Fantasy Baseball: Buy Low, Sell High

BUY LOW

Jose Ramirez, 3B, Guardians

Ramirez has had arguably the worst full season of his career, hitting around .233 with a .388 slugging percentage that's a shadow of the perennial 30/30 threat fantasy managers are used to drafting in the first round. He's also dealt with real disruption, including a stretch on the bench and a lineup shuffle after injuries to key Cleveland teammates. It's fair for managers to be frustrated and ready to sell for whatever they can get.

But the surface stats are hiding a much more encouraging underlying profile. His BABIP has sat in the .240s for a chunk of the season — dozens of points below what a hitter of his contact quality should be running — and his walk rate has remained excellent all year, at times north of 15%, which is nearly a career high. That's not the profile of a player who's lost his approach at the plate; it's the profile of a player who's been unlucky on balls in play. He's also still an elite source of stolen bases, which alone gives him a fantasy floor most third basemen can't match. If a name-value seller in your league is ready to give up on Ramirez's age-33 season, this is exactly the buy-low window that could pay off in the stretch run and heading into next year's drafts.

Zach Neto, SS, Angels

Neto was a consensus top-10 fantasy shortstop entering the year off a 26/26 breakout in 2025, but he's taken a step back, hitting around .225-.230 with an OBP in the .300s — a real letdown relative to draft-day expectations. Some of that has been compounded by a rash of nagging injuries that have popped up throughout his career, including hand and head issues this season, which have sapped some of his rhythm at the plate.

The power is still very real, though. He's already at 20 home runs and over 70 RBI and runs scored on the season, and his underlying Statcast numbers — a healthy hard-hit rate near 40% and a double-digit barrel rate — show the exit-velocity foundation from his breakout season is still intact. This reads much more like a batting-average slump and a nagging-injury year than a fundamental decline in skill, especially for a 25-year-old former first-round pick. If his current owner is frustrated with the average and ready to move on, he's a great buy for the stretch run and going into next season.

SELL HIGH

Chase DeLauter, OF, Guardians

DeLauter has been one of the best rookie stories in baseball, and recent stretches have only added to the shine — double-digit-game hit streaks, a 10-for-his-last-few-weeks power surge, and a legitimate AL Rookie of the Year case built on an excellent hit tool and plate discipline. He profiles as a long-term building block for a fantasy roster.

The concern for right now, though, is durability and the pace of his current power output relative to his track record. DeLauter has never played more than 60 games in a single minor-league season because of a string of injuries, and this year alone he's already missed time with a rib injury and been dinged up multiple times. His home-run pace has also been streaky — stretches of real thump bookended by long scoreless-power stretches — which suggests some of his current output is riding a hot streak rather than a new, sustainable level. If a manager in your league values him as a finished, top-tier fantasy outfielder right now, that's your window to sell high before the innings and durability questions catch up with him again.

Gabriel Moreno, C, Diamondbacks

Moreno has been an outstanding source of batting average and on-base percentage in one of the shallowest positions in fantasy, riding a scorching stretch that included an eight-game hit streak (13-for-35, .371) and a franchise-record on-base streak. He's a legitimately skilled, high-floor hitter, and the contact-driven profile that made him a top prospect is very real.

But some of his current fantasy value is inflated by factors that are unlikely to hold at this pace. He's hitting behind Geraldo Perdomo and Corbin Carroll, both of whom have posted OBPs near or above .400 over recent stretches, which has fed him an unusually rich run of RBI opportunities. His career power output has typically topped out in the high single digits to low double-digit home run range, and while he's capable of an occasional big blast, banking on continued power production at this rate is asking a lot from a player whose carrying tool has always been contact, not thump. He's also dealt with groin injuries in the past that are worth monitoring for a catcher logging heavy workloads down the stretch. If a manager in your league is valuing him as a top-five fantasy catcher right now, that's a great time to see what you can get in return.

Get more articles like this at fbaseball.com