Batting average is one of the hardest categories to fill late in drafts. Most hitters who excel in batting average do so because they are elite hitters in general, and they usually contribute plenty of runs, home runs, and RBI on top of it. This is why only two of the top-20 qualified hitters in 2024 batting average are being drafted outside of the top 100 overall for 2025. Likewise, only eight of the top 40 are being drafted outside of the top 150.
That’s why it’s a good idea to attack batting average early in drafts, as getting guys such as Yordan Alvarez, Vladimir Guerrero Jr., Freddie Freeman, Corey Seager, Michael Harris II, and Trea Turner in the first few rounds can offset the dip in batting average when you’re forced to draft worse hitters later.
However, that’s not the only way to go about building your team. If your early-round selections aren’t assets in batting average, such as Elly De La Cruz, Jazz Chisholm Jr., Pete Alonso, and Kyle Schwarber, not all hope is lost. There are many players scattered through the later rounds who can give you a boost in the category.
*All ADP data via NFBC since February 1.
Luis Arraez – 167 ADP
Luis Arraez is the crown jewel of batting average. He is a career .323 hitter, with a low point of .294 in 2019 and a high mark of .354 in 2023, when he won the batting crown. There is no surer bet than him if you need a batting average boost, but don’t expect much production in the other categories.
He only hit four home runs in 2024, which makes sense when you look at his underlying metrics. Although he excels at putting the ball in play at good launch angles, he does it by swinging the bat softer than every other player in the league. As expected, this leads to extremely soft contact that very rarely results in the ball landing in the outfield seats.
He did steal nine bases last season, which topped his previous career high of four. However, with a 30th-percentile sprint speed of 26.7 feet per second, it’s hard to see that happening again in 2025. The only other category that he won’t actively hurt you in is runs, as he scored 83 in 2024 and will be once again leading off in front of Fernando Tatis Jr., Jackson Merrill, and Manny Machado.
His draft cost is higher than the rest of the players on this list, with an ADP of 167. This is slightly stretching the definition of a late-round target, but his dominance in this category warrants his spot here. It’s usually not a good idea to draft Arraez if you already have a respectable batting average, but he is the perfect target to balance out a team with sluggers such as Schwarber, Alonso, or Anthony Santander.
Gabriel Moreno – 177 ADP
Gabriel Moreno’s ADP is also on the higher end at 177, but keep in mind that NFBC leagues feature two starting catchers. In one-catcher leagues, Moreno can be scooped up in one of the draft’s final rounds. The young catcher slashed .266/.353/.380 with 39 runs, five home runs, and 45 RBI in 97 games in 2024. That may not look all that impressive, including the batting average, but he is a career .280 hitter.
He dealt with multiple injuries that caused him to miss time throughout the season, and his stats were mainly dragged down by a disappointing first three months of the year. He was a completely transformed hitter in the 36 games he played from July 1 on.
A .325 batting average is much more like it. He typically doesn’t hit many home runs due to his 49.6% ground-ball rate, but he could be due for a power breakout if he can improve his launch angles even slightly. His overall profile is strikingly similar to Yainer Diaz, who is being drafted as the second catcher off the board in NFBC leagues. You may think it’s unrealistic to compare the two, but Diaz actually had an even higher ground-ball rate than Moreno and still managed to hit 16 home runs. It’s also important to remember that Moreno was a much more highly regarded prospect than Diaz, ranking seventh overall in 2022 on MLB.com. I’m not saying he will outperform Diaz this season, but I wouldn’t be shocked to see a Diaz-esque breakout.
Even if the breakout doesn’t come, his floor will still be high as one of the rare catchers who will help your team’s batting average. ATC projections predict him as the second-best catcher in the category with a .277 average, behind only Diaz with a projection of .279. Pairing him with another mid-round catcher, such as J.T. Realmuto or Tyler Stephenson, would give you one of the most dominant pairings in two-catcher leagues without having to spend early-round capital at the position.
