Fantasy Baseball 2025: One sleeper from every MLB division primed to break out

AL West: Bryan Woo, SP, Seattle Mariners

There are not a lot of starting rotations in Major League Baseball that can say theyhave depth quite like the Seattle Mariners can. Bryan Woo is the number five starter for Seattle but would likely be the at least the No. 3 starter for a lot of other clubs, and for that reason, Woo has flown under the radar for a lot of baseball fans. At 24 years old, he had one of the better seasons in baseball on a rate basis.

Woo battled some nagging injuries early on in 2024, but still managed to log 22 starts and 121.1 innings. Among starters with at least 100 innings, Woo's 2.89 ERA ranked eighth, while his minuscule 2.8 BB% was the best in baseball.

For fantasy owners that like pitchers that don't issue walks, you'll be wooed by Woo (sorry). He spends a whole lot of time filling up the strike zone, and hasn't paid a price for it as opposing hitters have below-average contact quality numbers against him.

Given that he doesn't walk very many hitters and doesn't give up a lot of hard contact, the floor for Woo is pretty high. The catch is that his ceiling hasn't proven to be super high because he has yet to tap in to his strikeout stuff. His 21.4 K% was below the league average of 22.6%, but I believe he can boost that number with the stuff he has.

Woo displays five pitches — a 4-seam fastball, sinker, slider, changeup, and a sweeper. Of the five, his sweeper is his best pitch across the board, but is only thrown 9.1% of the time, the lowest usage% of his five offerings. He used it mostly for right handed hitters, but it was still a good weapon against lefties as well. Assuming he uses that pitch more in 2025, Woo will provide a lot more in the strikeout department.