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The Stash List Week 4: Top 10 Pitching Prospects to Stash in 2026

top 10 pitching prospects to stash in redraft league

John Villavicencio
SP To Stash 4/18/2026

The Pitcher Edition of the Stash List highlights the 10 best pitching prospects likely to make an impact during the 2026 season.

Prospects are often thought of as only holding value in dynasty formats. However, knowing which prospects hold value for the current season can help set you apart in redraft leagues. Several have a 2026 ETA, and getting ahead of the curve on rostering these prospects is a key part of roster management. Last year, we saw more pitching prospects make their debut than ever before, and there is no reason we should expect to see anything change in 2026. Keep reading to find out the top ten pitchers you should stash in your redraft leagues.

 

Ground Rules

  • The Stash List is for your redraft leagues and does not consider impact beyond 2026.
  • Only current minor league players who are expected to make an impact this season are included.
  • Upside, proximity, health, and opportunity are all weighed for each player.
  • The focus is on 12-team leagues with standard categories.
  • Rankings and roster percentages will be updated weekly.
  • Stats will be updated weekly for all players through Thursday’s games.

 

Top 15 Starting Pitchers with Lowest Batting Average Against through April 15, 2026 (Statcast tracked leagues only)

 

The Stash List

Graduates/Call-Ups

The following prospects joined the big league clubs over the last week:

Noah Schultz (CHW) is the headliner for the graduates this week. After having a dynamite three starts to the 2026 season, Schultz made his Major League debut on April 14 against Tampa Bay. The first inning was one to forget. Walk, walk, double, and then a throwaway error led to three runs. Schultz held his high velocity on the fastball, which generated seven whiffs. Looks like he gets to stay up for another start at the Athletics.

Parker Messick (CLE) graduated last season, but shout out to him for the near no-hitter. The changeup was the star pitch with nine whiffs and five strikeouts. He has allowed only three runs and induced a lot of weak contact across 25 innings. Messick will be a quality start fiend…

Jack Perkins (ATH) has returned to the bullpen to serve in long relief. He earned the win in his first appearance using the slider as his primary pitch. The velocity is not reaching the highs of 2025, but he is still showing good swing-and-miss stuff.

George Klassen (LAA) didn’t go more than three innings again in his second Major League start. He exited with a fingernail injury after coughing up a home run, five earned runs, and five walks to go along with two strikeouts on eight whiffs. Klassen was sent back down to Triple-A Salt Lake, where he will hone his secondaries and work to find the strike zone on a more consistent basis.

Mitch Farris (LAA) is serving as long relief for now, but was developed as a starter.

Keider Montero (DET) is dialed in and gave Detroit a quality start with a solid strikeout-to-walk ratio. Montero appears ready to take on more starts until Verlander is ready to go.

Cade Povich (BAL) took down the inept lineup of the Giants, who never fare well against lefties. Povich went 6.2 innings with zero walks and five strikeouts. He was optioned on Monday, but definitely earned another start in the future.

Note: There have been multiple innings during various Minor League games where Statcast data has not been gathered. In some instances, this greatly affects the overall marks for some pitchers because of the small number of pitches at the start of the season.

 

Top 10 Pitching Prospects to Stash

 

1. Didier Fuentes, RHP, Atlanta Braves

2026 MiLB Stat line: 16.2 IP | 2.16 ERA | 31.7 K% | 9.5 BB%

2026 MLB Stat line: 4 IP | 2.25 ERA | 36.7 K% | 6.7 BB%

It wasn’t the cleanest outing for Didier Fuentes, but there’s plenty to build on. Early on, the slider command wasn’t there. Cesar Prieto took him deep in the second at-bat of the game, Jimmy Crooks was hit in the back foot, and Blaze Jordan ripped a run-scoring double off the wall—all against the slider. Only the aggressive Joshua Baez swung through it for a strikeout in the first. Still, the pitch wasn’t entirely ineffective, posting a 64% strike rate despite just a 44% zone rate. The rough 27-pitch inning even forced activity in the bullpen.

