Drops & Disasters: Fantasy Baseball Roster Moves (5/25)

As we approach Memorial Day in the United States, we are now approximately one-third of the way through the 2025 MLB season. For fantasy managers, the extended weekend presents an excellent opportunity to take stock of one’s teams. In evaluating players active since Opening Day, small samples can no longer be used as a crutch to explain or excuse poor performance. While some players may be displaying underlying skills that are stronger – or weaker – than the surface stats produced to date, managers should be able to critically assess their players’ performance and have at least some ideas how they are perform moving forward.

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For the first two months or so of the fantasy season, my focus typically is on rostering, and then starting, the best teams possible irrespective of categorical strengths and balance. Sure, I enter drafts and do Sunday night FAAB with a general desire to be balanced categorically, but I will not hesitate to target the best players available irrespective of the standings or the perceived strengths and weaknesses of my team. Heading into June, however, managers should start to focus increasingly – but not overwhelmingly – on categorical standings. Such focus should start to factor into weekly drop decisions.

For instance, suppose a team is very strong in stolen bases and weak on power. Ideally, the team should seek to improve in power while minimizing any decline in stolen bases. Focusing on categorical needs does not mean managers should drop a player like Brice Turang. Turang is a full-time player and while he is not particularly helpful in terms of power, Turang is a strong base-stealer who also is among the league leaders in runs, contributes something in RBIs, and, at least for now, possesses a helpful batting average. But should fantasy teams that are strong in stolen bases and weak in home runs continue to roster Johan Rojas as their fifth, sixth or even seventh outfielder? Unlike Turang, Rojas is a part-time player who will steal bases, but likely will hurt his fantasy teams in runs, home runs and RBIs. For this type of team, Rojas may represent a strategic drop, to be replaced by an outfielder that, when deployed, is more likely to contribute in home runs. Conversely, for a team that is strong in power but weak in stolen bases, Rojas, or Leody Taveras, might be a better bench outfielder than Heston Kjerstad, who is being employed in a part-time role. Thus, at this point, I would not drop “core” players based on categorical strengths or weaknesses with four months of the season remaining but do recommend tweaking rosters – especially around “the edges” – to address glaring needs.

It is far too early in the season to let categorical strengths and weaknesses drive FAAB adds and drops. Generally speaking, managers should continue to target the best players and drop the weakest ones. But, at this point in time, it is not too early to at least consider categorical strengths and weaknesses when making FAAB decisions, especially when prioritizing between two or more comparable adds or drops. This is especially true if managers are at or near the bottom of the standings in individual categories. Where significant categorical deficiencies exist, waiting until August to start addressing them may be too late. Sometimes, inexpensive swaps of players can help categorical deficiencies and represent “addition by subtraction” type moves. For instance, Patrick Bailey is rostered in 25% of Main Event leagues, while Victor Caratini is rostered in only 5% of Main Event leagues. Bailey currently is hitting .174, while Caratini is hitting .277 and provides more power than Bailey. While Caratini’s current, increased playing time almost certainly will decline when Yordan Alvarez returns to the starting lineup, he can be replaced by another catcher when he ceases to be useful for fantasy. The point is, while Bailey is a questionable catcher for fantasy, teams struggling in batting average should not be rostering him one day longer, and there are ample alternatives that can help more – or hurt less – in that category.

Before turning to this week’s drop recommendations, I want to give a huge thanks to Lucas Biery, who filled in admirably for me last week while I was away on vacation. Lucas did a fantastic job, and it was a great feeling to be able to get away knowing the column was in such capable hands.

Some of the players that should at least be considered as potential drops this week are set forth below in the following two tables – the first includes hitters and the second includes pitchers. In addition to the player’s name, team and position, the tables include the player’s ownership percentage in the premier 15- and 12-team contests: the NFBC’s Main Event and Online Championship, respectively. Finally, the tables list my rankings as to how strongly – or not – I feel each particular player should be dropped in those 15-team and 12-team formats, respectively. The key to these rankings, from 0-4, is as follows:

• • 0 = Do not drop

• • 1 = Team context dependent; probably should not be dropped on most teams

• • 2 = Team context dependent; compelling arguments to drop and not drop

• • 3 = Team context dependent; probably should be dropped on most teams

• • 4 = Drop