Rest-Of-Season Fantasy Baseball Rankings: MLB Mid-Year Updates and Analysis

With the MLB All-Star break approaching and the season's halfway mark upon us, I figure it's time to drop a full-blown fantasy baseball rankings update. Scroll along to see my ranks broken down by position, with a smattering of analysis commentary following each position's table.

To be clear, these rest-of-season fantasy baseball rankings are geared towards traditional 5x5 roto leagues. Don't hate on me for position eligibility crossover quirks, as I'm using the combined eligibility from all major platforms to cast the widest net of help.

I wrote this between Sunday and Monday, with most stats mentioned here going into July 11th. Without further ado, let's kick off my position-by-position breakdown as we look towards the second half of our glorious fantasy baseball season.

Catcher Fantasy Baseball Rankings 

J.T. Realmuto has quietly been the top catcher over the last 30 days in 5x5 formats, largely thanks to an increase in steals (eight since May 31). He’s 11-of-11 on attempts this season, which helps offset a career-worst .236 batting average and .369 slugging percentage. Bats such as Alejandro Kirk, Will Smith, Willson Contreras, Adley Rutschman, Travis d’Arnaud, and Christian Vazquez have taken the more traditional avenue to value for catchers. Jonah Heim continues to rise and should see plenty of playing time with Mitch Garver out for the season.

MJ Melendez has a 14% walk rate and 25% strikeout rate in the last month, but has been undone by a laughable .167 BABIP in that span. I know he flashes that powerful uppercut swing but come on! If his luck doesn’t turn by August then he could be in trouble as Salvador Perez gears up for a return.

Daulton Varsho remains a solid play but hit .176 in June after batting .301 in May, seeing a May BABIP of .358 plummet to .209 in a win for the regression warriors. Hold the line, he’ll be fine. It’ll be interesting to see if time splits between Yasmani Grandal and Seby Zavala once Grandal is ready to return (Zavala has a .500 BABIP, hah, expect majority Grandal). I wish Elias Diaz or Brian Serven would perform well enough to take the Colorado C reps but there’s no profitable target, sadly.

First Base Fantasy Baseball Rankings

There are 23 1B-eligible players within the top 100 on Yahoo’s 5x5 leaderboard over the last month. Expand this to the full season and you have 25 in the top 150. I don’t care much for splitting hairs at the top of a top-heavy crop. Paul Goldschmidt reigns supreme in a bid for the 2022 NL MVP award, but Freddie Freeman has turned it on, Kyle Schwarber is clobbering the ball on a daily basis, and Vladimir Guerrero Jr. is a top-25 bat in the last 30 days.

Scream Coors all you want, but C.J. Cron is crushing it in Colorado. Sure, he has 15 home runs and a .355 batting average at altitude against only five home runs and a .229 average on the road, but no one gets to be surprised by Coors splits in 2022.

And then there’s the stellar crop of Ryan Mountcastle, Josh Bell, and Anthony Rizzo. Pete Alonso is one of the few upper-tier 1B that have “slipped” against the field but that’s largely by virtue of a fluky 23 R+RBI in the last 30 days (Vladito has 40, Freeman 39, Goldschmidt 38, etc.) so hold your breath.

Jared Walsh is one of the few true pain points at the position among highly-drafted starters. The 28-year-old had a .258/.312/.468 slash line with 10 home runs and 59 R+RBI through 205 PAs on June 5 to cover up the 27.8% strikeout rate. In the 113 PAs since (through July 10), Walsh has only three home runs with 14 R+RBI and a .227/.248/.364 triple slash. That’s two walks to 38 strikeouts. The Angels don’t have many excuses to bench Walsh given their depth but fantasy players can do so in the meantime.

Some other quicker hits for 1B eligible bats here: 

Trey Mancini could be dealt away from WALLtimore’s left-field barrier and see his power numbers rebound but he’s a non-factor right now. Christian Walker is a beast with 21 home runs and a healthy 13% walk rate but the .192 BABIP covers up a .272 xBA as the shift and bad luck combine to pummel his value. Matt Carpenter’s revamped swing plays perfectly for Yankee Stadium and is a strong 12-team option. While Spencer Torkelson has stunk, don’t write off other youngsters like Vinnie Pasquantino yet.

Second Base Fantasy Baseball Rankings

Shoutout to the guy in one of my leagues who dropped Marcus Semien on the morning of May 15! The 31-year-old was on a six-game hitless streak and owned a .154/.215/.203 slash with zero home runs. The rage-drop was understood, but the hits started falling into late May and since May 15, Semien has a familiar .287/.339/.502 slash with 11 home runs and 12 steals in just 51 games. That’s a superstar-worthy 30/30 pace over a full season! 

