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Joe Ryan 2026 Fantasy Baseball Outlook: WHIP Specialist Looking to Build Off Career-Best Season
Joe Ryan has always flashed high-upside talent, but would come up short by the season's end due to either inconsistency or injury. He finally managed to put it all together in 2025, tossing a career-high 171 innings with a 3.42 ERA, 1.04 WHIP, 194 strikeouts, and 39 walks. The 29-year-old's ERA tends to run on the high side due to his fly ball tendencies (36.9% ground ball rate) that led to 26 allowed home runs last season, but he's as reliable as they come in terms of WHIP, as can be seen by his 1.06 career mark over five seasons. He doesn't typically pitch deep into starts, which limits his upside to some degree, as even his elite 28.2% strikeout rate still didn't get him to 200 punchouts in 2025. The long ball concerns, lack of volume, and lack of wins on the struggling Twins make it hard to envision a true ace outcome for fantasy, but he's still a high-end target as your second starting pitcher taken in drafts. Ryan is being drafted outside of the top 60 overall in NFBC drafts, which is an affordable price to pay for a WHIP anchor who offers plenty of strikeouts.
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