Brayan Rocchio DVOA, Advanced Stats, & Fantasy Rankings

Cleveland Guardians shortstop Brayan Rocchio will open the second half of the season on Friday on the bench versus the visiting San Diego Padres. Daniel Schneemann will make the start at short and will bat seventh for the Guardians against Padres knuckleballer Matt Waldron. Rocchio went hitless in the final 12 at-bats of the first half of the season and was on the bench for two of the final three games before this week's All-Star break in favor of Schneeman. He's hitting just .210/.305/.303 with a .608 OPS, three home runs, 17 RBI and seven stolen bases in 83 games in his first full season in the big leagues. Schneeman isn't exactly turning heads at the plate, but he does have one more home run than Rocchio in just 32 games played in his rookie campaign and could continue to take playing time away from Rocchio at the 6.

Cleveland Guardians shortstop Brayan Rocchio went 1-for-3 with a walk and a stolen base in Thursday's loss against the Houston Astros. The stolen base would be the fifth of the season for the 23-year-old. Outside of the basepaths, Rocchio has struggled to swing the bat. On the season, he is hitting a weak .218 and is homerless with four RBI. Despite playing on most days, the Guardians No. 9 prospect just hasn't done enough with the bat to convince managers to roster him. He can safely remain on the waiver wire.

Cleveland Guardians shortstop Brayan Rocchio is taking the day off on Tuesday against the visiting Chicago White Sox. The rookie is the club's primary shortstop and has started off the 2024 season in good shape offensively, going 9-for-33 (.273) with a league-leading five doubles, two RBI and four runs scored in his first nine games. Rocchio should be back in the starting lineup for Wednesday's series finale against Chicago on Wednesday. With the 23-year-old starting on the bench, Gabriel Arias is starting at shortstop and batting ninth against White Sox right-hander Michael Soroka. Arias makes for a poor DFS play in the nine-hole and has two hits in his first 13 at-bats this year. He's never faced Soroka in his career.

Cleveland Guardians manager Stephen Vogt said that infielder Brayan Rocchio will handle the "bulk" of the playing time at shortstop this year. Rocchio is the club's No. 3 prospect, per MLB Pipeline, and has won the starting shortstop job after going 20-for-81 (.247) with no home runs and eight RBI in his first 23 major-league games in 2023. The 23-year-old won the job by hitting .270/.308/.459 in 13 Cactus League games this spring. Power isn't really his thing, as he hit only seven home runs in 116 contests with Triple-A Columbus in 2023 before getting called up to Cleveland, but he steal 25 bases. The switch-hitting shortstop doesn't have a ton of fantasy upside at the 6 because of his lack of over-the-fence pop, but winning the starting shortstop gig will at least make him an AL-only asset because of his speed.