Each week we’ll look at a handful of different players whom 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 Friday afternoon.
All 2024 stats are as of the beginning of play on Friday.
Rob Refsnyder – 1%
Refsnyder was mentioned in this week’s Fantasy Baseball Category Power Rankings, but it’s worth expanding on just how much of an impact he’s made in a limited sample size for the Boston Red Sox this season.
The long and short of it? Refsynder has gotten on base often for the Red Sox in 2024, hitting .302 with a .397 on-base percentage. He’s also sporting a .279 xBA and an 11.1% walk rate on the season, not to mention a solid 9.4% barrel rate.
The biggest thing here is that Refsnyder is both hitting for a high average and making quality contact. Generally speaking, many fantasy players you’ll find with this high of an average and this low of a rostered rate are more high-contact rate hitters who don’t register much in the way of barrels or hard contact.
Refsnyder, however, is sporting a .350 xwOBA, the aforementioned 9.4% barrel rate, and a 45.3% hard-hit rate.
And while it is only a 190 plate appearance sample size, one that isn’t the largest number of plate appearances, it’s also not a tiny sample size by any stretch either.
Furthermore, it’s a rarity to be able to add a player via waivers in fantasy who’s making this kind of quality contact.
Among players with at least 190 plate appearances, Refnsyder is one of just 50 with an xwOBA of .350 or better. The vast majority of those players probably were either drafted in the first few rounds of drafts this past spring or have seen their rostered rate skyrocket thanks to strong performances.
Michael Toglia – 12%
Toglia, as it happens, is one of the few players (like Refsnyder) with both a minimum of 190 plate appearances and at least a .350 xwOBA who wasn’t an early-round pick in drafts and isn’t sporting a high rostered rate.
The first baseman and outfielder is batting .197 with a .260 on-base percentage in his first 192 plate appearances. Those metrics aren’t ideal at first glance. Neither is a 30.9% whiff rate or a 31.3% strikeout rate.
What is more ideal is the fact that the 25-year-old has amassed 16 home runs so far in those 192 plate appearances, with a .358 xwOBA, an 18.1% barrel rate, and a 53.4% hard-hit rate. He’s also doing all that with just a .180 BABIP.
If Toglia is producing like this from a power standpoint before the positive regression kicks in, he could be a league winner once the BABIP starts to even out some.
Perhaps even more promising than that? Of the slugger’s 16 home runs so far, 10 have come away from Coors Field.
Priority waiver wire addition. Impact fantasy hitter. Potential league winner. They all apply to Toglia.
Add him now before that 12% number inevitably doubles or triples.
Kyle Higashioka – 8%
In the midst of his first season with the Padres after joining the National League West club in the deal that saw Juan Soto dealt to the Yankees, Higashioka has always been a quality power option.
The catcher has topped 18 barrels in each of the last seasons and has seen his barrel rates for those years finish at 15.6%, 9.8%, and 11.0% respectively.
Among the 50 catchers with at least 500 total plate appearances during that span, only eight had a higher collective barrel rate than the former Yankee’s 11.8% number, though it’s worth noting that he’s never topped 260 plate appearances in a Major League season.
Still, Higashioka has continued to provide quality power production this season. In fact, his numbers have actually been better across the board in a smaller sample size, at least so far.
The veteran has already established a new career high in home runs (11), one more than the 10 he logged in each of the last three seasons. The 34-year-old logged at least 211 plate appearances in each of those seasons. This year? he’s at 129 plate appearances after the first half. The rest of his power production numbers are plenty promising as well, looking much more in line with the career year he had in 2021. Though if he continues to see plate appearances at this rate, the veteran should have no problem establishing even more career highs across the board stat-wise.
And, what’s more, Higashoika has moved from the ballpark with the third-best home run park factor in Yankee Stadium (at 118) to one that was decidedly more middle of the pack in Petco Park (102), per Statcast data.
Trent Grisham – 0%
Moving on to Grisham, who like Higashioka was another player who was involved in the Yankees and Padres blockbuster this past winter headlined by Juan Soto.
Grisham has been better overall in fantasy leagues where on-base percentage is part of the scoring, batting .195 with a .301 on-base percentage, six home runs, and 134 plate appearances. His plate discipline and power production have been particularly promising, with an 11.8% barrel rate, an 11.1% chase rate, and an 11.9% walk rate so far.
Really, much of his batting average and xwOBA (.298) being so low might be in part due to an extremely slow start in which the 27-year-old hit just .051 with a .213 on-base percentage, a .077 ISO, a 31.3% strikeout rate and a 13 wRC+ in his first 48 plate appearances. Since then, he’s been making much more of an impact at the plate.
And while the recent spike in production hasn’t seen Grisham move up the lineup on a consistent basis for the Yankees – he’s still mostly hitting eighth or ninth – batting in those spots in New York actually brings plenty of fantasy upside with it.
As long as Grisham continues to get on base on a regular basis, he should also continue to see plenty of run-scoring chances effectively hitting ahead of Ben Rice, Juan Soto, and Aaron Judge. Rice owns a .402 xwOBA, six home runs, and a 126 wRC+ in his first 92 Major League plate appearances this season while Judge (.468) and Soto (.455) have the first and third-best xwOBA numbers among qualified Major League hitters this season.
Photo by Adobe Stock | Adapted by Carlos Leano.