When talking about spring training and dynasty baseball, it’s easy to focus on prospects. You’re excited to see how your young player may fare against an MLB pitcher or hitter, and you can talk yourself into a hot spring leading to an Opening Day roster spot. We all do it, it’s part of the fun.
But let’s not forget about the veterans either. For some veterans, a starting spot may be on the line. For others, it may just be important to showcase some health.
With spring training set to begin this week, let’s take a look at some veterans whose dynasty value could rise or fall depending on what we see.
Christian Yelich, OF, MIL
It’s easy to lump Christian Yelich into that “boring veteran” category but that could be a disservice. Last season, Yelich played in 73 games and triple-slashed .315/.406/.504 with 11 home runs and 21 steals. Stretched out across a full season and we’re looking at someone who is flirting with 25 home runs and 45 steals. Of course, we don’t know if Yelich would have kept up that level of production across a full season—the batting average, on-base percentage, slugging percentage, and ISO numbers were all the best they’ve been since 2019—but it’s realistic to think he could have finished with a season that was similar to that of Jarren Duran’s. Unfortunately, he suffered a back injury and was shut down in late July.
The bad news, as of now, is that it’s unclear that Yelich will be available for Opening Day, let alone spring training games. If he feels well enough to start getting some appearances in spring training games, even if it’s later on in the process, his value will climb significantly. Last season, in half a year’s work, he gave us a glimpse of the type of ceiling he can still reach, and, when available, Yelich has been one of the more consistent, high-floor outfielders that fantasy baseball has to offer. If his debut continues to be delayed, though, it’s also fair to want to stay far away from Yelich. Back injuries can be serious, and in some cases, they can crater a career.
Tyler Glasnow, SP, LAD
Every offseason the discussion remains the same — just how healthy is Tyler Glasnow? And if he’s healthy now, can you trust him to remain healthy for the full season? Spring training might give us some insight into both of those questions, though there is no way to answer the second one with much certainty.
If you want to be optimistic about Glasnow, here’s the case. He only missed one schedule start from May 27, 2023, through August 11, 2024. Glasnow took the rubber 43 times in that span, and when he did, he was one of the best fantasy pitchers on the planet, posting a 3.51 ERA with a 1.01 WHIP and 330 strikeouts in 254 innings. If anything, he was probably a bit unlucky in terms of run prevention. But all that is to say that Glasnow gets pegged as injury-prone, but here he was making 43 starts in a season-and-a-half stretch.
The flip side of that coin is that we all know how Glasnow’s season ended. He hit the IL in mid-August with an elbow injury and didn’t take the mound again. Reports from Rowan Kavner of FOX Sports are that Glasnow has been throwing as normal this offseason and received a clean bill of health in his most recent MRI. If that’s true, and he looks healthy this spring, his dynasty value should be higher than it is now given his upside, that he’s only 31, and that all pitchers carry a big injury risk. But if we receive any indication that his elbow soreness has returned, then, well, his dynasty value will fall considerably.
Matt McLain, 2B/SS, CIN
Perhaps calling someone with only 89 career MLB games a “veteran” is a bit of a stretch but for our purposes let’s just consider any non-prospect a veteran. If we rewind 12 months, McLain was a 24-year-old middle infielder coming off an 89-game rookie campaign in which he hit .290 with 16 home runs and 14 steals. That’s a borderline 30/30 pace, and as a result, McLain was considered a top-50 dynasty asset heading into the 2024 season.
Unfortunately, McLain’s season was over before it even began. McLain suffered a shoulder injury and underwent surgery to repair it in late May, effectively costing him the entire season. He was able to return to game action for the Arizona Fall League, which is a good indication that he is all systems go for 2025.
