Gavin Stone

Stone fell on his face against big-league hitters, and the big-league numbers (6.64 FIP, 1.90 WHIP) and Pacific Coast League numbers (4.52 FIP, 1.31 WHIP) are pretty ugly for a pitcher with an ADP inside the top 450 for 2024. However, he showed signs of looking like the 2022 version and 2023 spring training version of himself down the stretch. He had a 1.73 ERA, 0.85 WHIP and 35 strikeouts in his final 26 innings at Triple-A and had a 3.52 ERA, 1.04 WHIP and 10 strikeouts in 7.2 innings over his final two big-league appearances. It's a tiny sample and the competition at Triple-A was pretty watered down when he was having that late-season success. However, Stone, whose changeup is his best pitch and who has shown he can handle a starter's workload, isn't the type of arm teams move to the bullpen until they've exhausted all efforts to develop him as a starter. His team context is obviously elite and he was very well thought of a year ago, so Stone checks a lot of boxes as a post-hype sleeper. Injuries and transactions will still play a role in determining the Dodgers' starting rotation, but Stone is firmly in the mix for one of the final spots as of the Winter Meetings. Read Past Outlooks