Then Fuentes flipped the script. After allowing his fourth run, he retired 11 straight hitters and gave up just three hits the rest of the way. He completed seven innings on only 83 pitches, an impressive recovery. The slider rebounded, generating three strikeouts and seven whiffs, and he finished with five strikeouts and one walk overall.

The primary concern was the volume of hard contact: seven hard-hit balls, including multiple warning-track drives and a home run. That said, his broader Minor League track record remains strong—just two barrels allowed, a .143 average against, and a tendency to induce infield popups. His fly-ball rate is up compared to last year, something to monitor, along with a developing split against left-handed hitters.

Fuentes has adjusted accordingly in 2026, shelving the curveball in favor of a tighter slider over the previous sweeper. The change helps unify his release points across a three-pitch mix and may simplify his mechanics. Interestingly, his splitter produces no chases and no whiffs, but also very little contact—it’s functioning more as a bridge pitch when he’s even or ahead in counts. Despite some volatility, Fuentes remains a must-stash arm and one of the top pitchers in the upper minors.

 

2. Robby Snelling, LHP, Miami Marlins

2026 AAA Stat line: 13 IP | 2.77 ERA | 40.7 K% | 14.8 BB%

2025 MiLB Stat line: 136 IP | 2.51 ERA | 30.3 K% | 7.1 BB%

 

Last Friday, the stadium loudspeaker was bumping “Return of the Whiff” for Robby Snelling as he carved up the opposition for twelve strikeouts on 15 whiffs. Surprisingly, it was his unheralded changeup that was the star pitch in the game. He threw it a bit more than usual to righties only, generating six whiffs and weak contact. The change is thrown from a similar release point as the curveball, but comes in at a higher velocity band and dives 14 inches to his arm side. The pitch could be part of the secret sauce that has helped him neutralize hitters from that side of the plate over the last two years (.200 SLG vs RHB).

It wasn’t all sunshine and rainbows for him against Norfolk.  Snelling had a 1-2-3 punchout inning to start the game, but then followed that up with two near disasters as the control. He threw 30 pitches in the second and 22 in the third inning. He locked it in just in time and received timely defensive help with multiple baserunners on in both innings. Snelling was savvy enough in this game to adjust pitch locations, mixing high and low pitches well during each at-bat. His 2026 strike rate is 6 percentage points lower than in 2025, so he is still building toward peak form.

Robbie Snelling hasn’t shown the same velocity or movement early in 2026 as he did in 2025, but the results underneath remain steady. He continues to limit hard contact and generate ground balls, much like last season. Some inflated metrics—HR/FB%, barrel rate, and SLG vs. lefties—can reasonably be attributed to the small sample of just three starts, especially since his FIP and xFIP align with expectations. This is a profile worth revisiting in a few weeks once the sample stabilizes.

Snelling still projects as a durable workhorse with strong stuff, excellent batted-ball data, and the ability to miss bats at a high rate. Miami has depth here, with both Snelling and Braxton Garrett (on the 40-man roster) performing well at Triple-A Jacksonville. Garrett (29K%, 9BB%, 0.59 ERA, 0.59 WHIP) is likely first in line for a call-up, but Snelling could follow quickly—similar to how Noah Schultz emerged for a contender. His next test comes as the Friday starter against Charlotte, where it’ll be worth watching if the whiffs tick back up.

 

3. Payton Tolle, LHP, Boston Red Sox

2026 AAA Stat line: 15 IP | 3.00 ERA | 31.1 K% | 6.6 BB%

2025 MLB Stat line: 16.1 IP | 6.06 ERA | 25.7 K% | 10.8 BB%

 

Payton Tolle did it all for Worcester over the last weekend. He was breaking bats, fielding his position, and going deep for six strong innings. Tolle is a 6’6″ lefty who has a 1980’s mustache to be jealous of. Observers may be biased to think he doesn’t have much athleticism, but he impressed on a ball softly hit between the mound and the second baseman. He tracked the ball down, scooped it up, and shoveled it over to the first baseman for the out with a big smile on his face. Then in the second inning, he broke a bat on a fouled-off strike, demonstrating his best impersonation of the Matrix lean. Tolle proceeded to blow a 97 mph four-seamer by Stuart Fairchild for one of his six strikeouts on the day.

