Welcome back to Buy & Sell, where this week’s theme is: PURE, UNADULTERATED CARNAGE. In 48 hours, my home league lost Austin Hays, Yainer Diaz, Carlos Correa, and Tarik Skubal. Like, what’s the point in even writing Sells with this kind of roster bloodbath? You need manpower! Fortunately, I’m quite pleased with the diamonds I found in the rough that can go 1000% up in value, and unlike those stock advice sites, I won’t tease them but only reveal if you buy a pricey subscription. With that said, on to the list!
BUY
10-team
Willson Contreras (1B, Red Sox)
Hey, Mr. Willson, glad I can finally see you more over the fence! Although this offensive Menace isn’t playing in Dennis, MA (a wicked pissah Cape Cod town), Contreras is the one hitter on the Red Sox offense who is living up to expectations, after doubling his homer count to 8 in the past 2 weeks, and surging this week with a .348/429/.652 line with 2 taters. But while it may seem like a lucky surge that’s raised his line to .270/.382/.492 with 8 homers, I think there’s room for moah.
For one, although the power numbers are higher than his career marks, he’s actually never hit like this before (at least over a full season). His career Barrel% is a strong 12%, and he never hit a higher rate than 14% (in 2025). But this year it’s up to a whopping 19% Barrel%, good for 96th percentile in the MLB. It’s not from hitting the ball harder, as his hard contact has stayed consistent (though his AVG eV is tied for career-best at 92 mph), and his K% of 28% is near career highs, so what gives? His North Star (Nawth Stah) is Pull-AIR-us. The hitter who has had grounders be his bugaboo is taking another step in a multi-year trend, lowering his GB% every consecutive year since 2021 (an extreme 51.6%) to his career-best mark of 38%. But what’s really exciting is that he seems to be making a concerted effort for pulls, as his FB% of 28% is actually the same as last year and only up from 24% in 2024, but his Pull AIR% went up from a mid 15% rate in 2024 to an above average 20% in 2025. This year, it’s 26%, which is excellent, and means the righty slugger should be pulling many more balls over the Monster (I can stop with the Boston accent now, right?)
There are more reasons to love him that I forgot to mention. For one, he’s actually underperforming his amazing xwOBA (96th percentile), as his .492 SLG% is way under his xSLG of .558… and xSLG usually is blind to Pull AIR%, indicating additional power upside. I think also his recent surge isn’t as obvious in the surface numbers, but over the past 50 PA, he has a ridiculous.491 xwOBA. I do think the K rate may continue to climb due to the high whiff rate, but I think this is the year he finally tops 30 homers, and could even challenge for 35. It’s possible, given the depth at 1B and initially flashier names, plus fantasy baseball ageism, that he’s still on 10-team wires, but even if rostered, I consider him a “Buy High” as most managers will likely assume he’s the same as always.
Josh Jung (3B, Texas Rangers)
Why the heck is Jung only 54% rostered in Yahoo leagues? I think we need a psychoanalyst. Jung is batting a fantastic .336 with 4 homers and 1 SB with a .538 SLG%, and if you assume it’s just a fluke, consider that he’s actually just been getting better, with his xwOBA continuing to climb. He’s the more rare breakout who is accomplishing this not by hitting harder and with a higher barrel rate, but his barrel% is actually down, but he’s suddenly massively improved his K%. It’s not every day a player cuts their K% from 25% to 15%, and manages to actually post a higher HardHit% at the same time. I wrote him up as a buy a few weeks ago, but yes, he’s clearly a 10-team all-formats add, if for no other reason than the position is really weak and he could finish as a top 7 hot corner bat, at least in AVG leagues.
Honorable Mention: Kazuma Okamoto (3B, Toronto Blue Jays) – I’d actually take him above Jung, but wasn’t sure to put him here as he’s 80% rostered in Yahoo. But 10-team leagues are often more casual, so given that Okamoto looked like a bust with a massive K rate a few weeks ago, before he doubled his homer count, hitting .321 with 5 homers and 10 RBI in 28 AB this week, it’s possible you can still swoop in and add him now. He still could outshine Murakami by season’s end, but both are studs. Okay, this was longer than the Honorable Mention blurb should be.
Honorable Mention: Liam Hicks (C, Miami Marlins) –He just now cleared the 80% Yahoo Roster threshold, which is pretty crazy considering he’s been the 2nd-best offensive catcher in the NL only behind Drake Baldwin. With Agustin Ramirez down, it’s clear Hicks is here to stay, and the arrival of defensive whiz Joe Mack is actually great news for Hicks, since he’s more likely to hit well and stay healthy if not catching.
