Major League Baseball has now played 12 of 26 weeks this season, which means we have some statistical basis, but not a whole season, to evaluate players for our fantasy baseball squads. With Opening Day well past us and the dog days of summer ahead, who have been some of the more interesting risers and fallers?
In the aggregate, 12 weeks of production is not a lot of information to use when evaluating players for the rest of the season. That’s why it’s also important to look at usage, lineup placement, platoon splits, and other factors when trying to determine what to do with tough player choices.
This piece will look at some MLB fantasy assets that have seen their fantasy value rise and fall through the first 12 weeks of games. This will hopefully give us an idea of what to do with these players moving forward.
Roster percentages (from Yahoo) and stats include all games finished by June 17.
MLB Risers
Bo Bichette (SS), Toronto Blue Jays
It’s definitely been a tale of two seasons for Bo Bichette, comparing 2024 and 2025. After a disastrous campaign that saw him hit just .225/.277/.322 in 81 games, Bichette is up to .270/.313/.424 this season, even before he added another three hits, including a home run and two RBI on Wednesday night. Last year, his slugging percentage would have been the worst in the game if he qualified. This season, he is tied with players like Marcell Ozuna and Christian Yelich. Health, improved approach, and a focus on hard contact have turned his offense around.
In some sense, we will probably always be chasing the 29 home runs and 25 stolen bases from Bichette in 2021 when he was a 23-year-old. But he is on pace for 25 home runs and 12 steals right now, and striking out less than ever before (16%). All of his underlying metrics have improved from his disastrous 2024 campaign, and the arrow is pointing clearly up for Bichette the rest of the season as the Blue Jays’ offense starts to improve.
Zach Neto (SS), Los Angeles Angels
There would have been zero concern if Zach Neto started his season relatively slowly. He missed the first month with a shoulder injury and didn’t have any Spring Training. In fact, his entire ramp-up time for his return to the majors was fewer than 60 plate appearances in AAA. It was expected he would be rusty and need some time to get up to the player we saw in 2024, but he showed up 54 games ago and has been hitting, running, and producing like a fantasy superstar through his first 234 plate appearances.
Overall, Neto is hitting .279/.321/.484 with 10 home runs and 12 steals. Even with the missed time, he is already on pace to break his 23/30 season from 2024, where he became a fantasy star seemingly under the radar. His hard-hit rate and barrel rate are way up. His exit velocity has seen a massive increase. And his expected batting average (.282) and expected slugging percentage (.534) are all well above what he’s actually done, meaning this has a good chance to continue and even improve.
Andrew Abbott (SP), Cincinnati Reds
The Cincinnati Reds may have one of the most hitter-friendly ballparks in Major League Baseball, but one pitcher on that team has not seemed to care how many runs the park allows. Andrew Abbott flies past mid-June with a 6-1 record after 12 starts, including a 1.84 ERA and 9.1 strikeouts per nine innings. The 26-year-old pitcher with a second-round pedigree also has a career-best in walk rate (2.6 per nine) and home run rate (1.05 per nine). He is finally putting everything together in just his third year in the league, and now the challenge for him the rest of the season is the one that puts him past last year’s total of 138 innings pitched.
There has been some luck involved in Abbott’s performances this season, if we are being realistic. That can’t be discounted, especially with his home park. His .227 BABIP is a career-low, and his 7.2% home run per flyball rate is simply laughable. But with more than a strikeout per inning and plenty of soft contact allowed, Abbott is making his own luck as he truly breaks out this season. This is a pitcher worth rostering that is still available in plenty of leagues.
MLB Fallers
Brenton Doyle (OF), Colorado Rockies
After another 0-for-4 night on Wednesday, Brenton Doyle is now hitting .191 with a 554 OPS in 2025. Doyle has not come close to paying off the investment you had to make at the draft table to secure his services this year. By the time the dust settled on draft season, Doyle was a top-75 pick after hitting 23 home runs and stealing 30 bases in 2024. Expectations were sky-high this offseason, but now his fantasy value is buried underground.
Doyle does have five homers and seven steals. That power/speed combo is nice, I guess, but Doyle – like the rest of the entire Colorado Rockies squad – is playing so poorly on offense that he hasn’t been able to shake out of it all season. Is the team context the cause of his struggles this year? Perhaps that’s a part of it, but he has actually gotten worse as the summer months have approached.
In the first six weeks of the season, Doyle hit .241/.289/.434. Not anything to write home about, but certainly not awful. In June, those numbers are down to .117/.169/.167 with a 26% strikeout rate. His hard contact is down to 36%, and he is hitting groundballs 47% of the time this month. He is a bench stash until further notice.
Luis Robert Jr. (OF), Chicago White Sox
Earlier this season, Luis Robert Jr. was playing so poorly that when asked about the prospects of being traded this year, he said something to the effect of “Why would another team want to take a chance on me with the way I’m playing?” That kind of honesty is refreshing these days, but it also shows that Robert is completely self-aware of just how bad he has been as a member of one of the worst teams in baseball. Once a five-category blossoming star in fantasy baseball, Robert’s star has fallen hard this season.
Over his last 78 plate appearances, Robert is hitting .200/.260/.300 with one home run and a 36% strikeout rate. He is walking just 6% of the time in that span and has just a .100 ISO. But it isn’t just the last couple of weeks. On the season, he is at just .190/.275/.305 in 258 plate appearances. If not for his 21 stolen bases, this would be a disastrous fantasy option for our rosters. Even with that help in the speed department, Robert may not be a candidate for our starting lineups.
Logan O’Hoppe (C), Los Angeles Angels
Cal Raleigh, who smashed his 27th home run on Tuesday night, gets all the headlines at the catcher position, but take a guess at who is second among all catchers in home runs this season. If you guessed Angels’ backstop Logan O’Hoppe, a master of hitting baseballs hard, you would be right. But the problem is, he can’t do much else this season. His 14 home runs are the same as players like Matt Olson and Francisco Lindor, but the rest of O’Hoppe’s profile is light years away from similar players. He might as well be playing a different game.
Logan O’Hoppe has brought a .227 average and just 22 runs along with those 14 home runs. His 31 RBI are tied for eighth at the position, and he is an absolute zero in the speed department. He was even caught trying to steal on Wednesday. Why would he try that? I have no idea. The other problem for O’Hoppe this year is that his worst trait – strikeouts – has been worse than in previous years. He is striking out 33% of the time this year compared to just a 3.6% walk rate. Statcast numbers back this up, but I think he might be a little better going forward. His .240 expected batting average hopefully can lead to slightly more power. But this is not a profile I am looking to buy high on right now.