In a similar vein, Trevor Story’s been all sorts of hot and cold throughout 2022 but his slot in the middle of Boston’s potent order has yielded 35 R+RBI in the last 30 days. This is the most for a second baseman in that window. Entering play on Monday, Story and Trea Turner paced the field with 107 R+RBI. Story is also one of four at the keystone with double-digit home runs and steals.

Jazz Chisholm Jr. expects to play in the All-Star game and should be ready to continue a stellar sophomore season in the second half. As he trends towards a return, Whit Merrifield’s toe injury has him hitting the injured list. Maybe some of you out there are waiting on Brandon Lowe as his rehab assignment progresses. And maybe some of you wish Jonathan India took longer on his rehab assignment, as the 25-year-old is just now awakening after returning from the IL on June 14. 

India has six hits in his last five games entering Monday but is hitting .176 with five extra-base hits in 100 PAs since the return. He’s struck out 26 times against only three walks while going 1-of-3 on the basepaths, so things are just generally poor across the board. But he remains Cincy’s leadoff man at a hitter-friendly park so try to find a spot on the bench if you must. Speaking of GABP, Brandon Drury demands respect, but a trade away from GABP would hurt (.936 home OPS, .786 road OPS).

And then there’s the meteoric rise of Jon Berti, who was finally given an avenue to playing time and hit the ground running. The speedster only had two stolen bases until May 27 and by July 11 he leads the majors with 27 swipes. Ha, ha, ha. His momentum slowed a bit in early July but then he rattled off back-to-back three-hit games with a steal in each, so the party continues.

Third Base Fantasy Baseball Rankings

Jose Ramirez homered on July 9 for his 17th home run of the season, which sounds solid until you remember he hit HR No. 16 way back on June 10. I know that powerless streak hurt a bit but he still hit around .280 with four steals and 24 R+RBI in that span to remain a top-150 player. We also stomached a Manny Machado injury that could’ve been a lot worse and now he gets a four-game series at Coors. Rafael Devers is a monster and is day-to-day with a back issue, likely from carrying Boston’s lineup.

That trio has all justified their lofty draft costs throughout 2022 but Austin Riley might be the best buy of them all. I was worried about his stretch run in ‘21 where he swung aggressively and barely drew a walk, but he’s stayed hot this year with a wild 25% HR/FB rate and an improved zone-contact rate. Color me impressed!

Justin Turner has also resuscitated his fantasy stock, much to the chagrin of those stashing Miguel Vargas, but perhaps the injury to Chris Taylor and Max Muncy’s struggles will still crack the door open. Matt Chapman has seen a similar renaissance of late, as has Josh Donaldson. Hopefully, those of you who sat through the struggles for Yoan Moncada, Ke’Bryan Hayes, and Ryan McMahon were able to scoop a replacement such as Alec Bohm or Christopher Morel on the wire.

Shortstop Fantasy Baseball Rankings

Holy. Dansby. Swanson. The 28-year-old is ranked No. 1 on Yahoo’s 5x5 scoring system in the last 30 days with pure five-category contributions. Congrats to those of you who drafted him because the shortstop position has quietly underwhelmed of late. It hasn’t been bad but we’ve expected more from Bo Bichette, Xander Bogaerts, and Tim Anderson (okay, he’s been bad). Even Francisco Lindor is only ranked 150 in the last 30 days.

And now fantasy teams must replace Wander Franco for possibly two months. We also had to dance around injuries to Jorge Polanco, Bobby Witt Jr., and Jeremy Pena. At least we have seen Corey Seager and Javier Baez come alive, with Willy Adames, Amed Rosario, and Gleyber Torres also holding steady as top-75 players.

As a Yankee boy at heart, I am also begging for Oswald Peraza to get his chance in the majors. I respect how Isiah Kiner-Falefa re-tooled his approach and had a nice 2021 season, but if you’re going to be a defense-first asset then you better be an extremely reliable glove and he’s not. Meanwhile, Peraza is hitting nearly .300 with a wonderful last 30 games:

Oswald Peraza in his last 30 games:

.287/.362/.496, 6 HR, 15 RBI, 11 BB, 10 SB, 33 Hits

We’re waiting @Yankees

— YankeesMuse  (@YankeesMuse) July 11, 2022

Outfield Fantasy Baseball Rankings

Losing Bryce Harper for an undetermined amount of time with a broken hand is crippling to any fantasy team and you have my sympathy. I’m over here hoping this quick IL stint for Yordan Alvarez’s hand is enough to keep him chugging in the MVP race throughout the second half. There are several stud OFs performing like we’d expect, with huge summertime sprees coming from Luis Robert, Kyle Tucker, Teoscar Hernandez, and Juan Soto while Aaron Judge continues his own MVP campaign. Plus, Mookie Betts returned from a rib injury and has launched three home runs in a week so he looks A-OK.

