In this space, Scott White will highlight some of the more notable changes to his rest-of-season rankings. You'll find said rankings here and are urged to bookmark them if you haven't already. There's no better resource for gauging player value throughout the long season.
The headliner a week ago was Aaron Judge, whose selling point is of course home runs -- a contribution that has been in particularly short supply this year.
Stolen bases have been a little bit easier to come by, but that doesn't mean we should ignore the recent efforts of Jarren Duran and David Hamilton, a couple of Red Sox who've been running out of their red shoes.
Hamilton didn't even become a regular part of the lineup until mid-May and is already up to 19 steals, having swiped four bags on Sunday alone. Duran, meanwhile, has been so productive that he entered Tuesday as the fifth-best outfielder in Head-to-Head points leagues (behind the obvious top four of Judge, Juan Soto, Mookie Betts, and Kyle Tucker), and we don't even think of Head-to-Head points as the format that most favors base-stealers.
So how far up the rest-of-season rankings have these recent contributions moved Duran and Hamilton?
Outfield
- OK, so I'm not actually ranking Duran fifth even though he's performed at that level in Head-to-Head points leagues (as compared to ninth in Rotisserie), but I am moving him into the top 20, most notably ahead of Randy Arozarena. It's as much about his hitting as his base-stealing. He's batting .353 (24 for 68) so far in June, and part of the reason he ranks higher in points leagues is that he hit so many doubles and triples. But the home run output is still modest, which caps his potential in Rotisserie leagues especially. The profile depends largely on batting average, and Duran probably isn't matching Steven Kwan in that regard, which is why I've landed on ranking him just behind Kwan.
- Joining Duran in the top 20 (and ahead of Arozarena) is Riley Greene, who hasn't been quite the multi-dimensional player he was billed to be but is making up for it with considerable power production.
- Outfield is one of three positions where I have to move Mookie Betts down due to a fractured wrist that will reportedly keep him out until August (late July, if you want to think optimistically), but as you may know, outfield is lacking in surefire stud bats beyond the top four -- or I should say top three seeing as Betts was one of the four. He's seventh now, dropping behind Fernando Tatis, Yordan Alvarez, and Julio Rodriguez, three players who we all believed had first-round potential coming into the year. I'm not saying I absolutely wouldn't trade Betts for Teoscar Hernandez or Christian Yelich -- it would depend on my place in the standings and the caliber of my alternatives -- but I'd prefer to hold out for the surefire stud if possible.
- Michael Harris is the other big outfielder to land on the IL in the past week, and I've moved him down about 10 spots, outside the top 20. His absence may be only half that of Betts, but I can't say with as much certainty that he'll have been worth the wait when he returns.
- Kyle Schwarber has lowered his launch angle this year and is looking like he may not be such a liability for batting average anymore, which is reason enough for me to move him ahead of the slumping Adolis Garcia.
- I've written before that any outfielder who actually does something for some length of time is likely to move into the top 30 because the threshold for that range of the rankings is so low. Case in point this week is Heliot Ramos, whose strikeout rate is worrisome but whose pedigree and exit velocity readings suggest that this breakout could be for real.
- Nolan Jones is also back in the top 30 now that he's back from a knee injury and looking far more disciplined at the plate than he did before it.
- Jackson Merrill is back to playing every day for the Padres and has enjoyed a recent power surge, so he's climbing the ranks again, moving back inside the top 50 in the outfield and inside the top 25 at shortstop.
Catcher
- Playing time has become a real concern for Ryan Jeffers, who has sat out every other game for the past two weeks. It seems like he should be able to overtake Christian Vazquez rather easily, but Jeffers' own production has been lagging of late. He drops from fifth to 10th in my catcher rankings, basically switching places with Logan O'Hoppe (no playing time issues there).
- Willson Contreras is out on a rehab assignment and reportedly could return as early as Monday, beating the timetable for his fractured forearm by a couple weeks. He belongs in the top 10 as well, then, moving ahead of not just Jeffers but also Yainer Diaz and Sean Murphy.
- Tyler Soderstrom has settled into the first base job for the Athletics but retains his catcher eligibility from last year. If he continues to hit well enough to play every day, he'll be a top-10 catcher rather easily. I've stopped at 15th for now since that's a rather big if.
- Ben Rice, who himself figures to play mostly first base with Anthony Rizzo sidelined by a fractured forearm, debuts at No. 30 in the catcher rankings. The 25-year-old put together a .275/.393/.532 slash line between Double- and Triple-A this year (and even better numbers at lower levels last year), but hitter call-ups have by and large struggled to acclimate to the big leagues this year. We also don't have a great sense for how much he'll play yet.
First base
- Andrew Vaughn has been arguably the hottest player at the position this month, batting .356 (21 for 59) with five home runs. His season stat line is still pretty gross, so I'm not ready to suggest that he's finally having his long-awaited breakout. I am willing to move him into the top 25 at the position, though, ahead of Michael Busch and Nate Lowe and behind another hot hitter, Jeimer Candelario.
- Carlos Santana has been hot, too, but we know the upside is pretty limited for the 38-year-old. He's usable as a corner infielder, but I've only moved him up to 30th here.
Second base
- As I explained in the outfield section, I only want to move Betts behind what I consider to be surefire stud bats, which at second base means Jose Altuve, Marcus Semien, Ozzie Albies, and Ketel Marte.
- Joseph Ortiz and Nick Gonzales continue to climb the ranks with their steady production at the plate, with both moving ahead of preseason staples Nico Hoerner and Thairo Estrada. Ortiz is ahead of Gonzales in points leagues, where his plate discipline is of greater impact, but Gonzales' superior batting average earns him the nod in categories leagues.
