Rolling In The Deep: More Strong Finishes

Speaking of strong finishes, I hope you are having one to your 2025 fantasy baseball season. And if you aren’t, I hope the real-life team you root for is having one to their 2025 MLB season. There’s nothing like a real or pretend pennant race boiling down to the last weekend, or the last day, and then finally the last inning, pitch, or at bat of what can seem like an excruciatingly long 162 game season. Let’s all enjoy the last weekend of regular season baseball before we close the books on 2025 regardless of what we have left to root for, while also remembering that it’s never too early to start thinking about 2026. On that front, we’ll take one more look at some (relatively) under the radar hitters who’ve had an impressive and/or productive end to the season. I’m going to use stats and ownership percentages from one of our very own Fantrax RCL leagues, which, as you likely already know, use a 5×5 roto, daily change format. For our purposes, I’m going to pull out the six most valuable hitters in this format — going back a full six weeks of games so that we have more than a tiny sample size — who are owned in fewer than 65% of Fantrax leagues. (With all of those daily change leagues and roster churning in there, the ownership levels tend to be much higher than on other websites, so I actually had to scroll down quite a ways to find guys who come in under this threshold). Let’s see who we find here, and then we’ll have the whole offseason to think about whether or not these strong finishes might lead us to bump some of these players up our 2026 draft boards a bit.

Mickey Moniak. Ah, Mickey Moniak. Like an old friend you see every so often, enjoying hanging out with until all of a sudden you don’t because you realize you’re sick of him, then don’t see again for a long time, then hear about how much fun your other friends are having hanging out with him, then decide it’s time to catch up again. I feel like he’ll be one of the more polarizing players heading into 2026, with many having been unsuccessfully teased by him time and time again, and others retroactively realizing how much help he gave them in 2025 when they pulled him off the waiver wire and he went on a tear or two in their active lineups. Is this smoke and mirrors yet again, and he’s next year’s Michael Toglia? Or is Michael Toglia next year’s Michael Toglia? Or should we all just stop drafting Rockies hitters while dreaming about their home park and realize it’s probably just not going to work out? I’ll bite at the right price next year, but I’m realizing now how important it is for me to think about what that price is now so that I’m not swayed by the noise or lack thereof next spring. Depending on what I decide and how the market settles on him, I could see myself drafting him regularly or fading him entirely.

Daylen Lile. My spidey sense tells me there will be much love for Lile from our gang at Razzball heading into next season, so I’m already wondering if the rest of the fantasy world will be as high on him as I suspect many of us will be. I think the only reason his ownership is low enough to make this column right now is the fact that he crashed into the outfield wall last weekend and probably got dropped by many owners thinking he was done for the year. Turns out he wasn’t, and overall, he’s been a true five-category fantasy asset since he debuted on May 23rd. In his 88 games, he’s hitting .296 with a .343 OBP, with 7 homers and 8 steals. He’s also only 22. While it’s certainly possible he gets exposed next year and busts completely, I’m probably gonna be wanting a few shares heading into 2026, and a few more if I consider him undervalued come draft season.

Jared Triolo. Well, this was a surprise. I’m realizing now that Triolo has been firmly ensconced as the Pirates third baseman since they jettisoned Ke’Bryan Hayes, and turns out he’s been playing really, really well. He’s a little light on the power, for sure, but he still checks in as a 5-category threat over the six week period we’re looking at: .306 average, 21 runs scored, 4 homers, 11 RBI, and 7 steals. I’m still intrigued enough by fellow Pirates infielder Spencer Horwitz to have him on my deep-ish league radar for next year, for better or worse, and I may be adding Triolo to that mini list. In leagues with a 20-games-played threshold, he already qualifies at first, short, and third heading into next season, which isn’t nothing.

Austin Hays. Another surprise, as I honestly didn’t realize Hays had played all that much over the last six weeks, since it seems like every time I tried to pick him up in a mixed league this season, he was immediately hurt. I think we can use that “5-category” label again here, though, as over those six weeks, Hays had 121 at bats and hit .298 with 16 runs scored, 5 homers, 20 RBI, and 3 steals. He’s missed four games in a row as I type this, and has appeared in just 102 on the season. While he definitely has had a few solid stretches of production this year and seems to be thriving in Cincinnati when healthy, I can’t say the 30 year old’s strong finish moves the needle much as we look to the future. That being said, he’s the epitome of a guy who’s a complete afterthought in standard mixed leagues, but may make my draft queue at certain times in certain formats. There’s most definitely value to be had here at the right price in a 50-round draft and hold, or NL-only type league.

Harrison Bader. Lots we can say about the 31-year old Bader that we just said about Hays, mainly his likely status as a player who won’t sniff your standard fantasy lineup but could be sneaky useful in some leagues. There will never be anything exciting about drafting him, but his late season production since landing in Philadelphia has at least put him on the outfield draft rankings for deeper leagues once again as we head into 2026. He’s the first player on this list who hasn’t made a significant contribution in all five categories, as Bader has just one steal over that time. Much of his late season value comes from his gaudy .353 average over the last six weeks, though he also has 24 runs scored, 4 homers, and 13 RBI. Again, he’s certainly not a player I’ll be actively targeting next year in any format. But, this is a good reminder that having a deep stable of veterans like this on a deep league roster can be a very useful thing, as you never know who’s going to come through when you need it most during the dog days of summer.

Jeremiah Jackson. We close the week and the season with a player who’s proven to be a true fantasy asset late this year. He’s had a somewhat surprising breakout second half for the Orioles, with 5 homers and 20 RBI in the last six weeks alone. There’s no speed at all here, as he doesn’t have a single stolen base in his 45 games/162 at bats, and it’s also worth noting that he’ll qualify only at outfield next year in most leagues. My gut instinct is that Jackson might tend to be overvalued (at least for where I’d want to draft him) next year if it looks like he’ll have a regular role with the O’s, but he’s a tough player to analyze. You’ll read about an unsustainable hard hit rate with him, though a not-great walk rate in the minors is the even bigger issue for me. Then again, many a player has overcome some potentially worrisome analytics and found enough major league success to translate to help in the deep league fantasy world. I feel like Jackson is a player who could appear on both sleeper and bust lists next year, and he’s one player whose value could change substantially with a good or bad spring.

Happy last weekend of the regular season to all! Thanks to every one of you who read, and especially all who checked in and commented this season!