With spring training games now underway, baseball is once again being played and we can start to fine-tune the top of our draft lists by seeing what players actually look like on the diamond.
However, many fantasy managers will tell you that fantasy championships are not won in the first few rounds, but rather by what bargains you can get in the middle of the roster-allocation proceedings.
With that in mind, we asked our quartet of fantasy experts — Eric Karabell, Tristan H. Cockcroft, Todd Zola and Derek Carty — to highlight one player they were targeting as one of these middle-round must-haves. If these names are currently nowhere to be found on your own draft lists, you might want to make some adjustments.
Which player ranked outside the top 50 are you most excited about potentially drafting to as many of your fantasy baseball teams as possible?
He’s one of the few players you’ll routinely draft outside the top 50 (other than in dynasty and keeper leagues) who has a legitimate chance at a top-25 overall season, thanks to his immense raw power potential.
That power is a true 80-grade skill and, to underscore how much punch he packs at the plate, note that he had the highest exit velocity of any player at the Triple-A level last season (minimum 150 batted balls). Then, after getting the call in mid-August, he had what would have been better-than-70th-percentile Barrel and hard-hit rates in his 177 plate appearances with the Rays.
The more hitter-friendly confines of the Rays’ temporary home at George M. Steinbrenner Field in Tampa should help his cause, as will hitting regularly in the heart of the order. Expect a big breakthrough from Caminero in 2025. — Cockcroft
Yelich produced a stellar .909 OPS over 315 plate appearances during the 2024 season, offering up 11 home runs and 21 stolen bases before his balky back eventually shut him down just before August. Offseason surgery was expected to fix the problem, and Yelich should be ready for Opening Day.
Fantasy managers would be quite pleased if Yelich approaches numbers reflecting his 2023 pace. Remember, Yelich was a five-category provider and top-10 outfielder that season, and lest we forget, he was an All-Star just last season. He has proven upside, yet doesn’t need to return to his 2018 NL MVP form to get back to top-50 fantasy status. — Karabell
First base is loaded in 2025, with five players at the position currently with an ADP inside the top 50. Walker should make it six, but his ADP is borderline top 100.
Being able to wait for Walker allows fantasy managers to focus on other lineup spots early in drafts while still rostering one of the best at his position. He’s averaged 32 homers, 94 RBI, 81 runs and five steals while hitting .250 over the past three seasons — and that’s with having missed 32 games last year due to an oblique strain. He had missed only seven total games in 2022-23.
Moving to a new team can be a challenge, but Walker’s current home field is much more homer-friendly to right-handed batters than his old digs in Arizona. — Zola
Yeah, yeah. I know you wanted me to say Dylan Crews or Jackson Jobe or literally anything sexier than Taylor Ward. Tough. You get what you get, and you don’t get upset. But trust me: You’ll be upset if you don’t get Ward.
A 31-year-old Angels outfielder without a single standout skill is hardly someone I’d expect you to already be excited about, but that’s exactly why he’s my pick. Old, boring veterans (especially on bad teams) are perpetually undervalued — and they’re also perpetually the key to winning leagues.
Ward won’t carry a single category for you, but he’ll contribute in all five and, most importantly? Ward is good at baseball. He can hit. My projection system (THE BAT X) sees Ward as the 52nd-most-valuable hitter in fantasy this year, but he’s being drafted more than 100 spots below that. Take advantage of the market’s biases and take the value where you can get it. — Carty
LAS COLINAS, Texas — Ohio State athletic director Ross Bjork told leaders of the College Football Playoff on Tuesday that the sport’s calendar needs to change, and it’s a critical component as they consider the playoff’s future format.
Bjork, just months removed from watching his Buckeyes win the national title, attended a portion of the annual CFP spring meetings to provide feedback with the three other athletic directors who participated in semifinals and hosted first-round games: Texas athletic director Chris Del Conte, Penn State athletic director Pat Kraft and Notre Dame athletic director Pete Bevacqua, who is part of the CFP’s management committee along with the 10 FBS commissioners.
Bjork said CFP executive director Rich Clark asked if he had one major point he wanted to make before leaving.
“We’ve had so many disruptions over the last five-plus years that I think the time is now to not be reactive, be proactive,” Bjork told ESPN. “When we had this setting here with the commissioners, our job was to provide feedback on what was it like to go through the 12-team playoff … but it all gets impacted by the calendar. I felt it was important to lay that out with everyone in the room to say, separate from the CFP process, if we don’t fix our calendar as an industry, then we’re going to continue to have unintended consequences.”
