Why Cole Ragans Could Be a Fantasy Baseball Game-Changer

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00:00 This next picture is a perfect example of that. A guy like Cole Reagans from Kansas City. Now,

00:05 for me, from a wagering perspective, every time he goes, it's first threes and first fives. I want

00:10 to get in and get out until I know exactly what Kansas City is going to be. There's a lot of

00:14 potential there. A lot of potential. Bullpen situation, I think, still needs to be mired out.

00:19 It should be Will Smith's job, but as of now, it'll be listed as committee. But Reagans in

00:24 isolation has a lot of different ways that you can definitely make some money on him, Joe.

00:29 He does. And I think in season-long fantasy, he's a very interesting piece. As you said,

00:33 okay, how deep into games is he going to go? A lot of it has to do with efficiency

00:37 as well. And this could end up being one of the great follies of the Rangers organization. It's

00:42 very rare you see a pitcher get traded in season and blow up the way Cole Reagans did. And then

00:48 that team go on to, obviously, the Texas Rangers still win a World Series despite that. So are

00:53 they going to look back in a couple of years and go, well, we won the World Series, but we gave up

00:57 a potential ace to do it? I don't know. We're going to find out here what 2024 brings for Cole

01:03 Reagans. But the one thing 2023 certainly brought was a huge turnaround. When he became a starting

01:07 pitcher and went back to doing that for Kansas City, he was electric. You look at the 96 innings

01:12 that he pitched in total between the bullpen in Texas and between the rotation in Kansas City,

01:16 a 3-5-6 ERA, 113 strikeouts in 96 innings. He was electric, a 1.17 whip. Now projections have

01:24 him landing a little bit closer to almost a 4 ERA, which I understand, but it's that 35%

01:29 whiff rate that is really stunning. We're talking about a guy, a lefty with electric fastball,

01:36 electric stuff who certainly everybody's very excited about. Now, certain people in the

01:42 community are going to be even more excited in the fantasy baseball community, and they're going to

01:46 push his ADP continuously. But right now, it's still at a place where I think it's very comfortable

01:51 to jump in. And I think there's a scenario you could paint here where the Kansas City Royals are

01:55 a little bit more interesting than people realize. If some of these offseason investments work out,

01:59 and if some of these players that they have, like Pasquantino returning, if Michael Garcia

02:02 takes a step forward, like all of a sudden the Royals are a really intriguing team. But Reagans

02:07 at the top of this rotation is somebody I think you have to pay a lot of attention to. He was

02:13 just dominant last year at some point. Can he maintain that? We'll see. It's kind of a weird

02:18 thing, though, when you look at a pitcher that had some struggles in the minor leagues,

02:22 always had a lot of upside, then all of a sudden gets traded, and all of a sudden the light

02:26 switches. Maybe it's a little bit of some of the work he did in the offseason last year,

02:30 and then didn't get the right opportunities with the Rangers, and then said, hey, I'm going to show

02:33 you. And when he got that starting gig again, showed everybody how good he could be. Or maybe

02:38 it was the Royals staff there, the pitching coach and the team there getting the most out of him

02:45 as a young pitcher. Let's see it carry over in 2024. There's more risk here with Reagans

02:49 than Musgrove. I would take Musgrove every single time over Reagans because I think it's just safer,

02:54 and that's the kind of investment I want to make for season-long fantasy. But you're right, Matt,

02:58 this is a player to watch in 2024.