Another week of baseball has come and gone, so it’s time for a weekly check-in. Each week during the season, I’ll be taking a deeper dive into certain players who are worth the hype to buy and others with whom you should probably cut your losses. Here are some players with standout performances on either side to start the season. Let’s dive into players to trade for and away this week in fantasy baseball.
Another week of baseball has come and gone, so it’s time for a weekly check-in. Each week during the season, I’ll be taking a deeper dive into certain players who are worth the hype to buy and others with whom you should probably cut your losses. Here are some players with standout performances on either side to start the season. Let’s dive into players to trade for and away this week in fantasy baseball.
Buy High, Sell Low (Fantasy Baseball 2024)
Josh Naylor had a career year in 2023, setting career-highs in RBI, SB, and all triple-slash categories. He has started 2024 even better through 14 games, batting well over .300 with 4 homers, 10 RBI, and a top-three BB:K ratio. Naylor has always hit the ball hard and had an impressive K rate, but his launch angle wasn’t always ideal for producing fantasy stats. Since the beginning of 2023, he has lowered his groundball rate by over 4%, leading to more flyballs and line drives. If he can build upon the gains he’s made the past two seasons with his launch angle, while maintaining his raw power and low K rate, we could get a big season from the 26-year-old first baseman.
Logan Gilbert may not be a true ace, but he is as steady and consistent as it gets with a starting pitcher. He has pitched 185+ innings in the past two seasons and has never missed a start in his tenure in the MLB. His career marks of 3.72 ERA and 1.13 WHIP are very solid for a pitcher in only his fourth season. Through three starts in 2024, he has raised his K rate to 29.9% while lowering his already-impressive BB rate to under 4%. There are areas for concern with Gilbert, as he gives up plenty of hard hits and flyballs, but he’s always been great at limiting the damage by being stingy with the free passes. In a season where pitchers are getting injured seemingly every day, it’s not a bad idea to acquire some relative consistency.
Luis Arraez is coming off back-to-back batting titles in both the AL and NL. Last season, he led the league with a .354 average and surprisingly added 10 homers as well. With the right fantasy team, Arraez could be a valuable asset with his averages, however, the other counting stats are seriously lacking. He had a combined 140 runs and RBI last season, and that’s with a .393 OBP and .861 OPS. He only had 137 R+RBI in 2022 with 88 runs. He’s off to a cold start this year, batting just .254 with 11 runs and one RBI in 16 games. He never strikes out, but rarely walks. He gets on base regularly, but doesn’t steal any bases or score many runs. Arraez is a batting average specialist in a way that isn’t very beneficial to most fantasy team builds.
Sorry, Marlins fans. Even though Tanner Scott blew his first save on Sunday against the Atlanta Braves, he only has one on the season. In 7.2 innings pitched, he is 0-3 with 4 earned runs given up and an ugly 6:9 K:BB ratio. His advanced stats suggest he’s been unlucky, leading the league in average exit velocity allowed, xSLG, and xwOBAcon, but the walks are hurting him and the rest of the team. The Miami Marlins have started 3-13 through their first 16 games and the save opportunities seem few and far between.
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