2026 Dynasty Baseball Prospects: Daily Write-Up Series #112 George Klassen

We’re 89 days from Opening Day, and the 2026 Dynasty Baseball Prospects: Daily Write-Up series turns to one of the more intriguing arms in the Angels’ system. Coming in at #112 is George Klassen, a right-hander whose blend of velocity, movement, and improving strike-throwing has put him firmly on the dynasty radar. Klassen brings the kind of raw stuff organizations love to refine, and while there is still volatility in the profile, the upside is clear enough that dynasty managers should be paying attention as his development continues heading into 2026.

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Daily Baseball Write-Up Series #112 George Klassen

The Angels have been aggressive pushing arms up the ladder, and George Klassen has answered the bell from Double-A to Triple-A with the kind of bat-missing ability that tends to play in any league. The surface line won’t turn heads at first glance, but peel it back and there’s a real chance Klassen forces his way into Anaheim in 2025 and sticks.

Klassen’s game starts with power stuff that overwhelms hitters when he’s in rhythm. The whiffs are real: a 14.7% swinging-strike rate over 108.2 innings is comfortably plus and fueled 134 strikeouts (11.1 K/9). He doesn’t give up many long balls either (0.66 HR/9), and the estimators love him for it, a 3.21 FIP and 3.20 xFIP paint a very different picture than a 5.22 ERA would suggest. When you miss bats and keep the ball in the park, you usually get good outcomes. The ingredients are here.

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So why the crooked ERA? Traffic. Klassen’s 1.46 WHIP and 3.89 BB/9 speak to too many free passes and extended innings. Opponents hit .261 against him and carried a 25.6% line-drive rate; combine that with the realities of the upper-minors run environment and you get some noisy box scores. The good news is the contact profile under the hood isn’t alarming. He generated a 42.6% ground-ball rate and limited true damage even when behind in counts. This looks more like sequencing and command polish than a stuff problem. If the strike throwing bumps even a half-grade, the ratios should follow the underlying indicators.

From a developmental lens, Klassen is right on time. The fastball drives the profile and pairs best with a firm, late-biting slider; the curve offers another look, and the changeup is the piece that could unlock a starter’s ceiling if it finds more consistency. He already competes with a plan, and the jump from AA to AAA didn’t sap the whiffs, that matters. Ranked around the back end of the Top 125 with an ETA of 2025, he’s the kind of arm that can debut as a multi-inning weapon and grow into a rotation spot.

Fantasy Outlook

I’m buying the gap between ERA and skill. Klassen’s strikeout punch plays in all formats, but the path differs by league. In Points, the innings-plus-whiffs combo makes him a sneaky stash for 2025; the low homers and strong FIP/xFIP suggest the floor is higher than the ERA implies. In 5×5 Roto, mind the WHIP, he’ll need a modest command step forward to avoid ratio headaches, but if that comes, you’re looking at a mid-rotation strikeout source who can approach double-digit K/9 with manageable damage. Dynasty managers should move now before the ERA scares everyone else away; this profile screams positive regression, and the Angels have a clear lane for him to impact the big-league staff this season.

George Klassen tonight for AA Rocket City:

5.1 IP | 3 H | 0 R | 1 BB | 9 K pic.twitter.com/8WPYs8L8FN

— AngelsMiLB (@AngelsMiLB) April 23, 2025

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