To me, Tolle is clearly biding his time before a rotation spot opens up. There is no need to waste pitches in Triple-A, as he is good enough to start at the highest level. With absolutely nothing left to prove, his motivation remains to refine the pitch mix. Even then, he was one of a handful of Major League starters who had an above-average Stuff+ rating on four or more pitches. Currently, he has a greater than a 30% strike out rate on four pitches. With this dominant set of tools, the only weakness that puts him lower on the depth chart is that he is the youngest member of the rotation. Connelly Early will have to demonstrate more consistency within each start, or we could see a rotation swap in the near future.

Payton Tolle did see an uptick in home runs allowed during his short stint with Boston last September. In 2026, he has allowed one home run each on the four-seamer and cutter against 61 batters faced. The velocity on the cutter is up so far, something that gave him confidence to make his most used pitch in this game. Even better, Tolle is able to mimic the slider, which comes into home plate a little slower and with less vertical movement. His fly ball rate may be a touch higher than you would want, but that includes an abnormally high 33% infield popup rate. Either way you slice it, Tolle has been a strong force who can pile up the strikeouts while minimizing baserunners through weak contact and a solid 66% strike rate.

 

4. Logan Henderson, RHP, Milwaukee Brewers

2026 AAA Stat line: 9.1 IP | 0.96 ERA | 37.8 K% | 16.2 BB%

2026 MLB Stat line: 2.0 IP | 3.60 ERA | 33.3 K% | 11.1 BB%

A quick detour led to an unexpected rabbit hole—searching Logan Henderson’s name brings up the actor-singer from Big Time Rush, whose group even toured globally, including a July 11, 2025, stop in Nashville. Unfortunately for the Brewers’ namesake pitching prospect, there’s no nationwide tour in his immediate future—Milwaukee’s rotation is simply too healthy right now.

Henderson’s recent outing against Worcester (WooSox) was a mixed bag. His 93 mph four-seam fastball maintained its usual shape and velocity but produced just two whiffs and zero strikeouts. The changeup carried the load, accounting for four strikeouts while averaging 20 inches of horizontal break. He lasted only three innings, largely due to a 33-pitch first inning that included two walks and a run-scoring single. He appears to be on a strict pitch count after logging 103 innings in 2025, with Milwaukee likely preserving him for later in the season.

Home runs were an issue during his brief MLB stint in 2025, when his fly-ball rate spiked to 54%, a sharp contrast to the sub-35% mark he maintained in Triple-A that year. For now, in early 2026, the results are cleaner—no barrels allowed, no home runs, and just one extra-base hit. Still, limited innings and short outings mean we haven’t seen him face lineups multiple times, so the current performance comes with some built-in bias.

 

5. Tanner McDougal, RHP, Chicago White Sox

2026 AAA Stat line: 15 IP | 2.40 ERA | 31.7 K% | 15.0 BB%

2025 MiLB Stat line: 113.2 IP | 3.43 ERA | 26.6 K% | 15.9 BB%

 

Yes, Tanner! This past game showed the better version of Tanner McDougal. Efficient and in command. McDougal posted a 65% strike rate over six innings, only losing touch on his four-seamer for a home run to Bligh Madris in the fifth inning. He was able to limit the damage to that inning and finished his outing with three consecutive strikeouts in the sixth inning. Each of those three strikeouts came on a non-fastball, a significant development given everyone’s understanding that his heater is his best pitch. If he can continue to fluctuate the use and timing of his four-seamer, hitters will be flummoxed like the Redbirds were in this game for 17 whiffs.

This game is a peak performance with multiple whiffs on four pitches leading to those eight strikeouts. He also reduced his reliance on the fastball each time through the order. Set them up with the heat and knock them down with the breaking stuff. The four-seamer is the star pitch, especially given that he is holding the velocity through each inning. He didn’t break 100 mph in this game, but he uses the pitch often to get that first strike. The curveball is usually his most-used secondary pitch, but he broke it off the slider more frequently against Memphis. That pitch had a significant drop, generating four whiffs in the game and a 64% whiff rate on the year.

