Welcome to a new article series where we’ll cover playing time trends across Major League Baseball. Each week, we’ll take a look at who’s seeing more and fewer at-bats, and what that means for their value in fantasy leagues. This information should be especially valuable for deeper fantasy formats since teams constantly shift who’s seeing the field at the fringes of the roster, but we’ll cover the big names as well.
With all teams having played either five or six games at the time of writing, we obviously don’t have a 2026 baseline to work from, so instead, I’ll highlight what’s changed from last season or from preseason expectations.
Towards the end of last year, Gabriel Moreno started moving up the lineup, and that’s continued so far in 2026. Moreno’s hit fourth in every game he’s played—five of the Dbacks’ six contests. The bat has never been the question for Moreno; it’s been health. He’s never topped 380 plate appearances in a season. If he can stay healthy and hit in the heart of a solid lineup all year long, Moreno could be in store for a huge season.
Jordan Lawlar seems to have finally settled into an everyday role. He’s started five out of the team’s six games. It looks like he’ll be the left fielder versus right-handed starters, and shift over to center field when the team lines up against a southpaw. Lawlar was one of my favorite late-round picks in drafts, and I’m still very interested in rostering the former top prospect. Playing time may become a concern when Lourdes Gurriel Jr. returns, but that should still be weeks away at the earliest.
Although he has the power of a typical cleanup hitter, Shea Langeliers has largely hit second for the A’s this year. Manager Mark Kotsay has penciled his big bopping backstop into the two-hole in four of the Athletics‘ first six games. He’s hit first and third in the other two contests. If the move sticks, Langeliers will see more plate appearances on the season at the cost of RBI opportunities.
Drake Baldwin has started and hit second in all six of Atlanta’s games. This is both a move up the lineup from last season for the second-year catcher, as well as an item of note because he’s stayed in the lineup as the DH when the team has faced lefties. Baldwin has made the most of his opportunities thus far, slashing .263/.364/.737 with three home runs in the early going.
As promised by manager Craig Counsell this winter, first baseman Michael Busch has not been platooned this year. He sat out against lefties last year, but in their first game against a lefty starter on Wednesday, Busch simply moved from his typical leadoff spot down to the fifth slot in the batting order. Whether or not he fends off a platoon partner all year long will certainly be determined by his performance against lefties. He has a career 85 wRC+ against same-handed hurlers, compared to a 131 wRC+ against righties.
One of the players whose fantasy stock has taken the biggest hit due to early-season playing time concerns is Noelvi Marte. He’s started just three of the Reds’ first six games, and looks like he’s on the small side of a right field platoon with Will Benson. Marte hit .263/.300/.448 with 14 homers and 10 stolen bases in 360 plate appearances last year, and looked like he had fun 20/20 potential during draft season. Until he starts seeing the field more often, he’s better left on the waiver wire in most leagues.
The Guardians’ lineup seems to be perennially lacking in power, so Rhys Hoskins seemed like an interesting late dart throw for fantasy teams needing a big bat. Through Cleveland’s first six games, Hoskins has started just three times. All six games have been against right-handed starters, though, and Hoskins does seem likely to be a mainstay against left-handers. We’ll have to see how this unfolds over the course of the season, but if the Guardians once again struggle to put up runs, I could see them finding more time for Hoskins, assuming that he holds his own with the bat.
Jake McCarthy has started and hit leadoff in five of the Rockies’ first six games. All six of those games have come against righties, so we haven’t seen a lefty lineup from new manager Warren Schaeffer yet, but it seems likely that McCarthy would either hit the bench or, at the very least, move down the order. As long as McCarthy is seeing time against at least right-handers out of the leadoff spot, he’ll be a great source of stolen bases. He’s already nabbed four bags this year, albeit with a .111/.158/.167 slash line.
There are some pretty serious questions about how the Astros will fit their five infielders into four spots once Jeremy Peña can play every day, and he should reportedly be ready for back-to-backs this weekend. In the interim, Isaac Paredes has started in all but one of Houston’s games, but it’s unclear how that’ll work once Peña is back to full strength. If they can find a way to get Paredes regular at-bats, he’ll be relevant in all fantasy formats. He’s rostered in just over 50% of both ESPN and Yahoo! leagues, so keep an eye on how the Astros deploy their lineup over the weekend.
Joey Loperfido is the strong side of an outfield platoon with Brice Matthews. Oddly, the Astros have already faced four lefties compared to three righties. You could take advantage of this in deep formats and stream one of these two if they have a heavy lefty or righty week on the calendar.
