That’s What I Like: Kyren Paris, Carson Kelly, Jakob Junis

Howdy Razzfolx! We’re moving along through April at a nice clip, and already my beloved Minnesota Twins are (almost) the worst team in baseball. Tough to be worse than the Rockies. But we’re there. But it’s a long season — in fact, 90% of the season is ahead of us. If you’re doing well in fantasy, then good. Keep it up! If you’re doing poorly, then don’t worry. There’s 90% of the season left to go!

Let’s see if we can get you some players to help your team stay in the race:

That’s What I Like

Kyren Paris, 2B, LAA: Further demonstrating that 30% of leagues have already been abandoned, Kyren Paris is, somehow, still available in tons of formats. What’s he done this year? Only 5 dingers and 5 steals in 35 at bats. That puts him on pace for a 100 / 100 season if he plays the whole year. Oh, and he’s also a second baseman. Are you that attracted to Jose Altuve that you won’t roster Kyren Paris? Whatever. Sure, Paris will regress back to normal human skills sometime soon. Why are people afraid of buying in? His 2024 was pretty awful, but that was his cup of coffee year…at age 22. He’s always been a bit of a K-attractor, but he’s offset that poor K rate with a high walk rate and gobs of speed. I mean, the guy’s got like 150 steals across the minors. I think it’s safe to say that he’s got the green light. Another reason Paris is still available in a ton of leagues is that projections hate him. ZIPS has him down for a 35% strikeout rate, and The BAT X is the most optimistic on his batting average projection, at a whopping .221. OK, sure. As of right now, his xBA is .300 and his xSLG is .625. Who the frick cares about his projections, just go add him now or trade for him (not the farm, but, you know, something affordable) and we’ll see each other in the championships.

Carson Kelly, C, CHC: If I asked you who was most likely to have a 22% barrel rate and a 1.613 OPS to start the season, of course you would have said, “Carson Kelly.” This guy’s been a staple of two catcher leagues for years — usually as your third catcher, though. I kid, I kid. We’re all Razzball players doing the catcher free-fall and riding with either Elias Diaz or Carson Kelly. Back in the day, CK was a 10 homer stalwart, and a catcher that you’d deploy to prevent an even worse catcher from destroying your team. Over the past two years, he’s been touring MLB looking for a job, where he caught on with the Cubs as their backup catcher. Ah, that’s why he’s available everywhere. Kelly’s been making the most of his 2025 starts, launching 4 homers and batting .417 to start the season. Sure, two of those homers came on Saturday, but before that launch fest, he was already hitting .333 with a .429 ISO and an average exit velocity of 94 MPH. In perspective, he’s hitting the ball harder than new teammate Kyle Tucker, and just a tick weaker than Aaron Judge. I’m not saying Carson Kelly — perennial backup to the backup catcher — is your 2025 team’s savior. He’s batting 9th and hasn’t yet overtaken Cubs’ starting catcher [checks notes] Miguel Amaya. But there’s an objective, empirical improvement in Kelly’s swing and contact pattern, and it’s not like your plan to use Gabriel Moreno is working out right now. Take a flyer on Kelly and see if he gets some more playing time to show off that improved plate approach.

Jakob Junis, P, CLE: Roleless Rob alert! You may remember Junis from his “prospect” days. I put “prospect” in quotes because he was 29 when we last really talked about him seriously. He started his career with the Royals and encountered an onslaught of health problems before beginning his reinvention as a reliever. While he snagged 10 spot starts over the last two years, his role in Cleveland has been anything from the fourth inning to the eighth inning. What has he done in that time? 0 earned runs over 7 innings with a 1.42 FIP. His K rate is sitting at 9 and he’s controlling walks the way he did back in those “prospect” years. The Guardians starting 5 aren’t exactly a murderer’s row (featuring former Roleless Rob infatuation, Logan Allen), and the bullpen is pretty shored up between Emmanuel Clase, Cade Smith, and Paul Sewald. We can see potential for Junis to start snatching up lucrative multiple-inning gigs and potentially move into an opener / spot starter role. Lovely for RCLs, right? Junis has always had a nice skill set for fantasy, but he’s never been in the right spot or healthy enough for a long time. This could be the year…or not. But he’s free, and you can’t complain too much about that.

I’m the Problem, It’s Me

Kumar Rocker, SP, TEX: In this part of the column. I remind readers not to overreact to your Top 100 players. Don’t drop your studs in the first part of the season! But Kumar Rocker isn’t a stud. He’s a top prospect. He’s got 6 starts to his major league record. Sure, he blazed through the minors. He was also a 23/24 year old taking on, as my dad says, the youths. Look above 700 words. You see Kyren Paris? Rocker was striking those kinds of guys out in the minors. April sucks for pitchers. It’s cold. It’s wet. They’re not stretched out fully. 6 man rotations. You get the idea. It’s even worse when you take a rookie pitcher and hope that they’ll save your fantasy team. 93% of teams have Kumar Rocker right now. You don’t need him. He’ll be available on the wire later, assuming the Rangers don’t let him marinate for another year in the minors. If you’re in a dynasty, park Rocker on the bench and yell at the Rangers for burning up his minor league eligibility on April baseball. If you’re in a redraft, drop him and find another player — literally anybody is better than Rocker right now, with the exception of Marcus Stroman.

How are your teams doing? Myself? I’m not panicking. April baseball is tough. Keep in mind, some hot players (like Kyren Paris) are putting up massive, unsustainable rates of performance. A team with Aaron Judge and a Kyren Paris pickup would be undefeated right now. Stay the course and stay confident — you’ll be in better shape in no time.