his professional debut until the season was nearly over, only making one start for the Clearwater Threshers in 2025. The Arkansas product already turned enough heads in collegiate action earlier on this year, so few would have been worried about him not pitching until 2026. Wood looked stupendous in his professional debut and got the ball in a Threshers’ postseason matchup. Unfortunately, the results were not good. Five hits, four earned runs, a walk, and no strikeouts in just one inning essentially buried Clearwater’s chances of winning and left a sour note for Wood’s year with a whole winter ahead to marinate on. No one should be overly worried about the results and rather look ahead to a full season of the former Razorbacks starter.
The four-seam fastball has been Woods’ bread and butter since I first started watching him, and the metrics on this day back that up. He was not only averaging 95.7 mph with the pitch, but saw elite marks of 6.8 feet of extension and a 1.5 HAVAA. Add in that he filled up the strike zone, and there should be no concern about Wood’s fastball. Managers should trust the Phillies to round out the rest of his arsenal and keep him as a starter for the long haul. Wood isn’t as close to The Show as Painter is, but a great 2026 could push him into the 2027 rotational picture before that season’s end.