12-team
Isaac Paredes (3B, Houston Astros)
It seemed he might be on the bench more this year, but he’s managed to stay Pa-ready for anything. As it turns out, the Astros, long vaunted for their excellent track record with injuries and definitely never cheaping out on an MRI to declare a fracture is just a “tricky bone bruise”… yeah, they got injuries. This has meant that, between Jeremy Pena and now Carlos Correa going down for the season, Paredes has played quite regularly since the second week or so, making him a draft-day value. Well, sorta.
See, his season line of 3 homers for a guy whose main attribute is power isn’t exactly appealing. But here’s the thing with Paredes… He depends a LOT, more than anyone, on loft, in other words, the weather. Because his contact is weak, but he’s somehow managed to once again break his own record at Pull AIR%, a ridonculous 39%. When the air warms up, more of those balls will leave the yard, which is why he surges every summer. Sure, in the end, you’re probably getting a .240 AVG and 20 homers, which isn’t sexy. Then again, this is 3rd base in 2026. It’s good enough, and May Drop Season means that even though his PT outlook just got rosier, you may be able to buy low, as I expect him to hit more homers than his current 3 in every month going forward.
J.J. Bleday (OF, Cincinnati Reds)
If you added him last week in a deep format as I did, and since then, I haven’t had a single bleh day. But really, this guy? In a 12-team? Hear me out? Well, I guess “See me out”, wait, that doesn’t work. The point is, Bleday’s surface numbers have been excellent, with .292 and 4 HR in just 29 PA. But under the hood, they’ve been bananas, and I mean, like beyond Savannah Bananas. A .519 xwOBA?!! A .382 xBA and .779 xSLG?! Holy small sample size! Granted, someone had a small sample like this last year, and his name was Matthew Lugo. Who? Exactly.
But wait. This might be different. For one, Bleday has actually had MLB success before, with a 20 HR season in 2024. But while it’s obviously physically impossible to keep this up, his core skills are better, too. In 2024 & 2025, he had a league-average 72 mph bat speed. This year, it’s up a full 3 mph, up to a well-above-average bat speed. Which helps explain his elite 21% Barrel%. But he’s also getting the perfect launch angles, and currently has a 38% Pull AIR% that’s tied with Isaac Paredes. Which means his insane expected stats may be too light. Oh, and one other thing, he plays in the best park for homers. I know I sound like I’m drooling right now, and I know reality will come back, but the former first-round pick could be a league-winner off the waiver wire as I could see him at least hitting .260 with 25+ homers, with the trifecta of supporting factors giving him upside for even more. If he’s rostered by someone else, find a way to get him, since the price will keep climbing. This sounds insane, but in my 12-team OBP league, I’m seriously debating cutting Jo Adell for him (Bleday is also rocking a great walk rate). I’ll probably drop a pitcher, though… but just saying, it might not be as crazy as it sounds. His roster rate is 6%. But jump on this one.
Honorable Mention: Carlos Cortes (OF, Oakland Athletics) –Maybe I’m just a fool in love, especially given the platoon thing. But in daily lineup leagues, at-bat for at-bat, pound for pound, he’s just a stud, and his rolling xwOBA is .452 over his last 50 PA, higher than Liam Hicks. And he’s just 23% rostered in Yahoo. Bow down to Short King Cortes.
Honorable Mention: Nasim Nunez (2B/SS, Washington Nationals) – Is he a bad hitter? Yeah, kinda. Can he still steal 60 bases and win you the category while basically being a Billy Hamilton at a weak position? Yep.
15-team
T.J. Rumfield (1B, Colorado Rockies)
There were a lot of hot starts in the first few weeks, and when the dust settled, some continued to break out, but many turned into punpkins. And you might assume that the vast swath of fermenting vegetation could lead to a rum field. But T.J. might be the perfect kind of sneaky buy-low, in that the owner probably thinks they missed their window to sell high on the April hype, since he only has 1 homer with a .286 AVG in his past 50 AB, leading to a .260/.319/.412 line with 4 homers line that starts to look cuttable in shallower formats. But I think I actually like him MORE than I did in April.
