Rolling In The Deep: Young And Restless

What’s new, friends? June always tends to be an extra busy month in my experience, both in real life but also in fantasy baseball. It’s obvious how the real life events keep you busy, as anyone with young children being released from school for the summer knows. This concept of suddenly having a lot more to handle than you did a few months ago may also sound familiar to those of you with older kids who’ve recently experienced an end-of-college-year move out. And hopefully, some of you are in the middle of taking or at least planning a vacation or two.

Anyhow, there’s a lot going on. The activity may be more subtle when it comes to baseball, but we should still be paying attention to it. Teams get a little faster and looser with roster moves as we head into the summer, and there tend to be more transactions to pay attention to. You don’t want to miss the one diamond in the rough that was supposed to be up for a few days as a quick fill-in player, but performs well enough to carve out a more permanent spot on his team’s roster. I’ve once again gone overboard with the number of teams I can manage this year, and am a bit at sea these days trying to find the bandwidth to keep up with them. Hopefully, you’re doing a better job staying focused on things like roster management and free agent scouting, since you may as well take advantage when your fellow owners aren’t as tuned in as they should be. For now, let’s take our weekly look at some names that may be of interest to those of us in NL-only, AL-only, or other particularly deep leagues. We’ll look at some players who’ve been particularly — or at least surprisingly — productive over the last couple of weeks. All are less than 30% owned in Fantrax leagues, starting in each league with the more highly rostered players who might be appropriate targets for medium-deep leagues, down to our least-owned, ultra deep leaguers.

NL

David Hamilton. If you’re like me, you may have had Hamilton on and off a team or two a few times already this season, chasing speed or whatever counting stats you could get. If so, I hope you did better than I did acquiring said steals, as I think I have one team where I’ve streamed Hamilton two or three different weeks and wasn’t able to nab a single stolen base. Well, just thought I’d point out that he’s been fairly hot lately, so perhaps it’s not too late to get in on his latest burst of production. Over the last two weeks, he’s hitting .282 for the Brewers, and in just 39 at-bats, he has not only four steals, but he also has hit three homers. He also qualifies at second, third, and short in many leagues.

Jake Mangum. Speaking of guys who’ve had a mixed-league level of production over the last two weeks, at least when it comes to stolen bases, let’s take a look at Mangum. In his 29 at bats with the Pirates over that time, he’s hitting a ridiculous .448. He’s also got a homer and five steals, second in Major League Baseball to Bobby Witt’s eight over that time period. It’s an unsustainable pace, of course, but if he can keep up even a portion of that production, he may be worth a look. Even in mixed leagues, if he’s available and you are looking for an outfielder that can bring some speed to your team, he’s been doing some heavy lifting in the stolen base department.

Jared Young. Once again, the NL gems are hard to find amongst the free agent rock and rubble, as we turn to the 8% owned Young. He’s been playing a lot of outfield for the (fill in the adjective of your choice to describe how exceptionally disappointing the team has been this year on just about every possible level) Mets, with 39 at bats over the last two weeks. He’s hitting just .231 during that stretch, but three of his hits have been homers. As I type this, he’s not only in Thursday’s starting lineup, but hitting cleanup. That’s certainly one of those things that tells you more about the team than the player, in this case, but hitting cleanup on any major league team is a nice feather in one’s deep league fantasy baseball cap. (Now he’s got another two hits, including another homer in Thursday’s game, so the wave continues… We’ll see how long he can keep it rolling).

Jose Fermin. We’ll drop down close to the bottom of the pool here with Fermin, who’s rostered in just 3% of Fantrax leagues. He qualifies at second and outfield in most leagues to start on a positive note, and has played at least one game at first, third, short, and outfield for the Cardinals this year. If he can hold on to his utility man gig, there should continue to be a better-than-nothing level of production for the true deep leaguers out there. He’s been the best under 5% owned hitter in 5×5 fantasy value over the last two weeks, for what that’s worth; while he doesn’t have a home run, he’s hitting .370 with four runs scored, three RBI, and two steals in 27 at bats.

AL

Michael Massey. Honestly, I was surprised to see that Massey is owned in even in 15% of Fantrax leagues, as he seems like the epitome of an under-the-radar, more helpful in real life than fantasy type player. Over the last couple weeks, though, he’s been helpful in both real and fake baseball, hitting .371 with three homers. He’s starting at second base more often than not for the Royals, and has also played a couple games at third as well as a few in the outfield. He’s batting sixth last I checked, which is technically the middle of the lineup once it’s divided into thirds, you know. Enough at bats should continue to be there for now to lead to steady, if not overwhelming, production.

Tristan Gray. Gray is 10% owned in Fantrax leagues, but over the last couple weeks has produced more like a shallow league guy. Over that span, he’s hitting .321 for the Twins with a homer and a gaudy 12 RBI. That production came in just 28 bats, as he won’t play much against lefties. He also has a fair amount of competition for at bats in the infield, as there always seems to be a lot of mixing and matching and shifting around going on in Minnesota. This can lead to that lovely multi-position eligibility, though, and sure enough, Gray qualifies at second, third, and short in many if not most leagues. He’s played at least one game at each of the four infield positions, so we’ll see if the 30-year old can continue to find his way into the lineup on at least a semi regular basis.

Jonah Heim. It may or may not have escaped your radar that Heim is now on the Athletics (actually back on the Athletics, as it turns out), though you were likely aware of that fact if you are in a deep AL-only league given what a splash he’s made at the plate lately. He’s hit four homers in just 16 at bats over the last two weeks, turning himself into a dream deep-league catcher over that time. I believe he originally joined the team mostly as a fill-in when Shea Langeliers went on paternity leave early last month, but at this point now has 21 games played at catcher as well as one at first base. He’s worth a deep league look as we see how playing time continues to shake out, if you need a catcher who might deliver a little pop without getting enough at bats to hurt you once his batting average (.375 over the last two weeks, .226 for his career) returns to earth.

Jose Siri. Let’s drop all the way down in the ownership pool to the 4% rostered Siri. Things are already looking brighter for him in 2026 after an injury plagued, beyond-disastrous 2025 with the Mets. He’s got 29 at bats with the Angels over the last two weeks, and he’s hitting .345 with a homer, eight runs scored, and nine RBI over that time. Most depth charts will tell you Siri is in the short side of an outfield platoon, but I will also point out that he has at least one at bat in the Angels’ last five games. The guy has a pitiful .210 career average, but count me among those who forgot that he hit 25 homers and stole 12 bases in just 101 games for the Rays in 2023. I’m going to resist the temptation to make him my lede because the Siri jokes got cringey in a hurry when he arrived in the majors, but if I hadn’t been able to resist, I’d probably have gone with, “Hey Alexa, Please Add Siri To My Fantasy Team.”