Greetings, and hope September is treating you well. This can be a tough — and let’s face it, boring in some leagues — time for us fantasy baseballers (to borrow a term from my friend’s mom). If you’re sunk in the standings, it’s difficult to feel motivated in any size league to devote time to play the role of spoiler. In re-draft leagues, who wants to spend time perusing the waiver wire if it really isn’t going to make a difference? In keeper leagues, there isn’t much interest going on in terms of minor leaguers debuting now that MLB doesn’t have the giant roster expansion that we were used to many a past September. And in some leagues you may have locked up a win or a money finish, but with so much leeway that you can basically check out in those situations as well. But I for one keep hoping that the last handful of these 162 regular season games might provide a new or returning face that either helps secure my place in one of my league’s standings or serves as an early draft thought for 2025. So, let’s continue onward… this week, we’ll go ultra deep, and browse MLB starting lineups for hitters who not only have minuscule ownership rates, they are players that many of us may not have even heard of. They all not coincidentally play on teams that are out of the playoff race, and there are not top prospects here… but they must have done something right to wind up on their teams’ major league rosters. Why not familiarize ourselves with some of their names, just in case any emerge as potential future help for our fantasy teams?
NL
Javier Sanoja. The Marlins haven’t announced why Xavier Edwards is missing Wednesday’s game as I write this, but his absence in the lineup has opened the door for Javier Sanoja to start at second base again, after getting a start or two under his belt filling in for Connor Norby. Sanoja just turned 22, is the Marlins #14 prospect, and has already drawn comparisons to Jose Altuve. We should mention that one reason for those comparisons is that Sanoja is just 5’7″, but he’s also getting described by many as a good pure hitter. Fellow Marlin Norby said he thought Sanoja might currently be the best hitter in their lineup, which one could look at as being damned by faint praise, or one could file in the back of one’s head for future reference.
Billy Cook. Cook, who made his major league debut this week playing outfield for the Pirates, will turn 26 this offseason, so that alone tempers one’s expectations. If I’m doing the math right, though, that puts him in the group of players who may have gotten particularly shortchanged by losing a year of development during the Covid 2020 season (Cook was a 10th round pick by the Orioles in 2021), and I do feel like there is a non-zero chance we see another late bloomer or two emerge from that group before all is said and done. In 1368 minor league at bats, Cook did show a little power (62 total HRs) and a lot of speed (90 steals), so we’ll see if he can turn his current cup of coffee into anything.
Aaron Schunk. Schunk is a Rockies infielder who has now played in an incredibly under-the-radar 29 games, appearing at second, short, and third. Another zero percent owned guy, 27-year-old Schunk profiles as organizational depth and is probably auditioning for a future utility role with Colorado, but crazier things have happened than having a part-time Rockies player help in the deepest of fantasy baseball leagues. Schunk was hitting extremely well in triple A but we of course need to remember that his numbers likely come with a built-in PCL bump. His 4 walks vs. 22 Ks in the majors this year are predictably worrisome, but he does have his first homer under his belt so we’ll see if he can unlock more power or find anything resembling plate discipline during his current big league opportunity.
AL
Bryan Ramos. At 3% owned and over 50 major league at bats on his resume, Ramos may be at least a bit more familiar to the fantasy world than a few other names on this list. Ramos didn’t make much — well, anything, really — of his first call up this year, but he’s up for another shot with the White Sox. He’s hitting 3rd and DHing, and yes it’s for the worst team in Major League Baseball, but that’s still enough to merit a glance in his direction. Who knows, as these last weeks play out, maybe he can make some adjustments at the highest level. He showed decent power in the minors and hit his first big league homer earlier this week, so that’s a start, anyway.
Luis De Los Santos. The 0%-owned De Los Santos is up with the Blue Jays for the second time this season, appearing in the starting lineup at third base this week. He also has shortstop eligibility in most leagues, and in addition to a handful of games at the hot corner this year he’s appeared in one at first and one in the outfield. He’s 26 and may profile as a utility type… there’s probably nothing to see here, but he was hitting well enough in triple A with a .260/.375/.441 line, if you’re looking for late season deep league reinforcements.
Niko Kavadas. Kavadas has been spending some time as the strong side of a DH platoon for the Angels, which isn’t a particularly exciting situation, but we’re digging deep here. The Angels are plenty banged up, as usual, so Kavadas should have at least these next couple weeks to give the powers that be in Anaheim a look at him. He has no speed but actually already has three homers in the 17 games he’s appeared in, so the power isn’t an illusion. The issue will likely be the inordinate amount of swing and miss in his game, and as issues go, it could be a big one.
