Each week we’ll look at a handful of different hitters who fantasy managers should consider picking up in deeper fantasy baseball leagues. Many of these players will have the most value in larger leagues where waiver wire options aren’t as plentiful. Still, they could also occasionally be useful additions in other, more standard-sized leagues depending on your options at their position.
All roster percentages mentioned in this column are via FantasyPros as of Wednesday afternoon.
Leody Taveras – 2%
If you’re looking for stolen bases, look no further than Texas Rangers outfielder Leody Taveras.
Taveras stole 23 bases last season in 151 games and 529 plate appearances, adding 12 home runs while hitting .229 with a .289 on-base percentage, providing the Rangers and fantasy managers alike with quality power and speed production.
His batting average production this season is in line with what he did last year, but he’s continued to steal bases at a high rate.
The 26-year-old is batting .219 with a .242 on-base percentage and five stolen bases so far in 11 games and 33 plate appearances. Furthermore, he should continue to see plenty of opportunities in the Rangers outfield with Wyatt Langford recently landing on the injured list.
Only three players – Oneil Cruz, Nico Hoerner and Pete Crow-Armstrong – have collected more stolen bases so far this season. And if Taveras’ 2024 stolen base production is any indication, he should remain near the top of the league leaderboard in stolen bases.
Harrison Bader – 3%
Sticking with outfielders, Harrison Bader’s barrel rate is a potentially significant development so far.
The veteran outfielder entered play Wednesday batting .300 with a .323 on-base percentage and three home runs in 31 plate appearances.
When given consistent playing time, more than 400 plate appearances in a season to be specific, Bader has provided solid home run and stolen base production.
So far this season, the veteran is sporting a 20.8% barrel rate on 24 batted balls. In total, he has five barrels so far, exactly a quarter of his barrel total in 2024 and the same number of barrels as Austin Riley, Shohei Ohtani and Seiya Suzuki. The five barrels are also more than each Mike Trout, Christian Walker, Julio Rodriguez and Lawrence Butler.
With the early-season barrel production, Bader makes for an intriguing early-season waiver wire option if his barrel rate can stay close to double digits moving forward.
Sal Frelick – 13%
With hitters who tend to make plenty of contact (and not too much in the way of loud contact), their respective batting averages can fluctuate a bit based on BABIP numbers.
When that kind of hitter’s BABIP is markedly high, it can be a good time to keep them in your lineup until the production starts to taper off a bit.
That’s exactly the case at the moment for Milwaukee Brewers outfielder Sal Frelick.
He may only end up being a streaming option for fantasy managers in deeper leagues, but he could help win a few early-season matchups in head-to-head leagues.
The 25-year-old is hitting .375 with a .457 on-base percentage and a pair of stolen bases in 46 plate appearances as of the beginning of play on Wednesday. He’s sporting a .441 BABIP with just a 13.0% strikeout rate and a .356 xwOBAcon so far.
Like Taveras last season, the stolen base production is nothing new for Frelick. The outfielder stole 18 bases in 145 games and 524 plate appearances last season, hitting .259 with a .320 on-base percentage and two home runs in the process.
Perhaps most crucially for fantasy managers, Frelick has hit fifth in each of his appearances for the Brewers this season.
Anytime a player is hitting in the middle of a lineup, it’s a definite positive fantasy-wise, but Frelick is doing so generally hitting behind some combination of Christian Yelich, Jackson Chourio, Brice Turang and William Contreras in the first four spots in the lineup.
Yelich is off to a slow start but logged a .373 xwOBA and a 153 wRC+ in 315 plate appearances last season. Contreras too is off to a slow start this year, with a .515 OPS in a 42 plate appearances, but it’s just that, a 42-plate appearance sample size for a batter who finished in the 90th percentile in xwOBA last season.
Chourio and Turang, meanwhile, are off to strong starts in 2025. Entering play Wednesday both have logged at least 47 plate appearances and both are at least 43% above league average where wRC+ is concerned so far.
As long as Frelick continues to hit fifth on a regular basis, he’ll see plenty of RBI chances moving forward – something that certainly won’t hurt his fantasy production, particularly while his BABIP remains so high.
Graphic by Carlos Leano.
