Finding this year's Drew Rasmussen

In our quest to find mid-round breakouts that return top-tier value (we looked for This Year's George Springer last week), let's turn our attention to the mound. 

Drew Rasmussen (pictured) is our archetype for the pitching version of this exercise. Rasmussen dropped a 2.76 ERA, 1.02 WHIP, and 10 wins over 150 innings in 2025, which was an unexpected boon after he threw just 29 innings the year prior (Tommy John surgery).

Here are a few traits from Rasmussen's breakout that we could've seen coming, and most importantly, which candidates bubble to the surface when we apply those traits to this year's player pool:

  • Cast volume concerns aside — Rasmussen more than doubled his innings pitched in 2025 (150) compared to 2023-24 combined (74)....

Almost!

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