Fantasy Baseball Week 25 Preview: Top 10 sleeper pitchers include MacKenzie Gore, David Festa (2024)

At some point during this three-start stretch in which he's put together a 2.00 ERA while issuing just two walks, MacKenzie Gore alluded to not always feeling great during the long season, crediting the medical staff for his turnaround. It may be the most concrete explanation we get for why his delivery was so out of whack midseason, but in any case, he's fine now and has two good matchups ahead.

Though he's technically too rostered for this list, Spencer Arrighetti's start percentage remains low following his disastrous outing in Cincinnati. It was such a departure from his previous work -- a 3.12 ERA, 1.06 WHIP, and 11.7 K/9 in 11 starts, remember -- that I'm inclined to dismiss it and run him out there against the league's sixth-worst offense, the Athletics. There's an outside shot he makes a second start against the Angels, but it sounds like the Astros will be going with a six-man rotation this week, adding Ronel Blanco back to the mix.

David Festa is coming off back-to-back strong starts, breaking the on-again, off-again pattern that's defined his rookie season, and has the sort of matchup (Angels) that should keep it going to begin Week 25. He'll then close out the week against the Reds, a lineup that should play right into his bat-missing tendencies.

We've been down this same road with Matthew Boyd enough times to know that the bad outweighs the good over the long haul. But we're playing for the week-to-week rather than the long haul right now, and you can trust him to keep the ball in the yard with the White Sox on the schedule this week.

The Rangers have yet to confirm what day Jacob deGrom will make his season debut after a lengthy recovery from Tommy John surgery, but his regular turn would line him up against the most strikeout-prone team in baseball. He likely won't go beyond the minimum five innings required for a win, but he could strike out nine during that time.

While a five-inning start may be an exception for Jacob deGrom, it's kind of the norm for Andrew Heaney, who has only exceeded five in one of his past six starts. He had eight strikeouts in four of those six, though, and could do something similar against a lineup like the Mariners.

Osvaldo Bido is expected to rejoin the rotation following his two-inning relief appearance Saturday, but we don't know the exact day. Presumably, it'll come in the team's second series against the White Sox, the worst offense in baseball. Bido's fly-ball tendencies should continue to yield a low batting average.

Paul Blackburn is newly back from an IL stint for a bruised hand, which is of course a little unnerving, but he lines up for two starts right away, with the first being a fairly decent matchup and is usually good for a quality start when he's going well.

Total boom-or-bust pick, this one. Taj Bradley looked like an ace for the better part of this season but has an 8.92 ERA in his past seven starts. He seems to have lost the feel for his splitter and finally addressed it in his last start, leaning more on his cutter instead, with the result being a 10-strikeout effort. So maybe he's OK now, but given the difficulty of the matchups this week, he's a gamble better left for points leagues.

We had hoped Gavin Williams got his season back on track with a one-hit outing at the Royals two turns ago, but his follow-up against the Dodgers over the weekend was disappointing, to say the least. He remains a boom-or-bust play, clearly, but he does have plush matchup against the Rays this week.