Bjork shared with the commissioners the perspective of a school trying to win a national title while classes had begun Jan. 6. Ohio State’s academic advisers traveled with the team to the semifinal and national title game, he said, but some athletes missed class and the school had to apply for waivers around the countable athletically related activities, which limits schools to 20 hours of practice time while classes are in session.
“When you don’t have class, there is no limit to CARA hours,” he said, noting that Texas started classes later. “It created some disadvantages. It all goes back to what’s countable CARA hours, NCAA structure. The portal is the next big conversation after the House case and truly what kind of rules can we set? Will we have the authority around transfer rules to set some parameters?”
Bjork said the transfer portal needs to move to a 10-day period in May for fall sports because if the NCAA House settlement is approved, most of the players are going to be signing revenue share agreements with the schools from July 1 to June 30.
“May makes the most sense” to align player contracts with the portal, Bjork said.
Bjork, who said he’s on the implementation committee for the House settlement, said “if everyone follows the structure, it’s going to be a great structure.”
“And everyone has to follow the rules,” he said, “and agree that this is the structure, which we have to. If we don’t do that, then what good is the settlement?”
CLEVELAND — Guardians center fielder Lane Thomas was placed on the 10-day injured list Tuesday with a bruised right wrist sustained when he got hit by a pitch two weeks ago.
The move is retroactive to April 20.
Thomas, who was a postseason star for Cleveland in 2024, was struck on the wrist in the home opener against the Chicago White Sox on April 8. He has played in five games since, including Sunday at Pittsburgh.
Thomas said his wrist initially responded to treatment, but it began troubling him after he played over the weekend.
“I got that first jam shot base hit when I played that first day and it just kind of swelled up after that,” Thomas said. “I kind of lost some range of motion, so they just thought the best option was to try and get all that out of there and not go through that same cycle again.”
Manager Stephen Vogt hopes putting Thomas on the IL will give him time to let the injury heal correctly.
“Let’s take eight to 10 days, knock this thing out so that it’s behind us for the rest of the year,” Vogt said. “Out of fairness for him to be able to be himself and not wonder how’s it going to feel today when I wake up. We decided that with Lane, that this was the best course of action.”
Thomas has twice broken the same wrist after being hit by pitches. He went 2 for 15 with five strikeouts in five games after getting hit.
The Guardians acquired Thomas, 29, in a July trade with Washington. He struggled for much of the regular season before having his biggest moments with Cleveland in October.
Thomas hit two homers in the AL Division Series against Detroit, connecting for a grand slam in Game 5 off Cy Young winner Tarik Skubal to help the Guardians advance.
To replace Thomas, the club selected the contract of infielder Will Wilson from Triple-A Columbus. The Guardians also transferred right-hander Trevor Stephan, who is recovering from Tommy John surgery, to the 60-day injured list.
Wilson was batting .324 for the Columbus Clippers with six homers and 18 RBIs in 18 games. He homered in three of his past four games.
This is the 26-year-old’s first promotion to the majors. He’s a former first-round pick of the Los Angeles Angels, who traded him to San Francisco in 2019. Cleveland acquired Wilson in the minor league portion of the Rule 5 draft this past offseason.
CLEVELAND — New York Yankees designated hitter Giancarlo Stanton took batting practice with teammates Tuesday as he continues to recover from elbow issues.
Stanton took swings before the game at Progressive Field as the Yankees prepared for the middle game of their series against the Cleveland Guardians.
While Stanton has been working behind the scenes, this was the first time he has taken outdoor batting practice. Manager Aaron Boone did not mention anything about Stanton’s progress during his pregame availability.
Stanton, 35, has been dealing with tendinitis in both elbows, with the ailment known as “tennis elbow” shutting him down since spring training. He has said his elbows also bothered him last season and that it’s a matter of pain tolerance.
The team does not have a timetable for Stanton’s return to their lineup. It’s likely he’ll have to go on a minor league rehab assignment before he’s ready to play in major league games.
Stanton is in his eighth season with New York. Last season, he hit 27 homers and drove in 72 runs in 114 games, and in the postseason, he was among the club’s top hitters. As the Yankees advanced to the World Series, he finished with 15 hits, including seven home runs, and 16 RBIs.
Stanton has 429 homers in 15 seasons with the Yankees and Marlins.