Hello Deep Leaguers! What an exciting start to the 2026 MLB season. The Mariners extended Colt Emerson (how do they have so many Emersons?), setting the MLB record for the largest contract given to a player prior to their MLB debut. But then Jo Adell robbed Seattle so thoroughly, they may have to reconsider. Seriously, in addition to the 3 homers, I think Josh Naylor is probably still looking for his wallet! And of course, my Pirates called up top prospect Konnor Griffin last week, and promptly swept the visiting Orioles. Konnor has started slowly since lacing an RBI double in his first at-bat, but if his rumored contract extension is real, it will be the biggest move the Pirates have made as an organization during my three decades of fandom. Now, let’s get to the…
Fallers
Moisés Ballesteros, Catcher, Chicago Cubs – 5% Rostered
Ballesteros isn’t a catcher in all fantasy formats. Heck, he might not even be a catcher for the Cubs, having made all of his starts this season at designated hitter. However, that’s exactly what made him an attractive fantasy target. Catching is a brutal job, and it comes with days off that cost us fantasy managers precious at-bats.
Ballesteros also had strong minor league numbers last year, slashing .316/.385/.473 in 114 games at AAA. He produced similarly during a cup or coffee call-up at the end of the year, too, slashing .298/.394/.474 with an 18.2% K rate and 13.6% walk rate over 20 games with the Cubbies. Ballesteros looked like a late-round OBP league darling in the making.
Alas, after starting the first 5 games and going just 3-16 with 2 walks and 6 strikeouts, Ballesteros has found himself out of the starting lineup for the next five games. A couple have been against left-handed starters, but he’s sat against righties over that time as well. If Ballesteros settles into a strong side platoon at DH, that would provide similar volume to a regular starting catcher.
If he’s sitting against all left-handed starters and sitting when other players get a day at DH to rest their legs, I don’t think he’ll get enough at-bats to be relevant. I would hold in two-catcher leagues or leagues with deep enough benches, because I do believe the upside is there (especially OBP leagues), but in any other format, I would be looking out for other options.
Brandon Sproat, Starting Pitcher, Milwaukee Brewers – 9% Rostered
Upon his trade from the Mets to the Brewers, Sproat went from a New York 6 to a Milwaukee 9 in an instant. In all seriousness, my opinion on Sproat’s fantasy value did skyrocket because he had a much clearer path to playing time in Milwaukee. I also saw how effective Quinn Priester was as a Brewer after struggling in Pittsburgh and Boston, and I consider Milwaukee to be one of the best pitcher-developing teams in the Majors. Granted, the Mets are very good at developing pitchers as well.
Sproat did, in fact, open the season in the rotation, laying an egg against the White Sox, a team no one is afraid of in the year 2026. Sproat walked 4 and allowed 3 homers while tossing 86 pitches over just 3 innings of work in his Brewers debut. He worked as more of a bulk guy in his second appearance. Logan Henderson was called up to start and allowed a couple of runs in his two innings before Sproat came in. For his part, Sproat walked 3 batters and allowed one homer and 4 earned runs over 3.2 innings.
Overall, Spoat has a 14.85 ERA and 2.55 WHIP with 4 dingers allowed and a 7:7 K:BB ratio through his first 6.2 innings as a Brewer. That’s not a good start, but it’s also only 6.2 innings of pitching in the cold. Henderson was optioned after their duet, so Sproat remains with the Big Club and is set to face the Nats this weekend.
Since it’s a weekend start, your current matchup might dictate whether to use him, and that could depend on whether it’s a traditional start too. Bulk appearances after an opener can be useful in points leagues with limits on weekly starts, or leagues that score wins (since you don’t have to complete as many innings to be eligible for a win), but are terrible in quality start leagues. Either way, despite a discouraging start, I want to see Sproat throwing 97 MPH heaters and the rest of his 6-pitch arsenal at least one more time before doing anything drastic.
Brenton Doyle, Outfield, Colorado Rockies – 58% Rostered
Yeah, that’s a high roster percentage, but I’m willing to ignore that 50% divide with fallers. Doyle is off to a terrible start, batting just .129/.206/.161 with no homers and one stolen base through his first 34 plate appearances of the season. Now, Doyle didn’t exactly light the league on fire last season with his .651 OPS, but his 15 homers and 18 steals over 138 games did provide some nice category juice.
Doyle devotees would point to his 23-homer, 30-stolen base campaign in 2024 as a reason to be optimistic. Sophomore slumps are a thing after all, and Doyle slashed .366/.422/.561 with a couple stolen bases in Spring Training. Doyle doubters (that’s me) would point out that Doyle carries such dramatic home/away splits that he’s a fantasy headache even when he’s producing.
In 2024, his big season, Doyle carried a .313 batting average and a .900 OPS at Coors, but a .211 average and .636 OPS on the road. His 2025 splits were even bigger, as he batted .306 with an .843 OPS at Coors, and batted .158 with a .452 OPS on the road. Even when Doyle is/was hitting, he was a detriment to your lineup for half the season. Oddly, his homers and steals were split evenly in 2024, but last year, only a third of his homers came away from Coors, and he stole more bases at home, too.
