Rolling In The Deep: Who You Gonna Call?

Happy Friday, friends! If your day looks anything like mine, you’ve got several bi-weekly lineups to set, some serious work to do to try to replace your latest round of injured players, and a focused check-in of some league standings to try to figure out what’s going wrong and what’s going right with your teams. So, let’s get right to the names this week, as we try to stay afloat keeping our deep league lineups full of players who are as healthy and productive as the fantasy gods will allow:

NL

Alex Call. Sometimes it’s better to be lucky than good, like when I streamed Call in an RCL or two the other day with a short schedule, forgot to replace him the next morning, and found him not only locked in my lineup, but having already contributed a couple hits for the day. Both of the first two guys we’re talking about this week are 30 years old and will likely never sniff the mixed league radar, but Call has come through not only for my fantasy team but for the Nationals when given the opportunity lately. He’s now hitting .339 with 13 RBI on the year, so we’ll see if he can keep things rolling and continue to squeeze his way into the lineup. He’s already gone from playing pretty regularly to being benched pretty regularly, so if he’s able to swing the pendulum back in the right direction, he could be a legitimate deep league asset. The Nats outfield is likely worth a regular temperature check, as we note that Call’s also-right-handed teammate Jacob Young is currently hitting .221.

Santiago Espinal. Espinal may be a 30-year-old utility guy, but he’s one who’s been playing a surprising amount and who’s been hitting very well of late. Most of us didn’t see this coming, given the Reds’ once-crowded depth chart, but the injury bug has been hitting Cincinnati hard, and Espinal has been a prime beneficiary of the additional playing time. So fa,r Espinal has played 10 games each at second and third as well as nine in the outfield, so he’s definitely become a valuable piece of the Reds’ lineup puzzle. From listening to their announcers, it sounds like the team is really loving having Espinal’s veteran presence and ‘professional at bats’ as an example for their young squad. Even if Espinal doesn’t play on a daily basis, he’s at least deep-league relevant for now.

James Outman. Outman is back in the big leagues to fill in for an injured Teoscar Hernandez, and I didn’t even finish writing this blurb before he went out and hit a 3-run homer in his second game back. Is this the beginning of a run that reminds us why many of us were excited to draft him in mixed leagues last year after watching his incredibly impressive season in 2023? Well, I should probably also mention that he’s already struck out four times in five official at bats, but this current opportunity certainly can’t go much worse than his last one.

Valente Bellozo. Here we come to this week’s disclaimer that I’m not necessarily recommending these players, just pointing out that they exist for the deep league waiver-wire needy. In this case, one really good start for the Marlins (5.1 innings, 1 hit, no walks, 7 Ks… I didn’t say it was a quality start!) was enough to land Bellozo on this list. Bonus points, of course, since it was against the Dodgers.  Yes, this could likely be his best start of the year, but it wouldn’t be the first time we’ve seen a guy outperform his peripherals for a while and go on a decent run. And at least there’s that not particularly hitter friendly home park.

AL

Ramon Laureano. Wow, another 30 year old makes this list, reminding me how full of (relatively, in baseball terms) old guys the deep league world can be. It’s the classic part-time player double-edged sword here, that Laureano’s average will likely be horrible, but he doesn’t really play enough to hurt you a ton on that front. Does he play enough to help you, though? Well, maybe in really deep leagues (he’s at 58 ABs as I write this, and he’s hitting 5th on Thursday, which shows you just how offense-needy the Orioles are right now). He hit his 4th homer the other day, and there’s a few leagues I could really use an extra homer or four in.

Rowdy Tellez. Okay, this is getting weird with the 30-year olds! Because, speaking of 30-year old guys who would destroy your average if they played enough, but hopefully provide a little pop while doing so… it’s this season’s Rowdy Tellez sighting. He has 5 homers and 18 RBI for the Mariners in 29 games for the Mariners this year, and it’s way too depressing to list all of the “good” hitters who he’s significantly outperformed on the power front right now.

Jorbit Vivas. Vivas is up with the Yankees in the wake of the Jazz Chisholm injury (boo, sad) and should get at least semi-regular playing time at second. His triple A season was going swimmingly (.319/.426/.436 with two homers and six stolen bases) so let’s see if he can make the most of being pressed into big league duty.

Matt Brash. Andres Munoz has arguably been MLB’s best closer so far this year, but Brash still deserves a shout out for AL-only or keeper leagues now that he’s back healthy and pitching for the Mariners. Relatively unproven pitchers coming off Tommy John surgery aren’t usually something I like to stock up on, but there was a lot of hype before the injury, and there’s enough raw talent here to at least monitor Brash while he’s under the radar.