Rolling In The Deep: The Rich Get Richie-r

Happy Memorial Day Weekend, friends! The unofficial start of summer is one of my favorite times of the year, but it can be a tricky time when it comes to managing your fantasy baseball teams. Things like warm weather, the end of the school year, and family vacations can make sitting at your computer crunching numbers and analyzing lineups seem a lot less fun than they did in late March. Add this to disappointing starts from players (the Tatis home run watch is getting surreal, no?) and the usual assortment of injuries, and it’s understandable that many an owner will be more or less checked out on underperforming fantasy teams by June. While I am that owner in a couple of my dead-in-the-water draft and hold teams, I try to go in the other direction and double down in any league that has a waiver wire or free agent pool. Change in the standings can still happen in a hurry, plus we still have over four beautiful months of baseball stretched out in front of us. There’s no doubt that someone is out there, even in deep leagues, who can help; the tricky part, of course, is finding that guy before anyone else does. Sometimes it’s more about just being in the right place at the right time and taking a flier on a fringe player out of sheer desperation, and in the deep league world, we’ll take any extra luck we can get. That brings us to this week’s list of players who likely won’t look too appealing on the surface — usually with good reason — but every once in a while can provide some legitimate help if the timing is right.

AL

Richie Palacios. Palacios may not play every day for the Rays, but over the last couple weeks, he’s higher on the 5×5 player value ranking list than you might guess. He checks in ahead not just of fantasy staples, but staples that have been pretty productive in their own right over that period, like Freddie Freeman, Jackson Chourio, Jazz Chisholm, and Jarren Duran. Palacios’ value comes largely from his gaudy .400 batting average, and he also has three steals over that time, not to mention seven RBI. Not too bad for a player owned in just 10% of Fantrax leagues. Also, gotta love the 2B/OF dual eligibility, especially given how ugly the second base fantasy landscape looks these days.

Taylor Walls. I guess we’re starting out with back-to-back Rays this week, which shouldn’t be too surprising since Tampa Bay has been one of the hottest teams in baseball, and we all know they are adept and getting production out of their entire roster. Like Palacios, Walls is just 10% owned, and also like Palacios, he’s been very productive over his last fourteen or so games. Even though he’s hitting just .257 and only has one steal during that time, he’s scored seven runs and knocked in eight. That’s enough to help in any league, and while his and the Rays’ overall production may not be able to continue at their current levels, it may be worth checking in on Walls to see how long he can continue to be a semi-legit fantasy asset.

Colin Holderman. In addition to having one of the most obviously brilliant names for an MLB relief pitcher ever, Holderman has been pitching exceptionally well for the Guardians of late. I’ve felt like I’ve been forced into “better to pick a good reliever over a bad starter” more than I’d like lately, and most of the times I did go with the starter, I regretted it. Of course, the deeper the league, the more this tends to be an issue since there’s not exactly a plethora of good starters available out there. In the last two weeks, Holderman has pitched just six innings, but has ten strikeouts, a 1.50 ERA, and a sparkling 0.883 WHIP. Most importantly for his fantasy value, he’s also grabbed two wins in that time. Reliever wins may be largely random, but you have to start with a guy who’s trusted to be brought in to a tight game, and that appears to be what we have for the moment in Holderman.

Justin Foscue. I will freely admit that Foscue wasn’t on my radar at all, but looking at the numbers, I guess he should have been before now. He’s been hitting very well over the last two weeks, batting .344 with two homers and six RBI. Corner infield seems to be the one position I have an abundance of, even in my deeper leagues, I guess, because I was so paranoid about 1B and 3B being shallow this year that I overcompensated and drafted too many corner men. Anyhow, Foscue has really turned it on lately and should continue to see regular playing time in a banged-up Rangers’ infield with both Corey Seager and Josh Smith on the IL. While Foscue qualifies only at 1B coming into the year in most leagues, he’s now played not only three at first, but nine games at second as I type this. So if you have a ten games played threshold for current-season, he’s on the verge of obtaining that sweet CI/MI dual position eligibility.

NL

Jared Triolo. First of all, may I just say that I don’t think I’ve ever had quite this much trouble finding low-owned National League hitters that are getting even a smattering of helpful at bats over the last few weeks. In the deepest leagues, the numbers will tell you that you may be better off playing a zero than what’s available as a fill-in off the waiver wire. I know this in practice as well as theory, since I have NL-only teams with holes that I just haven’t been able to plug. I also have rosters where I’ve left an injured or minor leaguer active at one or more positions because there are zero players available that have a legitimate chance to help me more than they’d hurt me. Moving on to Triolo, he’s long-gone in my deepest NL-0nly leagues, but may be on the radar in slightly shallower formats. He’s getting a decent number of at bats for the Pirates, and has been hitting a weighty .348 over the last two weeks. He qualifies at 1B/SS/3B in most leagues, so he could help fill out the right struggling fantasy roster.

Michael Conforto. Conforto and Triolo are both 13% owned in Fantrax leagues, and the fact that they are both on even that many rosters shows us just how tough times are when it comes to shopping for National League hitters. Conforto has been on what could be considered a tear, at least in comparison to his disastrous 2025, hitting .370 (over 23 at bats) with a homer and three RBI. Probably not much to see here, but maybe worth a check-in to handcuff other Cubs outfielders if nothing else, as we head into the long, hot summer.

Blake Dunn. Seriously, I almost just skipped the NL-only portion of this post because there are just not any 10% owned or under guys who are getting regular at bats and/or have been even moderately productive over the last couple of weeks. I’ll go ahead and include Dunn though; he’s just 5% owned and at least he has positive value over the Reds’ last fourteen games. He obviously isn’t playing close to full time, but over his 24 at bats during that period, he’s got a .348 OBP and has scored six runs. Yay?

Luis Torrens. All right, had to go with quantity over quality to wrap this up, which is something we’ve likely all needed to do on occasion as deep leaguers. I just sorted all NL hitters who are 10% owned or less in Fantrax leagues to find the guy with the most at bats in that group, which is why we are now talking about the 6% owned Torrens. His regular playing time with the Mets should continue with Francisco Alvarez down for a while, though we need to be realistic about the fact that the good news likely ends there. In the 29 at bats Torrens has over that period, he’s hitting .212 with a .278 OBP, which, of course, is incredibly bad any way you spin it. He does have 3 runs scored and 5 RBI, though, so he may fall into the “better than nothing” category depending on your league.