Rob Refsnyder (BOS): 2-4, 2B, HR, 2 R, 2 RBI.

Heart-Rob

Rob Refsnyder has struggled to find playing time in Boston’s crowded outfield, but he made the most of his second consecutive start yesterday. He lit up the Orioles’ pitching staff with a 2-4, 2B, HR, 2 R, 2 RBI line as Boston brought home an 8-3 win in Baltimore. Three of Refsnyder’s four batted-ball events were hard-hit with his double and home run both reaching triple digits off the bat.

After his big night on Tuesday, Refsnyder’s slashing a very impressive .347/.437/.547 with two home runs over 88 plate appearances this year. Those are numbers that would play in any fantasy format, unfortunately with no clear path to seeing the field more often, you’ll have to appreciate Refsnyder from afar.

Refsnyder’s in the midst of the best season of his career and his xwOBA and xBA would be 80th+ percentile if he had the plate appearances to qualify. Despite those strong numbers, I don’t see a path to playing time for him. The Red Sox would have to bench one of their trio of young outfielders to plug the 33-year-old Refsynder into the starting nine more often, and that’s just not something they’re going to do. Refsnyder has settled very comfortably into that fourth/fifth outfielder role in Boston these last few years, and unless something big changes, he’s not even on the radar in AL-Only leagues.

Let’s see how the other hitters did Tuesday:

David Fry (CLE): 3-4, HR, 3 R, 3 RBI, SB.

In a game that featured 20 total runs scored, I could’ve made this entire article Guardians and Rockies-themed, but as tempting as that was, baseball did happen outside of Coors Field last night and we should talk about all of it. Fry’s combo meal earned him Cleveland’s feature write-up. His breakout season just won’t stop. Fry’s now hitting .357 with seven home runs, 26 runs, 23 RBI, and four steals out of your catcher position, but the most impressive thing to me is his phenomenal 19.5% strikeout rate to 17.2% walk rate. He’s been a huge part of the Guardians’ 37-18 start to the year. Fry’s playing time has ticked up as his strong start has continued, so it’s surprising to see him still sitting out there in 24% of Yahoo! and 58% of ESPN leagues.

There were plenty of other Guardians of note. Josh Naylor homered twice and collected five RBI. José Ramírez went deep for the fifth time in his last seven games and the 11th time in May. Kyle Manzardo had the first multi-hit game of his career with three base knocks. He now has hits in eight of his last nine contests.

Kris Bryant (COL): 1-4, HR, R, 2 RBI, BB.

On the Colorado side of things, I want to focus on Bryant. As a Cubs fan, he’ll always hold a special place in my heart so it’s great to see him back on the field and launching his first long ball since his return from the IL. I still don’t think we’ve seen what Bryant can really do playing half his games in Coors, so if you want a deep waiver wire target that could put up big numbers, the former NL MVP is available in 90%+ of both Yahoo! and ESPN fantasy leagues. I don’t expect a return to greatness, but there are certainly longer shots out there.

The bottom two hitters in the Rockies’ lineup also came up big. Sean Bouchard reached base three times, knocked in two runs, and stole a base. Elehuris Montero hit his third homer of the season, but still sports just a .223/.283/.325 slash line.

Freddie Freeman (LAD): 3-5, HR, R, 3 RBI.

Freeman launched his sixth home run of the campaign in game one of yesterday’s Dodgers/Mets doubleheader. After seven scoreless innings, the Dodgers’ bats woke up. They tied things with a run in both the eighth and ninth before Freeman’s two-run bomb off Jorge López in the tenth put the exclamation point on LA’s comeback victory. Oddly, despite Freeman’s 150 wRC+,  it’s been a bit of a disappointing fantasy season for the former MVP. After hitting .331 with a 29-131-102-23 season in 2023, he’s on pace to hit .297 with counting stats of 21-98-92-10 according to THE BAT X. Good? Absolutely. Living up to that first-round draft pick you spent back in the spring? Probably not.

Davis Schneider (TOR): 3-4, 2 2B, R, 3 RBI.

Toronto entered yesterday as the sixth-lowest scoring team in baseball, but it’s been no fault of Schneider’s. He’s earned the team’s leadoff role, slashing .255/.361/.475 with six home runs and three stolen bases. Schneider’s on a mission to show his strong 2023 debut was no fluke, and his peripheral stats look good. He’s dropped his strikeout rate from 30.5% to 26% and he’s been able to maintain a strong barrel rate. His 15.6% clip is 93rd percentile.

Jurickson Profar (SDP): 2-4, HR, R, 3 RBI.

Every time I see Profar still cruising along the best start to a season of his 11-year career I can’t help but wonder when it’ll eventually end. The fact that I’m still thinking about it this late into May might be a sign that I need to buy into this more. Profar’s .402 wOBA is the seventh-best in the sport after all. The thing is, he’s not doing much different than we’ve seen from him in years prior. He’s walking more, but he’s always carried strong plate discipline metrics. His xwOBA and xBA are both 85th+ percentile which is great to see, but it comes with otherwise middling batted-ball metrics. He has done a good job of making the most of his contact, bumping up his FB EV from 83.2 mph last year to 88 mph this year, but that alone likely won’t sustain this kind of output all season long. Maybe many incremental improvements add up to making this legit, but I’d be selling high if I had him rostered.

Rafael Devers (BOS): 4-5, 3B, R, 2 RBI.

Devers is pretty dang good at baseball. I think we all knew that before his four-hit game last night, but sometimes it’s nice to simply step back and appreciate the game’s stars. Boston’s franchise cornerstone is slashing .289/.380/548 with 10 home runs and 26 RBI, and his 12% walk rate is a new career-best by over two percentage points. As usual for Devers, he’s feasting on fastballs. He’s already up to an 8 Statcast Run Value against four-seamers, higher than both his 2022 and 2023 full-season totals.

Michael Busch (CHC): 2-4, HR, R, 2 RBI, BB.

The Brewers just about stole a win at home despite Ben Brown’s seven no-hit innings yesterday, but a Cubs’ 10th-inning rally sealed their 6-3 win. Busch opened the scoring with a third-inning solo shot before adding an insurance run in extras. You may remember Busch’s five-game homer streak from mid-April, but it’s been a forgettable time since then. Entering yesterday, he had just a .189/.273/.283 slash line since that long ball binge. Overall, Busch has proven he can be both a real-life and fantasy asset to his teams, but that abysmal 35.3% strikeout rate has to come down for him to stick around the big leagues for good.

Kevin Pillar (LAA): 3-4, HR, R, 2 RBI.

Pillar had Nestor Cortes‘ number notching two hard hits against the Yankees’ starter. He added a soft single against Clay Holmes in the eighth to cap off his strong day at the dish. Although he’s slashing a ridiculous .349/.402/.639 with six home runs and six steals, Pillar’s filling out the fourth-outfielder role on a depleted Angels’ squad. Anything can happen when it comes to the Halos, but this is nearly an identical situation to the one I mentioned in the Refsnyder write-up. I don’t foresee a team giving a 35-year-old journeyman playing time over younger options that could play a part in the organization’s future.

Byron Buxton (MIN): 2-2, 3B, R, 2 BB, SB.

It was a perfect day in the batter’s box for Buxton as he reached base in all four plate appearances. He’s hitting .267 with two home runs since his return from the IL 10 days ago, and with a job slotted into the middle of the Twins’ lineup all but secured, he should probably be rostered in more leagues. He’s currently available in 62% of Yahoo! and 85% of ESPN leagues. If you need some power help, he’s a solid option. Buxton hit 28 home runs just two years ago.