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Jeremy's fantasy baseball steals sleepers (SB), using SB/PA to find later-round bargains for stolen bases. He looks at picks after 200 to find elite speed upside.
One of the most important aspects of drafting a fantasy baseball team is making sure you accumulate a good balance of all of your league’s categories by the end of the draft. While it’s easy to just focus on drafting the best possible batters that usually contribute to most of the categories, making sure you’re drafting enough stolen bases usually requires some extra attention.
It may be easy if you start your draft with players such as Bobby Witt Jr., Jose Ramirez, and Elly De La Cruz, but you can be left out to dry in the category if you don’t fill it early. Finding hitters who rack up a lot of stolen bases without hurting other stats is rare, which is why they get pushed so far up draft boards. However, if you do miss out on the early options, it’s not the end of the world.
There are still late-round values who can fill in those gaps, although it can be tough to identify them. So much of projected value is determined by how many plate appearances a player is projected to have. While a 20-steal projection may not look that impressive, that could translate into elite stolen base production on a per-game basis if they’re only projected for 300 plate appearances. That’s why in this article, we’ll be looking at the highest projected SB/PA ratios for 2026 to help give you a leg up on the competition in the late rounds. We will reference NFBC ADP as of February 15.
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Highest Projected SB/PA for 2026
Below are the 20 players (minimum 150 PA) with the highest projected SB/PA according to the 2026 ATC projections. It’s no surprise that many of these players are early-rounders, as it’s rare to find this type of speed combined with other traits of elite hitting.
However, in this article, we’ll focus on the names highlighted in blue. While they may not provide as much as the rest of the list, they are still a great bet for steals and have an ADP outside of the top 200.
Late-Round Targets For Stolen Bases
Jose Caballero, New York Yankees, 2B/3B/SS/OF
ADP: 201
Jose Caballero doesn’t just have the best projected SB/PA ratio of the late round options, but of every player in general. Despite only playing in 126 games in 2025, he still led the majors in steals with 49.
The steals are essentially the extent of his fantasy value, as he hit .236 with only five homers last season and isn’t projected much differently for 2026. However, he has the highest ADP of any of the later-rounders on this list due to the league-leading stolen bases and positional eligibility. Especially in NFBC, where rosters run extremely deep, quadruple eligibility gives your team a ton of flexibility.
His playing time would be looking pretty grim if Anthony Volpe were healthy, but Caballero is penciled in to be New York’s starting shortstop until Volpe recovers from shoulder surgery. Late April seems like a best-case scenario for a return, with May looking more likely, and Caballero could easily steal double-digit bases before then to give you an early-season boost in the category.
Justin Crawford, Philadelphia Phillies, OF
ADP: 272
Justin Crawford definitely has the best overall fantasy potential of this group. A top prospect (ranked 53rd overall by MLB.com) and son of former big leaguer Carl Crawford, he excels at making contact and stealing bases.
He has topped 40 steals in three straight minor league seasons, and most recently slashed .334/.411/.452 with seven home runs, 47 RBI, 88 runs, and 46 stolen bases in 112 games at Triple-A in 2025. Unless disaster strikes, he’s essentially guaranteed to be the Phillies opening day center fielder. This makes those 392 projected plate appearances seem on the low end, as he’ll get every opportunity to stick in the lineup full-time.
What really separates Crawford from the rest of these names in terms of fantasy appeal is the type of contact he makes. You might assume he’s just a slap hitter, such as Chandler Simpson, but that isn’t the case. He posted a 110.6 mph max exit velocity and an 89.8 mph average exit velocity, which shows there’s definitely some pop in that bat.
The power is still diminished due to a near 60% ground-ball rate, but the breakout upside is there if he can start lifting the ball more often.
Wasting no time! Our first hit of the spring comes courtesy of Justin Crawford pic.twitter.com/EHLKCRl5kd
— Philadelphia Phillies (@Phillies) February 21, 2026
Even if he doesn’t start lifting the ball more, he still figures to be a great source of runs, steals, and batting average if he can translate his skill set to the next level. With an ADP outside of the top 300, the potential reward far outweighs the risk.
Victor Scott II, St. Louis Cardinals, OF
ADP: 334
In terms of pure speed, Victor Scott II is one of the fastest in the majors. His 30.2 ft/sec sprint speed tied for second in the majors with Witt and Byron Buxton, behind only Trea Turner. While his speed could make him a potential 60-steal threat, his lack of hitting ability keeps him off the basepaths enough to significantly limit that output.
