Dominic Canzone, 2026 Fantasy Baseball Sleeper

Went back and searched my posts for every mention of the word “sleeper” until the All-Star Break. So, if I said, “(player’s name) was going to be a 2026 fantasy baseball sleeper,” I made note of it with a slash. By the time I was done, if you put the Dominic Canzone slashes on a tree, it would’ve looked like Tom Hanks in Cast Away if a coconut fell out of a tree, concussed him on the first day and killed him. Would’ve made for a much shorter movie too. I saw one note to myself, “I gotta write a 2026 fantasy baseball sleeper for Dominic Canzone.” Did I see any, “How long until I can write a 2026 fantasy baseball sleeper for Dominic Canzone?” No. Did I see a, “Have I written a Dominic Canzone 2026 fantasy baseball sleeper already?” Nope! By the time I was done searching three months of daily roundups, it felt like Dominic Canzone wasn’t a 2026 fantasy baseball sleeper because of how few times I mentioned him. Usually, I have giant blinkers attached to my sleepers, but I thought about this, and I gave you a Kyle Stowers sleeper to start the fantasy baseball sleepers off, and he was super obvious, so I figured I’d scale back on the obviousness for the last hitter sleeper. (Pitcher sleepers start on Monday, unless some big free agent signing happens.) “Dominic Canzone may not even be drafted in some 12-team mixed leagues, and that’s okay,” he says in an empty room, because everyone’s left after seeing the “Dominic Canzone, 2026 Fantasy Baseball Sleeper” title. Eff that, bros, four sisters and one sista! I’m highlighting this em-effer even if he might not be the guy who goes from top 275 pick to a 1st rounder. Not every sleeper is built the same. Sometimes you need a fifth outfielder who becomes a third outfielder. So, what can we expect from Dominic Canzone for 2026 fantasy baseball and what makes him a sleeper?

PSYCHE! All of my 2026 fantasy baseball rankings are on the Patreon. Don’t wait for the rankings to come out next month. Anyway II, the Dominic Canzone sleeper:

Dominic Canzone is already 28. Not sure how much can be blamed on the 2020 season, but can we blame the DBags for being stupid on some of this? Canzone canhit and sat in the DBags’ minor league system for years. Actually, for four years. In Triple-A, he went 22/15/.299 with a 19 K% in 2022! Um, that’s stupid. Why would you waste a guy like this? Because you had Jake McCarthy? Geez. I can’t even tell if that’s sarcastic. Last year in Triple-A and majors combined, he went 24/6 and hit .300 in the majors with a 22 K%. Ya think he was ready? In 82 games last year in the majors, he had 243 ABs and here’s the Statcast sliders:

Dominic Canzone’s max EV was 115.9 MPH. That’s top 20 in the league. That’s not everything, clearly, but why it’s important? It’s reasoned that if a Dominic Canhit a 115.9 MPH ball, then Dominic Canhit the ball past anyone. You can’t fake that. Here’s the guys in front of him:

Broken record making excuses fro Oneil Cruz always being near top of these things, but his problem is he can’t make consistent contact. Everyone should know that if Oneil Cruz made contact like Canzone’s 22 K%, he’d be a superstar. If you just drafted this top 19 plus Dominic Canzone, I honestly don’t think you could go wrong. How you’re getting Witt, Shohei and Judge on the same team? Well, I think you might be cheating.

Wanna address Dominic Canzone’s Statcast and Chase Rate% too. He has a near 40% chase rate. Also in that elite company of chasers: beer, lime wedges–Sorry, wrong ChatGPT prompt. Also chasing that much? JRod, Altuve, Naylor, Goodman, Jeremy Pena, Chourio–Do you see my point? It doesn’t matter. It shows a guy is aggressive. What I find fascinating is Canzone is swinging at balls out of the zone, making contact, and still showing an .302 xBA. Now xBA is flawed, but it does say something. It says this guy hits the ball hard. So, Canzone can-zone or can-not-zone, it does not matter.

Finally, he is a lefty. Boo, platoon, right? Well, Dominic Canzone hit lefties too. In 43 games, and 58 ABs, he hit .276 vs. southpaws. He might get platooned a bit vs. lefties, because the Mariners went out and got Refsnyder. I don’t want him to be platooned, but I do not make these decisions, sadly. After hitting for power, and average and stealing bags for almost six years in the minors, it’s time Canzone showed he Can-all. For 2026 fantasy baseball, I’ll give Dominic Canzone projections of 56/20/61/.267/8 in 406 ABs with a chance for more from one of the most under-the-radar outfielders.