Yandy Díaz – 189 ADP
Yandy Díaz hit for an 88th-percentile batting average of .281 in 2024, but he didn’t do much else. He totaled an unexciting 55 runs, 14 home runs, and 65 RBI in 145 games. This was a far cry from his 2023 season when he slashed .330/.410/.522 with 95 runs, 22 home runs, and 78 RBI.
He still had a 92.2 mph average exit velocity (92nd percentile) and a 48.7% hard-hit rate (89th percentile) but couldn’t quite translate that to a repeat of his 2023 power output. Part of this is due to his tendency to hit the ball on the ground, as his 54.7% ground-ball rate was the second-highest among all qualified hitters. However, that wasn’t too far off from his 2023 ground ball rate, so what changed?
His 2024 batted-ball tendencies were pretty similar to last season, with a few key differences. His infield-fly-ball rate nearly tripled from 5.6% to 15.2%, which also explains the five percent decrease in hard-contact rate and five percent increase in soft-contact rate. These line up more closely to his 2021 and 2022 numbers than last season’s, although the infield fly ball rate was the highest of his career by a good margin.
The good news is that 2024 seems like his floor, which will still provide you with a solid batting average boost later in the draft. A return to his 2023 form shouldn’t be expected, but there is always the chance that he can land somewhere between his 2024 and 2023 performance, which would still lead to him outperforming his ADP by a good margin. He is a safe corner infield option with a path to some upside, which is plenty valuable around pick 200.
Jung Hoo Lee – 231 ADP
Jung Hoo Lee was a batting average standout during his seven years in the KBO, putting up a career slash line of .340/.407/.491. However, he only hit double-digit home runs twice and never stole more than 13 bases in a season. This gives him a similar profile to Arraez, although with a little more pop and slightly more stolen base upside.
Despite their similarities, he is being drafted almost 70 picks later than Arraez, mainly because he never really got the chance to show his skills at the major league level in 2024. He tore his labrum in his left shoulder on May 12, ending his season after delivering a .262/.310/.331 slash line with two homers and two steals in 37 games. Despite not looking like much on the surface, Lee proved that his contact skills would translate to his new league.
It’s a small sample, but it’s hard not to see him hitting for a high average with numbers like these. His 41.8% hard-hit rate and 89.1 mph average exit velocity are also league average marks, which suggest he could show more power than people are giving him credit for. Projection systems agree, as ATC is projecting him for a very solid slash line of .281/.340/.413.
With an ADP of 231, Lee is a great late-round outfielder to target in five outfielder leagues. Just a standout batting average alone would pay off at this draft cost, but he has the potential to collect a lot of counting stats, too. He looks to be locked in as the Giants’ three-hole hitter, wedged between Willy Adames and Matt Chapman. That’s the type of safe, consistent opportunity that becomes scarce this late in drafts, especially in 15-team leagues.
Jacob Wilson – 351 ADP
Jacob Wilson got a brief 28-game taste of the majors to end 2024 but did nothing of note, hitting .250 with no home runs. He earned the promotion by dominating the minor leagues to an almost unbelievable extent. In 53 games split mostly between Double-A and Triple-A, he batted .433 with a 6.6% strikeout rate.
While he obviously wasn’t that successful against major league pitching, he still posted a 9.7% strikeout rate, 12.7% whiff rate, and 39.7% squared-up rate that would have ranked among the very best in the league if he had enough plate appearances to qualify. He makes so much contact and squares the ball up so often by swinging the bat softly, leading to bottom of the barrel numbers in metrics such as average exit velocity and hard-hit rate.
If that sounds familiar, it’s because that’s the same approach used by Arraez. The one key difference is that Wilson posted a 26.2% launch-angle sweet-spot rate, which was one the worst in the league. Compare that to Arraez, who ranked in the 98th percentile in that regard. The upside is obviously limited since the best possible version of Wilson would be Arraez, who is a part of this same article of later-round draft targets.
He is still a useful player at his draft cost of 351, though, if you’re chasing floor instead of ceiling. He is locked in as the A’s everyday shortstop, and 500 plate appearances of a .280 batting average is useful in 15-teamers.