Delightful DeLauter Debut Destroys DeCompetition

Decorated rookies can present draft day challenges for fantasy managers. When a new player bursts onto the scene with a limited track record, it can be hard to know exactly how to value the newer player relative to an established field. 

Determining which sophomores are worth drafting with their more established counterparts is fun, it’s the strategic itch we want to scratch. We all fall somewhere along the risk tolerance spectrum, which means ADP for these potential sophomore studs often fluctuates dramatically.

Debuts from Jackson Chourio and Jackson Merrill in 2024 put them up at the top of draft boards the following season. Nick Kurtz and Junior Caminero lifted themselves into the top two rounds this year after electric 2025 rookie years. 

Developing star Sal Stewart could find his way near the top of boards in 2027, coming off a rookie season with 32 homers and 112 RBI in hitter-friendly Great American Ballpark. 

Deferring the obvious top round talents, though, and moving into the middle rounds brings up one of the hitters I am most excited to draft in 2027. Chase DeLauter. 

Delicate, his debut was not. DeLauter made waves after being thrown into the deep end during the 2025 playoffs with the Guardians, making his MLB debut in the postseason. Yet he still wasn’t a trendy target in drafts heading into 2026. Through January 31, DeLauter was the 78th outfielder off the board at the NFBC, with an ADP well after pick 300. 

Demonstrating his prodigious power in Spring Training, DeLauter started becoming a more exciting breakout pick, with his ADP moving up nearly 60 picks and his minimum pick moving up from 232 through January 31 to 142 thereafter. This rise came as drafters watched him slash .459/.535/.838 across 43 plate appearances with three home runs at Spring Training. 

Demanding respect, DeLauter made good on his higher draft cost, finishing as the 33rd outfielder and as a top 100 hitter this season, according to the FanGraphs Player Rater. 

Despite missing time with injury, DeLauter reached 559 plate appearances, thanks to a premium top-three lineup spot, hitting .287 with 16 homers, 62 runs, 67 RBI, and 11 steals. Projecting his rookie season out across 162 games, DeLauter would have approached 700 plate appearances, 20 home runs, and more than 75 runs and RBI each. 

Depositing balls in the seats was not DeLauter’s most valuable contribution, though few would have guessed it after he homered four times in his first three games. 

Defining “wallscrapers”? Using this video provides a textbook explanation. But DeLauter would find more of a power stroke later in the season, hitting four homers in July, two in August, and three more in September, capping off a resurgent summer after a fractured rib cost him a few weeks in June. 

Dependable batting average and OBP were DeLauter’s standout categories, which is especially valuable in points leagues, thanks to his 10.7% walk rate and 14.7% strikeout rate. 

Designing a points league player in a lab would probably yield a DeLauter-like result. He finished 20th amongst outfielders in CBS points per game as a rookie at 3.0 PPG, right around Corbin Carroll, Cody Bellinger, and Jordan Walker. And his beet red Savant page backs it up. His chase and whiff rates are better than 90% of MLB hitters, while still putting up hard hit rates and average exit velocities above the 80th percentile. 

Debates around DeLauter shouldn’t involve his 2026 performance. 

Debilitating injuries, on the other hand, are the likeliest worry that will keep drafters from elevating him into the top 100 in ADP, at least early in the offseason. In the handful of September and October drafts at the NFBC, DeLauter’s ADP is hovering around pick 130. That would put him around Andy Pages’ and Jo Adell’s 2026 ADPs. That feels low to me. 

Derailed by injuries in each of his first three pro seasons, DeLauter carries real durability risk. He spent 84 days on the IL in 2023 recovering from a left foot fracture he suffered in college. He missed more than 20 days three different times in 2024, fracturing the same left foot, pulling his right hamstring, and experiencing turf toe. A sports hernia and right hamate bone fracture cost him more than 100 combined games in 2025, on top of missing Spring Training. 

Deteriorating home run rates after his power binge in the first week of the season make analysis a little less clean, but DeLauter did actually look like more of a complete power hitter in the latter half of the season. After returning from his IL stint, DeLauter’s already high Squared-Up Swing % increased, particularly on fly balls. The slugger hit more balls in the ideal launch angle band for home runs and hit the ball harder after July 1, increasing his hard hit rate from 40.6% to 51.3% and average bat speed from 70.7 mph to 72.1 mph. 

Deluxe ability to square up the ball paired with an increased hard hit rate and bat speed is the sign of a power hitter. 

Deflating as his 16 home runs may look, DeLauter showed every trait that underlies power. This pop(corn) ceiling shows up best when looking at the Blast leaderboards. He finished 11th among qualified hitters in terms of Blasts as a percentage of his competitive swings. 

Depleted Vladdy aside, the Blast leaderboard is a who’s who of sluggers. And perhaps most notably, only two of these hitters had Squared-Up Swing rates above 34%. DeLauter and Juan Soto. 

Depicting DeLauter as the next Juan Soto is a bit too lofty of a comparison, especially considering Soto is only three years older than DeLauter with nine full seasons under his belt. But like DeLauter, Soto is able to limit strikeouts, walk a ton, and square up the ball while picking his spots to really blast off. That helps keep Soto’s batting average above league average year after year, and could do the same for DeLauter. 

Deepening the case for DeLauter as a near-elite bat is a comparison to Yordan Alvarez. Another standout in squaring up the ball with power while maintaining an elite batting average, walk rate, and strikeout rate, Alvarez is similar to DeLauter in another way. Injury. Alvarez has famously dealt with injury trouble throughout his career, missing dozens of games in 2020, 2023, and 2025. While Yordan’s power production, like Soto’s, looked more premium than DeLauter’s at similar points in their careers, perhaps these slugging options offer a rose colored view of DeLauter’s 90th percentile outcome. 

Depending on DeLauter to provide Soto- or Yordan-level production in 2027 would be silly anyways. You won’t need to spend a first round pick on DeLauter. You may not even have to draft him before pick 75, even if another strong Spring Training boosts his price. But if he can further improve his bat speed, then his ceiling could rise closer to Alvarez and Soto.

Debriefing DeLauter’s 2026 season though, you see a 24-year-old outfielder who completed a full season, missing fewer than 30 games to injury. He adjusted to major league pitching and became the second best hitter in a playoff quality Cleveland lineup. 

Decades without a championship aside, the Guardians play in a relatively weak division for starting pitching, outside of their own rotation. DeLauter hit second or third for the Guardians in all but 24 plate appearances this season. Presumably in 2027, he’ll hit next to an improved José Ramírez and Steven Kwan, both of whom struggled for much of 2026. 

Dedicating a top 100 pick to DeLauter for 2027 feels like a safe choice with a chance at accessing even more upside. 

Deciding DeLauter deserves decisive declarations decrying declining deceptive deceivers should be relatively easy come draft day. Why draft aging veterans like Bellinger when a younger, higher ceiling version is available?

DeLauter is DeMan, after all.