Fantasy Baseball Rankings Movers: Landen Roupp deserves more love; Max Meyer leapfrogs some big names

Most every week, Scott White will highlight some of the more notable changes to his rest-of-season rankings. You’ll find said rankings here and are urged to bookmark them if you haven’t already. There’s no better resource for gauging player value throughout the long season.

Take it from the guy who has to scour the waiver wire for 10 streamable options every week: Starting pitcher has been picked clean. At least on the CBS Sports platform, there’s basically no one rostered in less than 80 percent of leagues who’s worth adding, a shocking development this early in the season.

It’s why the lack of interest in Landen Roupp is so baffling to me. Even days after his recent gem at the Angels — when he allowed two runs on five hits with one walk and nine strikeouts in seven innings — he’s still rostered in just 54 percent of leagues.

Perhaps a move up the rankings can change that …

Relief pitcher

• You’ll notice I’m leading with relief pitcher here rather than starting pitcher, the role Roupp is actually filling for the Giants, and it’s because he has yet to make the five starts necessary to pick up eligibility at starting pitcher in standard CBS Sports leagues. Part of me wonders if that explains the lack of interest — he’s just not usable at the position where he’s most desired — but if so, it’s short-sighted. He’s literally one start away. More likely, the lack of interest stems from people taking a quick glance at his 4.09 ERA and 1.36 WHIP and deciding he’s nothing special, but to that, I say au contraire, mon frère. The main reason is that if you pull up Roupp’s Baseball Savant page, you’ll see that his most-thrown pitch, the curveball, has a 56.8 percent whiff rate. A 40 percent whiff rate on any particular pitch is considered great, and you normally only see it on secondary offerings. This is his main pitch, and it’s verging on 60 percent rather than 40. What more do you need to know? The proof of concept in his latest outing is enough for me to move Rupp up to 25th in Rotisserie (17th in Head-to-Head points), which may not sound all that high to you, but it puts him in must-roster territory, ahead of fellow SPARPs Grant Holmes and Bowden Francis.
• I’m keeping Emmanuel Clase and Devin Williams as my top two at this position for now. Their track records are too lengthy and too dominant for me to buckle in the face of these early struggles, particularly when there are no obvious red flags to suggest that either of these pitchers is irrevocably broken. I genuinely believe that if I were to advise you to trade one for, say, Robert Suarez, which is what a move down the rankings would implicitly do, there would be serious regrets later on. I wrote more about what’s afflicting Clase and Williams in my latest Bullpen Report if you’d like to check it out.
• By now, it’s pretty clear that Tanner Scott and Jose Alvarado are indeed the closers for their respective teams and not part of some elaborate committee, so I’ve moved them ahead of Jhoan Duran and Felix Bautista. I don’t think the talent gap between the two pairs is that wide if it even exists, and there are clearer cracks for Duran and Bautista than for Scott and Alvarado right now.
• With the injury to A.J. Puk — one that sounds like it could keep him out for some time — Justin Martinez has room to roam with the closer role in Arizona, and I’ve moved him ahead of full-time closers Kenley Jansen, Aroldis Chapman, and Kyle Finnegan in response. That’s me being conservative, mind you. There’s quite possibly top-five upside here.

Starting pitcher

• The biggest riser at starting pitcher has to be Max Meyer, who was already trending up with his improved velocity and fleshed-out arsenal and then put that enthusiasm into overdrive with his 14-strikeout effort Monday. Like Roupp, his most-thrown pitch is a breaking ball (albeit a slider), and like Roupp, the whiff rate on it is something insane: 53.5 percent, to be more specific. That’s reason to move Meyer into my top 40, ahead of notables like Kodai Senga and Tanner Bibee, even while acknowledging the drawbacks of him pitching for the Marlins and potentially having his innings curtailed down the line.
• Jesus Luzardo and MacKenzie Gore are up another 10 spots or so with their continued dominance to open the season and are now verging on top-30 status. Most notably, I’ve moved them ahead of Bryan Woo, who wouldn’t seem to have more upside or be any more likely to meet it, even if he seemed like the safer choice coming in.
• Woo has been fine, but other darling breakout picks coming into the year — namely, Nick Lodolo, Robbie Ray, Roki Sasaki, and Gavin Williams — haven’t quite delivered on their promise yet. Doesn’t mean it’s time to discard them, but since they’re not sure things to begin with, I’ve seen fit to move them behind Nathan Eovaldi and Chris Bassitt, who have steadier track records and are thriving to the point that you wouldn’t dream of dropping them now.
• Tyler Mahle has upped the induced vertical break on his fastball and is getting results with it like during his breakout 2021, when he struck out 210 batters for the Reds. That’s enough to move him into the must-roster range (57th) and actually ahead of Yusei Kikuchi and Taj Bradley for me.
• Logan Henderson‘s one-and-done big-league stint was successful enough (nine strikeouts over six one-run innings) that I’d make every effort to hold onto him in anticipation of his inevitable return. Ranking him alongside Zebby Matthews, another promising minor-league pitcher whose return is inevitable, would seem to make sense. They’re both just inside my top 80.
• Other notable climbers in the past week include Andrew Abbott (71s), David Festa (78th) and Matthew Liberatore (86th).

