Spencer Strider

Strider's 2025 was a harsh lesson in how recency bias can impact a fantasy team. Strider entered the season coming off an internal brace surgery, which is still a rather nascent operation for major league pitchers. Our outlook for Strider last year outlined the lack of sample size for such pitchers in their first year back from this specific surgery, noting no pitcher had even 60 innings that season. The good news for Strider is he more than doubled that stat by working 125.1 innings in 2025, but that is where the good news ends. Strider was hitting triple-digits in the spring in short stints, and fantasy managers acted accordingly, drafting him as high as 25th overall and making him the 33rd pitcher off the board in Rotowire Online Championship drafts. Yet, Strider's in-season velocity was down two miles an hour from where he was presurgery in 2023, and his numbers suffered accordingly. His strikeout rate dropped from 36.8 percent to 24.3 percent while the league hit .258 against him after hitting .210 against him prior to his surgery. Offseason reports have him working to improve his velocity after reworking his pitch mix, but the key to him rediscovering that form will be sustaining that velocity beyond North Port, Florida in 2026. Read Past Outlooks