Following the conclusion of last night’s games, every team in the league has played at least a quarter of their games. Breakouts are becoming more believable with each passing day, and it’s easy to get carried away projecting someone’s final stats by simply multiplying by four. But before you get too excited, make sure you take a nice long look under the hood. Each player I examine will be sorted into one of the following categories: “not legit,” “probably not legit,” “too early to tell,” “possibly legit,” and “legit.” All stats are through the games of Monday, May 11.

 

Brice Turang, 2B, MIL

 

Last 14 days (4/28-5/11): 47 PA, .395/.500/.632 (221 wRC+), 11 R, 2 HR, 5 RBI, 1 SB

2026: 163 PA, .298/.422/.511 (165 wRC+), 31 R, 6 HR, 23 RBI, 8 SB

After breaking out in 2025 to the tune of a .288/.359/.435 line (124 wRC+) with 97 R, 18 HR, 81 RBI, and 24 SB, most were forecasting regression from Turang in 2026. I was among them. He’s proved us all wrong so far, with even better production in 2026 that has him on pace to repeat as the top fantasy second baseman. Turang’s improvement at the plate as a big leaguer has been remarkable in both its magnitude and consistency. From 2023-2026, his wRC+ has progressed as follows: 61, 88, 124, 165.

Before your eyes glaze over from looking at too many stats, allow me to provide some insight. First, let’s look at Turang’s improvements from 2024 to 2025. Perhaps most notable is the massive jump in bat speed from 66.2 MPH (2nd percentile) to 70.7 MPH (25th percentile). Turang’s swing also got a little steeper and longer (6.1 feet to 6.8 feet), with the attack angle (defined by Baseball Savant as “the vertical angle at which the sweet spot of the bat is traveling at the point of impact with the ball”) rising from one degree to seven. These changes allowed his launch angle to rise more than four degrees, his exit velocity on fly balls to rise over five MPH and his barrel rate to nearly quadruple!  Unsurprisingly, this resulted in much better expected stats on contact as well as overall, even if Turang did sacrifice some contact for power, as reflected in the slightly higher but still decent strikeout and zone contact rates.

Now, we come to this year. Turang’s swing is largely unchanged in terms of bat speed and swing length, and his slightly steeper attack angle hasn’t raised his launch angle at all. But, he must be more comfortable with his faster swing, because everything else has gotten better. From a plate discipline perspective, he’s walking more, striking out and chasing less. In terms of batted balls, his barrel rate has jumped to become comfortably above average, and the increases in both his fly ball exit velocity and PL xwOBA have him in borderline elite territory.

Verdict: Legit. This is my most confident endorsement yet. Turang has made astonishing year-over-year improvements at the plate each of the last two seasons, adding more and more power while hardly sacrificing any contact. Because of the low pull air rate and still comfortably below average bat speed, I have a hard time forecasting anything more than 20 homers for Turang. But aside from that, he’s basically a perfect hitter, capable of stealing 30 bags with an outside chance at hitting .300 and posting 200 combined runs and RBI. I regrettably was too skeptical of Turang this draft season, but if he’s going around pick 50 again next year, I don’t think I’ll make that same mistake.

 

Foster Griffin, SP, WSN

 

Last three starts: 20 IP, 20 Ks, 1 W, 0.45 ERA, 0.80 WHIP

2026: 8 GS, 46.2 IP, 42 Ks, 4 W, 2.12 ERA, 1.03 WHIP

While Tatsuya Imai may have gotten the most headlines of all of the international free agent starting pitchers, Griffin has easily been the best performing of the group. The soft-tossing lefty has been especially good lately, rattling off four consecutive quality starts and only allowing a single earned run in his last three outings. His strikeout and ground ball rates are around average, and while he generally suppresses hard contact (36.6% Statcast Hard Hit%), he hasn’t avoided the most damaging kind of batted ball. That would be barrels, and Griffin’s barrel rate (11.5%) as well as barrels per plate appearance (7.9%) are comfortably below average. That tells me that his .216 BABIP isn’t fully deserved

Verdict: Probably not legit. With Griffin, there are two aspects of what we at Pitcher List refer to as HOTEL (Holy Trinity Equating Luck) doing the heavy lifting here. Those two elements would be that .216 BABIP and 84.1% strand rate (LOB%). The HR/FB% is basically average, but he’s at or above the 85th percentile in both BABIP and LOB%. Griffin is undoubtedly executing well with a wide arsenal (seven pitches!) headlined by an effective cutter (5.10 PLV, 33.9% CSW%) that he throws over a quarter of the time to hitters of both handedness. But, he has underwhelming velocity and hasn’t demonstrated a standout skill in his return from overseas. I’m willing to keep starting Griffin in all formats until he gives me a reason not to, but don’t be afraid to try to sell high right now or drop him in a shallower format if he has a couple of clunkers.