After the Justin Crawford fantasy outlook, I did pause — literally, I froze right where I was for five hours — and decided I need to do some sexy eh-eff prospects. Enter: Bubba Chandler. P to erhaps, the most exciting, sexy eh-eff prospect. Sure, he might win three games out of 25 games started for the Pirates, but whatevs. The stuff is so undeniably filthy. It makes me sing.
Bubba….just killed a man (with his fastball)
Put a fastball against his head, pulled the trigger, now he’s dead!
Bubba….ooh weeee oooh, life had just begun
But now I’ve gone and thrown it all away (passed ball, passed ball)
Bubba!!! OOH…didn’t mean to make you cry (by dropping you for a streamer)
If I’m not back again on waivers to pick you up by tomorrow,
Carry on, carry on as if nothing really matters,
BUBBA BIA BUBBA BIA! BUBBA BIA LET ME GO!
So, what can we expect from Bubba Chandler for 2026 fantasy baseball?
Bubba Bia’s stuff needs to be seen:
&
Bubba Chandler’s 6Ks. ? pic.twitter.com/ClfT8IK9oU
— Rob Friedman (@PitchingNinja) September 21, 2025
Bubba Bia let me go! That 2nd K there, that 90 MPH slider? C’mon. That’s the kind of stuff that no one hits. It’s going bye-bye to righties and lefties would be eaten alive. So, quickly, his stuff: 99 MPH fastball, 92 MPH change, 90 MPH slider, and 85 MPH curve, that’s the order he used them in the minors too. Threw fastball 55% of the time and had a 32 Whiff% and change was 19% of the time for 33% Whiff, and the other two were less successful. Or, to be kind, works in progress. Bubba Bia’s ceiling is the highest of any pitching prospect; he is not the best pitching prospect going into the 2026 fantasy baseball season, which is why I didn’t lead with him, and why he had a 4.02 ERA in 31 1/3 innings in MLB this year. Small sample? Sure, and maybe unfair to put that on him, but if any pitcher is going to need the usual three years to unlock his stuff? It’s Bubba Bia.
In Triple-A, Chandler threw 100 IP and had the perfs of 10.9 K/9, 4.8 BB/9, 4.05 ERA with a 0.7 HR/9, so perhaps a bit lucky. A 4.8 BB/9 in the minors is goofy. He’s walking guys who are swinging at anything to get the heck out of the minors. That nasty 100 MPH fastball? He can’t locate it at all. It had a 47.5 Zone%. That would’ve been 2nd worst in the majors. It’s not the death blow it might sound like. The bottom two were FreddyKBB and Dylan Cease, which kinda shows you both ends of the outcome spectrum.
Bubba Bia is going to have 5 IP, 12 Ks-type gems and he’s going to have 2 IP, 8 ER blowups. The full Bubba Bia Experience (trademarked by me) was on full display this past season in the majors (and minors, for that matter). He kinda reminds me of those special pitchers we get once in a while. If they figure it out, he becomes a 2.50 ERA, 250 strikeout beast. If he doesn’t, he is Dylan Cease this past season. Nice Ks, awful ratios and you want to drop them repeatedly. He just turned 23 in September, so if he doesn’t figure it out until he’s 26, it wouldn’t shock me. It would actually shock me more if he figured it out by this March. Not impossible though, which is why he should be drafted. For 2026 fantasy baseball, I’ll give Bubba Chandler projections of 7-14/4.34/1.41/148 in 136 IP with a chance for more.
