Summer is here in full swing, and it’s not just heat waves that have come with it. Injuries and prospect promotions have continued to shift the fantasy baseball landscape over the last week.
In this article, we’ll take a team-by-team look at how lineups have evolved, and how you can take advantage of those changes to the benefit of your fantasy baseball team.
The Diamondbacks called up infield prospect LuJames Groover last Friday, and he’s started four straight games at first base since joining the big league squad. Groover has hit well at pretty much every minor league stop, and was slashing .322/.421/.452 with three homers and two steals in Triple-A. He could get a decent shot at playing time with Jose Fernandez’s demotion, and Ildemaro Vargas banged up and not performing well at the plate.
Gabriel Moreno is slugging more than ever and has moved up the batting order. His .171 ISO is a career best, as is his 10.9% barrel rate. He’s hit third or fourth in eight of his last nine starts.
With Moreno’s lineup promotion, Geraldo Perdomo has moved down. He’s gone from hitting third to hitting sixth or seventh in five straight.
Las Vegas Athletics
Max Muncy returned from the IL on Monday to join the big league squad for their week in Vegas. He started his first two games back, both against left-handers, pushing Jeff McNeil to the bench and moving Zack Gelof across the infield from third base to second. Moving forward,m McNeil serving in a reserve role likely makes the most sense, but he may start in lieu of Muncy or Gelof against right-handed starters.
Darrell Hernaiz earned a demotion to Triple-A with his 74 wRC+ (134 PAs), ceding the temporary starting shortstop job to Alika Williams and his 12 wRC+ (32 PAs). Jacob Wilson is out on a rehab assignment and should be back with the A’s soon.
Dominic Smith has started five straight games at DH, including two against left-handed starting pitchers. Previously, Smith had started against just one of the 25 southpaws that Atlanta has seen in 2026. If he’s breaking out of a platoon into a full-time role, his fantasy value will significantly increase.
Ronald Acuña Jr. is headed back to the IL with a strained left hamstring. We haven’t seen a lineup without Acuña AND Drake Baldwin, but I’d assume that Michael Harris II or Mauricio Dubón slide up to hit leadoff. Playing time in right field will likely be platooned between Mike Yastrzemski and either Eli White or whoever the Braves call up in the corresponding move.
The Cubs activated Matt Shaw from the IL on Tuesday and demoted Kevin Alcantara to Triple-A Iowa. With manager Craig Counsell mixing and matching more often than normal, Shaw could see more playing time than you might expect. If he comes out of the gate producing, he could work his way into a regular role for the struggling Northsiders.
The more fun Chicago squad promoted yet another slugging prospect to the big leagues this week. Right fielder Braden Montgomery joined the Southsiders on Tuesday night and made an immediate impact, becoming just the fifth player in MLB history to hit a walk-off home run in his MLB debut. Montgomery was crushing Double-A and Triple-A pitching this year to the tune of a combined .314/.422/.548. He should get every opportunity to win the starting right field job moving forward.
Cincinnati recalled Noelvi Marte from Triple-A last week, but he’s started just three of the Reds’ six games since. He’s been in right field, taking some at-bats away from Will Benson and Spencer Steer. Until Marte sees consistent at-bats, you can leave him on your league’s waiver wire.
The Reds unsurprisingly sent down TJ Friedl to make room for Marte. Friedl wasn’t playing often and had just a 43 wRC+.
After a nice stretch of consistent playing time, Rhys Hoskins has seen a lot of the bench recently. He’s started just one of Cleveland’s last four contests.
The Rockies placed Tyler Freeman on the seven-day concussion IL after he was hit on the head by a Jacob Misiorowski fastball on Saturday.
To fill Freeman’s vacated roster spot, Colorado promoted prospect Cole Carrigg from Triple-A. He made his MLB debut in center field on Tuesday night, hitting seventh. He’s performed well at every minor league level, but his carrying tool is his speed, not his bat. He was hitting .338/.414/.529 with six home runs and 30 steals in Triple-A. He makes for an interesting NL-only pickup, and could push for a permanent role if he performs well.
Gleyber Torres returned from his month-long stint on the IL last week and has been hitting leadoff. He’s batted at the top of the order in five of six games since his activation. Hao-Yu Lee was sent down in the corresponding move.
Manager A.J. Hinch has moved Colt Keith down the batting order. He was hitting in the top four spots in the lineup, but has moved down to sixth or seventh since Torres rejoined the big league club.
The Astros activated Jose Altuve from the IL over the weekend. Of course, the former AL MVP was immediately reinstated to the starting nine, but he did move down the lineup. Altuve had been hitting leadoff for most of the year while Jeremy Peña was on the IL, but with Peña healthy, Altuve has been penciled into the five spot.
Houston’s carousel of left fielders has continued. The Astros signed LaMonte Wade Jr. last week, but he was only with the team for five days before heading to the IL with a right hamstring strain. Joey Loperfido was called up from Triple-A and started his first game back in the bigs, hitting seventh on Tuesday. He’ll share time in left with Brice Matthews and Yordan Alvarez.
We briefly touched on the Royals’ leadoff change last week, but now that we have a bigger sample of lineups, we can conclusively say that Carter Jensen is the new leadoff man versus right-handed pitchers. Lane Thomas has taken over the role against southpaws. Accordingly, Maikel Garcia has moved from first in the lineup to third or fourth.
