There are still plenty of Fantasy Baseball drafts left, but for those of you who aren’t waiting until the last minute, it’s time for the nitty gritty of in-season roster management to begin. That means it’s time to get those waiver-wire claims and FAB bids in before the first (or second, if you counted the Tokyo Series) lineup lock of the season draws near.
I’ve got waiver-wire targets for every position to consider here, plus a deep-league sleeper if you need to dig a little farther in the player pool, and I’m focusing on players rostered in fewer than 50% of CBS Fantasy leagues for my primary targets. But, of course, some of you might have drafted early enough that players who would go on to be widely drafted might not have met that 50%-and-under criteria but are still available in your league. So, before you do anything, make sure the following players aren’t available in your league:
- Gabriel Moreno, C, Diamondbacks (67%) – He has flashed a bit of power this spring, but mostly matters as a high-floor option at a position with few of them.
- Michael Toglia, 1B, Rockies (72%) – If he gets the typical batting average boost associated with spending half your games at Coors Field, Toglia could hit .250 with 30-plus homers and double-digit steals. There’s a reason he was my favorite mid-to-late round 1B option.
- Ryan Mountcastle, 1B, Orioles (59%) – With the fences moving back in left field in Baltimore, Mountcastle has a much better chance of tapping into his plus raw power this season.
- Kristian Campbell, 2B, Red Sox (69%) – The Red Sox haven’t made it official, but there’s a lot of smoke suggesting he’ll be the starting second baseman on Opening Day, and there’s tons of five-category upside here with one of the top prospects in the game.
- Cam Smith, 3B, Astros (60%) – Smith so impressed the Astros in the short time since the Kyle Tucker trade that he’s now slated to debut on Opening Day with fewer than 40 professional games on his record. He’s below Campbell on the priority list, but not much.
- Zachary Neto, SS, Angels (75%) – If you’re in one of those 25% of leagues and you have an IL spot to play with, just add him and see if he can follow up last season’s breakout.
- Michael Conforto, OF, Dodgers (65%) – There could be some risk of a platoon role, but Conforto isn’t so bad against lefties that it’s a foregone conclusion. He could be a must-start player in this lineup.
- Evan Carter, OF, Rangers (62%) – Carter isn’t even guaranteed an Opening Day roster spot, but I still believe in the upside if he makes it.
- Jorge Soler, OF, Angels (56%) – Need cheap power? He’ll always provide it.
- Taj Bradley, SP, Rays (74%)/Shane Baz, SP, Rays (74%) – There’s some concern about how playing outside of Tropicana Field will affect their stuff, but there’s clearly plenty of talent here.
- Justin Verlander, SP, Giants (70%) – Verlander might just be finished, but he still showed good control and limited damage on balls in play. If he can miss a few more bats, a good supporting cast and home ballpark could make him pretty useful for Fantasy.
- Reese Olson, SP, Tigers (62%) – Olson’s velocity has been up a tick or so this spring, which could really matter — his changeup and slider are awesome, but his fastball was pretty bad last season. If he can avoid getting hit too hard on his way two-strike counts, the secondaries could do the rest.
Alright, now let’s go position-by-position for the top option available in more than 50% of CBS Fantasy leagues:
Catchers
Ivan Herrera, Cardinals (44%) – One-catcher leagues are more prominent on the CBS platform than other Fantasy providers, which probably explains why Herrera’s roster rate is so low. I think he’ll be a must-start player in two-catcher leagues and a viable option in one-catcher leagues, so if you don’t have a sure-fire difference maker, I’d be fine adding Herrera anywhere just in case he’s as good as I think he is. If Herrera isn’t available, Drake Baldwin (30%) of the Braves would be my top priority.
Deep-league target: Hunter Goodman, Rockies (8%) – The Rockies have talked about using Goodman primarily as a catcher, which would actually be a bad thing for his immediate value if he’s only the backup behind Jacob Stallings. But the trade of Nolan Jones could afford him a few extra OF opportunities, and he has difference-making power potential for a catcher. He should be rostered in most two-catcher leagues – and you can consider Mitch Garver in deeper ones, since he could see more playing time at DH following the release of Mitch Haniger.
First Base
Spencer Torkelson, Tigers (36%) – We’ve been burned by Torkelson before, and you have to think April might be more or less his last chance with the Tigers. But he played like his hair was on fire this spring, hitting .302/.362/.581 with just a 21% strikeout rate and even forced the Tigers to give him a look in a corner outfield spot – earlier in the offseason, it looked like the team had mostly given up on Torkelson, so this speaks to how much he changed his outlook in a few weeks. It could all fall apart amid too many whiffs and too few hard-hit balls like last season, but Torkelson is just 25, and two years removed from a 31-homer season in the majors, so I want to see if he can get back to that level. If you need more immediate help with a lower ceiling, Nate Lowe (39%) should be fine – not much more than that, but in deeper leagues, “fine” is … well, fine. If you want to speculate on a bit more upside than that, Ben Rice (25%) looks set to be the team’s primary DH and hit the ball hard all spring long, though he might not play much against lefties early on.
