Nicky Lopez DVOA, Advanced Stats, & Fantasy Rankings

According to Jesse Rogers of ESPN, the Chicago Cubs have signed infielder Nicky Lopez to a minor league contract. Lopez spent the 2024 campaign on the Southside of Chicago and will now move up to the Northside for the 2025 season. Across 124 games, Lopez held a .241/.312/.294 line. He tallied 12 doubles, three triples, and five stolen bases. He showed a strong eye at the plate with a 15.1 percent strikeout rate and a solid 8.3 percent walk rate. However, he struggled to generate any power as he posted a .288 xSLG and a 1.5 percent barrel rate, both within the first percentile among qualified hitters. Fantasy managers should expect the 29-year-old to compete for a depth spot in the infield during spring training.

The Chicago White Sox announced on Tuesday that infielder Nicky Lopez and left-hander Sammy Peralta both cleared waivers and elected free agency instead of accepting their outright assignments to the minor leagues. In his first season with the last-place White Sox in 2024, Lopez was the team's primary second baseman and finished with a .241/.312/.294 slash line, weak .606 OPS, only one home run, 21 RBI, five stolen bases and 40 runs scored in 445 trips to the plate over 124 games played. The 29-year-old will most likely be searching for a minor-league deal on the open market as a utility infielder. In his six big-league seasons since debuting in 2019 with the Kansas City Royals, Lopez has a .248/.312/.314 slash line with only seven homers, 152 RBI and 47 stolen bases in 668 games. Lopez isn't going to be on the fantasy radar in 2025.

Chicago White Sox second baseman Nicky Lopez drove in a pair of runs during a two-hit performance in Monday's 8-6 loss to the Minnesota Twins. Lopez had an RBI single in the bottom of the sixth before hitting a game-tying double in the bottom of the eighth that helped force the game to extra innings. He also added his fourth stolen base along with a run scored. Lopez is slashing .250/.309/.298 with 14 RBI and 23 runs scored. He only has 11 extra-base hits (no home runs) and has been caught stealing five times, which are two reasons why fantasy managers have ignored Lopez's production. Despite Monday's solid performance, the 29-year-old is mainly an option in AL-Only or deep-league formats.