These Cleats Are Made For Walker
Christian Walker (HOU): 3-5, HR, R, 3 RBI.
Fantasy managers had high hopes for Christian Walker in 2025 after landing in Houston, but the season has not gone as planned. Sunday, though, was a special day for Walker, his best as an Astro, as he roped a two-run walk-off home run into the Crawford Boxes to beat the Mariners 5-3. His final line was 3-5, HR, R, 3 RBI.
Christian Walker's walk-off homer (6) Christian Walker clubs a two-run walk-off homer to left field and lifts the Astros to a 5-3 win over the Mariners
— MLB Home Runs (@mlbhomeruns.bsky.social) 2025-05-25T21:16:29.253422Z
Walker’s Statcast numbers are all down in 2025 but only slightly, except his xOBA, which is 10th worst in the league at a measly .268. His league-topping EVs are a little slower (113.9 mph to 112.8 mph), he’s barreling the ball slightly less (13.3% to 11.6%), and his Hard-Hit rate is a bit lower as well (48% to 45.7%). But the drop off is minor. All this seems to indicate that Walker’s struggles have been more bad luck than anything, and not that the 34-year-old is suddenly hitting a cliff. Which might be why Walker has been trying more unscientific and unconventional ways to heat up his bat, including changing his locker and shaving his moustache. “I’ll do whatever I can to try to get the baseball gods’ attention,” Walker said in the article.
Well, PLV doesn’t have a metric called Moustache+, but its Process+ seems to believe in Walker, and even sees him on the upswing before Sunday’s walk-off game. It’s the decision-making that will make or break Walker’s success this season, as his power will likely reappear over the summer months, and hopefully his swagger as well. Buy the dip while it still exists.
Let’s see how the other hitters did Sunday:
Seiya Suzuki (CHC): 3-4, 2B, HR, 2 R, 3 RBI, BB.
Seiya has been surging this week, clobbering three home runs, including a heroic three-shot shot in the eighth inning against the Reds to break an 8-8 tie, his 14th of the year. Apart from the three homers in the last seven days, Suzuki is also hitting .462/.515/.962 with 12 runs and 12 RBIs. His strong Statcast metrics are in line with last year’s numbers, but he’s barreling the ball more at a 15.8% rate compared to last year’s 11.5%. Seiya was on his way to a breakout last year, but health issues got in the way. Here’s hoping for a healthy and productive rest of 2025!
GONNEEEEESEIYA. SUZUKI.
— Chicago Cubs (@cubsbot.bsky.social) 2025-05-25T20:22:55.000Z
Reese McGuire (CHC): 2-5, 2 HR, 2 R, 2 RBI.
What’s up with Chicago Cubs catchers having big fantasy days? With Miguel Amaya on the shelf, Reese McGuire was called up from Triple-A and hit two dingers in his first taste of MLB action in 2025. This is a player who only hit three homers last year for the Boston Red Sox, and now he has two in his first game of the season! Let’s just tip our cap to Reese, leave him on the wire, and move on.
Ryan O’Hearn (BAL): 3-3, 2B, HR, 2 R, RBI, BB, SB.
A combo meal for a player who’s not known to run! The 31-year-old might not steal many bases, but Ryan O’Hearn likes slugging homers. He’s now up to eight on the season, though this was his first since May 4. And, of course, we won’t count the Little League home run he hit on Sunday as well, but you should definitely watch it for entertainment purposes. Still, the righty masher had a solid series in Boston, hitting and even .500 (8-for-16) over the weekend. O’Hearn’s value is tied to your league setup. He thrives in daily leagues, but is harder to stream in weekly leagues since he’s in a platoon. With the way Baltimore has been playing, it was hard to start him in any league format.
Jacob Wilson (ATH): 3-4, HR, R, RBI, BB.
Jacob Wilson hit his sixth homer of the season on Sunday, smacking Jesús Luzardo’s first pitch of the game over the wall in Sacramento. The Athletics‘ leadoff hitter is not known for his power, as evidenced by his 27.4% HardHit rate (bottom six percent of the league), but the man rarely strikes out, with a 5.2% K rate (second in the league behind Luis Arraez’s insane 2.1%). His .350 BA is mostly sustainable with a .311 xBA, another league-topping stat. PLV paints a more realistic picture of a league-average fantasy hitter, whose elite contact skills cancel out his poor power skills.
Brandon Lowe (TBR): 3-4, HR, 2 R, 2 RBI.
Everyone in the offseason was talking about the new short porch in Tampa Bay’s temporary home and how Brandon Lowe could take advantage of it. Unfortunately for Lowe, his 2025 has been a season to forget so far, but hopefully, patient fantasy owners are reaping the benefits of his recent barrage of homefield home runs to right field. Lowe hit his 10th homer of the season and his third in four games, all at home. His under-the-hood metrics also looked good, so I guess he just needed some time to break into his new crib. Don’t you love power from your second baseman?
Jake Burger (TEX): 2-4, 2B, HR, 2 R, 2 RBI.
Jake Burger is back in the bigs, hitting bombs, which is great news after surprisingly being demoted on May 1, which had everything to do with him starting the year hitting .190/.231/.330. Since returning on May 12, he’s hit safely in 10 of his 13 games, and hit four homers, including his seventh on the year on Sunday. The Rangers are struggling mightily on offense and need a spark from Burger to turn the season around. Burger is still out there in almost 50% of Yahoo leagues. He’s not a start right now in any sense, but he deserves to be on more fantasy benches than he currently is.
Miguel Vargas (CHW): 2-4, 2B, HR, 2 R, RBI.
Is Miguel Vargas finally good? The former Dodger who was cast away to the White Sox is having an excellent May, slashing .266/.330/.570 this month, hitting six of his seven homers on the season. Shaking off the fact that he is a member of the White Sox is hard for fantasy owners, but the 25-year-old is finally being shown some love, with his ownership on Yahoo jumping 13% to 18%. While Statcast paints him as an average bat, PLV seems to have a little more faith in Vargas, though his power is definitely the weakest part of his game.
Pete Alonso (NYM): 1-4, HR, R, 2 RBI.
It’s been 16 long games for Alonso fantasy owners with a dinger, and the Polar Bear finally broke the streak with a homer against the Dodgers on Sunday night. You would love a little more consistency out of Alonso, but can you really complain about a 10-HR, 40-RBI season for a 1B on May 25? Probably not.
Oneil Cruz (PIT): 1-4, HR, R, RBI, BB.
Congrats to Oneil Cruz, who now owns the hardest hit ball ever recorded in the Statcast era (2015 and on), a 122.9 mph HR that thankfully one-hopped into the Allegheny River instead of careening into the outstretched bare hands of a fan in the bleachers. Can we get some netting up in Pittsburgh when Cruz comes up to bat, please?
Oneil Cruz just hit this ball 122.9 mph.That is the hardest hit ball in the Statcast era.
— Pittsburgh Pirates (@pirates.com) 2025-05-25T18:44:29.579Z
ONEIL CRUZ Hardest-hit batted balls under Statcast (2015): 5/25/25 Oneil Cruz: 122.9 mph 8/24/22 Oneil Cruz: 122.4 mph8/9/21 Giancarlo Stanton: 122.2 mph10/1/17 Giancarlo Stanton: 122.2 mph8/9/18 Giancarlo Stanton: 121.7 mph 5/21/24 Oneil Cruz: 121.5 mph
