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A trio of hitters currently residing in premium, regular lineup spots headline the list of this week’s pickups. Two of these three players are available in more than 70% of ESPN leagues:
Nolan Gorman, 2B, St. Louis Cardinals (28.3% rostered): A player often perceived to be just a platoon-mate, Gorman is anything but — and the Cardinals are giving him some well-deserved everyday treatment as of late. He has made 15 consecutive starts, including each of the team’s past seven against right-handed starters out of the cleanup spot, ahead of Nolan Arenado. He even started out the No. 5 hole, behind Arenado, against lefty starters on both Friday and Saturday.
To dispel any platoon claim, since the 2023 All-Star break, Gorman is a .225/.319/.494 hitter with a 6.8% HR rate against right-handed pitchers, and a .255/.345/.480 hitter with a 5.2% HR rate against lefties.
Gorman’s power potential has never been in question throughout his big league career, so to see him settling in as a more selective, non-platoon hitter is a welcome sign. Since his May 20, 2022, debut, his 16.1% Statcast barrel rate is eighth-best in baseball, ahead of power stalwarts Oneil Cruz (16.0%), Marcell Ozuna (16.0%) and Matt Olson (14.9%). Considering the difficulty in finding production at second base this season — the position has collective .245/.309/.366 rates, with that slugging number being a field-position worst — Gorman needs to be universally rostered.
Heliot Ramos, OF, San Francisco Giants (20.7%): Before you react with a “WHO?,” understand that Ramos is a late-blooming prospect whose vastly improved plate approach this season appears to finally be unlocking his full potential. The No. 17 overall pick in the 2017 amateur draft (when he was a mere 17-year-old drafted out of Puerto Rico), Ramos graced many a top-100 prospect list up until his 2022 big league debut, including a high-water mark No. 62 overall spot on Kiley McDaniel’s 2021 list.
Ramos struggled mightily in brief stints with the Giants in 2022-23, batting a combined .158/.220/.250 with 26 strikeouts in 82 trips to the plate, but he has been a very different player between spring training, the minors and majors so far this season.
Ramos has cut down his chase rate (swings at non-strikes) from 31.2% in 2022-23 to 25.7% this year, including all the way to 23.9% in just the past three weeks. That has helped him unlock his power potential, as his 15.9% Barrel rate since his May 8 recall ranks 22nd among hitters with at least 500 balls in play. It helped thrust him into the team’s leadoff spot against right-handers on Friday and Sunday, to go along with his traditional No. 2 spot against lefties. This is a hot streak worth scooping up, whether it cools in time or not, accounting for his adjustments and new, prominent role.
Ryan Mountcastle, 1B, Baltimore Orioles (50.9%): A player who is nearly universally rostered offsite, Mountcastle is one who needs to approach (if not reach) those thresholds in ESPN formats. He’s exhibiting personal bests in terms of chase (37.3%), whiff (22.6%) and hard-hit (48.1%) rates, and he’s locked into the No. 3 hole for one of the game’s best young lineups. Mountcastle has started eight straight games in that lineup spot, including seven against right-handers, moving ahead of Ryan O’Hearn (now the cleanup man against righties) this month.
Deeper-league adds
Drew Thorpe, SP, Chicago White Sox (3.5%): A 2022 second-round draftee whose stock has since soared to the point that he was Kiley McDaniel’s No. 64 overall prospect entering this season, Thorpe was regarded so highly that he was a key player in the New York Yankees/San Diego Padres trade involving Juan Soto in December and then the Padres-White Sox trade involving Dylan Cease just three months later.
Thorpe, who had an outside chance at making the Padres rotation out of spring training but didn’t have enough time in camp with the White Sox to do the same, will now make his MLB debut on Tuesday against the Seattle Mariners at T-Mobile Park.
Thorpe has been outstanding for Chicago’s Double-A affiliate in Birmingham, posting seven wins, seven quality starts, a 1.35 ERA (third-best in all of minor league baseball among pitchers with 50-plus innings) and an 0.87 WHIP in 11 turns, with only one bad start all year. Most importantly, he has been similarly outstanding against left-handed hitters (.155/.216/.198 rates) as he has right-handers (.189/.255/.267), which is a testament to his outstanding changeup that should help ease his transition to the majors.
While there’s always guesswork involved with any rookie pitcher, Thorpe probably has another 90-100 innings and 16-18 starts left in the tank, with good odds of maintaining a mid-threes ERA and 7.5% walk rate or better. That might even be enough to get him on the radar in standard leagues.
Hurston Waldrep, SP, Atlanta Braves (7.8%): The fourth member of the 2023 draft class to reach the majors, Waldrep’s MLB debut of Sunday was more encouraging than his final line (3⅔ IP, 7 ER) suggested. He enjoyed a near-spotless first trip through the order, facing the minimum number of hitters through three innings before falling apart in the fourth. He also flashed a solid splitter that generated a 42.9% whiff rate and was largely responsible for his minimizing hard contact in the outing.
Waldrep had a 2.55 ERA and a 27.7% strikeout rate across 18 minor league starts between this year and last, 12 of which were in Double-A and two more in Triple-A, so there’s every reason to believe he should improve quickly if he sticks at this level. Certainly a pitcher with his raw talent is worth a stash in every league larger than ESPN’s standard.
Noelvi Marte, Cincinnati Reds (3.4%): He’s a player to stash if you’re in a league with deeper benches and a spot to burn. Marte, currently serving an 80-game suspension for a PED violation, is scheduled to begin a minor league rehab assignment on Tuesday. He will be eligible for activation on June 27. He put up solid stats for the Reds over the final six weeks of last season, and could prove to be a defensive upgrade over Jeimer Candelario at third base.
A two-start gem with potential
Bryan Woo, Seattle Mariners (58.2% rostered): Like Mountcastle above, Woo is a player who should be near-universally rostered. The right-hander has been a sensation over his past four starts, during which time he has a 1.13 ERA, no walks and only 10 instances among 84 total batters faced of his having even gone to a three-ball count (second-best among ERA qualifiers).
Woo’s emergence shouldn’t come as a complete surprise, as he finished 2023 with a 3.31 ERA over his final seven starts after making some adjustments to his sinker, with the elbow injury that cost him the season’s first six weeks perhaps the thing most responsible for his modest rostership. For his two turns this week, he’ll face the White Sox and Texas Rangers at home, where he has a career 2.47 ERA in 10 starts. He surely has more long-term potential than most of the available two-start pitchers this week.
Feel free to cut
Anthony Rizzo (24.6%); Taylor Ward (72.8%); Abraham Toro (27.5%); Cedric Mullins (54.6%); Jordan Montgomery (52.5%)
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