Jace Fry

Fry's ERA rose by only a small amount, from 4.38 in 2018 to 4.75 last season, but his underlying numbers tell a more worrisome story. His FIP rose from 2.67 to 4.90 as his strikeout rate fell from 32.7% to 27.1% and his walk rate nearly doubled from 9.4% to 17.1%. The 2018 version of Fry looked like someone who could be involved in the ninth-inning picture, but last year's version looked like someone who shouldn't have a guaranteed job in the big-leagues. The fact that he's left-handed and held fellow lefties to a .617 OPS last season should see him stick around for a while, but his odds of working his way into a fantasy-relevant role are low. In leagues deep enough where even lefty specialists are under consideration, Fry does at least provide a fair amount of strikeouts, but he has little to offer owners in most leagues.

Raise your hand if you saw this 33% strikeout rate coming before the start of the 2018 season? He struck out 27% of the hitters he faced in 2017, but that was in Double-A. Fry has a full bag of pitches, of which his breaking stuff is the best. Normally, someone with his repertoire would be left in the rotation as long as possible, but Fry is already a two-time Tommy John surgery survivor and is barely over the age of 25. He is staying in the bullpen and could be a sneaky source of saves late in the season if there are injuries or if Chicago deals some of its more established back-end arms. He has the skills, but the elbow only has so much left in it given the track record for pitchers with multiple Tommy John surgeries. Throw a dart in deep AL-only leagues and enjoy some strikeouts and ratios on the cheap.