Fantasy Baseball Trade Targets For Week 10
The baseball season has now been underway for two full months, and there are still plenty of ways to improve your team through trades. As we head into Week 10, many players seem poised to go through a big change in value during the month of June. Last week, I wrote about Pablo Lopez, Vinnie Pasquantino, and Seiya Suzuki as buy-low candidates, and they all finished May on a strong note. Here are five more players I think you should be looking to trade for or trade away.
Buy-Low Candidates
Christopher Morel, 2B/3B/OF, Cubs
This is the second time Christopher Morel has been featured as a buy-low candidate, with his first appearance coming back in late April. He has gone through hot and cold stretches since then, but the buy-low case remains the same as it did over a month ago. He is batting just .195 with a .371 SLG despite an xBA of .267 and xSLG of .507, making him one of the biggest underperformers in the league. He is still hitting the ball as hard as ever, and the most promising sign is that he has yet to regress to his huge strikeout totals of 2023. With a 21.7% strikeout rate two months into the season, he has shown no signs of being the guy who struck out 31% of the time last year. He has also raised his walk rate from 8.8% to 12.3%, which makes him a better player in points leagues, too. It’s only a matter of time before his production picks up, and it wouldn’t be surprising to see him hit double-digit home runs in a month as it warms up at Wrigley.
Wyatt Langford, OF, Rangers
Wyatt Langford had all of the hype in the preseason but has been a huge letdown so far in 2024. He is slashing just .222/.284/.281 with one home run and one stolen base through 36 games on the season. He missed almost all of May with a hamstring injury and was activated off of the injured list on May 28th. He has an xBA of .252 and an xSLG of .385, which are still poor numbers overall, but better than his actual stats. Many fantasy managers may be giving up on the appeal of Langford, and they all had to learn to live without him in their lineups for the past month. This means that his trade value is just about at its lowest point, and I would bet on a prospect of his caliber to figure things out eventually at the major league level. Outfield has been one of the shallowest positions this season, and the upside that Langford possesses would be a huge difference-maker for fantasy. He is back and healthy, hitting in one of the best lineups in the league, and figures to get plenty more chances to turn things around. With how many good pitchers there are this season, I would try offering a sell-high pitcher to see if the Langford owner in your league is interested.
Hunter Brown, SP, Astros
Hunter Brown had the worst start to 2024 by any player, giving up 25 runs through 23 innings in April. However, he was much better in May, giving up 13 runs through 32.1 innings. He has now thrown three straight quality starts, tallying 19 strikeouts in 18 innings over that span. His ERA still sits at an extremely ugly 6.18, and all of his stats in general look bad at first glance due to just how bad he was during the first month of the season. He is still doing some things right with a 4.1% barrel rate (89th percentile) and 49.7% ground ball rate (79th percentile). These at least show some path back to him being a useful pitcher in fantasy. It’s easy to forget that he was being drafted as a top 45 SP in drafts this offseason, and he has looked like a decent source of wins, quality starts, and strikeouts as of late. This is more of a deeper league trade target, as he might even be on the waiver wire of some shallower leagues. He’s no longer a threat of giving up 6+ runs every time he takes the mound, and can be a contributing member of your fantasy staff that you can get almost for free right now.
Sell-High Candidates
David Fry, C/1B/OF, Guardians
David Fry looked like one of the best players in the major leagues in May, batting .383 with 7 home runs during the month, making him a fantasy superstar with catcher eligibility. On the season, he is slashing .355/.493/.636 with 27 R, 8 HR, 27 RBI, and 4 SB through 41 games. His .278 xBA and .464 xSLG technically makes him one of the biggest overperformers, but even those expected stats would make him an elite fantasy catcher. His xwOBA is .392, which ranks in the top 5 percent of all players. While nothing in his underlying metrics suggest he can’t keep this up, common sense says that this is just a hot streak. It’s reminding me a lot of when Alejandro Kirk came out of nowhere to slash .344/.435/.605 in May and June of 2022, only to fall into relative fantasy obscurity in the time since then. Fry figures to cool off eventually, and there’s no guarantee for consistent playing time once he really starts to struggle. He has certainly earned the right to fantasy relevance in two catcher leagues and is worth using as a hot hand in one catcher leagues, but it would be smart to test the trade market to see if any of your league mates view him as a true top 10 or even top 5 catcher.
Carlos Rodon, SP, Yankees
Carlos Rodon has now thrown five straight quality starts, bringing his ERA down to 3.09 to go along with a 1.13 WHIP and a 62:20 K:BB through 67 innings pitched. However, things aren’t as great as they seem on the surface. His 4.30 xERA ranks only in the 32nd percentile, and his 9.4% barrel rate, 42.9% hard-hit rate, 91.1 mph average exit velocity, and 33% groundball rate all place him in the bottom quarter of the league in those categories. He’s allowing a lot of fly balls and a lot of hard-hit balls, which isn’t a long term solution to success, especially in Yankee stadium. Offense and home runs have been down significantly this season, with the thought that the heat of the summer months may bring back the offensive environment that we’re used to. If that happens, Rodon will become very risky as more of his flyouts turn into homers. Additionally, he has proven to be a huge injury risk over the course of his career, so even staying on the field may prove to be a challenge. If your pitching is solid, I’d try to flip Rodon for a batter who can help your team for the remainder of the season.
