Fantasy Baseball League Winners: Unlikely Aces Worth A Roster Spot? (Week 20)

August 12, 2026

Jeremy's deep dive into starting pitcher fantasy baseball breakouts, waiver wire adds for Week 20 of 2026. Are these unlikely aces potential league winners?

It's time for the Week 20 edition of our Unlikely Aces column for the 2026 fantasy baseball season. In this piece, we discuss surprising pitchers who are going above and beyond expectations, providing your team with unlikely ace production that not many were expecting. Some performances are more sustainable than others, so we'll dive into each pitcher to see how likely it is for them to maintain their recent form.

Starting pitching is by far the most volatile and risky position in fantasy, as every year plenty of top arms are sidelined with injuries. Luckily, there are also plenty of waiver wire gems and post-draft breakouts that allow fantasy managers to fill the gaps and hopefully bring home a championship trophy.

This week, we're focusing on Jacob Lopez, Andrew Painter, and Dean Kremer. All three of these players are widely available, so they could potentially help your team down the stretch off the waiver wire. Without further ado, let's get into whether these pitchers can keep up their recent form. For reference, all roster percentages listed are taken from Yahoo leagues.

Jacob Lopez, Athletics

15% Rostered

Jacob Lopez looked good again in his recent start on Monday, allowing two runs on five hits and one walk with five strikeouts over seven innings against the Rays. This was his fourth straight start of pitching at least five innings and giving up two runs or less, and he also has 26 strikeouts over 22 ⅓ innings in that span.

While his stuff doesn't blow anyone away with a 4th percentile average fastball velocity of 90.4 mph, the lefty thrives by throwing the ball like no one else in the major leagues. Featuring a 93rd percentile extension of 7.1 feet and a very low 20-degree arm slot from the left side, hitters simply aren't used to seeing the ball come at them from that angle.

That allows Lopez to avoid hard contact at incredibly high rates, posting a 29.6% hard-hit rate and 85 mph average exit velocity that both rank among the best in the league. Although he's posted just a 20.2% strikeout rate this season, that mark has been climbing as of late, and he's shown strikeout upside in the past with a 28.3% rate last season.

The weirdness in his delivery does just enough to induce weak contact, allowing him to thrive despite posting a groundball rate of only 28.6%. While he had some rough patches this season, the 28-year-old is beginning to look like the 2025 version of himself when he was breaking out in the final months of the year.

It's hard to trust him to keep it up long-term, but the beauty of it being mid-August is that he doesn't have to. With only a month and a half left in the season, it's all about riding the hot streaks. Everything is working for the lefty right now, and he's proven his ability to pitch at this level for at least a couple of months.

Verdict: Unless you play in a very shallow league where pitching is readily available, I'd be looking to add Lopez. The A's have a very favorable schedule for the rest of the season, which is perfect for him to keep this hot streak rolling and finish strong to benefit your fantasy teams. 

Andrew Painter, Philadelphia Phillies

12% Rostered

Andrew Painter looked good in his most recent start against the Cardinals, tossing 5 ⅓ no-hit innings before giving up a couple of hits and runs in the sixth inning. He ended the night allowing two runs on two hits and three walks with six strikeouts over 5 ⅓ frames. While it didn't end as the most dominant stat line of all time, it continued the trend of the youngster looking like a much improved pitcher since his stint in the minors.

Andrew Painter notches his 6th strikeout and keeps the Cardinals out of the hit column 👀 pic.twitter.com/hNzvEXZZtD

— MLB (@MLB) August 11, 2026

Since rejoining Philadelphia's rotation on July 31st, the 23-year-old has allowed only five runs over 15 ⅓ innings while striking out 16. That looks like a much different pitcher from the previous version of himself before the demotion, as his ERA and WHIP for the season are a very unsightly 6.27 and 1.53.

What's most encouraging about these results is that they have come with a very noticeable change in approach. Despite throwing his four-seam fastball decently hard, it's been destroyed by major league hitters to the tune of a .366 batting average and .607 slugging percentage. To offset this, he's now throwing the pitch much less, using it 30.6% of the time in the past three starts.

That's a change from early this season, when he routinely sat in the high 30s or even above 40% usage with his fastball. Instead, he is throwing his changeup and sweeper a lot more, preventing hitters from taking advantage of his flat heater. Not only has his changeup been one of his most used pitches in this new-look arsenal, but he actually didn't throw a changeup at all before his demotion to the minors.

That's a bit disingenuous to say, as his new changeup is just a slightly tweaked version of his former splitter. Still, the pitch is noticeably faster and has more break than his splitter used to have, and it's clearly working. Painter still has yet to show true ace ceiling, but he at least is looking like a usable fantasy asset again.

Verdict: The righty is worth an add in any standard-sized or deeper leagues, as his current effectiveness and his prospect pedigree are worth taking the chance on. He should have plenty of win chances backed by the Phillies offense, and he's worth starting in good matchups down the stretch. 

Dean Kremer, Minnesota Twins

9% Rostered

Dean Kremer has looked great since being acquired by the Twins at the deadline, allowing only two runs in 12 innings across two starts. Most recently, he held his former team, the Orioles, to just one run and one hit over seven innings while striking out seven. This was very nice to see from the righty, who bounced in and out of Baltimore's rotation this season and had given up 14 combined runs in his two starts before being traded.

Dean Kremer, Nasty 84mph Splitter. ✌️ pic.twitter.com/4083281vJR

— Rob Friedman (@PitchingNinja) August 11, 2026

Kremer didn't just pitch better against his former squad because he was fueled by revenge, as he has made some noticeable changes to how he is deploying his arsenal with Minnesota. He threw only five sinkers in each of his two starts, which came out to right around five percent of the time. That's a huge decline from the 17.4% rate he threw the pitch at before the trade deadline.

Instead, he threw his four-seam fastball 38 and 31 times in each of the two starts at a rate of 39%, compared to a 21.5% clip before that. It's not inherently clear why that has yielded better results so far, but the Twins must think they're onto something if they orchestrated the change.

While the 30-year-old isn't likely to start routinely dominating lineups in an ace-like fashion, he has had moments of fantasy usefulness throughout his career. He collects a good number of whiffs on his cutter and sinker and has had stretches where he is a reliable and consistent innings eater with good but not great ratios.

Those ratios have typically finished the year as an ERA above 4.00 and a WHIP above 1.20, but in smaller samples he can be quite effective. The Twins also have some pretty good matchups to close out the year, and I think it's pretty safe to stream Kremer against bad offenses.

Verdict: He's not as much of a priority add for me as Lopez or Painter, but Kremer is still worth adding in deeper leagues if you need some starting pitching depth. Even in standard-sized leagues where the waiver wire doesn't look enticing, he could be a solid streaming option down the stretch. 

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