Believe it or not, in this recent stretch, he’s actually been better under the hood, as his rolling xwOBA is modestly higher, up to a .331 xwOBA. While that’s not amazing or anything, there are a few factors in his favor. For or one, he’s actually underperforming his expected stats (mostly the power), with a .269 xBA and a .446 xSLG. Typically, Colorado hitters significantly overperform their Statcast expected stats, since the algorithm struggles with Coors, which is how I correctly predicted the Mickey Moniak breakout 2 years in a row. Rumfield is one of the only Rockies hitters who doesn’t have random benchings killing their value (so far), and he still does a few things I love… he still seldom strikes out with a 16% K% (82nd percentile), and he hits the ball at good angles, with a 38% LA SweetSpot (76th percentile). AND he pulls it a lot too, with a strong 24% Pull AIR%. This is a recipe for some massive Coors box scores as the weather heats up, and he’s currently only rostered in 7% of Yahoo Leagues.
Yohendrick Pinango (OF, Toronto Blue Jays)
Okay, I’ll admit I rostered him last week in most of my deep formats, just because I loved his name. It sounds like the name of a pirate’s drunken attempt at inventing a new genre of latin dance. But although he doesn’t have a homer and 9 of his 10 hits have been singles, I think he’s more than just a lucky sample & a fun reference in 2040 baseball trivia.
For one, he’s not some nobody, but actually entered the year as the Blue Jays’ #10 prospect, on a pretty formidable farm system. He hit 15 homers last year, but displayed considerable raw power, with an elite 115 MaxEV, which he replicated in the minors in a smaller sample this year. And in the majors, he’s already reached 111 mph, which is no small feat. The shocking thing is that so far in the majors, Pinango has actually been hitting for contact… more than he ever did in the minors. Since his debut, his small sample 88% contact% is elite (96% Z-contact), when he has averaged 80% in the minors, and in Triple-A this year it was 78%. So yes, it will probably (definitely) regress, but I do also like that he’s been more aggressive, with a 55% Swing% and 72% Z-Swing% compared to a stingy 40% Swing% in 2025. His contact could backslide, and he could still produce a solid homer total with his big power, and in the minors, he had a higher pull% and air% so that could balance things out.
The biggest thing, though, is opportunity, which seemed like it might dry out with the return of George Springer, but he’s actually listed by Roster Resource not only as a strong side regular, but as the #2 hitter… between Springer and Vlad Jr. Nice. If your OF is ailing, a shot of the ol’ Yohendrick’s will gin you up. Oh, and he turns 24 today. Happy birthday, Yo!
Honorable Mention: Ezequiel Duran (1B/2B/SS/3B/OF, Texas Rangers) –It sure looks like, now that he’s gained in-season eligibility at every offensive position but catcher, that he’s the new Josh Smith. But Duran is actually looking much better than that this year, with a solid .301/.370/.452 line with 1 HR and 3 SB in 82 PA, and is hitting .438 this week with a clear runway for regular PT.
Honorable Mention: Wenceel Perez (OF, Detroit Tigers) – It’s not easy, but try to look past the ugly .156 AVG, as it’s not representative of his improved BB/K (5/8 over 71 PA) and 15/15 power/speed combo.
Deep Leagues
Drew Romo (C, Chicago White Sox)
Who needs to play Ding Dong Ditch when you can play Double Dong Drew? He’s now up to 3 homers in just 23 PA, and while it’s probably small sample shenanigans, he does have a 27% Barrel% and a 14% K%, and while neither seems very sustainable, he’s a 24-year-old catcher who should play every day with Edgar being downright Querrible. I snagged Romo in my 30-team dynasty league and was quite pleased, since Teel might be out a while longer, and Romo has paths to carve his way into the permanent lineup
Blaze Anderson (2B/SS, Baltimore Orioles)
He may not be Jeremiah Jackson, but I think Blaze still has some heat in him. If fastball velo jumps indicate a potential pitcher breakout, new MaxEVs are almost as good for hitter breakouts, and despite no homers, he’s raised his MaxEV from 111 mph last year to 113 mph this year. It’s translated to a 50% HardHit while maintaining a passable 29% K%, and his .222 AVG is way under his xBA of .293 (and a .364 xSLG over his horrible .247 SLG%. That said, I’d really like to see him pull and lift the ball, as he’s been poor in barrel% and Pull AIR%. Still, at least he can help as multi-eligible lineup spackle with batting average and some SBs, which helps even without many homers.
Honorable Mention: Jesus Rodriguez (C, San Francisco Giants) – He’s a sneaky prospect with potential for multi-eligibility and could hit for good average while also stealing bases. Very fun profile, which is why I took him in the 49th round of a Draft Champions league (pick 729).
