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Jeremy's deep dive into starting pitcher fantasy baseball breakouts, waiver wire adds for Week 21 of 2026. Are these unlikely aces potential league winners?
It's time for the Week 21 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 Noah Cameron, George Klassen, and Shane Baz. There's a good chance at least one of them is available in your league, so it's important to know if they're worth adding. 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.
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Noah Cameron, Kansas City Royals
56% Rostered
Noah Cameron pitched the best game of his career on Sunday, and one of the best starts of any pitcher this season. In this new era of baseball where starting pitchers have much shorter leashes than even five and ten years ago, there have been only eight complete-game shutouts in 2026. Cameron earned the honor of tossing one of them, with nine shutout innings against the Angels.
He was tossing a no-hitter until the seventh inning, and the outing ultimately ended as a one-hit gem with eight strikeouts. While this start was great by itself, it exemplifies a clear trend in Cameron's recent string of dominance. The 27-year-old has now pitched eight innings or more in three of his last four starts and has lasted at least seven full frames in five of his last seven starts.
Noah Cameron strikes out Mike Trout to finish off the 1-hit shutout 😤 pic.twitter.com/dlaoMxhJWr
— MLB (@MLB) August 16, 2026
This isn't just an example of an unexciting innings eater, either, as in those five starts of seven innings or longer, the lefty struck out 41 batters in 39 innings, adding nice strikeout upside on top of his volume. However, things do tend to go pretty bad when he doesn't have his best stuff, as he allowed 11 combined runs with only three strikeouts in the two starts where he failed to pitch deep into the game.
That's why, despite the recent strong performances, he still has an ERA of 4.16 and a WHIP of 1.22 for the year. However, now that we're nearing the end of the season, past performance is starting to matter less and less. I don't think Noah Cameron can pitch like an ace for a full season, but luckily, we don't need him to. With less than a month and a half left in the season, he simply needs to ride this hot streak for another handful of starts.
While his underlying metrics and stuff don't look especially impressive, he showed last season that he doesn't need them to. In 24 starts, he pitched to a 2.99 ERA and 1.10 WHIP while being a very effective pitcher down the stretch. There's something about soft-tossing lefties with deep arsenals that can just get the job done, and it's an archetype that the Royals have leaned into over the past few years.
Verdict: If Cameron is still available in your league, I'd consider him a priority add. While the risk for a blowup start is there, he's pitching too well right now to not plug him into your lineup. The Royals have some good matchups coming up against weaker offenses, and hopefully the youngster can take advantage of it.
George Klassen, Los Angeles Angels
3% Rostered
George Klassen looked great on Tuesday, tossing seven shutout innings against the Astros. He allowed just one hit and walked three while striking out seven. It was the second strong start in a row for the rookie, who tossed a quality start previously against the Rangers.
"That was some of the best stuff we’ve seen all year."@Angels No. 12 prospect George Klassen overcame "jelly" legs to toss seven scoreless innings of one-hit ball in The Show: https://t.co/OJRTfpQkuL pic.twitter.com/aXTCxhbhq1
— MLB Pipeline (@MLBPipeline) August 19, 2026
In three total starts since returning to the majors on August 7th, he’s allowed just three runs on 10 hits and eight walks with 15 strikeouts over 17 innings. The walks are a bit high, which has always been his biggest issue, but it’s still a big improvement over the 10 batters he walked in his first 4 ⅔ major league innings.
The 24-year-old has always possessed very good stuff, it’s just a matter of getting it in the zone. That was clear in Triple-A, too, as his walk rate was an unsightly 11.6%. The stuff clearly plays, as his slider induced 12 whiffs for a 60% whiff rate in his recent gem. The slider works in tandem with a hard four-seam fastball that the righty throws at a 96.5 mph average, which ranks in the 82nd percentile.
Verdict: Klassen is obviously a deeper-league name at only 3% rostered, and he’s flashed enough upside to make him a priority add in 14+ team leagues. Pitching can be thin on the waiver wire in standard-sized leagues too, making him a streaming option down the stretch. While he clearly has upside on a start-to-start basis, I would be careful streaming him in shallower leagues where you're in a close WHIP race in the standings, as it could turn out very bad if he can't find the zone on any given night.
Shane Baz, Baltimore Orioles
53% Rostered
Shane Baz was excellent on Tuesday against the Yankees, allowing three runs on four hits and two walks with 10 strikeouts over 6 ⅓ innings. This was his fifth start of the year striking out nine or more batters, and it was a nice rebound from his last time out, when he gave up five runs in three innings.
Shane Baz has a season-high 10 strikeouts 🔥 pic.twitter.com/FPiemMLNXe
— MLB (@MLB) August 19, 2026
That previous start was the first time Baz had given up more than three runs in an outing since June 23rd, and it was especially concerning that his velocity was down. The 27-year-old averaged 94 mph on his fastball and 85 mph on his changeup, which were both two miles per hour slower than his season averages. That led to speculation of an injury following the start, so there was a lot riding on last night’s outing for the righty’s future outlook.
Luckily, the former top prospect looked completely back to normal against the Yankees, with all of his pitch velocities back to where they should be. Hopefully this means he can pick up where he left off and continue his great play down the stretch. This season, he has a 4.02 ERA and 1.34 WHIP. However, he's improved in the second half, posting a 3.44 ERA and a 1.20 WHIP.
He gives up too many hard-hit fly balls, with a 42.3% hard-hit rate and 39.0% groundball rate, to move past the volatility, but he still holds single-game upside that most pitchers don't have.
Verdict: Don’t let last week’s start scare you, as Baz has proven to be a reliable option in the second half of this season. He may not be the true ace that many thought he could be as he rose through the minors many years ago, but he’s turned himself into a serviceable major league pitcher that is worth starting in fantasy.
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