In the 2026 fantasy baseball season, each team has about 25 or 26 games down and about 135 left after the first month of the season. Since 25 games aren’t nearly enough to draw any conclusions, we’ll spend our early season posts looking at the risers and fallers in fantasy baseball from an under-the-hood stat perspective.
Even with a long Spring Training and four weeks of games, that 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.
Fantasy Baseball Risers
Jeremiah Jackson (2B/3B/OF), Baltimore Orioles
Jackson Holliday, who? Another Jackson is taking over Baltimore right now, and he’s not the son of former major leaguer Matt Holliday. Two weeks ago, Jeremiah Jackson, who filled in for Jackson Holliday while recovering from a hamstring injury, was profiled as a top ten prospect in fantasy baseball. During that time, Jackson is hitting .340/.365/.680 with five home runs, 15 RBI, and a steal.
Jackson does all of this with a high (but not crazy) .353 BABIP, but his speed has something to do with that. He’s only hitting 21% of the time and has a 192 wRC+ over his hot streak. Holliday has recently struggled with his recovery, so there is a good chance that Jackson will be on the field for a long time. But even if Holliday returns, how could the Orioles keep him off the field?
Andy Pages (OF), Los Angeles Dodgers
The start of Andy Pages’ 2026 season has been anything but pleasant. He is hitting .370/.417/.605 to go along with five homers and 21 RBI already (tied for the MLB lead). And while it may be easy enough to say “Nobody’s hitting .370 right now” to predict an impending slump, there are plenty of other signs that Pages is a hitter, and can maintain at least an All-Star-level profile.
Pages are currently above 90 percent of the expected hit rate and hit rate. Average is associated with hard hits, so this is a good sign. Being part of a strong roster with strong plate skills will certainly help the pages this year, but if you can sell a lot on this performance, I would turn him into a top 25 player if you can, but if not, it might be time to sit back and enjoy riding the wave of the Los Angeles Dodgers offense.
Michael Wacha (SP), Kansas City Royals
If you drafted Michael Wacha near the latter part of your fantasy baseball draft this spring, congratulations, you’ve got an ace so far. Wacha has a 1.00 ERA, 0.78 WHIP, 23 strikeouts in 27 innings, and two wins (against a bad team). He is four out of four on the scale and will enter the fifth on Wednesday afternoon.
Wacha is 34 years old with a 3.84 career ERA, so it’s unlikely he’ll find the secret to the fountain of youth this year, but his projected ERA is just 3.44, and his pitcher rate and average exit velocity allowed are well in line with his career trends. His strikeouts are high, his home runs allowed are low, and the increased use of his cutter and sinker this year could be the key to opening a career year.
Fantasy Baseball Fallers
Salvador Perez (C/1B), Kansas City Royals
On the hitting side of the Royals, you may have heard that they were disgusting. A big part of that is the demotion of Salvador Perez this year, especially recently. Over the past two weeks, Perez is hitting .200/.271/.209 with one home run and four RBIs. Perhaps most disturbingly, Perez has a 30% strikeout rate and a 0% walk rate in that span. This may be a drop, but those numbers could mean the end is near (or already is) for the 35-year-old Perez.
Perez has been unlucky with a .186 BABIP, so there is some kind of positive regression coming. But his strikeout rate, barrel rate, and exit velocity have all dropped significantly this year. His bat speed is not at a career level, and in general, this looks like a very declining profile. If there is any kind of hot streak in the future, I can use it as a selling opportunity.
Josh Naylor (1B), Seattle Mariners
Not many players in baseball have had more bad luck than Josh Naylor through the first four weeks, but unfortunately, our leagues don’t have bad luck points. His batting average on balls in play is a ridiculous .213 (the league average is around .290), resulting in a .194 overall batting average. The reason he turned things around is that Naylor is one of the most disciplined hitters in the Majors. Even in this four-week slump, he is hitting just 16%, while walking 8.5%.
But right now, he can’t seem to find holes in the field to get his hits down. He only has two home runs and ten RBI this season, but that doesn’t take away from the fact that this is one of the coldest streaks a player has seen in 2026. There’s also no way he’ll produce another 20/30 season like he did in 2025 (he’s had one steal so far), so hopefully we can go back.
Logan Webb (SP), San Francisco Giants
Logan Webb got off to a rough start to the 2026 season, posting a 5.40 ERA through his first five starts, one of the worst marks among National League starters. Although he still maintained a low 58.9% strike rate, his command has been abysmal this season, and it has led to him starting tricks.
For example, his sinker doesn’t work, and his changeup doesn’t have the usual movement, which leads to difficult contact for opposing hitters. His strikeout rate is very low, while his walk rate is high. He hasn’t allowed a home run (just .60 in nine innings), but with the sinker and changeup not fooling hitters as often as they do, there have been four of Webb’s five starts with an ERA over 4.50.