During his first Triple-A stint, McDougal has reduced the amount of contact hitters are getting against his five-pitch arsenal. Assuming he can maintain the strong pitching he showed in this latest game, he can deflate the bloated walk rate and limit the number of baserunners. With nobody on, this will help reduce the damage that may come from time to time off his fastball. The fly ball rate is also a bit higher than he has had in the past, so we will track to see if that is a new range or just an early-season anomaly. With the White Sox rotation in flux, there is absolutely no reason that McDougal shouldn’t see significant time with the Major League club this summer.

Check out how well he did on Friday night at Jacksonville against number two stash list pitcher, Robby Snelling.

 

6. JR Ritchie, RHP, Atlanta Braves

2026 MiLB Stat line: 21.1 IP | 1.27 ERA | 23.8 K% | 11.9 BB%

2025 MiLB Stat line: 140 IP | 2.64 ERA | 24.8 K% | 9.6 BB%

 

The 22-year-old righty is still in Triple-A despite having double the innings that a typical Braves prospect pitcher gets before their Major League debut. This Minor League assignment continues likely due to JR Ritchie’s broad skills and average results. Nothing is standing out about his performance thus far, making it harder to decipher if his toolset will succeed at the next level. Ritchie has a lot of weapons at his disposal, and he needs them. Take his outing against Nashville, for example.

In his second straight outing against Nashville, Ritchie was efficient and strategic, accruing multiple whiffs on five pitches in the game. On the flip side, he had multiple hard-hit balls on three of those pitches and an overall 94 mph average exit velocity. His batted ball and strikeout numbers are in line with 2025, with a 10% swinging strike rate and 50% groundball rate holding steady. He absolutely needs all of his pitches to succeed since he could lose the feel for any one of them during a game. If you look at his early results through a pessimistic lens, one could say that nothing leaps out. In addition, he is already matching his pitch counts from the end of the season, signalling that he is capable of going deep in any game. Likely due to that deep arsenal.

Examining the batted ball data highlights raises an alarm about how well hitters see his stuff. That 89% zone contact rate signals that he is not blowing anything by a hitter, so much so that they can barrel up his pitches 10% of batted ball events against him. This zone contact rate is akin to José Soriano, Ranger Saurez, Brandon Woodruff, Parker Messick, and Edward Cabrera. He doesn’t induce as many ground balls as Soriano, but it is high enough to. Furthermore, outside of his poor first game, where he gave up his only home run, he has tightened up, allowing only one earned run on seven base hits through three games in April. Ritchie is building a profile of a counting stat accumulator who can go deep in any game, but will not always succeed with swing and miss stuff. This is a valuable pitcher, but not overly exciting.

 

7. Kade Anderson, LHP, Seattle Mariners

2026 AAA Stat line: 9.0 IP | 0.00 ERA | 48.6 K% | 8.6 BB%

2025 NCAA Stat line: 119.0 IP | 3.43 ERA | 37.4 K% | 7.3 BB%

 

The listeners have been calling in all day to the Stash List request line, and they are demanding one thing. They want more lefties! As the minority group amongst pitchers, left-handed starters who can stick are a premium commodity in the Major Leagues. Kade Anderson brings his God-given talent as a southpaw, along with a deep pitch mix and strategic attack mode, to the stash list this week as one of the best pitching prospects in the game this season. Think 2025 Jonah Tong.

Anderson, the No. 3 overall pick in the 2025 draft, is already pushing for a spot in the big league rotation. With instability at the back end of Seattle’s staff—underperformance from the No. 5 starter and a surprise from the No. 4—the organization will need reinforcements at some point this summer. Anderson, along with Ryan Sloan, stands out as one of the most likely internal options to get that opportunity.

Early in 2026, Anderson impressed with his ability to mix speeds, even without premium velocity. In just his second professional start, he generated 14 whiffs using a four-pitch mix, highlighted by a big, loopy curveball that’s quickly become a go-to weapon. He sets it up with a 93 mph fastball (topping at 94 mph) and a subtle, low-break slider. All of it plays well out of a high three-quarters arm slot. His delivery is low-effort and repeatable, which helps him consistently throw strikes and stay efficient. By estimation (without Statcast), his strikeouts broke down to five on the fastball, two on the slider, two on the curveball, and one on the changeup—a strong indicator of how well-rounded his arsenal already is.

