RotoWire Staff Picks: Hitter Sleepers

Over the weekend, I asked the RotoWire staff for their favorite sleepers and busts for this season. Throughout this week, I'll share our team's picks across a series of four articles, starting today with hitter sleepers.

The players are listed in order of their ADP in the RotoWire Online Championship. I've included each writer's explanation for their pick from their response to my email, or in some cases, I've used excerpts of articles they've written this offseason.

Intro by Erik Halterman

Fantasy Baseball Sleepers: Hitters

Pete Alonso, 1B, Mets (ADP 44)

This feels like cheating (editor's note: yes, but that's fine) since he's a high pick already, but Alonso has three 40-plus HR and 118-plus RBI seasons on his ledger and is not far removed from being drafted in the late-first or early-second round of 15 team drafts. Hitting behind Francisco Lindor and Juan Soto this season should put him in contention for the league lead in RBI. — Ryan Rufe

Bo Bichette, SS, Blue Jays (ADP 125)

In an injury-plagued season, his BABIP cratered to .269 (well below career mark of .338) and his HR/FB% fell all the way to 5.3 percent. He should rebound in a big way hitting in front of (or behind) Vladimir Guerrero Jr. and Anthony Santander, who are set to bat second and third for the Blue Jays. — Chris Morgan

Brandon Lowe, 2B, Rays (ADP 207)

With Tropicana Field unavailable this season due to damage from Hurricane Milton, Lowe and the Rays will play their home games at George M. Steinbrenner Field, which will have a short porch in right field and hot, humid conditions. Lowe is a proven power bat already, having socked 39 home runs during the 2021 season and 42 over the previous two campaigns. Another potential boost for the left-handed hitting Lowe is that he had an .835 OPS versus southpaws in 2024 and started more than half the games in the second half when the Rays faced a lefty, so he's not necessarily pegged for a platoon role as he's been in the past. — Ryan Boyer, adapted from "Five Hitters I've Been Drafting"

Byron Buxton, OF, Twins (ADP 211)

Stop me if you've heard this before, but he's healthy and this could be the year he puts it all together! Except this time he really is in the best health of recent memory. Buxton enters 2025 coming off a rare season during which he finished the year healthy and didn't have any offseason surgeries or rehabilitations. The Twins even had him steal third base — for the first time in his career — in spring training. The team must feel confident about his health if they're letting him take chances like that in spring. And his price hasn't risen enough that if you're fooled again it will hurt too much. — Peter Schoenke

Jung Hoo Lee, OF, Giants (ADP 241)

In his first season in MLB, Jung Hoo Lee was just getting comfortable when a shoulder injury (early May) ended his season. The 26-year-old signed a 6-year deal with the Giants after posting some pretty impressive numbers in Korea. Give him a mulligan. — Brad Johnson

Garrett Mitchell, OF, Brewers (ADP 247)

One of my favorite types of sleeper is a hitter who does everything except make contact, and Mitchell is a great example. In 365 career plate appearances across the last three seasons, he's hit .264/.343/.463 with 13 homers and 20 steals, hitting the ball hard (9.5 percent barrel rate) but not often (34.2 percent strikeout rate). He also plays strong enough defense in center field that we currently project him to avoid a platoon and remain in the lineup against lefties. If he gets a full season's worth of starts and his strikeout rate continues its downward trend into the high 20s, we'll be drafting him next year in a similar range to where we're taking Brenton Doyle (ADP 69) this season. — Erik Halterman

Thairo Estrada, 2B, Rockies (ADP 308)

Moving to Coors Field has helped many hitters regain fantasy relevance, and we expect similar things for Estrada. This guy had at least 14 homers and 20 steals in his first two seasons with the Giants (2022 and 2023), and saying that this new ballpark is an improvement is a drastic understatement. He should also be hitting in a prominent spot in this Coors Field lineup, and seeing him go 20-20 while flirting with a .280 AVG would be a heck of a value from a player who's going undrafted in many formats. — Joel Bartilotta

Caleb Durbin, 2B, Brewers (ADP 351)

Popular depth chart site Roster Resource still has Durbin pegged as a short-side platoon player, and his recent ADP is after the 30th round, so I think it's fair to say he is still a sleeper, even this late into draft season. It's a very straightforward 8-10-homer/30-40 steal season waiting to happen, as he's the best man for the third base job and has a convincing high-level track record of hitting and running while providing value in the infield. — James Anderson

Jerar Encarnacion, OF, Giants (ADP 357)

There have only been 14 hitters in the 21st century to strike out at least 200 times in a season according to Baseball America, and Encarnacion is the only one who ever reached the majors. That's why I was impressed to see him reduce his Triple-A strikeout rate from 38.8 percent to 24.0 percent with the Giants after they signed him to a minor-league deal in May and then get to the majors for the first time since 2022 and post a better strikeout rate than the 39.5 percent mark he managed that season. Don't get me wrong, his contact profile is still very risky, but the reward if these contact improvements are happening could be fun with the Giants. — Jason Collette, excerpted from "Collette Calls: 2025 NL West Bold Predictions"