Rolling In The Deep: Reinforcements And Stashes

Happy June, everyone! As the season rolls along, there may still not be a ton of help out there for us deep leaguers, but at least it seems like we’re seeing more roster movement lately. That may or may not be a good thing for your personal fantasy team, as players like Nick Castellanos, Jonah Tong, and TJ Friedl have recently lost their spots on an MLB roster. For every action there is an equal and opposite reaction, though, so it’s a good time to tune in and pay extra attention to transactions. The injuries continue to come, players can be called up without service time issues, and there is finally more shifting around as teams evaluate where they stand in the big picture that is the 2026 baseball season.

This week, we’ll focus on some guys that have either recently been activated or promoted, or that haven’t been yet, but might be soon. We’ll go from most owned, with players that may be closer to the mixed league realm but could have been dropped even in deeper leagues, to some true deep league desperation plays. As always in the deep league world, sometimes you just don’t know where that next little burst of production is gonna come from.

NL

Lars Nootbaar. Nootbaar’s injury status and prognosis seemed hazy all winter and early in the year, but he’s now on a rehab assignment for the Cardinals and may even be active by the time you read this. I’m not sure how difficult it is to recover from “double heel surgery,” but Nootbaar already has a couple homers in the minors and would appear to be back to full health. If he is laying around available in your medium-deep league, he could be worth a look. We’ll see how big a fixture he’ll be in the Cardinals outfield going forward, as he attempts to have a fifth straight season of double-digit home runs.

Ryan Walker. It seems that in this, the year of the dumpster fire bullpen, I end up mentioning at least one reliever a week. I know I feel like I’m desperate for a good one in even my shallower leagues. Desperation doesn’t always lead to good choices, of course, sigh. But if your fantasy bullpens are as ugly as some of mine right now, good choices are just not something that you can also afford to make, and chances must be taken. The San Francisco bullpen has been a hot mess all year, and I’m still not convinced that Tony Vitello fella is running the pen better than any person reading this post would, including those of you who have young kids sitting on your lap and looking at your screen. While Keaton Winn did pick up a one-hit, five-out save on Wednesday, and Caleb Kilian nabbed one on Thursday, the back end of the Giants’ pen is in flux no matter how you look at it. While Walker was excruciating to own and even harder to watch earlier this year and deserved his demotion, it’s finally time to get to the point of this blurb: he’s been pitching very well in Triple A, so just something to perhaps have on your radar.

Pavin Smith. Smith played in only two games for the D-Backs this season before going down with a bad elbow, but was activated Monday and has returned to the major league roster. He should DH against righties quite a bit, and may play some first depending on how things are going with Ildemaro Vargas. Smith has always felt like one of those more valuable in real life than fantasy guys to me, but he does tend to go on mini-tears at the plate. His career .270 average and .340 OBP are nothing to sneeze at, as they say, especially when viewed through a deep league lens. If he hits at all and can keep his spot on the big league depth chart — and if you can catch him at the right time — there could be some deep league value involved.

Jonah Cox. Harrison Bader is on the IL, and as of last Sunday, Cox is up with the Giants, in an outfield that’s a bit of a work in progress these days. Cox leapfrogs right over the highest level of the minors, as he was absolutely raking in Double-A. He’s likely looking at being the short side of a platoon, and this may not be a long stay, but the talent is there, and it’ll be worth watching to see if he can make any kind of impact with the opportunity.  Let’s also mention Victor Bericoto while we’re at it, since why not? He’s been up for a couple of weeks now and has only a handful of at-bats, but does have a homer. Tiny, lower case yay. Meanwhile, Buddy Kennedy was promoted on Monday in the middle of a hot minor league stretch; he qualifies at third in most leagues and should see occasional at-bats as a backup infielder.

Samad Taylor/Jase Bowen. Speaking of the Nick Castellanos DFA (insert your own drive into deep left field joke here if you wish), and speaking of equal and opposite reactions to said move, Taylor has claimed the open spot on the Padres roster. He’s still a ways down the outfield depth chart, and they also recently promoted Bowen. Taylor’s last cup of coffee was with Seattle last year, and while he has yet to make so much as a legit MLB ripple, he was hitting exceptionally well in the minors. Bowen’s two games in the outfield earlier this week were the first two MLB games of his career, and there’s probably nothing to see here. At this point I’ll point out that Bryce Johnson is also still on their roster, and started in right field Thursday. This is a real life end-of-roster turned fantasy mess that only the deepest of deep leaguers need to so much as glance at. That being said, it may be worth checking in on, if deepest of deep leagues describes the one you’re in, and you need every crumb of an at bat you can get.

AL

Max Muncy. The other, AKA Athletics Max Muncy, is officially back on a rehab assignment after a broken hand. A broken hand sure sounds like it would be catastrophic long-term for a hitter. Yet, somehow, broken bones often seem to be less of a big deal than things like bone bruises and any injury description with the word “pulled” in it, at least once players are in recovery mode. Muncy hasn’t done anything in his big league time to prove that his batting average won’t be a significant drag, but there’s a little power and a little speed in the profile at least, and he qualifies at both second and third in most leagues.

Max Scherzer. I was honestly a little stunned to see that Scherzer was on a rehab assignment for the Blue Jays, because I’d completely forgotten about him. It sure doesn’t seem like his body is interested in cooperating to make him an effective major league pitcher at this point in his career, but any future Hall of Famer will at least get a check-in from the deep league realm. If you’re desperate for a starter and he’s floating around in your league, who knows, maybe he’s got a little still left in the tank. Time will tell, but for what it’s worth, he’s building up his pitch count on his rehab assignment and threw three scoreless in his last Triple-A start.

Gabriel Arias. Arias has just started a Triple-A rehab assignment as he recovers from a bad hamstring. He only had 30 total at-bats this year before getting hurt, so he’s really in spring training mode for a while, probably. We’ll see how long it takes him to get up to big league speed and rejoin the Guardians. We’re talking about a career .215 hitter, so likely nothing to get too excited about here, but it doesn’t always take much to excite us deep leaguers, and Arias at least has a little sneaky pop.

Anthony Seigler. Seigler arrived in Boston on Wednesday after Nick Sogard hit the IL. He doesn’t have a major league at bat yet as I type this, but he was hitting .298 with 3 homers and 3 steals at Triple-A. The playing time will likely be sporadic at best, but the opportunity to move up the depth chart is there if he can somehow take advantage of it.