There are still some longer-term questions. During his final season at LSU, Anderson gave up 16 home runs across 19 starts, finishing with a 3.42 FIP compared to a 3.18 ERA. It’s far too early to draw firm conclusions from his pro batted-ball profile, but the initial returns are encouraging. He has yet to allow an extra-base hit, and notably, all five hits he’s surrendered came in his debut. His ground-ball rate is currently double his fly-ball rate, and opponents are making contact just 60% of the time.

The early signs point to a polished, adaptable arm with a deep arsenal and strong command traits. The next checkpoint comes Friday night against the Tulsa Drillers, where we’ll get another look at how quickly he’s progressing.

 

8. River Ryan, RHP, Los Angeles Dodgers

2026 MiLB Stat line: 7 IP | 5.14 ERA | 30.3 K% | 6.1 BB%

2026 Spring Training Stat line: 9.2 IP | 1.86 ERA | 33.3 K% | 11.1 BB%

 

It was a mediocre performance for the Dodgers high-profile prospect pitcher, River Ryan. He struggled through the first inning, throwing over thirty pitches after a hit by pitch and three straight doubles brought two runs across home plate. With a six-pitch arsenal, we would expect more whiffs, but the Round Rock hitters actually got each double off of a different pitch type. The velocity of his fastball is up to 98 mph, with an average induced vertical break. However, he has average swing and miss rates across all of his pitches. Given the high-stress start, Ryan only lasted three innings, especially given the poor 52% strike rate. This is a player who had a major surgery in the not-so-distant past, so a gradual buildup is expected with fluctuating results.

The record isn’t long for Ryan, but the high groundball rate is tracking with his 2024 performance. He has given up a high number of line drives, but zero barrels so far. He does not have many whiffs in 2026, so the higher average makes sense as hitters are making frequent contact. Ryan is operating with a deep six-pitch register of pitches, so you would expect him to fool hitters more often than he does with a 29% whiff rate. There is also a growing disparity between how he does against righties and lefties. Although, we do need a bit more information to come to a better understanding of how hitters are doing against Ryan, since he has yet to go through a batting order more than two times.

The opinion still holds that Ryan will see Major League action again as a starter this season. However, there is a looming innings limit given his injury history. Therefore, his values slowly deflates every week that he is not called up.

 

9. Brody Hopkins, RHP, Tampa Bay Rays

2026 AAA Stat line: 18.1 IP | 2.45 ERA | 26.3 K% | 21.3 BB%

2025 MiLB Stat line: 116 IP | 2.72 ERA | 28.7 K% | 12.2 BB%

 

Ouch! Brody Hopkins was hit hard by the Rail Riders last Friday. Scranton Wilkes-Barre smacked ten hard-hit balls in play and worked Hopkins for five free passes. After surrendering a two-run double in the first, he wiggled out of harm’s way with multiple baserunners on three separate occasions. The main root of his demise has been the 54% strike rate, which is in line with his season rate, a mark that falls far below his 62% strike rate in 2025.

Unable to locate his top three pitches to land in the zone, he leaned on the four-seamer a bit more than usual. The heater tickles 98 mph occasionally, with 17 inches of ride and 7 inches of run. Its movement and velocity are just below similar top burners Carlos Lagrange ( 97.4 mph, 17″ IVB), Luis Perales (97.8 mph, 18.7″), Tanner McDougal (98.1 mph, and Seth Johnson (98 mph, 17.5″). It’s his most successful putaway pitch during his first stint in Triple-A. Hitters haven’t been able to do much damage on the pitch, especially when compared to the 92 mph cutter, which has no strikeouts on the year and one home run allowed. Hopkins has the arsenal to be successful at the next level, but he is being held back by a lack of consistent control. Unfortunately, the miss rate has been similar from game to game to start 2026.