- Spencer Horwitz has picked up second-base eligibility after beginning the year as only a DH. He debuts at 34th in categories leagues and 33rd in points, with his patient approach being better suited for the latter format. The 26-year-old hit .335 at Double-A (albeit without much over-the-fence power) and so far has done similar things as a big-leaguer, though it's not yet clear how much he'll play against lefties.
Third base
- Josh Jung's long recovery from wrist surgery, the result of a fracture suffered the first week of the season, is finally nearing its end. He's on a rehab assignment and expected to return before the All-Star break. That's enough for me to bump him up to 16th in my third base rankings, ahead of Christopher Morel, Luis Rengifo and Ryan McMahon.
- Mark Vientos has so far been a revelation at third base for the Mets, keeping his strikeouts at a manageable level while making some of the loudest contact on the team. The move up to 25th may seem tepid considering, but it's just that 15-25 is particularly strong at third base. He is ahead of Michael Busch, Jake Burger, and Ke'Bryan Hayes, at least.
Shortstop
- Shortstop is the last of the positions where we have to account for Mookie Betts' fractured wrist. The perennial MVP candidate drops to seventh, behind Trea Turner, who himself recently recovered from a hamstring injury.
- Carlos Correa's Statcast readings hinted of good days ahead, and it's certainly played out here with him batting .529 (27 for 51) with four home runs in his past 11 games. His .896 OPS is now third-best at the position, so I may not be going far enough with his move up to 16th in the rankings. But it's never wise to take a player's absolute hottest stretch at face value, and shortstop is also a particularly deep position. Am I ready to move him ahead of the ultra-steady Anthony Volpe and Willy Adames or the super-speedy Ha-seong Kim, Bryson Stott, and Brice Turang? Not quite, but I'm stopping just short of that.
- I've written that Jackson Merrill is back in my top 25 at shortstop, and David Hamilton is right behind him. I'm not sure he can sustain the batting average nor ascend to must-start status as someone who sits against lefties, but the speed is enough to invest in him over Willi Castro and Masyn Winn, two players whose best attribute is purportedly also speed.
- Recent call-ups Adael Amador and Orelvis Martinez debut at 37th and 39th respectively, which should tell you that I don't think they're ready to make a significant Fantasy impact yet. Both have the pedigree to become impact players, but hitters have had such a hard time breaking in this year. And neither is anywhere close to the finished product that, say, Wyatt Langford was.
Starting pitcher
- I've been pretty aggressive with my ranking of Paul Skenes from the day he was called up, but it's time to move into the next phase of ranking him like a full-fledged ace. For now, that means 15th, ahead of Logan Webb and Freddy Peralta but still behind Max Fried. I don't see the argument against it at this point, particularly with the Pirates having already been so careful with his innings.
- On his heels is Garrett Crochet, who also climbs past Webb and Peralta into the 16th spot. You might presume some measure of workload management is in order given that he's a full-time starter for the first time since high school, but I'm beginning to doubt we'll see anything as dramatic as a full-fledged shutdown, particularly amid the rumors of the White Sox shopping him to contenders. And if the workload concerns are overblown, then we're talking about a left-handed Tyler Glasnow, basically (or at least statistically).
- Another pitcher who Skenes and Crochet have moved ahead of, but more because of him dropping behind them, is Pablo Lopez. Yes, I'm willing to concede that he may not be a surefire ace now that he's allowed five-plus earned runs in four of his past six starts. It still looks like mostly a home run issue, with most of his other ratios rating similarly to last year, but the sweeper and changeup that fueled his success are clearly getting hit harder this time around. I suspect better days are ahead, but I say that with less conviction now.
- Gerrit Cole and Max Scherzer continue to inch up the rankings, with the former moving to 27th, ahead of Kevin Gausman, and the latter moving to 34th, ahead of Carlos Rodon and Justin Steele. Clearly, I'm still exercising caution with both given the nature of their injuries and the length of their absences, but a couple strong outings would be enough to rocket Cole into the top 10 and Scherzer into the top 20.
- This week marks the big move down for Jesus Luzardo, who doesn't get the benefit of the doubt anymore with his strikeouts tanking in recent starts. He drops outside of the top 50, behind Reynaldo Lopez, Kutter Crawford, and Michael King, among others.
- Another downer is Kyle Bradish, who plummets about 40 spots with the recurrence of his UCL sprain. If three months of rest (spring training included) wasn't enough to resolve the issue, then surgery seems like a logical next step.
- The biggest riser within the starting pitcher ranks this week is Hunter Brown, a preseason sleeper who has begun to deliver on that potential with a 1.44 ERA, 0.84 WHIP and 11.5 K/9 in his past four starts. You'll notice that other recent waiver wire darlings like Taj Bradley and Matt Waldron are in that same vicinity.
Relief pitcher
- Andres Munoz has slipped a couple spots, behind Craig Kimbrel and Paul Sewald, through no fault of his own. He's probably the most effective reliever of the three, but six of the Mariners' past seven saves have gone to someone else, with Munoz earning a hold in three of those instances. It's not reason to question whether he's actually the Mariners closer, but that title means different things to different managers. And Scott Servais has always been more inclined than most to play the leverage game.
- Hector Neris' continued struggles have dropped him behind the Kenley Jansen and Alexis Diaz. Jansen maybe should have been ahead all along, but his chances have been inconsistent with the Red Sox. Diaz has struggled in his own right but is more entrenched in the role, probably, than Neris is.
