Rolling In The Deep: Lifting Up Sagg(ese)-ing Teams

Hello deep league friends, hope the fantasy baseball gods are treating you well as we settle into another wild season. Most of my teams are struggling to get out of the gate, and I’m already wondering if I should create a future league with categories like “pitchers who’ve never had major arm trouble suddenly announcing they’re getting season-ending surgery” and “on-field punches thrown but not landed while still holding a baseball.” If that league existed, I’d be killing it with at least one of my teams. Instead, I patiently sit and wait while accepting the reality that Francisco Lindor is hitting .149 without an RBI, Josh Naylor’s at .104 without a homer or a steal, and Amed Rosario has the same number of home runs as Vlad, Acuna, Tatis, Witt, Jazz, Kurtz, Julio, and the Big Dumper… combined.

It may be early, but it’s never too soon to try to keep your team from falling deeper into categorical holes, especially when it comes to counting stats. On that note, it’s time once again to take a look at some players that may be off the radar in anything but the deepest leagues, but could be of interest to those of us already struggling to stay afloat in less shallow waters. This week, we’ll focus less on production than on sheer volume, pointing out some players who’ve had a decent (or at least surprising) number of at bats over the last seven days, but are still hovering in the lower percentages in terms of players owned, according to our friends at Fantrax.

NL

Thomas Saggese. So far, early in 2026, the numbers haven’t been impressive for Saggese, but the playing time has been worth noting. He’s a right handed batter who made six starts in a row against right handed pitching over the last week or so, including starts at second base, short, and left field. He already qualifies at both middle infield spots in most leagues and already has six in the outfield this season, so it’s looking like he may add eligibility there as well. Again, the returns aren’t there yet as he has all of one RBI on the year, but if you’re chasing at bats this could be a situation to monitor.

Alex Freeland. Mookie Betts’ early season IL stint has had some in deeper leagues turning to Hyesong Kim or even Miguel Rojas as we see how playing time shakes out. Freeland, meanwhile, has quietly been piling up quite at bats while covering for an injured-for-who-knows-how-long Tommy Edman. He’s only played second this year, but he qualifies at third as well in most leagues. He’s not exactly off to an ultra impressive start, hitting .250 with a homer and 11 Ks to just 3 walks, but it looks like at least semi-regular playing time will be his for a while. Even at the bottom of a lineup as ridiculous as the Dodgers have right now, there should be a smattering of counting stats to be had here.

Jerar Encarnacion. The Giants’ outfield has been lackluster across the board so far, but Encarnación seems to be getting an increasing amount of playing time. Sometimes it’s filling in for one of the presumed regulars in the outfield, others it’s at DH since Rafael Devers has been starting at first more than some expected. Yet again, we have a case where the at bats haven’t delivered fantasy rewards, with Encarnación so far having scored just one run and having produced zero RBI. At least that ties him with Lindor!

Jorge Barrosa. It was brutal to see Jordan Lawlar go down by  a HBP just when it looked like he was finally both getting and taking advantage of the opportunity for regular playing time, even as someone who didn’t roster him anywhere. One man’s bad luck is always another’s opportunity in Major League Baseball, however, and Barrosa has moved up the Diamondbacks depth chart and has been the recipient of at bats against lefties. I don’t know that there’s much upside at all here, but when you get to this point in the player pool, true upside is a luxury we don’t have. What we do have is a guy who should continue to play, at least against lefties, so we’ll see if Barrosa can do enough with the opportunity to at least warrant being on the deep NL-only radar.

AL

Ben Williamson. I remembered about 15 seconds into this season just how annoying it can be to own almost any Rays hitter, since their patchwork quilt style lineups are a staple, whether the team is fully healthy or not. Williamson has already played eight games at second, three at short, and one at third. As with just about everyone on this list, he hasn’t been pouring the stats your way if you roster him, but he does have 3 RBI (infinity times more than Lindor!) and a steal. He was also batting sixth last I looked, so it’s not inconceivable that a very-deep-league-acceptable amount of production could be in the cards, depending on how you define “very deep league.” And “acceptable.”

Joey Loperfido. Loperfido’s been playing pretty regularly against righties, enough that he’s no doubt owned in most AL-only formats. He’s holding his own and then some with a .273 average and .342 OBP, plus he has 5 RBI and a steal. The Astros outfield is unsettled at best these days, and Loperfido holds the valuable real-life card of being capable of playing all three spots. That alone should translate to continued playing time as we see if he can settle in and make a bigger impact at the plate and produce anything resembling fantasy value as well.

Joc Pederson. Man, it’s easy to forget Joc is even still out there, even in deepest leagues. It seems like he’s been on the deep league fantasy fringe for years now, and it seems he still is. His utility-only status reduces his already-low fantasy value, of course, but that’s why we call it digging deep here at our corner of the Razzball world. He’s appeared in ten games for the Rangers already, and while he’s hitting a stomach-churning .120, it may be worth noting that he opened the season 0 for 16. So, nowhere to keep going but up, maybe? Also, he has as many home runs as Aaron Judge, just saying.

Tristan Peters. I can’t claim to know too much about Peters, except that he’s evidently higher on the White Sox outfield depth chart than I realized. He’s credited with having played ten games in the field already, and has appeared at all three outfield spots, so he’s versatile at least. We’ll close this list as we started it, with a guy who’s playing a fair amount, but hasn’t really taken advantage of it yet. He has no homers, one RBI, and is striking out way too much. That’s the bad news; the good, for Peters at least, is that he’ll likely get a longer leash to see what he can do with Austin Hays (not to mention Everson Pereira) out for a while.

That wraps it up for this week; thanks for reading and hope your teams are staying healthy and settling in to the season!