EmailPrintOpen Extended ReactionsIt has been quite the season thus far for young pitchers.Jacob Misiorowski, the 24-year-old ace of the Milwaukee Brewers, leads the majors with 108 strikeouts and a 41.9% K rate. If not for Cristopher Sanchez's 39 shutout innings in May, Misiorowski might be the favorite for National League Pitcher of the Month honors for his 5-0 record and 0.23 ERA.Cam Schlittler, the New York Yankees 25-year-old flamethrower, was second in the majors (and first in the American League) with a 1.50 ERA (prior to Tuesday night's slightly bumpy outing) after finishing 2025 with a 2.96 ERA in 14 regular-season starts and striking out 12 batters across eight scoreless innings in his first playoff start.Chase Burns, the 23-year-old Cincinnati Reds right-hander, has a sub-2.00 ERA despite calling one of the most hitter-friendly environments his home. He's also coming off of a month that saw him post four quality starts and a 1.19 ERA in five outings.Their breakthroughs have been sorely needed in a year where the game's remaining pitching elite hasn't had the best of luck. Tarik Skubal, Garrett Crochet, Hunter Brown and Max Fried, the top four vote-getters in the 2025 AL Cy Young Award balloting, are all currently on the IL. Other prominent pitchers such as Cole Ragans, Logan Webb, Eury Perez and Dylan Cease have also missed their share of time due to injuries.If all this pitching bad luck has hampered your fantasy team, and you're not one of the lucky ones to roster Misiorowski, Schlittler or Burns, you might be looking up from the lower half of the standings as things begin to feel entirely real in June. I've got a team in this very situation; it has dug a deep hole in the ERA and WHIP categories and could use a similarly huge breakthrough from an unexpected pitching source in order to recover. Trading for a pitcher with a chance at an upcoming hot streak along the lines of any of those youthful three might be your best shot.Ahhhh, but who might have the skills and the opportunity to put forth a sizzling final four months of 2026? Here are five pitchers I'm trying to get in trades right now!Braxton Ashcraft, Pittsburgh PiratesThough often overshadowed by defending NL Cy Young Award winner Paul Skenes and blue-chip prospect Bubba Chandler, Ashcraft actually leads all Pirates players in fantasy points (188). Ashcraft has made 20 starts at the MLB level, and has scored in double-digits in 14 of them, including in each of his past six.His predominantly fastball/curveball/slider repertoire has swiftly progressed to prospective ace levels, with the two breaking pitches generating more swings-and-misses combined this season (105) than anyone except for Max Meyer. Ashcraft will continue to benefit from one of the best pitching environments in baseball, with the primary concern being how many innings the Pirates might let him throw.Kyle Bradish, Baltimore OriolesIt's easy to forget how much buzz had surrounded him in the preseason -- he was the No. 19 starting pitcher taken on average in NFBC Main Event drafts -- because he posted a 5.03 ERA over his first seven starts. Remember that the fantasy baseball marketplace is akin to the stock market, and while I was anti-Bradish due to the excessive buzz in March, now -- if not a couple of weeks ago -- is the time to buy, buy, buy!He has had four quality starts over his last five outings, during which time he's getting much better marks with his sinker and four-seam fastball (1.8 and 3.8 Runs Above Average, up from minus-1.9 and minus-4.3 in his first seven turns). Considering he gets 36% and 44% whiff rates from his slider and curveball as well, Bradish might not be far off a massive hot streak in the strikeout department.Kyle Harrison, BrewersTo think, the Boston Red Sox couldn't even find a place for Harrison in their rotation after acquiring him in the Rafael Devers trade around this time one year ago. Granted, Harrison isn't quite the same pitcher he was then, having raised his arm slot by six inches, while shifting his stance on the pitching rubber -- things that unlocked the full potential of his fastball. It's a pitch that has been worth 9.0 Runs Above Average, seventh-most by any pitcher's four-seam fastball this season.Additionally, Harrison joins Michael King and Davis Martin as the only pitchers with at least a 30% whiff rate with their fastballs while limiting hard contact on at least two-thirds of balls in play. Harrison has been one of the more surprising breakthrough performers of 2026 and he looks plenty legit to me.Jared Jones, PiratesHe's going to take some time to fully harness the command of his full pitch repertoire, but boy did it look pretty in his return from elbow surgery on Friday. Jones threw nine pitches clocked at 100 mph or faster, joining Chandler, Misiorowski and Schlittler as the only starters to do that in any game this season. Plus, he totaled 15 swings and misses, which is more than we've seen in 85% of all MLB starts.The Pirates are sure to be extra careful with Jones as he works himself back into peak form, but his stuff is so filthy that it might not take much more than a handful of starts for him to spring towards elite fantasy status. I'd be more concerned that the Pirates could cap him at 100 IP for the season and/or lock him into a permanent piggyback partnership with Carmen Mlodzinski (thus limiting his per-game upside) than I would with his raw skills.Bryce Miller, Seattle MarinersAnother piggyback risk, as he has partnered with Luis Castillo for each of their last three outings, Miller's performance since recovering from an oblique injury is going to soon force the Mariners' hand. Miller's four-seam fastball is averaging a career-high 96.7 mph, both his slider and sweeper are generating 45%-plus whiff rates, and he's generating both the lowest walk and hard-hit rates of his four-year career.He's looking every bit as effective as he was during his 2024 peak, which saw him score the 10th-most fantasy points among starting pitchers (426). It seems likely that he'll either lock in a full-time rotation spot (perhaps in a six-man arrangement) or force Castillo into more of a short-relief role going forward.
