One of the essential differences between fantasy baseball and fantasy football is the impact that any single player can possibly have on the success of your roster.
In football leagues, your likelihood of winning a championship will often be determined by your team’s best player. In baseball, this is rarely the case. In fact, in the deepest fantasy baseball leagues, it’s more accurate to suggest that your teams will go as far as your worst players allow.
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Fantasy football is generally the sort of game in which a very small number of key players determine outcomes. The fantasy baseball season, however, is a puzzle that can be solved in countless ways, with endless combinations of pieces. This is either a feature or a bug, depending on your fantasy preferences.
If you’re gonna win a competitive fantasy baseball league, you will need to identify multiple players who ultimately exceed their preseason projections. A few of these successes need to be true breakout performers — players who absolutely obliterate whatever expectations we have for them during draft season.
Today’s mission is to flag several candidates to break out in massive and meaningful ways in 2025. If you want to argue that certain names mentioned below have already broken out, at least to some extent … well, you aren’t wrong. But each of them has a shot to level up again in the season ahead.
Wyatt Langford, OF, Texas Rangers
If the breakout already happened for Langford, it occurred in the final month of the 2024 season when he launched eight homers, swiped seven bags and slashed a healthy .300/.386/.610. He managed to tread water for a full year in the big leagues at age 22, which is no small achievement.
After being drafted fourth overall in 2023, Langford screamed through the minors, hitting .351/.469/.649 with 29 XBHs, a dozen steals and more walks (37) than Ks (34) over 47 games. He’s a still-developing potential star with five-category potential, plus he’ll do his hitting in a privileged spot in the Rangers’ lineup. Langford showcased elite bat speed, chase rate and sprint speed as a rookie, so there’s no doubting the tools.
Xavier Edwards, SS, Miami Marlins
Edwards has been one of the more slept-on young talents in the game, with an ADP only barely inside the top-120 picks (118.1). He’s a near-lock to be a serious asset in runs, steals and average.
Last year, over 70 games for the Fish at age 24, he stole 31 bases in 35 attempts while hitting .328/.397/.423. Edwards has displayed exceptional plate discipline and contact ability in his two partial seasons in the majors and his average is perfectly in line with his career minor-league production (.313/.385/.399). He’s set a lofty-but-not-unrealistic base-stealing goal for 2025 and should finish among the MLB leaders, assuming good health. Edwards offers no power potential, but he’s likely to finish near the top of the leaderboard in at least two of the standard hitting categories (one of which is particularly difficult to address).
Connor Norby, 2B/3B, Miami Marlins
Let’s just continue our scroll down Miami’s projected batting order.
Norby was acquired from Baltimore in the Trevor Rogers deal last summer, a huge win for an upper-tier prospect who didn’t necessarily have a clear path to the majors in the O’s loaded system. He’s now the presumptive No. 2 hitter for the Marlins, coming off a 36-game cameo for the team in which he hit seven homers and eight doubles (while striking out at an unfortunate rate).
Norby used the offseason to refine and flatten his swing, which should hopefully improve his contact rate. He’s eying a 30-homer season, a lofty yet attainable goal. He’s a decent bet to go 20/10 in terms of power and stolen bases if he reaches 130-140 games. Norby has 94th percentile sprint speed, so there’s as-yet-unrealized stolen base ability in his profile.
Junior Caminero, 3B, Tampa Bay Rays
Caminero is a former top-of-the-ranks prospect, only 21 years old, and he already has an iconic home run to his credit. He’s one of the more obvious breakout candidates in the game, without question. Caminero has displayed monster power upside in the minors, despite being young for his level at every stop. He’s had a 50-game taste of major league pitching and he’s now coming off a legendary winter league performance.
If ever there was an arrow-up, rocket-emoji power hitting prospect, this guy is it.
Nick Lodolo, SP, Cincinnati Reds
Lodolo has a vicious four-pitch mix, including a curve with an elite whiff-rate (42.9%), and he’s actually entering the spring fully healthy for the first time in forever. The 6-foot-6 left-hander has struck out 300 batters over his 253.0 major league innings (10.7 K/9), so he clearly checks one of the most important boxes in fantasy.
Last season’s 4.76 ERA wasn’t ideal, but it was inflated by a pair of messy performances just ahead of his final visit to the IL. Also, his xERA was a perfectly acceptable 3.72. If Lodolo can simply reach 150 innings in 2025, he’s likely to produce at the level of a near-ace.
José Soriano, SP, Los Angeles Angels
Soriano has the sort of repertoire that some of us simply can’t quit, including a blazing triple-digit fastball. He missed the final month-and-a-half of the 2024 season due to arm fatigue, but he was plenty useful prior to the shutdown (3.42 ERA, 1.20 WHIP).
Soriano had the third-highest ground ball rate last year among all pitchers who threw at least 100 innings (59.7%) and the ninth-lowest HR/9 (0.64). There’s a lot to like in his profile, and he offers untapped strikeout upside. Soriano has been drafted in fewer than 5% of chof360 leagues to this point, so he’s basically a free lottery ticket with outstanding stuff.
David Festa, SP, Minnesota Twins
Festa arrived last season at age 24 with an exceptional strikeout rate (10.8 K/9), consistent with his minor league history (11.2). He’s battling for a rotation spot this spring, which makes him something of a dice roll at the moment, but his upside should be obvious enough.
He’s another pitcher who had a sizable gap between his expected ERA (4.14) and actual last year (4.90), plus he’s added a sinker to the arsenal this season. Festa should be a priority final-round target for those who draft their pitching late (as all sensible managers will do).
Seth Halvorsen, RP, Colorado Rockies
Halvorsen has the sort of easy 100-plus velocity that will play at any altitude. He made the climb from Double-A to the majors last year, delivering 12.1 impressive late-season innings for the Rockies (13 K, 2 BB, 2 ER, 8 H). He’s very much in the ninth-inning conversation for Colorado and should offer a stellar K-rate regardless of his role.