Honorable Mention: Jarred Kelenic (OF, Chicago White Sox) – There’s fair reason to be concerned as his 20% K% masks his awful whiff rate, but his bat speed jumped to 74 mph, and I at least like him more than M.J. Melendez to make an impact, as he’s been striking the ball legitimately hard. Flush your system of past negative experiences with him, use a Jarred colonic.
SELL
10-team
Teoscar Hernandez (OF, Los Angeles Dodgers)
The Teoscars remind us that the past is real. But I tear my heart out seeing his bat speed down by a full tick, seeing that in the past I always (perhaps wrongly) thought of him as a player who wouldn’t age so well. He hasn’t been terrible, but I think it’s telling that in light of the bat slowdown, he doesn’t have a single quality of contact metric above 73%. Which would be okay if he were compensating with more contact (like Jo Adell, who I also considered for here). But his 28% K% just makes the floor much lower… especially given that he’s bad defensively and on a team where there are multiple talented sluggers in the DH slot. He might be good for runs, but this could be a pretty boring .240 20-24 homer line, which will hurt you in a 10-team.
Dishonorable Mention: Luke Keaschall (2B, Minnesota Twins) – We knew he was a bit of a rabbit, but even with 8 SB, the complete lack of power means he ends up hurting more than helping with more interesting 2B options appearing.
12-team
Willie Adames (SS, San Francisco Giants)
Maybe he’s nursing a spinal injury, because he’s batting like the Hunchback of Not our Adames. Okay, that actually sounds less like Notre Dame and more like Nostradamus, but I could’ve also predicted he’d have a disappointing spring, as he has in seasons past. But this is, like, really bad. His xwOBA is just .263 (6th percentile), and that is not supposed to look like a typical batting average. Nearly his entire Statcast page is blue, and his rolling xwOBA shows it’s careening downward.
Sure, it could all change with a hot summer, and it’s worth noting that his bat speed is at least the same. And he’s 30 and never been this bad, so the easy assumption is he’ll go back. But it’s worth considering that despite the 30 homers, he wasn’t that good last year, with his .225 AVG. Would you want him if it’s 22-25 homers with a .200 AVG and 5 SB, and a much lower OBP? Because that’s closer to what I see. As far as my “he’s playing hurt” angle, consider this: In 2025, his batting run value, baserunning run value, and fielding run value were all around 75th percentile. In 2026, all three run values are way down, and they’re now all around 5th percentile… with a 1st percentile Baserunning Run Value. And his walk rate, which was 12% (84th percentile) last year, is just 4% (7th percentile), Yikes. Drop in 12-team formats if you have a viable alternative.
Dishonorable Mention: Jakob Marsee (OF, Miami Marlins) – I get that you might have built around needing his stolen bases, and he’s at least provided that (and 10 is a lot), but we never expected his bat to be this bad, with a 61 RC+ and a 0.0 WAR thanks to his 1 homer and .178 AVG in 160 PA. He could be out of a job if he can’t right the ship soon, and there are better SB plays in a 12-team that aren’t such an AVG sinkhole (which Marsee’s leadoff role actually amplifies the ratio damage).
15-team
Ezequiel Tovar (SS, Colorado Rockies)
I think at this point I prefer the other Ezequiel. I really hoped that Tovar staying healthy this year would mean more growth, but he’s managed to deteriorate as if he were 34, not 24. While he does play half his games in Coors, he’s failing to show promise in either quantity of contact or quality of contact, where his whole Statcast page is blue except for LA SweetSpot% (not one of the more important ones). It’s true that a lot of his rates were almost this bad in 2025, but remember also that he finished the year with only 9 homers (in 390 PA).
Look, I can’t call him a straight drop, as both his expected stats and the Coors advantage suggest he’s been unlucky, so he’s not an all-formats 15-team drop. But in OBP formats? Yes, I would. I see a guy like Casey Schmitt, and yes, seriously, I see him as a guy who will actually deliver me the production I wanted.
Dishonorable Mention: Colton Cowser (OF, Baltimore Orioles) – Cowser looked at his disappointing 2025 and said “How I can do all of this worse”? With a .179 AVG and no homers or SBs in 79 PA, he’s been one of the worst performers in the majors, and could even be cut in AL-only formats. As Bart Simpson said, “Don’t have a Cowser, man”.
