It’s fantasy baseball playoff season for a lot of us, and now come the tough decisions. Plenty of players have had ups and downs this season, and it’s difficult to decide whether we should keep them or not. Today we have a player who was probably drafted really high in most leagues and finally seems to be looking like (at least on the offensive side of the ball) the player he was billed to be as a teenager. On the other end, we have a player who many probably didn’t even know existed until this past August. Without further ado, let’s get into it!
Mickey Gasper, C, 1B, BOS
So this has been a fun story. Mickey Gasper is a 30-year-old journeyman catcher who has absolutely caught fire as of late. He’d put up pretty putrid offensive numbers in his previous stints in Boston and Minnesota, but now he has a 146 wRC+ on the season, a seriously impressive jump for a player many thought would never make an impact. He’s doing it at the right time for the Red Sox as well, which adds to his real-world value immensely.
Since the All-Star break, Gasper is slashing .395/.549/1.053 in 51 plate appearances. Yes, that last number is his slugging, not his OPS, which is 1.602. It’s a Barry Bonds-esque run, and one that is shocking because again, it’s coming from Gasper, who had never hit over .200 in a past campaign. These kinds of flashes in the pan do happen now and then, but this one feels especially egregious, both in terms of the status of the player on the hot streak as well as the actual numbers being put up.
Gasper was sent down at the end of June and then came back up mid-August. It’s interesting to see how his Process+ immediately spiked back up upon his return, as he struggled mightily in June but has since been nuclear. Gasper doesn’t have a lot of power, though he’s been able to flash it enough to hit 7 home runs this season. The bat speed isn’t great, but he’s pulling the ball in the air into right field, and that’s leading to success. He puts the ball in play often as well, with solid contact skills and decent discipline that allow him to get on base. Even in the past, Gasper was pretty solid at taking walks and eliminating chase/whiffs; he just wasn’t able to get anything going with the balls he hit right at defenders.
Mickey Gasper’s Process+ visualized
Verdict: Probably Not Legit. We see runs like this now and again that really get baseball fans talking. Think Matt Carpenter with the Yankees in 2022, another player with a mustache who put up Barry Bonds-type numbers for a short stretch of the season. It often comes back down to earth and is dependent on a small sample size. It’s also worth noting that Gasper is a platoon bat, as his numbers against lefties are awful. This feels like a flash in the pan, and the skills, while impressive in some areas, don’t scream breakout star.
Jackson Chourio, OF, MIL
Jackson Chourio is on an absolute tear right now, making him a worthy candidate for this article. He’s quietly having his best offensive season on a per-game basis, with a career-high wRC+ and 21 home runs, which currently ties his previous career high, a mark he will surely surpass. We all know that Chourio was a top-of-the-line prospect, one who stood out in a graduating class that included Junior Caminero, James Wood, Jackson Merrill, and Jackson Holliday. None of that matters in fantasy, though, as we want to know if he’s going to give us elite production.
While his numbers aren’t super flashy, Chourio is helping managers out in every way. We already mentioned his home runs, and those come with a slash line of .287/.347/.487. Hitting in the .280s while also being a threat for power every time he’s at the plate is a great combination, and you can see it in his Process+ chart. His power grades out really well; as per our Power+ metric, he has a 116 in the stat, making him 16% better at hitting the ball hard than MLB average. This is in line with excellent players like Bobby Witt Jr. and Julio Rodríguez, with his lesser contact skills really being the main thing that differentiates them (JRod has a significantly worse decision value). It is those kinds of players that Chourio can definitely become in the future, filling the stat sheet for fantasy managers even if he doesn’t give you one excellent trait. Chourio’s overall quality of contact jump is what has made this season so successful, as while last year he did strike out a little bit less and put the ball in play a bit more, he didn’t hit it hard consistently like he is in 2026. His pulled flyball rate is down, however, which is a bit of a trade-off. If he can find a way to pull the ball in the air a bit more without sacrificing the ability to smoke the ball with the bat, he could be a 30+ homer guy.
Jackson Chourio’s Process+ visualized
Verdict: Legit. It’s Chourio, everybody; he’s an awesome player who is just going to continue to get better. It’s interesting that he, in some ways, may feel like a bit of a disappointment, largely because of the lofty hype surrounding him and the success of other similar-aged young stars. However, with these jack-of-all-trades types, they often won’t get the praise because no one skill sticks out, but the overall player is a star. I am going to go out on a limb and say that next season we will see a big step up from this one, and he will firmly plant his case as an MVP candidate.