Giancarlo Stanton has 16 hits over the last month but 10 of them have left the yard, making him a top-50 bat despite the .174 average in that window. Just mix him with Cedric Mullins’ one home run but .303 average and you have a composite superstar…aka Julio Rodriguez! Mullins has five steals and a .300 average in the last month, which we’ll happily take compared to Nick Castellanos have one home run with only two steals and a .252 average in the same timespan. We have no choice but to bump him down a tier or two.

Raise your hand if you’re rocking with Money Michael Harris II, who is handling MLB pitching with style at just 21 years old. Over his first 41 games, the rookie is hitting .300 with seven home runs while going a perfect 7-for-7 on steal attempts. I anticipated a plus average with wheels but didn’t expect the power to show up until he grew more into his six-foot frame. That said, the HR/FB rate near 25% is very unlikely to hold, but more singles yield additional steal opportunities! Always look on the bright side.

Others brightening their outlooks of late have been Aaron Hicks, Andrew McCutchen, Nick Senzel, Alex Verdugo, and Ramon Laureano. On the flip side, some sliders compared to our last update are Taylor Ward, Austin Hays, and AJ Pollock. I’m not sure Myles Straw has stopped sliding since April ended.

We’ve also seen recent returns of Eloy Jimenez, Seiya Suzuki, Eddie Rosario, and hopefully, Tyler O’Neill by the time this is published! Jimenez only posted a .668 OPS across 63 Triple-A PAs on rehab and has a .633 OPS over 15 MLB games in ‘22, but we hope he finds a groove soon. The White Sox have too many DH-types to let Eloy get comfortable at the dish by consistently taking his mind off of defense, unfortunately.

Starting Pitcher Fantasy Baseball Rankings

You better rock with my weekly RoS Top 101 starting pitcher articles! That's from last week. Here's a preview of tomorrow's with the table:

Relief Pitcher Fantasy Baseball Rankings

I also have monthly top 150 RP ranking articles but those are for you SV+HLD folks, so this is my chance to angle things for the traditional 5x5 format.

The life of a closer is typically a fickle one and relying on them to hold up over the course of a season is an exercise in madness. That said, most of the top relievers have performed well thus far. Josh Hader paces the field while Liam Hendriks is healthy once again. Edwin Diaz and his otherworldly strikeout rate help us all while Emmanuel Clase saw a stellar stretch of save opportunities to end June. Kenley Jansen should return any day now and continue to anchor Atlanta’s incredible bullpen. My condolences to those who pinned their hopes on Aroldis Chapman, but I hope you got Clay Holmes!

We can’t talk about bullpens in July without sniffing around some trade deadline rumors.

Baltimore’s recent hot streak lessens my confidence in Jorge Lopez being dealt but we must be ready to add Felix Bautista just in case. I doubt Lopez would close on any buying contenders.

Boston may feel more confident in their ‘pen once Garrett Whitlock is back as the 1-2 IP high-leverage weapon. John Schreiber is a beast and Tanner Houck looks comfortable as the closer. Rumors of a Daniel Bard reunion have flown but he may go elsewhere rather than Boston, which would leave Alex Colome as a Coors closer with little strikeout upside. Bleh.

Kansas City’s Scott Barlow is a prime trade candidate that would leave the currently-injured Josh Staumont as the speculative add. Likewise, Oakland could leverage Lou Trivino’s recent run of saves into a small return but I can’t imagine Trivino is the closer on another team. Zach Jackson or Domingo Acevedo would be favorites for the ninth with Trivino out of town.

Detroit’s Gregory Soto and Michael Fulmer are both drawing trade interest, which would leave Andrew Chafin, Alex Lange, and Joe Jimenez all with a shot at saves. Since Soto is a southpaw closer then I wouldn’t worry as much about Chafin’s left-handedness being used against him when evaluating the next man up.

Heading to the NL, we could see Arizona moving Mark Melancon and granting an opportunity for Joe Mantiply in the second half. The Cubbies may move David Robertson, who stands a decent chance at closing in new threads, with Mychal Givens the favorite to step into his gig. The Pirates should flip David Bednar given the state of Pittsburgh, with speculators leaning towards Wil Crowe or Yerry De Los Santos (I’m Team YDLS).

I hope that Cincinnati finds an excuse to deal Hunter Strickland because Alexis Diaz deserves a shot at closing and entering the mainstream conversation. Washington may also decide to move Tanner Rainey with their losing record, which could see Kyle Finnegan reenact his 2021 stretch run.

But it isn’t all about saves! Seattle’s Andres Munoz is on a tear, sporting a 60.9% strikeout rate in the last 30 days that just ekes out Edwin Diaz’s 60% mark. No other RP with at least 10 innings in that window is above 50%! Others to note are the aforementioned Schreiber, Michael King, Evan Phillips, and Nabil Crismatt.

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