Greetings and salutations, friends, as we roll through another week of baseball. I hope your teams are staying healthy, though it seems unlikely for that to be possible, since the injuries seem to be coming faster and furiouser than ever, especially with those darn pitchers. But whether your team has been dodging bullets or swimming in a sea of red crosses, why not keep on top of the ever-shifting player pool? Whether you need to plug multiple holes on a banged up roster or just want to hoard bench depth while you can, may as well buy in when you have the chance. Of course, the options remain limited for those of us in deeper leagues, so as usual, we’ll try to cast a wide net to see if we can find a few live fish amongst the heaps of debris that tends to clog our deep league free agent pools.
This week, we’ll touch on a few more medium-ish players in each league than usual (30% owned or less in Fantrax) and work our way down to include some true deep league guys as well. Here goes!:
AL
Isaac Collins (27% owned). I was pretty intrigued by Collins this off season after he got traded to Kansas City, figuring a switch hitter with some decent skills at the plate getting a fresh start with a new team could make for some deeper league sleeper potential. He hasn’t exactly been tearing it up and isn’t even playing every day, but after a big game on Tuesday, his line on the year doesn’t look awful. He’s now at .250 with a lovely .367 OBP, and while the counting stats aren’t exactly pouring in, he’s one of those guys who can help in all categories if he can put together an extended good stretch. I’ve grabbed him in a couple 15-team mixed leagues in hopes of a few more fireworks while he’s hot, and just in case he puts things together to the point where he enters the conversation in shallower leagues as well.
Zack Gelof (22% owned). Gelof is another guy I was a little excited about for this year back when 2025 was drawing to a close, but the combination of shoulder surgery and the A’s signing Jeff McNeil squashed the enthusiasm pretty quickly. Things have recently been looking up, however, as Gelof is finally healthy and back with the big club. Over the last two weeks, he’s hitting .290 with a couple of homers and a couple of steals. He’s never shown any ability to hit for average consistently, but let’s not forget he went deep 17 times and had 25 stolen bases just two years ago. Also, he qualifies at both second base and outfield in most leagues, and that added flexibility never hurts.
Matt Vierling (9% owned). Vierling has been disastrous this season, to the point where it wouldn’t surprise me if he gets demoted by the time you read this. I’m still going to blurb him up, though, since he feels like the definition of a player who has nowhere to go but up. I mean, unless he gets sent down and we never hear from him again. If he does manage to get his act together, though, he could be a cheaper than ever, moderate deep league power source. He’s 3 for his last 7 (plus a walk!), including a homer as I write this, and he’s still been hitting at or near the top of the Tigers order, so who knows, maybe the turnaround has begun.
Andruw Monasterio (5% owned). A decent percentage of Monasterio’s 2026 production came in one monster game about a week ago, so there’s likely not much to see here. If you need a very deep league middle infielder, as I did recently, though, you may have noticed the pickings are incredibly slim. I grabbed Monasterio in said league in hopes that he’d be better than a flat-out zero in that roster spot; time will tell if I made the correct choice. He’s getting semi regular at bats as a legitimate utility man for Boston if nothing else, having appeared at a handful of games at all four infield spots, as well as four at DH.
NL
Miguel Andujar (24% owned). Andujar is still “only” 31 even though it seems like he’s already been around a couple decades, and once again is proving to be a very valuable real life baseball player, this time with the San Diego Padres. His skill set doesn’t always translate to as much fantasy value as MLB value, but he’s become an important cog in the Padres hitting machine and has provided at least some moderate fantasy value as well. Over the last two weeks, he’s hitting .294 with a pair of homers, which, as we all know, is two more homers than a certain teammate of his has on the season.
Curtis Mead (17% owned). Anyone else keep forgetting that Mead is now a member of the Washington Nationals? One of the reasons I can’t remember that fact is that I own him on zero fantasy teams, which I’m regretting just a smidge right now. Not necessarily because he’s been so great, more because some of the guys I did draft on multiple deep-league teams have been so bad, but that’s a whole different post. Even though Mead is hitting an unsightly .220 on the year, he does have four homers with 15 RBI and 14 runs scored, not to mention three steals. That amount of production plays nicely in your deeper leagues, and the opportunities should continue to be there, plus he’s even been hitting third in the lineup.
Esteury Ruiz (12% owned). Ruiz is a player who seems to disappear for years at a time, then occasionally pop up with a major league team and gives us a tease of what an exciting player he was back when he was leading the planet in stolen bases. He’s with the Marlins now, by the way, and has been playing a decent amount of outfield for them of late. Not only does he have three steals over the last couple of weeks, he’s also hit two homers and is batting a not-bad .267. I probably should have been more proactive about adding him to a team or two weeks ago, but if you’re in a league where he’s available, you may want to give him a look as we see if the now-27 year old can keep things rolling.
Eli White (4% owned). With Ronald Acuña down for a while and Michael Harris in and out of the Braves lineup, White has once again established himself as a backup the team feels comfortable turning to when their outfield depth gets tested. White played in six of seven games at one point recently, and he’s got two homers and nine RBI on the season, which is, you know, better than nothing. (And better than at least one of the Padres outfielders!) There will never be anything other than the deepest league relevance, of course, but potential relevance in the deepest leagues is what we do here, when we get pushed to the point of looking for any counting stats possible at the end of our rosters.