Deep-league target: Gavin Sheets, Padres (5%) – Sheets has been around long enough that I’m mostly writing him off as a platoon bat who doesn’t hit righties well enough to really matter. But he mashed his way into a DH role with the Padres with six homers this spring and is looking to sustain it thanks to a reworked swing.
Second base
David Hamilton, Red Sox (34%) – I’m expecting Kristian Campbell to be the starting second baseman for the Red Sox, but Hamilton should play somewhere pretty much every day. I’m not much of a believer in his bat – he was pretty average in the minors despite being an older prospect – but he’s going to steal a bunch of bases and could be triple-eligible pretty soon. That’s a useful player to have around in any category-based league.
Deep-league target: Curtis Mead, Rays (11%) – It seems like Mead is going to be a short-side platoon bat for the Rays this season, but he has played second, third, and first base this spring while hitting .538/.617/.641, and if he stays hot he could play his way into a consistent role.
Third base
Joseph Ortiz, Brewers (28%) – Ortiz is going to be the starting shortstop for the Brewers, and he’s an interesting CI/MI option in any league where those matter. He had 11 homers and 11 steals in 511 plate appearances last season and was more like a 20-homer guy in the minors. If he can get closer to that level without sacrificing too much batting average, there is a pretty useful player there.
Deep-league target: Brett Baty, Mets (17%) – Another guy who isn’t actually going to play third, Baty is set to open the season at second base for the Mets. He’ll need to hit quickly to have a chance to remain in the lineup when Jeff McNeil is healthy, but we’re not that far removed from Baty looking like one of the more exciting hitting prospects in the game. Let’s see if the Mets can figure it out with him like they did with Mark Vientos last season.
If that isn’t deep enough for you … Oswaldo Cabrera, Yankees (6%) – With DJ LeMahieu on the IL to open the season, Cabrera should get a decent look in April. He hasn’t managed to be even an average bat in the majors, but he’s consistently been quite a bit better than average in the minors. There’s an opportunity here, at least.
Shortstop
Jacob Wilson, Athletics (27%) – Wilson has superlative contact skills, and has shown the occasional ability to tap into power a bit more consistently than someone like Luis Arraez. He homered four times in his first 17 spring games with just two strikeouts, and has a chance to be a batting average standout who isn’t a total zero in power, especially in what we expect to be a pretty good hitting environment in Sacramento.
Deep-league targets: Max Muncy, Athletics (2%), Chase Meidroth, White Sox (5%) – And hey, there’s Wilson’s double-play partner to open the season after Zack Gelof suffered a fractured hamate bone at the end of spring. And yes, his name is the same as the totally unrelated Dodgers third baseman. Muncy wasn’t really on our radar before the A’s made this announcement, but he hit .292/.378/.525 with 10 homers and five steals in just 58 games, mostly at Triple-A last season, and there’s clearly upside here. Batting average could be a problem, but Muncy could have power and speed upside if he isn’t overwhelmed. Meidroth is less interesting both because of his skill set (very limited power, not a ton of athleticism) and because he’s less assured of a starting spot. But if he is the White Sox’s Opening Day shortstop, there’s obviously potential there.
Outfield
Victor Scott, Cardinals (19%) – Scott was overwhelmed when he made the Cardinals Opening Day roster last season, and it carried over to his worst showing in the minors. But he’s been terrific this spring, with four homers and five steals in 15 games, and his speed especially could make him a difference maker. If there’s any bat here at all, there might not be much separating him and someone like Xavier Edwards or Pete Crow-Armstrong, both of whom have been drafted in pretty much every league this season.
J.J. Bleday, Athletics (48%) – Bleday is pretty boring, but to his credit, he keeps getting better every time he gets a chance. Can he build on his .243 average and 20 homers from last season? In a better ballpark, with an improving Athletics’ lineup behind him, I’m not sure he’s a finished product just yet.
Matt Wallner, Twins (48%) – Wallner’s appeal is probably pretty format-dependent, because we’re almost certainly not going to see him playing much against lefties, which takes him off the table in most weekly H2H leagues. But in any league with daily lineups, Wallner is definitely worth a look since he may be hitting leadoff for the Twins against righties. He’s a career .251/.366/.500 hitter, mostly in platoons, and should be a must-start hitter when righties are on the mound.
Deep-league targets: Alan Roden, Blue Jays (6%), Jordan Beck, Rockies (8%), Jerar Encarnacion (6%) – Roden was a long-shot to make the roster, but forced his way with a great spring. He’ll probably play multiple spots for the Jays and may need to get off to a hot start to play everyday, but there’s upside here coming off a 16-homer, 17-steal season where he hit .293 across Double-A and Triple-A. Beck and Encarnacion have some deep league appeal as potential cheap source of power.
