Whether you play in a batting average or OBP league, they are both typically the hardest category to fill late in fantasy drafts. Generally speaking, the hitters who get hits and get on base the most are elite hitters in general, which leads to plenty of runs, home runs, and RBI, too. This is why nearly all of the top AVG and OBP hitters of 2025 are early or mid-round picks in 2026 drafts.
That’s why it can be a good idea to target those categories early, as it’s a tough hole to dig yourself out of if you start your team with names such as Elly De La Cruz, Junior Caminero, or Kyle Schwarber (in batting average leagues).
However, there is a way to dig yourself out of an early deficit in those ratios. There are many hitters scattered through the later rounds that will provide a boost in batting average, OBP, or both.
Batting Average Targets
Gabriel Moreno – 170 ADP
Gabriel Moreno has the highest ADP of anyone in this article, but a big reason for that is that the NFBC is a two-catcher format, which pushes all catchers up draft boards. For anyone playing in a one-catcher league, Moreno should go much later and could even be scooped up in the last round in shallower formats.
That makes him a perfect target if you wait on catcher and need a batting average boost, as Moreno has consistently been one of the best contact-hitting backstops since he broke into the league. He’s also just as good in OBP leagues, as he slashed .285/.353/.433 in 83 games in 2025, and holds a .281/.349/.404 slash line for his career.
The contact skills are a given for 2026, but what makes Moreno so enticing is his upside beyond that. The 26-year-old has always displayed limited power due to a high ground-ball rate, but that changed in the 83 games he was healthy for last season, and it showed in his home run total.
If those adjustments stick for this upcoming season and he continues to hit the ball in the air more often, he’ll have the chance to add 15-20 homers on top of his already elite batting average. His 150-game pace based on his 2025 performance would be 16 home runs, 72 RBI, and 79 runs with a .285 average, which looks shockingly close to Yainer Diaz’s 2024 output when he was the third-best catcher in fantasy.
Alec Bohm– 252 ADP
Now entering the seventh season of his career, it’s clear what type of hitter Alec Bohm is. There were always hopes of a power breakout that would make him an elite option, which never came, but that doesn’t mean he should be forgotten about for fantasy purposes. He’ll provide a great batting average and plenty of RBI as Philadelphia’s cleanup hitter, and that’s plenty to justify his draft cost.
The 29-year-old has only hit lower than .280 in a season twice in his career, and one of those was still a solid .274. He excels at putting the ball in play, as he posted a 14.6% whiff rate (93rd percentile) and 16.3% strikeout rate (80th percentile) in 2025. It’s important to note that he is not as much of a help for OBP leagues, as his poor 6.3% walk rate has led to a career .328 OBP.
Last year was a bit of a down year in the home run (11) and RBI (59) departments in 120 games played, but a return to his 2023-2024 form, where he hit a combined 35 home runs with 194 RBI in 288 games with a .277 batting average, isn’t out of the question.
Luis Arraez – 261 ADP
Luis Arraez is the poster boy for late-round batting average help. He found out what he was good at and stuck to it, as he has a career batting average of .317, which is truly eye-popping for this era of baseball. The issue with his fantasy value, of course, is that he will actively hurt your team in every other category, and it’s easy to see why.
He has no interest in swinging the bat hard or lifting the ball out of the ballpark, as he is content with the soft swings that get him to first base. Unlike a lot of contact hitters, he isn’t fast either, and I wouldn’t count on a repeat of his 11 stolen bases in 2025 based on his 25th percentile sprint speed.
While Arraez shouldn’t be viewed as a particularly good fantasy option that you should be itching to get, the point of this article is to identify late-round targets to help with batting average. It takes a very specific team build to work, but if you have all the other categories covered and just desperately need that average, then Arraez is a fine pick. His batting average is so good that it brings his OBP up to a respectable value by default, but his 5.0% walk rate in 2025 led to just a .327 OBP, so don’t count on him to be a standout in that format.
Brendan Donovan– 271 ADP
Brendan Donovan is yet another batting average specialist, posting a career .282 mark while not excelling anywhere else for fantasy purposes. He doesn’t run and doesn’t hit for power, but he’s one of the best at the things he does do well, posting a 13.4% whiff rate (95th percentile), 13.0% strikeout rate (92nd percentile), and a 36.8% squared-up rate (96th percentile).
It’s also important to note that he is nowhere near the level of Arraez in terms of the downside of the rest of his profile, as he posted a 40.9% hard-hit rate, 89.7 mph average exit velocity, and .449 xSLG that all grade out close to league average, rather than bottom of the barrel, like Arraez.
