Tyrese Haliburton Trolls the Brewers With a Wrigley Field First Pitch
The Pacers star, coming off an Achilles tear that cost him all of 2025-26, is easing back into the spotlight — and his fantasy value is quietly intact.
A full year off may depress his draft price below his true value.
- Ranked #24 overall, #12 at guard in our model
- 18.6 pts, 9.2 ast in 73 games (2024-25)
- Missed all of 2025-26 with a torn Achilles
- 41.3 fantasy pts/game in 2024-25 (actual)
- 39% on 562 three-point attempts (2024-25)
Tyrese Haliburton is throwing out the ceremonial first pitch before Thursday's Brewers-Cubs game at Wrigley Field — and for the Pacers guard, the choice was personal. Haliburton, a Wisconsin native born in Oshkosh, said both the Cubs and Dodgers extended invitations this year, and he sided with the team closer to his Midwestern roots. But the subtext is louder than the pitch: he's snubbing his old hometown club.
The backstory dates to the 2025 playoffs. Haliburton hit the overtime game-winner that eliminated the Bucks in five games during Indiana's run to the NBA Finals. He claims Milwaukee's ballclub then rescinded a first-pitch invite, so he declared himself a fan 'free agent' and spent last season needling the Brewers by wearing Cubs and Dodgers jerseys on the Pacers sideline.
That Finals run ended in a Game 7 loss to Oklahoma City — and worse, with an Achilles tendon rupture that wiped out Haliburton's entire 2025-26 season. So this Wrigley appearance is more than a photo op. It's one of the first public signs that he's healthy, moving around, and pivoting toward preparing for 2026-27.
What the Numbers Say
Before the injury, Haliburton was elite. In 2024-25 he averaged 18.6 points, 3.5 rebounds and 9.2 assists across 73 games while drilling 39% from deep on a massive 562 attempts. That translated to 41.3 fantasy points per game (2024-25, actual) — the kind of volume-plus-efficiency profile that anchors a fantasy build.
Our model still slots him at #24 overall and #12 among guards, which tells you how much stock we're putting in the assist floor and three-point volume returning. The obvious caveat: nobody's replicating a full campaign, and Achilles recoveries can dull explosiveness. First-year-back production is a projection, not a promise.
For fantasy managers, this is a classic buy-low window. Haliburton's name value takes a natural hit after a lost year, and some drafters will let him slide past his ranking out of caution. If you can grab a top-15 guard at a discount, that's a swing worth taking. Watch his early-season workload and burst, but don't overthink the fit — the assists and threes travel.