Injuries to Adam Frazier and Vaughn Grissom have opened a lot of playing time for Nick Madrigal. He’s started seven of the team’s last nine games at either second base, third base, or designated hitter. Madrigal doesn’t offer a lot of fantasy appeal outside of his bat-to-ball skills, but he is hitting .346/.452/.385 in a 31-plate-appearance sample. He’ll likely continue to see regular at-bats in the short term.
The Angels called up Denzer Guzman on Monday, and he’s started two straight games at third base, taking playing time from Donovan Walton. Guzman has never garnered much attention in the prospect space, but he’s performed well at Triple-A, slashing .336/.403/.571 with 12 homers and nine stolen bases. He’ll likely get a shot to claim the starting third base job moving forward.
It’s been three years since we’ve seen Trey Mancini in the big leagues, but the Angels added him to the MLB roster on Monday. He could see a little bit of run at DH, but it seems unlikely he’ll factor heavily into the Angels’ plans unless he comes out of the gate red-hot.
I somehow missed this in last week’s article, but the Dodgers made a change at second base, recalling Alex Freeland from Triple-A and sending Hyeseong Kim down. Freeland has started against all nine righties the team has faced since rejoining the MLB squad.
Ryan Ward is seeing consistent time in left field against right-handed starting pitchers. He’s started three straight games and six of the last nine.
Will Smith has missed four straight games with a neck ailment. While tests point to it being a minor issue, it’s possible Smith could still land on the IL, temporarily bumping up Dalton Rushing’s fantasy value.
The Marlins made a change to their leadoff hitter. Xavier Edwards has moved down the order and out of the leadoff spot. He’s hit fourth in six of the last seven games. Liam Hicks has assumed the leadoff job against righties, with Heriberto Hernández hitting first against lefties.
Joey Ortiz’s 64 wRC+ just isn’t good enough to keep him in the lineup, no matter how good his defense is. He’s currently only playing versus lefties. He’s been on the bench against nine of the last 12 righties the Brewers have faced. David Hamilton is the starting shortstop against righties for the time being, although his 89 wRC+ doesn’t give me confidence he’ll hold the role long term.
Royce Lewis wouldn’t stop hitting bombs against Triple-A pitchers, so the Twins brought him back up to The Show. He’s started three straight since being recalled, although his playing time has come at first and second base, not third. The Twins have a handful of players with positional flexibility, so this will likely most negatively affect the playing time of Orlando Arcia and Ryan Kreidler.
With Lewis’ position change, Brooks Lee has remained the starter at third base, raising questions of whether the Twins are considering promoting shortstop prospect Kaelen Culpepper in the near future. He may be worth a stash in deep formats.
Francisco Alvarez returned from the IL on Tuesday and should immediately resume his full-time role behind the plate. If you need catcher help, check to make sure he wasn’t dropped to the wire in your league.
With Aaron Judge on the IL, Spencer Jones and José Caballero have been splitting time in right field. Jones should start against most righties while Caballero faces lefties.
Austin Wells‘ trip to the IL leaves an offensive black hole behind the plate in New York. J.C. Escarra and Alí Sánchez have shared the catching duties almost equally in Wells’ absence, but neither has enough juice in their bat to warrant a roster spot in any fantasy league.
The Padres designated Nick Castellanos for assignment last week, and while he wasn’t seeing a starter’s share of playing time, he was seeing the field often enough to open meaningful at-bats for someone else. That someone else appears to be Samad Taylor. Although he didn’t start the first four games he was on the roster, he’s now started four straight in left field. Bryce Johnson has also started four games since Castellanos’ departure, but only four of the last seven overall.
J.P. Crawford was hit by a pitch in the hand over the weekend and was placed on the IL on Monday. His absence has a few cascading effects on the roster. Cole Young has moved into the leadoff role against righties, while Victor Robles helms the lineup against lefties.
With Crawford out, Colt Emerson should be the everyday starter at shortstop, but he’s currently day-to-day with a back injury. If he can avoid the IL, he’ll start at shortstop with Patrick Wisdom taking time at third base. If Emerson eventually goes to the IL too, Young will shift to shortstop, and Ryan Bliss will see starts at second base.
The Cardinals activated two outfielders from the IL in recent days. Lars Nootbaar made his season debut last Friday and has started three of four games since. He should see every day playing time with a middle-of-the-order lineup slot as long as he’s healthy, though he may sit against lefties. Nathan Church was activated from the IL on Tuesday and reclaimed his starting outfield job, this time in center field.
To make room for Nootbaar and Church, the Cardinals sent Victor Scott II and Thomas Saggese to Triple-A.
Texas received a big offensive boost on Friday when the team activated both Corey Seager and Wyatt Langford from the IL. With their returns, Alejandro Osuna and Cody Freeman were demoted. Nicky Lopez will also see a massive playing time hit as Ezequiel Duran will move across the diamond from shortstop to second base to make room for Seager.
Ernie Clement has moved up the lineup recently, hitting second, third, or fifth rather than his usual sixth or seventh.
Alejandro Kirk could return from the 60-day IL as soon as Friday. If you have Brandon Valenzuela in your lineup, start making contingency plans now.
