Fantasy Baseball Trade Targets For Week 12
Week 12 is as good of a time as ever to send out some trade offers. We’re now two and a half months into the season, and a trade at this stage could make or break your fantasy team for the rest of the year. Here are three players who I think are set to improve soon who you should try to trade for and two overperforming players who you should consider trading away.
Buy-Low Candidates
Josh Naylor, 1B, Guardians
Josh Naylor doesn’t jump off of the page as a buy-low candidate at first, since he’s already having a great season. He has been elite at putting up counting stats, hitting 17 home runs to go along with 36 runs and 50 RBI. However, his .229/.314/.473 slash line could be in line for a big improvement in the second half. Naylor hit .308 in 2023, making him a rare standout in batting average for a slugging first baseman. His .229 average this year is obviously a big step down, but his xBA is all the way up at .275, ranking in the 80th percentile. He also has a .502 xSLG, which ranks in the 91st percentile. He already has as many home runs this year as he did in 121 games last year, so if his batting average improves to go along with this newly found power, he would be a true 4-category standout for fantasy. I already view him as a better option than Vladimir Guerrero Jr. Still, there’s a good chance he can outperform Pete Alonso from here on out too, ranking him behind only Freeman, Harper, and Olson at the position.
Bailey Ober, SP, Twins
Bailey Ober has had a very disappointing season after becoming one of the most popular breakout picks during draft season. He has a 4.81 ERA and has only 5 quality starts through his first 14 outings on the season. However, it’s worth noting that a few bad starts are significantly dragging down his season-long stats. The most impactful was his first start of the season against the Royals on March 31, where he gave up 8 runs over 1.1 innings. He also gave up 5 runs in an outing against the Guardians and gave up 6 runs in his second meeting with Kansas City. Outside of those three starts, he has been generally pretty effective, and his xERA is down at 3.98. It seems like better days are ahead for Ober, and he most recently struck out 8 and allowed only 1 run over 6.1 innings against the A’s. In the current pitching environment that has seen so many pitchers be extremely effective, it’s easy to forget about Ober in the massive tier of the 50-80 starting pitcher rankings, so you may be able to get him for pretty cheap right now.
Taylor Ward, OF, Angels
Taylor Ward, although streaky, has underperformed his expected stats on the season as a whole. He has a .240 batting average and a .429 SLG, compared to a .268 xBA and a .521 xSLG that ranks in the 93rd percentile. His quality of contact is among the best in the league, with a 15.4% barrel rate and a 42.6% sweet-spot rate. He has batted under .200 over the past 30 days, which can be attributed to a mix of bad luck and an inevitable cold streak. He was one of the hottest hitters to begin the season, and I expect his production from here on out to be closer to that than his previous month. He ranks within my top 30 outfielders for the rest of the season, but you might be able to snag him for less than that.
Sell-High Candidates
Tyler Anderson, SP, Angels
Tyler Anderson has been great so far this season, posting a 2.58 ERA and 1.19 WHIP over 87.1 innings. The problem is that his xERA is an unimpressive 4.62, and his K:BB is an unsightly 58:38. His 16.2% strikeout rate, 10.6% walk rate, 9.3% barrel rate, and 37.1% ground ball rate paint him as a pretty bad pitcher overall, yet he’s pitching like a well above average one. This reminds me of James Paxton’s completely unsustainable start to the season, and I expect Anderson to be unusable in fantasy pretty soon. If you can get any kind of return for him in a trade, I would take it.
Heliot Ramos, OF, Giants
Heliot Ramos has been one of the best hitters in the league over the past few weeks and has a .326/.404/.561 slash line with 8 HR, 15 R, and 30 RBI through his first 35 games. His underlying metrics are also what you’d expect from one of the hottest hitters in the sport, including a 56.5% hard-hit rate, an 18.8% barrel rate, and a 93.3 mph average exit velocity. However, it’s not uncommon for a rookie to start out hot and then begin to struggle once the league has time to adjust and figure them out. I’m worried that this will happen with Ramos, especially since his strikeout rate is all the way up at 29%. It’s extremely hard to keep up production anywhere close to this level with a strikeout rate that high unless they are truly elite at hitting the ball hard. While Ramos is hitting the ball that hard now, I find it highly unlikely that he will be able to keep it up. I think he has the potential to be a top-50 fantasy outfielder, but now is the time to trade him if someone in your league thinks he’s the next breakout superstar.
