Last week, I modified this column to find targets for specific categories, and we’re going to keep that running through the rest of the fantasy baseball season.
At this point in the season, you’re not just looking to find good hitters but hitters who help you in the categories you most need in order to move up your standings. It doesn’t matter if Jake Burger is hitting lots of home runs. If you don’t need production in that category then he may not be the best add.
As a consequence, the purpose of this article is to try and find short-term values in specific categories. These are players you may roster for just a week or two as you ride a hot bat or a spike in playing time. We may target a specific schedule. Whatever the case may be, all of them will be UNDER 50% rostered in Yahoo! leagues and all of them will be players I think can help you in the short term in the specific category listed.
With that said, here are six hitters who I think are worth an add right now based on your category needs.
RUNS AND AVERAGE
Maikel Garcia - 3B Kansas City Royals
Rostered in 37% of Yahoo! leagues
We’re back here again with Garcia’s roster rates falling in recent weeks despite solid production. The rookie is hitting leadoff for a Royals team that has been much better lately than people think. Over the last 30 days, the Royals are seventh in baseball in offensive WAR, fourth in batting average, and sixth in runs scored. In the last 14 days, Garcia is hitting .383 and is tied for 18th in baseball with 10 runs scored. Plus he has four stolen bases over those 12 games, so he’ll help you with speed too.
The Royals play the Cubs this weekend, then Oakland, Seattle, Pittsburgh, and Boston in subsequent series. Only Seattle has a pitching staff that worries you there, so I’m happy to bank on a player who is producing and is also sixth among all 3B this year in hard hit rate. His production isn’t a fluke.
Brandon Belt
- 1B, Toronto Blue Jays
Rostered in 6% of Yahoo! leagues
It may be weird to see Belt listed here for runs and not power, but he’s been hitting second for the Blue Jays and has 11 runs in his last 11 games played, which is good for 14th in baseball over the last two weeks. He’s also hitting .272 since the All-Star break and .341 in 12 games in August, so he’s seeing the ball well right now.
Belt is an established veteran with a track record of success when he’s healthy, so he’s a good bet right now. We know he’ll sit against lefties, which means one start this weekend against Brandon Williamson in Cincinnati, but then he should be in the lineup for rest of that series, the whole series against Baltimore, and two of three games against Cleveland, including a potential start against Noah Syndergaard . That should give him enough solid production to remain valuable over the next couple of weeks, but he has even more value in daily moves leagues.
HOME RUNS and RBI
Hat tip to Zack Gelof here, who has been so good for Oakland of late, but only two of his eight home runs have come at home and Oakland will be at home all of next week. I love a four game set against the Royals, so I think you can add Gelof if you just want a solid bat, but I’m not expecting a big home run week.
Kerry Carpenter
- OF, Detroit Tigers
Rostered in 43% of Yahoo! leagues.
Much like Maikel Garcia , Carpenter is a player who should be rostered in way more leagues just based on his season production. He has 15 home runs in 75 games played and is hitting .313/.382/.556 with seven 20 RBI, and 16 runs in 28 games. Over the last two weeks, he’s tied for 11th in baseball with four home runs and faces just two lefties over the next week and a half.
After a dip at the end of July that, admittedly, caused me to drop Carpenter in my home league, the 25-year-old has added the thump back to his swing. Statcast uses Sweet Spot% to describe “a batted-ball event with a launch angle ranging from 8 to 32 degrees,” which is the optimal launch angle for meaningful contact. Since the calendar flipped the August, Carpenter has seen his sweet spot rate rise, so it’s no surprise that increased production has followed.
It’s time to get back on board with Carpenter if you haven’t yet.
Ryan Jeffers - C, Minnesota Twins
Rostered in 9% of Yahoo! leagues
It’s weird to see a catcher featured a HR and RBI category article, but we need to talk about what Ryan Jeffers is doing because he has ripped the starting catcher job away from Christian Vazquez . Jeffers has started behind the dish in four of the last six games, but has also started at DH in the two games he didn’t catch. The Twins see how well he’s hitting and want to keep his bat in the lineup.
In August, Jeffers is hitting .275/.370/.650 with four home runs, six runs, and nine RBI in 11 games. That’s solid production from any position, but if you’re getting that from your catcher you’re certainly happy.
Jeffers’ strikeout rate is a bit elevated this season, but he hits the ball incredibly hard with a double-digit barrel rate in every MLB season and a max exit velocity of 117.4 mph this year. Even if the home runs don’t sustain at this pace, he’s been hitting fourth or fifth in the Twins’ lineup, so he should have the opportunity to keep driving in runs over the short-term.
STOLEN BASES
Dairon Blanco - OF, Kansas City Royals
Rostered in 1% of Yahoo! leagues
Usually we want to avoid “rabbits,” players who only run fast and bring little else to the table, but if you need steals, it’s kind of hard to ignore what Blanco is doing recently.
Even without being a regular starter for the Royals, Blanco is tied for the lead in baseball with five steals over the last two weeks. There are seven hitters over that span with five steals, and Blanco is the only one with under 33 plate appearances. He has just 15. He has 14 steals with just 87 plate appearances this season.
Normally that’s not a profile we want on our fantasy teams, and I still am not actively seeking Blanco out; however, if I could add three to five points in the standings by improving in steals then adding Blanco might be worth it. He’s a regular pinch runner for the Royals and looks to run whenever he can. Being one of the fastest players in the league and playing for a team that has the fourth-most steals per game has a way of resulting in stolen base production.
Nicky Lopez - 2B, Atlanta Braves
Rostered in 8% of Yahoo! leagues
I know, I also can’t believe I’m recommending Nicky Lopez, but with Ozzie Albies on the IL, it seems like Nicky Lopez is the new starting second baseman for the Braves. Yes, they called up Vaughn Grissom , but their trust in him clearly has some cracks and Lopez has been the one starting in the early going. That makes sense since he has produced in the few starts he’s received since coming to the Braves, going 7-for-14 with a home run, eight RBI, and a stolen base.
I certainly don’t think that level of production will sustain, but this is a guy who stole 22 bases in 2021 and 15 bases last year, so we know he can run. Even hitting at the bottom of the Braves lineup, he’s likely to come up in situations where he can also drive in some runs or get driven in himself, so Lopez could be a sneaky short-term deep league add.
Harrison Bader
- OF, New York Yankees
Rostered in 31% of Yahoo! leagues
I’ll give you a bonus steals add since Blanco and Lopez both have a few concerns in their profiles. If you want somebody with a bit more multi-week stability then I think Bader is a good add. He has four steals over the last two weeks and has been playing every day in CF for the Yankees.
I know New York has hit a rough patch of late, but Bader is getting the opportunities, and he’s always been a solid deep league power/speed asset when healthy. This season, Bader has seven home runs and 14 steals in just 71 games. That’s three steals off of his career-high despite missing games with injury.
He doesn’t strike out (16.5% strikeout rate) and hits near the bottom of the Yankees’ lineup, which makes him more likely to run while guys like Anthony Volpe and Kyle Higashioka are up. Over those last two weeks, Bader is hitting .271 with those four steals and eight runs scored, so he provides a little more than somebody like Blanco who is really only valuable for steals.
