I’ve based the list of players below on comments from my readers (you know, the ones that say something to the effect of “How could you not include this guy?!?”). I actually really like those types of comments because they make me take a second look at players I may not have given appropriate credit to. Let’s see if that applies to the players below.
I am using NFBC for position eligibility, so it’s possible that other players may be eligible at 2B or SS on other sites. All stats are as of the end of the day, Tuesday, 7/22/25.
Xavier Edwards, 2B/SS, MIA
(Roster percentages – CBS: 76%, ESPN: 23%, Fantrax: 90%, NFBC: 100%, Yahoo: 68%)
I have been lukewarm at best when it comes to Xavier Edwards. But please don’t hear what I’m not actually saying – I absolutely understand that he contributes important stats to almost any fantasy team, but his game worries me enough that I don’t usually draft him. In fact, I don’t think I have a single share of him this year, but it isn’t because I don’t like what he can provide. In my first article of this season, I ranked Edwards 30th in my middle infield overall ranks with this description of what I liked and – admittedly – mostly didn’t like about him during drafting season:
There is certainly value to be had with Edwards’s profile. His SB upside is a virtual lock, and there’s at least a reasonable shot at a good AVG. That’s about it. Zero power does not begin to explain his profile. And a bad Marlins lineup doesn’t scream R upside. If he were going around pick 200, I’d be interested. Pre-150, not so much.
What he offers:
Despite missing 2 ½ weeks in May due to a balky back, Edwards has put up just the kinds of numbers you might hope he would put up: .294 AVG, 44 R, 17 SB. All three of those numbers are extremely helpful in Roto, maybe even in points leagues since he’s also racked up 100 hits. His speed is legit (28 ft/s), so steals are almost certainly going to pile up. If you need steals, you found your guy.
Fortunately, Miami isn’t as bad as many of us thought they would be – their record is a not-horrific 48-53 as I write this. So maybe there are actually guys hitting behind Edwards who can get him home when he’s on base – his 44 Rs suggest so anyway.
What he doesn’t offer:
Interestingly, though, it’s not like Miami’s scoring offense is good; they currently rank 20th in baseball with 431 Rs scored as a team (only 112 fewer Rs than the mighty Dodgers).
As you read that sentence, I hope you used your sarcastic voice with the word “only” – scoring fewer than 80% of the total of the league leader and 16 Rs fewer than MLB’s average of 447 Rs per team doesn’t seem super promising. Especially once Miami starts – as most of us assume they will – selling pieces by the deadline and then playing their young guys. While 44 Rs are nice, I’m not sure that pace will stick around long-term.
And he doesn’t exactly hit the ball with authority. His speed helps him keep a high BABIP (.344 currently), but he seems to be intentionally hitting the ball in the air more (FB-rate up 4.1% from last year). The problem is his 86.4 mph EV, 9.2° LA, and 29.8% HH% don’t suggest he can do much with the ball when he puts it in the air. And before you say something like, “Not everyone has to hit HRs to be valuable,” his lack of power isn’t my issue. It’s his lack of ability to hit the ball hard at all, in really any consistent way, which makes his AVG dependent on speed and good ball placement. His speed can be depended on, but let Luis Arraez’s season be a reminder that those who can’t strike the ball hard can drop off in the AVG department before hitting the age when players usually decline.
Long story short:
You’ve probably figured out that I’m still not sold on Edwards. As I said in draft season, if he had been getting drafted post-200 in ADP, I would have been happy to have him. And considering that our Razzball Player Rater puts him as the 206th most valuable player with $3.80 of return, it looks like I may have been right.
But even with my concerns, if he’s available in a shallow league, I can’t deny the speed is tasty. I can probably find room on my roster for him, but he’s rostered everywhere in the types of leagues I tend to play.
Brandon Lowe, 2B, TBR
(Roster percentages – CBS: 97%, ESPN: 41.5%, Fantrax: 90%, NFBC: 100%, Yahoo: 75%)
My omission of Brandon Lowe in my July 10th top 30 middle infield list brought the strongest reaction from readers. And based on the season he’s had to this point, I agree with the commenters. But looking forward gives me less confidence in Lowe for the remainder of the season.
What he offers:
Power. Lots of it. His 19 HRs reflect his ability to hit the ball hard: a 46.8% HH-rate (putting him in the 71st percentile), 13.1% barrel-rate (81st percentile), and 92.1 mph EV (88th percentile) show that the HRs are no mistake. This is who he is.
I have loved him for a number of years as a late power source in deeper drafts, and I am happy to say I have him rostered in lots of leagues this season. His return of $16.20 on the season has him ranked as the 76th overall player on the Razzball Player Rater. If you drafted him, you’ve profited for sure.
What he doesn’t offer:
Two things tend to be Lowe’s Achilles’ heels: health and the ability to consistently contact the ball.
Health: 12 days after my top-30 article dropped, Lowe went on the IL due to tendinitis in his foot. Soft tissue injuries have plagued Lowe throughout his career. Check out this list of injuries – I count 15 notable enough to be listed. Yikes. His career PAs reflect this: 2021 is his only season with more than 600 PAs, and even without counting his first year when he came into the league in August or the 2020 shortened Covid season, he’s had an average of 364 PAs in his “full” seasons. This season, he has already hit 350 PAs and has missed time due to two different soft tissue injuries just in July.
