In the 2026 fantasy baseball season, each team has approximately 70 games down and approximately 90 games remaining after the first twelve weeks of the season. Since even 70 games aren’t enough to draw any conclusions, we’ll spend this midseason post looking at the risers and fallers in fantasy baseball from an under-the-hood stat perspective.
Despite a long Spring Training and twelve weeks of meaningful games, this production number isn’t much information to use when evaluating players throughout the season. That’s why it’s also important to look at usage, player placement, team breakdown, and other factors when trying to decide what to do with a tough player selection.
This piece will take a look at some of the MLB assets that have seen their fantasy value rise and fall over the past few weeks. Hopefully this will give us an idea of what to do with these players going forward.
Over the past two weeks, Bo Bichette is fourth among all players with at least 40 plate appearances with a .413 batting average. In fact, Bichette (.413, three home runs, 13 RBI) has been on par with Yordan Alvarez (.420, three home runs, 12 RBI) over that span. And, this was all before he went 3-for-4 with three runs and an RBI in a 9-1 win over Cincinnati on Wednesday.
Bichette had a .570 OPS at the start of June, but now sits at .677 after increasing that number by more than 100 points in two weeks. With 20 extra base hits on the season, the power is beginning to return to Bichette, and he has been one of the best hitters in baseball over the past 14 days.
Jake Bauers (1B/OF), Milwaukee Brewers
Jake Bauers has become one of baseball’s most exciting values for the 2026 season because he has transformed into a legitimate power contributor in the middle of the order. So far in the 2026 season, Bauers has posted a .276/.374/.519 slash line with 13 home runs, 46 RBI, 40 runs scored, and five stolen bases. That gives him an impressive .894 OPS and 148 wRC+, both career-best numbers. He’s had a lot of ups and downs in his career, but he’s found a place to hit in Milwaukee.
The reason fantasy managers overlooked him is that Bauers entered the year with a career .672 OPS and never fully developed into the power hitter he was expected to be. However, his 2026 production showed a completely different hitter. He starts low, drives the ball hard, and contributes in many phases. His combination of strength, patience, and just enough speed made him more valuable than his spring slot suggested.
Dillon Dingler (C), Detroit Tigers
Coming into the Tigers’ game Tuesday night against the Astros, Dingler led the Tigers in home runs, RBI, slugging rate and xwOBA. He was also in the top seven in the league in WAR and RBI. Dingler has 16 home runs and 50 RBIs in just 270 plate appearances, despite being taken well behind the first 250 hitters in spring drafts.
But Dingler has a .272 BABIP, about 20 points below the league average. According to Statcast, his expected batting average (.293) and expected slugging rate (.558) are both higher than his actual numbers (.256 and .529 currently).
Dingler’s average exit velocity, maximum exit velocity, barrel rate and strikeout rate all increased slightly compared to his numbers from last year and in the minors. Where he goes through his previous numbers he is in the communication door, he has a special sign. Dingler now has a 91% strikeout rate, nearly four percentage points higher than his career mark
Fantasy Baseball Fallers
Manny Machado (3B), San Diego Padres
Let’s talk about Manny Machado, because it’s bad. He had a history of slow starts in his 14 seasons. But he always answers it. Machado has never had a batting average below .275 or a slugging percentage below .450 since 2019. So the fact that he started his first 69 games with a .177/.255/.358 slash line is concerning, but should we be optimistic? It’s almost the end of the season, after all, his stats have gotten worse in the last four weeks.
According to Statcast, the only metric where Machado is above the 60th percentile among hitters is his walk rate. In terms of batted ball metrics, the 50s stand only in barrel rate, hit rate, and exit velocity. At 33 years old, could this just be a cliffhanger? I think it’s possible, but this would be out of place to see an elite hitter go down so hard and fast.
Josh Naylor (1B), Seattle Mariners
I’m on the record for a few places as pretty confident that Josh Naylor won’t have another 20 home run, 20 steal season like he did in 2025. And while I’m still sweating that prediction (eight home runs and 13 steals so far), everything else has seen a nosedive from his career season last year. Naylor is only hitting .253 with 27 runs and 32 RBIs. After hitting .295 with 81 runs and 92 RBI in 2025, it’s clear there’s still a long way to go.
Some of it is injury related. Naylor is battling shin and wrist injuries right now and sat out Tuesday with those ailments. But in reality, power and speed haven’t been consistent all year. Naylor has one steal since May 18. He has just two races since June 1. For fantasy managers hoping for a new five-part season this year, he has left a lot of people wanting.
Ketel Marte (2B), Arizona Diamondbacks
Something is happening in the desert with Ketel Marte and the Arizona Diamondbacks. After back-to-back seasons of hitting at least .283 with at least 28 home runs and 87 runs scored, Marte is finding it increasingly difficult to get on base. He is hitting just .255 with 11 home runs this season, but his OBP is just .307, more than 40 points below his career average. His walk rate is the lowest since the COVID season, and his hard-hit rate is down eight points from two years ago.
Nothing seems to disagree with his plate discipline. Those numbers are very much in line with industry trends. He seems to have fallen into a bad habit of hitting the ball on the ground (43.3%) and not in the air (34.6% fly balls, lowest since 2021). Marte is 32 years old and has 1,300 regular season games under his belt, so this could be close to a cliffhanger. However, more and more reports are emerging about how Marte is not happy with his other injury treatment, and the club is not happy with the games he has scheduled.
It’s something you have to watch closely to see if it holds up in the second half.
