Michel Otanez

Otanez signed a minor-league deal with the Athletics last offseason and was assigned to Triple-A Las Vegas for the start of the 2024 campaign. The 26-year-old right-hander demonstrated his immense strikeout upside, but walked an absurdly-high 6.1 batters per nine innings. Unfortunately, he carried his control problems to his first taste of the majors last summer, where he posted a 13.2 percent walk rate across 34 frames. However, Otanez kept the ball inside the park and induced plenty of whiffs on his 98 mph fastball (41 percent whiff rate, 5th in the majors for that pitch type) and slider (52.2 percent, 11th). Between the majors and minors last season, the rookie posted a 110:45 K:BB ratio over 71 innings. Otanez has a closer-in-waiting profile if he can ever improve his control, but even with the high walk rate he's still worth a dart in deep leagues for his 100-plus strikeout upside.