Marcelo Mayer, 3B, Boston Red Sox
The rookie had a nice day at the plate going 2-4 with 2 R, 2 HR, 2 RBI and 2 K on two hard hit balls. Mayer's underlying figures are a bit of a mixed bag. While he's walking at 9.1%, he's whiffing at 29.7% and chasing at 34.1%, so there's reason to believe that walk rate is a bit of an overestimation. He has plenty of bat speed, which has led to a 51.7% hard hit rate, but he's hitting ground balls at 55.2%, and is pulling the ball in the air at just 10.3%. When a player makes hard contact, but not clean contact, predicting their near future can be difficult. I have Mayer on a close watch list, but if you're in a league with shallow rosters, he is not a must-have.
Jackson Jobe, SP, Detroit Tigers
The promising young righty will unfortunately undergo Tommy John surgery, and will miss the rest of 2025, and most (if not all) of 2026. This is a huge blow to the Tigers In-Real-Life, as the loss of a starter significantly stunts their competitive window, but for fantasy purposes, it's also a blow in dynasty formats. Jobe was not really startable in traditional mixed, 12 team leagues, but the prospect pedigree made him a breakout candidate. He wasn't striking out enough guys (17.9%) and was walking way too many (12.4%). Luckily, he's really young at just 22 years old, so we'll see what type of bounce back he can make in 2026.
Wyatt Langford, OF, Texas Rangers
Langford went 0-4 with 3 K's in a useless day at the plate. He hit one ball hard. After a scorching hot April, Langford has been very quiet. He slashed just .189/.275/.349 in May, and is slashing .182/.222/.303 in June so far, so the trend isn't great. Luckily, he has some other features that keep him fantasy relevant. Langford possesses 90th percentile speed and a 10% walk rate, so there is reason to believe the stolen bases will continue to come. He's pulling the ball in the air at 17.9%, and combining it with a 50% hard hit rate, so the homeruns should continue as well. He's clearly underperforming, and the .249 xBA agrees. Langford is a HOLD as he can still breakout, while being currently valuable in counting stats.
Gunnar Henderson, SS, Baltimore Orioles
Henderson went 2-3 R, RBI, 2 BB, and K. He hit no balls hard. It's been a slow start for the young slugger. Henderson posted a .681 OPS in April and .802 OPS in May. He sits at .955 in June so far. It's encouraging to see the progression, the injury he had early on clearly impacted him, but he seems past it. His 93.6 EV and 54.9% Hard Hit rate indicate that the hitter you drafted in the first round is still there. Buy window is closing.
Jesus Luzardo, SP, Philadelphia Phillies
Luzardo was able to put together a nice bounceback start, going 6 IP, 5 H, 1 ER, 0 BB, 10 K. He allowed only four hard hit balls. Luzardo was in Cy Young contention, but the last two starts absolutely blew it for him, as he combined for 5.2 IP, 21 H, 20 ER, 5 BB, 6 K. It was nice to see the former (former = 3 weeks ago) ace return to himself. His ERA now sits at 4.23, but xERA (3.60), xFIP (3.23), and FIP (2.89) all believe that his true talent lay somewhere in between Cy Young and the worst pitcher in the bigs. As for my take, Luzardo gets plenty of punchouts for a starter (26.4%), doesn't walk too many guys (7.6%), and gets mediocre groundball rates (42.7%). You can absolutely trust him the rest of the way.
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