Contact numbers: His career Contact% is 68.6% (this season, he’s at 70.7%), and his career Z-Contact% is 78.8% (81.9% this season). He also swings outside the zone 30% of the time, making contact with those pitches on just over ? of his swings. His power numbers are truly legit; his current .269 AVG probably not so much (though Statcast does list him with a .271 xBA). He’s had good BABIP luck so far this year, but we surely have to expect his AVG to drop 20-30 points once he gets back healthy – assuming he gets healthy soon, which is a bold assumption.
Long story short:
Don’t let the section above fool you – I actually am a huge Lowe fan, which is why I have him rostered so much. But I didn’t put him in my top 30 list because I don’t expect the AVG to stick, I’m not sure how often he’ll be healthy enough to play, and the vast majority of Tampa’s second half schedule puts the team on the road and out of the friendly confines of the Steinbrenner Field launching pad. His HR pace likely will go down right along with his AVG – and I would suspect his RBI total might suffer as well.
If you drafted Lowe or picked him up off waivers, you have benefited nicely. But I wouldn’t get so satisfied that I’m not paying attention to the fantasy-specific holes in his game.
J.P. Crawford, SS, SEA
(Roster percentages – CBS: 46%, ESPN: 13%, Fantrax: 67%, NFBC: 36%, Yahoo: 21%)
J.P. Crawford is the one player on this list who is widely available on waiver wires despite his strong numbers: .281 AVG, 7 HR, 45 R, 38 RBI, 5 SB in 431 PAs. With numbers like those, why isn’t he being rostered more? More importantly for the purposes of this article, why is it that I only roster him in 50-round draft-and-hold leagues?
What he offers:
Steadiness. He plays – a lot. And he is a professional hitter who has the ability to quietly accumulate stats. His solid plate discipline keeps him usually as a relative positive when it comes to AVG, and despite Seattle’s maddening offensive inconsistency over the last few years, he can usually be a decent source of Rs.
What he doesn’t offer:
Unless he actually isn’t consistently a decent source of Rs. He’s scored more than 80 Rs in a season only twice: In 2021, he BABIPped his way to a .273 AVG while also earning 58 BBs, resulting in 89 Rs. And in an outlier 2023, he rode a career high 19 HRs (a career best by 10 HRs) to 94 Rs. In other years, he’s scored 57 or fewer. Um, that’s not as good as we might have thought; certainly, it’s well under what I thought his career numbers would be. To be fair, he is on pace to go way above 57 this year, but it is aided by a career high .338 BABIP. Like Xavier Edwards, Crawford doesn’t exactly murder the ball (though he hits it harder than Edwards for sure). His current 7 HRs are promising, but the fact that the Razzball rest-of-season hitter projections put Crawford at only 4 more HRs over the remaining 60 games should tell us that his current 7 HRs are likely a bit of an outlier as well.
That said, Crawford has made some notable changes: He has dropped his FB% by 3 points AND dropped his GB% by around 5 points. That nearly 8% change has been added to his LD%. His current 25.8% LD% is his highest since his rookie season of 2017, when he had a 26.5% LD% – but in only 87 PAs. So is the change this year real or just luck? I hope it’s real, but his roster percentages make it clear that not everyone is convinced. And frankly, I’m not either.
His current 5 SBs are equal to his total for last season and just one shy of his career high of 6 SBs in 2020. His 26.7 ft/s sprint speed suggests his current stolen base pace is also probably an outlier.
It’s looking more and more like his current numbers might just be a strong – and probably lucky – run for 3 months.
Long story short:
If you’ve rostered Crawford to this point, smart move: the Razzball Player Rater puts him at the 192nd overall player with a $4.30 return. Considering his 400+ ADP in drafting season, he has been a boon. But there really isn’t anything in his profile that suggests any of this is likely real. So, if I’m in need of middle infield off the waiver wire, I’m certainly happy to pick him up. But I can’t say that I truly expect this season to be a breakout for him, and it wouldn’t surprise me if I end up dropping him after a few weeks.
That’s it for this week. I’ll be back at it next Thursday, same time and place. Until then. – ADHamley
Thoughts on Otto Lopez over Mookie at MI? I know the industry continues to bang the drum for Mookie but he’s getting harder and harder to install in a lineup.
I can’t believe I’m saying this, but I wouldn’t blame you if you made that swap. The team context is so much better for Mookie, so I have to think that the RBIs will tick up for Mookie, and he’ll almost certainly outscore Lopez in terms of Rs. But Lopez likely gives you a chance of more speed and — somehow — better AVG. I’ve thought Lopez would be good for AVG at some point this season, but Statcast likes him even better than I do — they have his xBA at .291 and his xwOBA above .360. Those are good numbers.
If we’re doing a blind assessment of data, Lopez’s data is more promising in AVG, SBs, and power — the power is very close though. Lopez is hitting the ball hard more often and is barreling the ball better, but they are hitting with exactly the same EV. Mookie’s LA is massive, though, probably leading to lots of flyball outs (nearly 50% flyball rate supports that). Lopez is hitting the ball on the ground, so that limits his HR potential, but he doesn’t seem to play a game he doesn’t have — he’s not up there trying to hit homers; he’s up there trying to hit.
The blind data says Lopez. That’s a gutsy call though if you make it.