Bo Bichette (SS - TOR) - Bichette was 2-6 with 2 R and 2 RBI in the 14-0 shellacking of the Padres on Wednesday. The 27 year old came into the game hitting 271/346/529 during the month of May, and there are a lot of positive signs to be found in what might appear on the surface to be a mediocre performance thus far. He's been noticeably more patient this season, cutting his swing% down by 5% from last season and 4.5% from his career average, and it's helped him post the best swinging strike rate of his career (under 10% for the first time). The LD rate is back above 25%, the exit velocity is back in the range of his 2021-22 levels, and he's already attempted as many steals as he did in last year's half a season. We could be back to .290/20/10 expectations for Bichette, which is a far cry from where we were last year at this time. He's still just entering his prime, and it feels like he's a bit undervalued after last year and this April being so far below his projections.
Ryan O'Hearn (1B/OF - BAL) - O'Hearn singled 3 times and doubled once on Wednesday to push his season line up to 306/396/507. I've really sold O'Hearn short the past few years, as I expected the Oriole youngsters to surpass him for playing time, but he's really stepped forward the past few years. The contact ability has gone from average to well above average, the plate discipline has improved significantly, and those two things have allowed the always solid power to play up. The launch angle is a little suboptimal for him this year....the flyball rate has dipped down under 30%, which isn't ideal for a guy with clearly above-average pop, but it's a minor quibble in an otherwise excellent start to the season. 1B/OF eligibility is nice as well....I wasn't sure that we'd see it this year with all of the available options that are there.
Chad Patrick (SP - MIL) - Every once in a while, I end up writing about a guy that I know virtually nothing about. A couple times a season, maybe. Patrick is in that category, as a pitcher that had shown very little prior to being dealt to Milwaukee for Abraham Toro in the 2023-24 offseason. He was very solid in AAA last year for the Brewers and has been pressed into service with the pitching injuries here in 2025, and through 10 starts he has yet to allow more than 3 ER in an outing. Wednesday's outing was arguably his most impressive, as he held the O's to 1 run on 4 hits over 4 2/3 innings, walking 1 and striking out 7 to tie his season-high. He basically throws 3 different fastballs over 90% of the time, but he generated 16 swinging strikes on 89 pitches with them in this one, and the improved control was firmly in evidence as well. The extremely low GB rate and mediocre quality of contact allowed make me think that he can't keep this up, but he's at least worked his way into streaming consideration. Unfortunately, BOS at home and CIN on the road are next up, and I don't think I have the confidence to run him out there for either one. In fact, his next 5 projected opponents are all top-half offenses, so despite the obvious improvement, I'm going to leave Patrick on the wire for now.
Jake Burger (1B - TEX) - Burger had a huge day on Wednesday at Yankee Stadium, hitting 2 homers and stealing a base. He's 11-32 with 2 doubles and 3 homers since coming back from 10 days in the minors, and with underlying data remarkably similar to last year, there's no reason to think that production similar to last year is out of reach. Marginal average, poor OBP, good power would still be the expectation here.
Robert Hassell (OF - WAS) - Hassell is coming up to Washington to take the place of Dylan Crews, who is heading to the IL with an oblique strain. The 23 year old Hassell was part of the return for Juan Soto, and his performance in the upper minors has been fairly pedestrian. The contact ability is probably roughly average, and while there's good speed, there hasn't been much in the way of power. The exit velocity has ticked up quite a bit in the first quarter of a season at AAA though (91.2, up from 86.7 last year), although he doesn't hit the ball in the air very much. All in all, there's some potential here, but I think he's best served for deeper leagues or "cheap SB desperation" more than a universal pickup. At best he's probably a 12/18 guy with a neutral average at this point, although he still does have a few years on the good side of the development curve in front of him.
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