Starting pitcher
Casey Mize, Tigers (38%) – We’ve been fooled by Mize before – I may have featured him in this very column for Week 1 of last season, too, now that I think of it. He’s added another couple of ticks of fastball velocity and has further tweaked his slider grip, so we’ll give him one more chance – I’d like to see him once or twice through the rotation, and if he isn’t missing bats, he’ll be a fairly easy drop. But I’m intrigued after he struck out 18 this spring.
Hayden Birdsong, Giants (34%) – The stuff will play at the MLB level, as he showed when he posted a 27.9% strikeout rate last season. The question is whether he can throw enough strikes for that to matter, which is why his zero-walk spring was so promising. Birdsong pitched his way into the Giants rotation, and with a good defense and home park, there’s pretty decent upside here if he can just have a normal bad walk rate instead of the 13.7% rate he had last season.
Jack Leiter, Rangers (34%) – Both Leiter and fellow Vanderbilt alum Kumar Rocker enter the season with a big opportunity and very little runway. They both look locked into the Rangers rotation to start the season after Jon Gray (wrist) and Cody Bradford (elbow) on the IL. The Rangers did add Patrick Corbin after those injuries as some rotation insurance, but let’s be clear: Patrick Corbin shouldn’t be keeping any electric young arms out of the rotation for any team in 2025. The only thing standing in either Leiter or Rocker’s path to Fantasy relevance is themselves. If they throw strikes consistently, the plus stuff will play.
Max Meyer, Marlins (39%) – Meyer’s fastball looks much improved this spring, and he worked hard to expand his arsenal this offseason, which would all be very exciting if he managed better than an average strikeout rate this spring. It’s a small sample size, sure, but we also don’t exactly have a ton to point to to get excited about Meyer at this point in his career, and he really needs to be an exceptional pitcher to have much value with the Marlins backing him up, unfortunately. Still, I’ll take the flier on his first couple of starts to see if he can unlock some of the upside he once promised as a prospect.
Kris Bubic, Royals (41%) – If you play in a CBS H2H points league, you should probably move Bubic up to the top of your priority list as a high-priority SPaRP. In returning to the rotation this spring, he has held on to most of the velocity gains from last season’s relief role, and has 17 strikeouts in 16.2 innings.
Deep-league targets: Cade Povich, Orioles (10%), Chris Paddack, Twins (9%) – Povich pitched his way into the Orioles rotation this spring, with some help from an elbow injury to Grayson Rodriguez. He got rocked last year in the majors, but has had a lot of success at Triple-A missing bats. Paddack has been mostly left for dead for Fantasy, but he looked phenomenal in his most recent spring start, striking out seven and racking up a bunch of swings and misses on his four-seamer and changeup. I don’t have a ton of confidence he’ll carry this over for long, but … his first start of the season is likely to come against the White Sox, so put him on your draft board if you know you’ll need to stream early on.
Relief pitcher
Aroldis Chapman, Red Sox (55%) – The Red Sox haven’t made it official yet, but if Chapman’s primary competition for the closer job thinks it should be him, who am I to argue. Chapman isn’t the overwhelmingly dominant force he once was, but he can still get the job done while racking up big strikeout numbers, so he should be worth starting in most leagues where you’re looking for saves.
Kyle Finnegan, Nationals (55%) – Because he signed relatively late in the process, Finnegan went undrafted in a lot of early leagues and probably wasn’t on a lot of radars even after he signed. He’s not a difference maker, but he should have a decent leash as the Nationals closer and was effective enough in that job last season. He’ll be usable until he gets traded, at least.
A.J. Puk, Diamondbacks (44%) – Justin Martinez is more widely rostered to open the season, and I probably lean toward him being more likely to be the primary closer here than Puk. But that’s just based on Martinez being a righty and Puk being a lefty – the Diamondbacks haven’t tipped their hand, and even Kevin Ginkel could be in the mix as a deep-league option. But Puk should get some saves, at least, while being a helpful pitcher otherwise. He probably doesn’t have much value in points leagues, but he’s an option in categories leagues.
Deep-league target: Scott Barlow, Reds (2%), Marc Church, Rangers (4%) – With Alexis Diaz opening the season on the IL, the Reds bullpen looks wide open. I’m putting Barlow here, but it could very well be Emilio Pagan, Taylor Rogers, or even converted starter Graham Ashcraft. I’d have to be pretty desperate to try to jump the market on any of those guys, to be honest. As for Church: We’re assuming Chris Martin is the Rangers closer, but they have kind of pointedly not named him to that role this spring. Church has been specifically mentioned as a possibility, if you’re desperate in a deeper league.
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