Rolling In The Deep: Navigating The Gray Area

What’s up, friends? We’re more than halfway through April, and hopefully your teams are humming along like a well-oiled machine. Unfortunately, “well-oiled machine” does not describe most of my teams, but thankfully, there’s still plenty of time to tinker. (Do remind me in the future to cut back on the draft and holds, though. Looking at my pitching staffs, every one of which includes some combination of Hunter Greene/Spencer Schwellenbach/Ryan Pepiot/Nick Lodolo/Cade Horton/Zach Eflin, is a reminder of how brutal the “no free agent pool, no waiver wire” format can be).

Yeah, there’s only so much tinkering you can do in deeper leagues when the bucket of available parts are second hand cast offs, or unproven and poorly made, and may not even fit your vehicle. That won’t stop us from taking our weekly search through the deep league bin as we try to keep things headed in the right direction. As always, let’s check in on a few names that may be of interest to those of us in mono or other particularly deep leagues:

AL

Tristan Gray/Ryan Kreidler. These two fellas appear to be the strong/weak sides of a third base platoon to replace the already-injured Royce Lewis in Minnesota. Don’t be expecting legit upside here, but Gray is off to a nice enough start out of the gate, holding his own with a .269 average and delivering 2 homers and 11 RBI in just 26 official at bats. With the Twins off to a surprisingly productive and successful 2026 so far, there could definitely be some deep to deep-ish league value here going forward. Also, who doesn’t enjoy adding someone with the name Gray to their fantasy baseball team, even if it’s spelled wrong? It’s hard to imagine a place for Kreidler on even the deepest rosters, however. He’s got a career .138 average in his 196 total at bats dating back to 2022, not to mention the fact that he’ll mostly be facing tough lefties and batting ninth when he is actually in the lineup.

Daniel Schneemann. I didn’t draft Schneemann in even my deepest draft and hold leagues because I just didn’t think any playing time at all would be there this year, but once again, he’s getting a decent number of at bats as a utility guy for the Guardians. He qualifies at second, third, and the outfield in most leagues, and he’s already played all three of those positions this year as well. He hasn’t been an average drag yet, though I suppose his current .268 mark is likely to go down based on past performance/skill set… but he should also deliver that weak trickle of counting stats that us true deep leaguers need to stay afloat.

Taylor Walls. I was a little surprised to see that Walls is just 7% owned in Fantrax leagues, since while he’s obviously not a standard mixed league option, he seems like a classic deep league speed play. He returned from injury a bit sooner than expected and should appear regularly at short for the Rays, albeit at the tail end of the lineup. Also, we all know there’s really no such thing as “regularly” in Tampa Bay when it comes to lineup construction. Walls is off to a great start for what that’s worth, though, as he’s 7 for 15 and already has two steals.

Adam Frazier. I kind of can’t believe I’m actually blurbing Frazier here in 2026, but we’re digging extra deep this week, and unlike the recently DFA’d Jeimer Candelario, Frazier is still on the Angels — as I write this, anyway — and even getting some at bats. He also qualifies at both second and outfield. Lower case yay. Like Walls, Frazier is off to an unsustainably good start, batting .364 in very limited playing time, and he also has a homer. Yeah, digging this deep gets a little depressing, so I’m already thinking next week it might be time for one of our occasional dips into at least the medium-deep player pool.

NL

Dominic Smith. The 30 year old Smith’s ownership has slowly but surely crept up to 24% in Fantrax leagues, so folks are taking notice. He’s also certainly overperforming, hitting a ridiculous .395 with three homers and 15 RBI in the early going. He’s first base eligible in most leagues for the season, though he’s only DH’d so far this year for the Braves. His early production may not continue at this pace, but it should give him a decently long leash to continue seeing his name penciled into the starting lineup for a while.

Ty France. Here’s another veteran first baseman for you, but one that is more likely to be available, given that he’s only at 6% owned across all Fantrax leagues. He’s only got 18 at bats on the year and will no doubt continue to receive only a smattering of playing time, but if you are trying to max out every counting stat possible in every spot on a deep league roster, France could theoretically help you do so. I should probably mention that he’s now on the Padres for those who lost track of him. He’s starting the season on a positive note in his limited opportunities, at least, hitting .278 with a homer.

MJ Melendez. No matter how hard you try to keep on top of every MLB team’s full roster, there are still times you tune in to a game to see a player you had no idea was up with a team. This happened to me the other night, upon tuning in to the Mets/Dodgers game and seeing Melendez at the plate. Now with Tommy Pham, I certainly did know he’d joined the Mets recently… I guess getting stabbed outside a strip club makes you more newsworthy forevermore? Anyhow, not holding my breath either of these guys makes a legit real-life or fantasy impact, even in the deepest leagues, but it’s a situation to at least monitor, I guess. I feel like Carson Benge only has until Soto gets back to prove he’s up with the big club to stay, and it wouldn’t shock me to see him demoted in favor of a depth guy like Melendez if he doesn’t pick it up soon.

Will Brennan. It wasn’t a surprise to see Brennan recalled from triple A after Harrison Bader hit the IL for the Giants, but what I am a bit confused about it why Heliot Ramos has been benched two days in a row as I type this. Ramos isn’t off to a great start, but it’s early, and the team/outfield is banged up, so this just feels off-putting to me as a Ramos owner. I haven’t been following the Giants really closely this season, but I’ve been paying enough attention to know that I’m not super excited about Tony Vitello as a manager in terms of him potentially wreaking havoc within the fantasy landscape. Anyhow, Brennan is a light-hitting Quad-A type who went all of 1 for 11 at the major league level last season, but if you’re in a league deep enough to be monitoring any and all at bats, the outfield situation in San Francisco might be one to keep an eye on.