Drops & Disasters: Fantasy Baseball Roster Moves (4/27)

We are now approximately one month into the 2025 fantasy baseball season. Without question, there is a lot of baseball left to be played. Some of today’s leading performers will fall back into mediocrity (or worse), while some of today’s underperformers will turn things around and excel. For many players, however, the die has been cast and there are strong indicators of their likely future performance levels.

At this time, fantasy managers that do not do so regularly should consider taking stock of their teams. One thing I recommend that managers to consider – although I sometimes forget to do this myself – is to review the performance of each rostered player on a weekly basis. I typically know how my various teams are doing generally, but much of my focus and player analysis during the weekend tends to be spent on potential acquisitions. While I would like to think such evaluations are time well spent, it is important not to overlook the performance of rostered players, especially ones that may be struggling.

For instance, are managers aware that there currently are 29 qualified hitters (at least 3.1 plate appearances per scheduled game) currently hitting below .200? Included in that list are the following players who were drafted fairly early in NFBC leagues: Marcus Semien (.146), Luis Robert Jr. (.148), Yainer Diaz (.165), Jake Burger (.171), Spencer Steer (.171), Jazz Chisholm Jr. (.172), Triston Casas (.172), Mike Trout (.177), Anthony Santander (.182), Dansby Swanson (.188), Vinnie Pasquantino (.188), Andrés Giménez (.189), Mark Vientos (.193), Julio Rodríguez (.194), Cody Bellinger (.195) and Christian Walker (.198). The other 13 qualified hitters with a sub-.200 average to date, while lacking high ADPs, also were drafted in every Main Event league.

Along similar lines, the following qualified hitters who were early draft picks currently are laggards in runs scored: Yordan Alvarez (5), Triston Casas (5), Marcus Semien (6), Yainer Diaz (6), J.T. Realmuto (7), Anthony Santander (7), Jonathan India (7), Michael Toglia (7), Salvador Perez (8), Corey Seager (8), Bo Bichette (9), Mark Vientos (9), Jake Burger (9) and Gunnar Henderson (9). All told, there currently are 37 qualified hitters, all of whom are rostered in all or most Main Event leagues, which have yet to score ten runs.

The following qualified hitters who were early draft picks have fewer than two home runs: Xander Bogaerts (0), Bo Bichette (0), Nico Hoerner (0), Jonathan India (0), Alec Bohm (0), Xavier Edwards (0), Paul Goldschmidt (1), J.T. Realmuto (1), Willy Adames (1), Trea Turner (1), Ryan Mountcastle (1), Luis García Jr. (1), Yainer Diaz (1), Ceddanne Rafaela (1) and Jarren Duran (1). There currently are 33 qualified hitters with under two home runs, the vast majority of whom are rostered in every Main Event league.

The following qualified hitters who were early draft picks currently are laggards in RBIs: Jonathan India (4), Gunnar Henderson (4), Xander Bogaerts (5), Ryan Mountcastle (5), Dylan Crews (5), Christian Walker (6), Corey Seager (6), Jordan Westburg (6), J.T. Realmuto (7), Luis Robert Jr. (7), Alec Bohm (7), Lawrence Butler (7), Anthony Santander (8), Trea Turner (8), Andrés Giménez (8), Jeremy Peña (8), Yainer Diaz (8), Adley Rutschman (8), Spencer Steer (8), Jose Altuve (9), Paul Goldschmidt (9), Willson Contreras (9), Jorge Soler (9), Shohei Ohtani (9) and Xavier Edwards (9). There currently are 49 qualified hitters with under 10 RBIs, the vast majority of whom are rostered in every Main Event league.

Finally, the following qualified hitters who were early draft picks and expected to contribute in the stolen base category have failed to do so thus far in any meaningful way: Marcus Semien (0), Brandon Nimmo (0), Luis Rengifo (0), Jonathan India (0), Willy Adames (1), Ian Happ (1), Tommy Edman (1), Seiya Suzuki (1), Francisco Lindor (2), Mookie Betts (2), Bo Bichette (2) and Gunnar Henderson (2). To be clear, there are no fewer than 103 qualified hitters with two or fewer stolen bases, although I found the aforementioned players to be the most surprising of that group based on expectations.

The inclusion of hitters in one or more of the preceding paragraphs does not necessarily mean that they should be considered potential drops. In the vast majority of cases, these players should continue to be rostered. Rather, the point here is that if you have one or more of these players rostered and did not realize how poorly they have been performing to date in at least one hitting category, it probably means that more time should be spent evaluating your own rosters. Importantly, I do not think such evaluations need to take more than 5-10 minutes per team, but they may help managers identify potential drops that otherwise could be overlooked by relying solely on players’ reputations.

PRESALE PRESALE PRESALE PRESALE PRESALE

Football Almanac 2025

$40.00 $35.00

Get Almanac for $35.00

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