Doyle’s chase, whiff, and K rates are all worse than his career rates right now, but we are still only a couple of weeks into the season. He could still be a useful fantasy asset if you have a deep enough roster where you could use him as a home-field-only platoon bat. I know that 20/30 bats don’t grow on trees, but I think managers chasing Doyle’s big 2024 numbers will be pretty disappointed.
Risers
Garrett Mitchell, Outfield, Milwaukee Brewers – 14% Rostered
The Garrett Mitchell upside is plainly obvious. He runs very fast (top 20%), and he swings very hard (top 10%). The downside is that his game features Gallovian levels of swing and miss, and Buxtonian levels of IL trips. Mitchell’s high-water mark for games played in a season since his 2022 debut is just 69.
However, Mitchell is healthy right now, and he’s raking. He’s batting .333/.419/.556 with a dinger and 3 steals. He leads the Majors with 13 RBI as I write this sentence. His 95 MPH exit velocity, 53% hard hit rate, and 13% barrel rate are stellar. His 45% whiff rate and 40% K rate are horrific. This is your classic feast-or-famine profile prone to hot and cold and streaks.
The good news is that Mitchell has maintained a strong walk rate throughout his young career and is at 13% in the early going. That should allow him to use his wheels even when he’s not hitting his way on base. The injuries have been an even bigger problem than his K rate. Mitchell has just 150 MLB games played over the past 5 years (including 2026), but he’s produced a .259/.338/.441 line with 14 homers and 26 steals over that almost-season. Before you ask, yes, I prefer him to Doyle and would make the swap.
Joe Boyle, Starting Pitcher, Tampa Bay Rays – 11% Rostered
Boyle is a big boy at 6’8″, 250 pounds. He’s got a big 96 MPH heater and has carried big walk rates. In 2024, he walked almost 18% of the batters he faced, and last season, he got that rate down to 12.4% (still bottom 5% of the league). He’s off to a strong start this season, though, with a 3.18 ERA and .88 WHIP over his first two starts. Most encouraging is his early 13:3 strikeout-to-walk ratio and his much improved 6.5% walk rate.
Boyle’s improved walk rate follows a remixed arsenal. Last year, Boyle relied on just 3 offerings. He threw his big four seamer 49% of the time, his slider 35%, and his splitter just 16%. This season, Boyle has added a sinker, which comes out as hard as the heater, but drops and rides in on right-handed batters. He’s also added a sweeper that’s coming in a few ticks slower than his slider, but with 12 more inches of glove-side break.
So far, he’s thrown his slider more than any of his other pitches (34%), but all of them are over the 10% mark. These two differences, a wider selection of pitches and a much-improved walk rate, are exactly the things that would support a real step forward for Boyle.
The big question is whether he sticks in the rotation once Ryan Pepiot returns from the IL. The Rays had initially planned to send Boyle to AAA to keep him stretched out as a starter until Pepiot hit the IL just before the season began. He’s set to face the Cubs on Wednesday this week, and likely needs to keep pitching well to keep his spot. Color me optimistic, I think the big man keeps rolling.
Cole Young, Second Base, Seattle Mariners – 15% Rostered
Sure, the Mariners just set an MLB record when they signed middle infield prospect Colt Emerson to the biggest contract ever given to a player with no MLB service time, but Cole Young doesn’t seem worried. That’s J.P. Crawford’s replacement, not his. The second-year second baseman has gotten off to a strong start, slashing .256/.310/.513 with two homers. Second base is still the weakest position in fantasy baseball, so I’m going to prioritize checking in anytime a keystoner gets hot.
Sadly, Cole’s underlying rates don’t seem to suggest any sort of legitimate breakout. His strongest asset last season was his plate discipline. Across 257 plate appearances, Young chased and whiffed right around 25% of the time, and kept his K rate down around 18%. He also produced an almost 11% walk rate, but launched just 4 homers and stole only one base.
The two early homers are very nice, especially since they both came with two runners on base. However, his early chase rate is over 30%, his whiff rate is over 27%, and his K rate has been over 30% while his walk rate has slipped to 5%. These are all considerably worse than his rates last season, and his more aggressive approach has come with just an 84.3 MPH exit velocity and 34% hard hit rate. That hard hit rate is an improvement from his 2025 mark, but that average exit velocity is a big drop.
It’s easy to say that outside of those two dingers, Cole hasn’t really done anything, but we’re less than two full weeks into the season, and anyone’s line would be unimpressive if we took away a couple of homers. Still, I don’t think he’s going to hit a ton more.
Young’s minor league K:BB ratio was very nearly 1:1, so I do think his plate discipline rates will regress positively, but I can’t say the power surge looks real. I think he’ll be a better batting average and on-base percentage source, but he is unlikely to provide much in the way of dingers or steals, and runs and RBI could be tough to come by while batting in the bottom third of the order.
Thanks as always for reading! Once we get further into the season, I will make you look at more charts, graphs, and tables—serious stuff. Until then, good luck out there, Deep Leaguers.