Luis Rengifo and David Hamilton are battling for playing time at third base. Both have received three starts at the position so far, though their lineup slots have varied. Rengifo has hit second, third, or fourth when he’s cracked the lineup, while Hamilton has hit seventh or eighth. Until either of them grabs this job and runs with it, it’s better to avoid both outside of NL-only fantasy leagues.
Jake Bauers is the benefactor of Andrew Vaughn’s injury. Bauers has started five of six games overall and has played first base in four of the five games since Vaughn went down. Until Vaughn returns, Bauer looks like a solid option in deeper fantasy formats. He’s hitting .273/.304/.545 with two homers so far, and even remained in the lineup for one of the team’s two games against a lefty.
Brandon Lockridge has taken over most of the playing time vacated by Jackson Chourio. Lockridge has started four of the Brewers’ first six games.
Victor Caratini is not just the backup catcher, but the starter at first base when the Twins face a lefty. He’s cracked the starting lineup in four of five games at either catcher or first base. Josh Bell has exclusively DH’d, leaving Kody Clemens to man first base against righties.
After mainly hitting in the six through eight slots in the lineup in 2025, Brooks Lee has been moved to the nine-hole. He wasn’t a fantasy star, but the diminished plate appearances will hurt his value nonetheless.
Going into the season, it seemed like free agent acquisition Jorge Polanco would be the Mets’ everyday first baseman. While Polanco has started five of the Mets’ first six games, only two of them have been at first. He’s been the designated hitter in the other three contests. Brett Baty, Jared Young, and Mark Vientos have combined to get the other four starts at first.
Henry Davis has taken over the starting catcher role from Joey Bart in the season’s early going. Davis has four starts compared to Bart’s two. Although he has a career 53 wRC+ in the big leagues, it looks like Davis will get at least one more chance to make good on the potential the Pirates saw in him when they selected him with the first overall pick in the 2021 draft.
The Giants have run out the same starting nine in all six of their games — the only team that hasn’t wavered at all. An important thing to watch will be Willy Adames‘ spot in the lineup. He opened the season with two appearances as the cleanup hitter, one game in the six-hole, and has since moved to the leadoff role in three straight. His playing time certainly isn’t in question, but if he moves to leadoff permanently, his RBI opportunities will plummet. He spent most of his time batting second or third in 2025, and appeared first in the order for just three plate appearances.
The youth movement is officially underway in St. Louis, and they’re hoping that promising rookie JJ Wetherholt will get this rebuild off to a strong start. He’s hit leadoff in all six of the Cardinals’ games. He even remained at the top of the order against the one lefty the club faced.
Good news for the Ivan Herrera drafters: he’s already started at catcher twice. There were a lot of questions about just how quickly he’d regain his catcher eligibility after injuries limited him to mainly DH duties in 2025, and the answer is shaping up to be relatively quickly. Of course, the Cardinals want Herrera’s bat in the lineup, so he’s DH’d in the four games he wasn’t behind the plate.
It’s not surprising, but it’s still worth noting that Evan Carter is still sitting against lefties. I had a very faint hope that the Rangers would give him a full allotment of playing time in his fourth season, but that won’t be the case. Carter has been held out of the lineup all three games in which the Rangers have faced a southpaw, but on the plus side, he has come in as a pinch hitter in each of those contests, garnering two plate appearances off the bench in each game. When he starts against righties, he’s hit eighth.
Jesús Sánchez has been plugged into the two-hole when the Blue Jays have faced right-handers. That’s an optimal spot to hit in a good lineup for a hitter available in a lot of leagues. While Sánchez didn’t play the first time the Jays faced a lefty starter, he remained in the lineup the second time the team faced a lefty, but moved down to the seven-spot. Sánchez is off to a great start, slashing .375/.500/.563 on the young season, and could be a sneaky good pickup if his playing time keeps up.
If there’s one thing to know about the new front office regime in Washington, it’s that they like to mix and match. Their lineups might differ more every day than any other team. One thing has been constant, though, and that’s Brady House hitting in the middle of the order. He’s started five of the team’s six games and has hit third or fifth in all of those appearances.
Nasim Nuñez has been another constant, also starting five of six. He’s emerged as the team’s regular second baseman, but he did get plugged into shortstop on a day when CJ Abrams was away from the team after losing a loved one. Nuñez is a great speed option in any fantasy format and has already swiped three bags. He’s hitting just .235/.316/.235, but is available in almost all ESPN and Yahoo! leagues if you need steals.
With Nuñez starting at second base every day, Luis García Jr. is out of a full-time job. He’s on the strong side of the first base platoon. The Nationals recently acquired Curtis Mead from the White Sox, and he’ll be the new man at first against lefties.