He hit for a measly .216 batting average and .296 slugging percentage in 2025 and stole 34 bases in 138 games, which is about the same as he’s projected for 2026, too. He’s shown no signs of taking a step forward in the hitting department, so he should be considered strictly a one-category specialist.
The one thing he does have going for him, which several others on this list don’t, is playing time. Scott is an exceptional defender and plays for the rebuilding Cardinals, so there’s not much risk of him losing the starting center field job. The 25-year-old could be useful in that regard in very deep roto leagues, where it’s a struggle to fill out your lineup with full-time players.
Digging Deeper For Stolen Bases
Luisangel Acuna, Chicago White Sox, 2B
ADP: 412
Luisangel Acuna was a deep sleeper heading into 2025, but ultimately finished with a .234/.293/.274 slash line with no homers and 16 steals in 95 games. The speed is there, but as is the common theme here, the power is nonexistent. He put up a microscopic 1.4% barrel rate, .299 xSLG, and 35.5% hard-hit rate.
The 23-year-old was traded from the Mets to the White Sox this offseason as part of the Luis Robert Jr. deal, which is good news for his playing time, but still not enough to get too excited about him from a fantasy perspective. He’s currently projected to hold the short side of a platoon with Brooks Baldwin in center, making him strictly an AL-only or 50-round draft-and-hold type of play.
He’s still young enough to make improvements, but it’s not worth taking the chance on in standard-sized leagues.
Nasim Nunez, Washington Nationals, 2B/SS
ADP: 489
Nunez played in 39 games for the Nationals in 2025, slashing .232/.297/.402 with four home runs and nine steals. In 63 Triple-A games before being promoted, he hit .254 with 36 steals.
He ranks third in projected SB/PA thanks to his 100th percentile sprint speed, and he’s currently projected to bat leadoff and play second base for Washington. While it’s true there’s not much upside in terms of power, every day playing time at the top of a lineup will give plenty of opportunities to accumulate counting stats, even if it’s for the Nationals.
Nasim Nuñez evades the tag with a brilliant swim move! 🏊♂️ pic.twitter.com/FdKFgpSCAQ
— MLB (@MLB) September 23, 2025
If he does end up sticking in the leadoff spot, this is a very good cost for the switch-hitter. The lack of offensive talent puts a pretty hard cap on his upside, but the same can be said for Scott, who's being drafted over 60 picks earlier. In deep leagues such as NL-only roto formats, Nunez could be a real asset at a middle-infield spot.
Victor Robles, Seattle Mariners, OF
ADP: 495
Victor Robles was a polarizing player heading into 2025 after breaking out late in the 2024 season. In 91 games in 2024, he slashed .307/.381/.443 with four home runs and 34 stolen bases, which was elite production that no one was expecting. The underlying metrics didn’t back it up, either, as he posted a .256 xBA, suggesting some serious regression may be coming.
While he only played 32 games in 2025, he slashed a disappointing .245/.281/.330 with one homer and six steals. It’s hard to fully judge a player based on a 32-game sample on both ends of a four and a half month injury absence, but it’s safe to assume that 2024 was a fluke. Still, at least he’s shown hot stretches of good hitting sporadically through his career, which is more than can be said for Victor Scott, for example.
There could theoretically be room for Robles to play most days in the Mariners outfield if he’s producing, but there’s also a very high likelihood of him falling into the short side of a platoon, especially if he never gets his bat going. The 28-year-old should only be considered in deeper five-outfielder leagues later in the draft.
Jacob Young, Washington Nationals, OF
ADP: 688
Rounding out the list is Jacob Young, who suffers from the same hitting deficiencies as the rest of the group while also having slightly less stolen base upside. He was actually a decently popular late-round stolen base option heading into 2025 after stealing 33 bases in 150 games in 2024, but he followed it up with only 15 steals in 120 games last year. It certainly wasn’t from a lack of trying, as he was caught stealing 11 times out of 26 attempts.
That type of inefficiency isn’t going to get it done with a .232 batting average, but like Nunez, Washington’s lack of options will cement him into an everyday lineup spot. The volume of plate appearances and the steals are really the only two things Young will provide, but that’s enough of a reason to draft him once you get past pick 500 in drafts.
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