Outfields In Flux: Hope You Got More AJ Ewing Than I Did

The season rolls on, and not a week goes by without major real life roster developments. Let’s take a look at a few outfield situations that are moving and see how that shakes out for us in the Fantasy space. Stats are through Sunday

Mets

AJ Ewing

Carson Benge

Luis Robert

Unless you’re in a remote cave or just not a Fantasy Baseball fan, you probably know that AJ Ewing made his debut for the Mets last week. And if you’re not a Fantasy baseball fan, you’re probably not reading me here anyway. But yes, Ewing culminated his meteoric rise from obscure Low A utility guy to Franchise Savior in about a year. And he’s off to a fantastic start, with a .294 Avg, 5 runs, 3 RBI’s, 2 steals, and even a homer in his 1st 25 PA’s. And the moribund Mets have won 5 of his 6 games. He went for an average of $197 (out of $1000 budget) in NFBC Main Event FAAB last night.

Owners (unfortunately not me) can expect a lot of bags as he stole 70 in the minors last year, and 17 already this year. And he should get on base as he’s got excellent plate skills. But as for power, don’t look for much, though he already has two barrels, so what do I know? But one thing I would not worry about is playing time. If he gets on base as expected, he’s not coming out of the lineup.

Which brings me to the guy he’s essentially replacing in CF, good old LouBob. Robert is out indefinitely now with a back injury that’s not improving. But he was slashing a kind of lousy 224/.327/.329 before hitting the IL. He’s going to be Wally Pipp-ed and is a cut in any format imho. With no real timeline and no full-time role to come back to, I can’t see holding him unless you have an IL

And finally, there’s Benge, who looked like he might get sent back to AAA after slashing just .136/.219/.197 through April 22nd. The Mets stayed the course and even moved him up to leadoff, and he’s exploded, hitting .333/.373/.474 since then. If he’s out on any wire, scoop him up.

Athletics

Henry Bolte

Carlos Cortes

Lawrence Butler

Tyler Soderstrom

It’s similar to the Mets here as the A’s called up a guy tearing up the minors. And Bolte’s numbers were eye-popping, even in the souped up PCL. How do 12 homers and 17 steals in 177 PA’s sound? Now consider they’re headed to Sacramento’s hitter’s paradise. He didn’t catch quite as much of a bid in FAAB as Ewing, but his $113 average price was still pretty noteworthy.

The playing time looks a little less secure than Ewing, though it’s reasonable to expect that the A’s didn’t call him up to platoon. Which brings us to the rest of the pack.

There are 3 guys for 2 spots, assuming Brent Rooker will play every day he’s healthy. They are all lefties. Cortes has slowed down lately, but has easily the best stats of the 3 with a 165 wRC+. He’s strictly a strong side platoon bat with meh power but terrific plate skills (7.8% BB% vs. 10.4% K%). His major drawback is that he’s 28 and not really a prospect. Oh and he’s not much of a fielder.

Soderstrom is a major prospect, and he popped 25 homers last year, but he’s slumping mightily at .195/.281/.384 so far in 2026. That looks positively fantastic compared to the .171/.272/.264 line that Butler has put up. 

But here’s the rub; Butler is a big time prospect, too. What’s more, the A’s have signed both Soderstom and Butler to long term contracts. Should that dictate playing time? They’re in first place now and look pretty good. But generally speaking, they’re building towards their move to Vegas in a couple years, and Soderstrom is 24, and Butler is 25. Tough to predict where this goes, but it looks like Cortes is getting the short straw here as he’s sat 3 of the last 5 games (one was vs. a lefty). Tough to tell how this ultimately shakes out, as Butler is clearly the one who should sit, but money and pedigree talk. 

Rays

Cedric Mullins

Johnny DeLuca

Jake Fraley

So I called Mullns “dust” last week, and have completely given him the reverse jinx as he slashed .364/.462/.500 since then with a homer and 3 steals. Fade me at your profit! 

Not only did he pick up his play, but he figures to see his playing time go up as Fraley is now on the IL, and that’s just one less body in the Rays OF hamster wheel. But the real beneficiary is likely DeLuca, who goes from a short-side-ish role to possibly full time run. It’s tough to ever tell with Tampa, but he started the last two games, both vs. righties.

DeLuca has always been interesting, the type of interesting non-zero power and nice speed potential that we often love, he’s just had both injuries and Rays PT quirks holding him back. But in 575 career PA’s going all the way back to 2023 on the Dodgers, he has 10 homers and 29 steals with a .243 average. That’s pretty close to the pre season projections for Jacob Marsee, and he was a hot draft commodity. For now, Deluca is probably just a deep league spec guy as his 85.6 EV is pretty weak, as is his 3.8% Barrel%. And he’s 27 now, so this is kind of what we’re getting.