Dodgers RHP Ben Casparius is a FAAB focus point this week. He’s been excellent in a swing role on the strength of two plus breaking balls he commands pretty well. The team is forever searching for innings and will give Casparius a chance to stretch into the starting rotation. I like his chances.
The time has come for Pirates OF Matt Gorski. Ball’s in his court now. It’s not always easy to recognize that opportunity as a human, especially if you’re on the short side of a platoon, whatever the work-a-day equivalent to that is. I suspect most of us feel that way about our respective gigs.
Guardians SS Will Wilson faces a similar opportunity in Cleveland. Like Gorski, he was mashing in the minors and will have to crush lefties to hold onto his locker.
Marlins C Agustin Ramirez has captured the collective fantasy baseball imagination, but I’m equally intrigued by the domino effect of his promotion within that organization. C Joe Mack (22, AAA) was crushing Double-A pitchers at the time and has kept on trucking in Triple-A, slashing .348/.444/.652 with two home runs in six games. Feels a little strange to say Miami has two of the most promising young catchers in baseball, but here we are.
Marlins OF Kemp Alderman (22, AA) played six games in Double-A last year and is at 19 games played this season, but I suspect he won’t need much more time at the level. He’s slashing .290/.354/.536 with four homers and seven steals in 19 games. The plate skills are solid, too: 10.1 percent walks against 20.3 percent strikeouts. He gets 80 grades on raw power from several outlets, and you don’t even have to agree with that to see he’s got thump. Tough to strike it rich mining for hitters in Miami, but I believe one can find some cheap options on any under-the-radar team.
A 6th round pick in 2023, Mets RHP Jack Wenninger (23, AA) looks like a big win for the club’s player development department. In 20 innings across four starts this year, Wenninger has allowed just two runs and five walks against 32 strikeouts. At 6’4” 210 lbs, he’s doing a lot of this damage with a four-seamer built from a sturdy, balanced base. The delivery looks like a big league starter’s, is all I’m saying, and the Mets are a top-five development org for pitchers. Solid add in all leagues until he proves otherwise.
Phillies 2B Aroon Escobar (20, A) is slashing .369/.481/.631 with four home runs and one steal in 17 Low-A games. He was similarly dominant in 24 games on the complex, posting a .495 OBP and 9.5 percent strikeout rate. Get him where you can fit him.
Athletics LHP Wei-En Lin (19, A) has enjoyed his first month in professional baseball. Then-Oakland signed him out of Taiwan, and the organization is reaping rewards of its scouting investment in that part of the world. At 6’2” 179 lbs, Lin dominated his first few times out before getting hit around his last couple outings. He’s got 31 strikeouts and a 2.70 ERA through 20 innings and should be added wherever a lower-minors lottery ticket can be rostered.
Another lottery ticket in the Low-A, Dodgers RHP Sean Linan (20, A) has 40 strikeouts through 20.2 innings along with a 0.87 ERA and 0.58 WHIP. I think it’s safe to add him in just about every sized league while we watch what develops in Dodger-land.
After missing all of 2024 with arm injuries, Mets RHP Raimon Gomez (23, A) hit 104.5 miles per hour on a minor league radar gun last week. He seems pretty good outside of that, too, but the primary takeaway is holy shizz, pick this guy up where you can and get a front-row seat to wherever this is headed.
Cut Me, Mick!
Rockies RHP Chase Dollander
It’s not really anything he did, although what he did wasn’t good. I don’t expect rookie pitchers to be good right away. I just lost interest in the project. It’s fine while he’s minor league eligible, and my initial plan was to give him the full run of 100 innings to figure something out, but in the year 2025, I think we should maybe just lean into the most probable outcomes and plan for those.
I dropped Guardians 1B Luis Merejo (18, A) a while back but was hovering over the add button in case he started hitting again. I’m not out on him in the long term by any means, but I was rostering him in a 15-teamer with 20 MILB spots per squad, and I don’t think he warrants that kind of spot while he’s hitting .194 and striking out 28.7 percent of the time.
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