He was actually showing signs of an early-season breakout in 2025, slashing .333/.379/.491 with three home runs through the first month of the year, but eventually slowed down and finished with stats in line with his career norms, slashing .287/.353/.422 with 10 homers. That type of production will make him a solid option for both standard and OBP leagues, but the hope is that he can take a step forward in 2026.
One big thing that could help him achieve that is the fact that he was traded from the Cardinals to the Mariners this offseason. The 29-year-old will now get to lead off in front of Cal Raleigh, Julio Rodríguez, and Josh Naylor, which could help him shoot way past his previous career high of 65 runs scored in a season. There is some risk tied to his new home, as T-Mobile Park is one of the toughest places to hit in the majors. However, a large part of that is due to a batter’s eye that many hitters have described as the toughest in the league to see the ball against. That is a subjective thing, and not all hitters are as affected as others, so it’s not something we’ll truly know until Donovan starts playing half of his games there.
OBP Targets
Mike Trout – 184 ADP
It’s still hard to believe that Mike Trout, one of the best baseball players of this generation, is now in a “Late Round Targets” article. It is stretching the idea of late rounds in this case, with an ADP of 184, but not everyone plays in 15-team, five-outfielder leagues. In shallower three-outfielder leagues, Trout would certainly be considered a late-rounder, even though he definitely shouldn’t be if OBP is a category.
The former superstar’s batting average has tanked in recent years to a .233 mark in 2025, mainly thanks to an ugly 32% strikeout rate (2nd percentile). However, he still walked at a 15.6% clip (98th percentile), leading to a .359 OBP. That’s a whopping 126 points higher than his average, giving him wildly different value in leagues that use one of two categories. The other good news for his fantasy value is that he still makes exceptionally good quality of contact, posting a 49.3% hard-hit rate, 15.8% barrel rate, and 44.4% sweet-spot rate. The downside, of course, is his inability to stay healthy, but here are the 150-game paces of his last few seasons if he were to stay on the field.
The 2024 sample was only based on 29 games, so don’t expect him to hit 50 home runs, but it’s clear that he is still a 30+ homer bat with great on-base skills. The biggest problem with drafting Trout was the high likelihood of wasting an early draft pick on someone who won’t play, but with an ADP now outside of the top 180, it’s not nearly as much of a risk.
Max Muncy – 247 ADP
Another player who hits for a low batting average but is vastly more valuable in OBP leagues is the Dodgers’ Max Muncy. He only played in 100 games in 2025 but was still a great hitter when healthy, tallying 48 runs, 19 home runs, and 67 RBI with a .243 batting average but a .376 OBP.
The 35-year-old has a great eye and patience at the plate, posting a 16.5% walk rate (99th percentile) and 20.0% chase rate (94th percentile). In an OBP league, he goes from more of an afterthought at the position to a legit starting-caliber option, impacting the ball as well as he ever has in his career, even at this age.
Switching from a batting average league to an OBP league essentially takes his biggest weakness and turns it into his biggest strength. According to ATC, Muncy is projected to be the 22nd most valuable third baseman in standard 5×5 roto leagues using batting average, but the 11th most valuable option in 5×5 leagues with OBP.
Nolan Schanuel – 307 ADP
For a truly deep-round flier, Nolan Schanuel fits the bill. He is solid in both batting average and OBP, but his projected .354 OBP for 2026 stands out a bit more than his .261 projected batting average. In 2025, he slashed .264/.353/.389 with 64 runs, 12 home runs, 53 RBI, and five steals in 132 games played.
His current approach is much more line-drive focused to all fields, which limits his power production, but there’s still time for Schanuel to take another step forward at the plate. Entering his fourth year in the league and typically regarded as a “boring” fantasy option, it may be easy to forget that he is still only 24 years old. The Angels have a recent history of fast-tracking their prospects to the majors, with Schanuel debuting in the same season he was drafted, which is almost unheard of. In a different organization, he may have taken more time to reach the majors and built up more hype as a prospect as a result.
The good news is that he will get every opportunity to take another step forward, since he’s at no risk of losing playing time in a weak Angels’ offense. Every day at-bats towards the top of a lineup provide great value themselves in deeper roto leagues, providing stability that’s tough to find that late in drafts.
Photo by Scott Winters/Icon Sportswire | Featured Image by Justin Redler (@reldernitsuj on Bsky/Twitter)
