Decision Time: What To Do With Struggling Middle Infielders

Ah May. The sun is out, it’s warming up. The season is in full swing. We’ve made it. We made it past the random 40 degree days. We made it past the snow. We made it past the overcast afternoons.  The trees have leaves again! There are early season flowers blooming!  And your middle infield is a mess.  It happens.  But May brings that brings hope of Summer coming right around the corner.  So let’s investigate struggling middle infielders and see what hope is available to us, or if it’s time to cut bait.  Rankings I’ll use are in a Yahoo 6×6 league with OPS.

One quick development before we get into the meat and potatoes here.  Fernando Tatis Jr. just played his 10th game at 2nd and now has 2B eligibility in most leagues.  This development is interesting and adds another huge name to the mix, even if he hasn’t hit a single bomb all year.

Gunnar Henderson (Pre-rank 12, Current rank 223): Gunnar has a history of starting slow, just see last year’s 228/268/413 in April. But unlike last year’s turnaround, he’s been awful in May. That being said, there are some differences. He has maintained the power in the first part of the year that he didn’t show last year.  It seems he’s selling out for more power, but at the cost of the rest of his offensive profile.  He’s not hitting the ball as hard or as often.  When he notices, he’ll turn it around and be good for the rest of the year.  Recommendation: Hold or Trade for

Zach Neto (Pre Rank 17, Current Rank 156) Another slow start, similar to what we saw in 2024.  He is still on pace for 20/20, but I do have some worries. His bat speed is down close to 2 MPH.  He’s not squaring up the ball as hard, but he had a HUGE August last year to propel himself to 25.25 level he had last year.  I’m a believer in him, so I am not moving him.  Recommendation: Hold or Trade for

Ketel Marte (Pre Rank 23, Current Rank 661): Huge drop here.  And it makes you wonder what the heck?!?  Well, there’s a simple answer.  He’s chasing out of the zone way too much.  His Chase rate has gone from 24.8 last year to 35.1 this year.  That leads to his downfall, especially when power and Average are his main contributions.  This is the concerning trend. And one I’m not sure he can fix.  Recommendation: Trade away

Trea Turner (Pre Rank 25, Current Rank 394) Age casualty.  Turner is 32 and has young man skills.  His defensive range is way down, which is indicative of him losing his quickness.  His speed is still elite, but it isn’t translating into his steals thus far.  He famously started slow last year, and did turn his season around through the crowd cheering.  The issue is that he doesn’t look like he’s going to have the 20 bomb power of previous years.  But we have a history of turnarounds, so I’m sticking with him… for now.  Recommendation: Hold

Bo Bichette (Pre-Rank 78 Current Rank 762) There was hope that Bo would explode in the Mets lineup, but he absolutely hasn’t.  While they’ve messed with his defensive spot, and I don’t know if it’s messing with his head.  Here’s the thing.  I think he’s washed.  He doesn’t strike out a lot, but he chases a ton.  He’s not swinging the bat particularly hard either.  And he’s slow.  I don’t see much hope here.  Recommendation: Trade away or cut

Willy Adames (Pre Rank 95, Current Rank 864) Some of you have already cut bait on Willy.  He’s only 70% rostered.  Thing is… He’s always a slow starter.  And we’re talking about a guy who had over 20 bombs in the 2nd half last year. He’s absolutely capable of a strong rest of the year, and is the cheapest buy low candidate on my list.  Recommendation: Trade for or pickup