 

Hopkins did give up a ton of hard contact in this game, but the majority of those balls were on the ground. His barrel rate is acceptable, and the contact rate is benign. However, there is a growing divide between how well lefties see him versus right-handed hitters, something that also appeared in 2025. Making progress on the changeup would be a beneficial development to help him attack lefties. Overall, any ratcheting down of his command will tease out more swings and reduce contact. His Triple-A swing rate is down five percentage points, signaling that the current level of competition he is facing is patient and discerning.

The major downside to Hopkins is that he is a part of a Tampa Bay organization that has been timid to promote prospects until much later in their development cycle. Ian Seymour and Joe Boyle were left in Triple-A for a while, even after they had demonstrated Major League abilities. Hopkins is 24 years old and only has 13+ innings of Triple-A experience. He is far behind the Durham veteran, Joe Rock, but it would be safe to say that Hopkins has the higher dynasty ceiling. Given the team’s predilection to let their prospects bake in the Minor League oven, predicting his promotion is not straightforward. However, Shane McClanahan may not have the stamina to go over 100 innings, while their fourth and fifth starters are not lockdown rotation mates. Hopkins main focus will be to reduce the walks.

Unfortunately, he was unable to harness his stuff, and it was sprayed all over the place against Norfolk on Thursday. He allowed five walks across 4.1 innings with a 51% strike rate and an abysmal 11% zone rate. The weather conditions were fine at 88 degrees and clear, so no external excuses can be made for this tremendous lack of control. He is a much better pitcher than this, but the game log is filling up with starts of three or more walks.

 

10.  Carlos Lagrange, RHP, New York Yankees

2026 AAA Stat line: 10.2 IP | 3.37 ERA | 27.7 K% | 19.1 BB%

2025 MiLB Stat line: 120.0 IP | 3.53 ERA | 33.4 K% | 12.3 BB%

 

Carlos Lagrange’s outing against Durham felt like one step forward, two steps back. He recorded his first strikeout with the four-seam fastball—surprising it took this long, given the pitch’s quality. That fastball touched 100+ mph 26 times on Saturday, and with his shorter stride, Lagrange’s delivery looks more repeatable than most relievers. He landed the pitch for strikes 63% of the time and generated six whiffs, both encouraging signs.

The issue remains consistency in the zone. Lagrange walked a batter in each inning—an improvement over clustering them, but still putting traffic on base throughout the outing. With his secondaries unreliable, he leaned heavily on the fastball in key spots. That approach backfired in the fourth, when Logan Davidson turned around a 98 mph heater for a home run, prompting Lagrange’s exit. The broader concern persists: no meaningful platoon split last season and none so far this year. The line—eight strikeouts and four walks—captures the all-or-nothing nature of his profile right now. The fastball is a legitimate foundation, but rediscovering dependable secondaries is the next step toward consistency.

As mentioned in previous weeks, he is giving up a lot of hard contact on the fastball. That said, he still hasn’t allowed too many hits when the ball is in play. Most of his damage is self-inflicted by the walks and then timely hitting. His Thursday start was rained out, so check the schedule to see when he gets on the mound again.

 

On The Bubble

Here are the next several pitchers that were in consideration for inclusion on this week’s list: Dax Fulton MIA (10 strikeout game raises profile of another Marlins lefty prospect on the 40-man roster who is likely ahead of Snelling) along with veteran Braxton Garrett), Robert Gasser MIL, Gage Jump ATH, Quinn Mathews STL, Chase Petty CIN (Flip-flopping the good and bad starts per usual), Elmer Rodríguez NYY (Strikeouts haven’t carried over to AAA, but he is preventing runs with a 1.25 ERA), Jonah Tong NYM (Uh-oh! High strikeouts, high walks, high ERA), Miguel Ullola HOU (Making a start Friday night after suffering a sprained ankle in his previous start), Jack Wenninger NYM, Thomas White MIA (Returned to AAA on Thursday with eight strikeouts after injury. Assuming he recovers well from the start, White should return to the stash list next week), and Jaxon Wiggins CHC. Calling all San Diego Padres prospects!!! Please, someone, anyone, step up as the Major League rotation is washed and in desperate need of support.

 

Pitcher Stash List

 

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Photo by Brian Spurlock/Icon Sportswire | Featured Image by Justin Redler (@reldernitsuj on Bsky/Twitter)

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