The big question heading into training camp will be if there will be any lingering effects from the 2024 injury. There’s a chance that it zaps some of his power, so that’ll be something to keep in mind as games get underway. As a whole, McLain’s stock did take a small hit. He’s now considered more of a back-end top 100 asset than a top 50 one, but a hot spring could see him vault back up rankings. McLain may also play some outfield in 2025, so that will be something to eye in the spring as well. Positional versatility can only make him more valuable.
Max Scherzer, SP, TOR/Justin Verlander, SP, SFG
It just feels right to group these two together, doesn’t it? They’ve been teammates multiple times throughout their careers and are two of the few active pitchers today who are surefire locks for Cooperstown. They are similar in age and both coming off of disappointing 2024 campaigns where they were limited by injuries. Both pitchers signed one-year deals with new clubs for around $15 million. So yeah, I think it’s fair to group these guys together.
It was undeniably a forgettable year for Scherzer as he only made nine starts and finished with his highest ERA (3.95) and strikeout rate (22.6%) since 2011. You can stomach that production, but it’s not what we’re used to receiving with Scherzer. There is always risk in rostering someone of Scherzer’s age, as he will be entering his age-40 season this year, but we don’t need to look that far back to see one of the game’s best pitchers. In 2023, Scherzer ranked ninth in the league with a 20.8% K-BB rate among pitchers with at least 150 innings thrown.
The season was probably more forgettable for Verlander. He made 17 starts but was consistently hit hard, finishing with a 5.48 ERA and his lowest strikeout rate (18.7%) since 2008. Like Scherzer, we aren’t all that far removed from seeing a good version of Verlander. He won the American League Cy Young in 2022, and despite showing decline in 2023, finished with a 3.22 ERA in 162.1 innings.
This spring, we need to monitor their four-seam velocities. Verlander saw his average fastball velocity dip to 93.5 mph last season, down considerably from his 94.3 mark in 2023 and his 95.0 number in 2022. Similarly, Scherzer’s fastball velocity has dipped from 94.0 in 2022, to 93.7 in 2023, and all the way down to 92.5 in 2024. If we see velocity that is closer to what we saw from these arms in 2022 or 2023, it’s easy to buy back in on a bounce-back campaign.
Of course, given their ages, these aren’t long-term dynasty assets. But a productive pitcher is a great win-now asset, and perhaps one or both of these players can help win-now dynasty teams contend, or increase trade value for rebuilding teams.
Liam Hendriks, RP, BOS/Aroldis Chapman, RP, BOS
The Boston Red Sox should be pretty good this season. The roster appears to be the healthiest it has been in a while, they made a big offseason trade in trading for one of the game’s best pitchers in Garrett Crochet, and they have some of the best prospects in baseball knocking on the door and looking to contribute as soon as this season. But one of the lingering questions, who is going to close games?
Right now it’s a two-horse race between two veterans who are both north of 35 years old. At one point in each of their careers, Hendriks and Chapman have been in the conversation for the best reliever in baseball. Those days are behind us, but it doesn’t mean that these two arms won’t contribute in 2025.
Hendriks missed all of 2024 after recovering from Tommy John surgery, which means he’s only thrown a total of five MLB innings since the start of the 2023 season. It will be important to check in and see how he’s faring in his appearances this spring. Is the velocity there? The command and control? It all matters when we are talking about a pitcher with such a small sample size of appearances in the last few seasons.
Chapman, on the other hand (literally!), has logged two consecutive full seasons of work, tossing 59.1 frames in 2023 and 61.2 frames in 2024. Across those two campaigns, he posted a 3.45 ERA and a 2.78 FIP, along with a 24.5% K-BB rate. Needless to say, he is still a very effective relief. Chapman did have a 14.6% walk rate during that span, so there is a chance that Boston won’t want to hand over the closer keys to someone who gives up so many free passes.
It feels most likely that the two will enter the season in a committee. Needless to say, if one of these two pitchers emerges this spring as the clear-cut favorite to close out games, their value should increase dramatically. A win-now piece is a valuable asset to all teams, not just contending ones.