Outfield

• Though my faith in Juan Soto isn’t the least bit shaken by his inauspicious start to the season, I have moved him down a couple spots, behind Corbin Carroll and Fernando Tatis, albeit only in Rotisserie. It may turn out to be a mistake for durability reasons, but Soto’s lack of base-stealing doesn’t give him quite the same upside in that format. Plus, those others are looking about as good as they ever have.
• Bryan Reynolds has been about as steady as they come over the years, and much of the underlying data looks strong still. But the exorbitant strikeout rate does raise the smallest amount of alarm, enough for me to drop him behind others who I valued similarly, to begin with — a list that includes Ian Happ, Brandon Nimmo, and Steven Kwan.
• Sal Frelick is one of the biggest risers over the past week, climbing just outside the top 50, which will end up being too low if this breakout turns out to be completely legitimate. I’m giving myself some wiggle room since the exit velocities are pretty pitiful, but Frelick is backed up by a legitimate prospect pedigree and was never projected for much in the way of power anyway. TJ Friedl makes for a reasonable comp, so it’s fitting for them to rank alongside each other, with Frelick having the early edge since he’s been the more aggressive base-stealer to this point.
• Austin Hays was only recently activated after missing the start of the season with a calf strain, but he’s already showing signs of meeting his long-dormant potential as a slugger after being thwarted by a deep left field fence in Baltimore and a kidney infection in Philadelphia. It’s still mostly theoretical, despite the promising signs, which is why I rank him only 63rd at the position, but that puts him ahead of Jordan Walker, Michael Conforto, Ceddanne Rafaela, and Max Kepler, all of whom received some amount of preseason hype.
• Alex Verdugo is the Braves‘ newest leadoff hitter and is possibly being overlooked after what was a career-worst season with the Yankees last year. Prior to it, he was a career .281 hitter who would generally deliver a dozen homers or so. I’ve slotted him 75th in the outfield in the hopes of him being a poor man’s Luis Arraez (not quite the same batting average standout, of course, but not an entirely separate category of hitter either).
• Other risers from the past week include Mickey Moniak (81st), Pavin Smith (88th), Andrew Benintendi (91st) and Mike Yastrzemski (94th).

Catcher

• I’ve dropped Salvador Perez behind Cal Raleigh and Will Smith. It’s less that I’m concerned about him than that I’m emboldened by them. Raleigh and Perez were about on equal footing coming into the season anyway. Smith, on the other hand, was genuinely worrisome given the reports of him still being afflicted by the bone bruise that seemed to drag down his numbers last year, but so far this year, it hasn’t shown up in the results nor in the playing time.
• New call-up Agustin Ramirez has absolutely throttled the ball through two games, not only going 5 for 6 with three doubles but also delivering the sort of exit velocities that make his upside plain to see. He’s even attempted a stolen base in each of his two games, succeeding once, which already gives a pretty good indication that base-stealing will remain a part of his game in the majors. He could still spiral from here, but because it’s already clear that he’s not going to be one of those much-ballyhooed prospects whose first major-league stints meet with a whimper, I’ve seen fit to move him up to 13th at catcher, a position where the threshold for Fantasy relevance is so low that any player with inordinate upside deserves a king’s welcome.

First base

• I’ve written a great deal this week about the re-sort happening at first base, so I won’t go into nearly as much detail here. The gist of it, though, is that some of those already hinting at a breakthrough have moved ahead of some of those who might have been drafted ahead but whose upside isn’t really all that different. The first group includes Jonathan Aranda, Ben Rice, and Spencer Torkelson, along with recent call-up Nick Kurtz. The second group includes Triston Casas and Jake Burger. Burger is probably the most projectable of the bunch and is deserving of patience in Rotisserie leagues for the inevitable power output, but his overall upside doesn’t really compare. And when it gets right down to it, Casas isn’t any more proven those some of those other young first baseman, really just having his prospect pedigree and the second half of 2023 to hang his hat on. Why should he get preferential treatment?
• It only took a few multi-hit games for Rhys Hoskins to get his percentages back up to their usual levels. He doesn’t demand the same attention as the Arandas and Torkelsons of the world, but he at least deserves to rank ahead of Spencer Steer and Yandy Diaz. And now he does.

Second base

• Brice Turang is up two more spots, moving past Jackson Holliday and into the top 10, and is certainly making me rethink my bust call coming into the year. It’s less the top-line numbers, for as great as they are, than the fact that his average exit velocity and, even more so, his max exit velocity are so improved from a year ago. We’re talking about an additional 5 mph of the former and an additional 2 mph of the latter, and the reason that second number is so important is because max exit velocity isn’t the sort of thing a hitter can fake over a hot stretch. It signals an actual skill change, possibly brought about by a new leg kick in Turang’s case.
• Luke Keaschall is another recent call-up who’s made a strong impression, showing off his on-base skills and base-stealing prowess especially. The exit velocity readings give some reason for pause, but given how productive he was in the minors, I’m willing to rank him somewhat optimistically, just behind Jonathan India and Brendan Donovan and just ahead of Tyler Fitzgerald (who I don’t really buy) and Maikel Garcia.

Third base

• After a 2024 that was derailed by a PED suspension, Noelvi Marte is once again flashing the potential that once made him a top prospect, going 8 for 14 with three doubles and two homers in his past three games. The most recent of those homers, by the way, was hit 116.7 mph, a mark achieved by only six other major-leaguers this year. Marte is so new to the lineup that there’s no telling how long of a leash manager Terry Francona will give him, but I’m willing to slot him 24th at third base for the upside. And if you want to drop Cam Smith or Ryan McMahon for him in a shallower league, it wouldn’t hurt my feelings.
• Also in the interest of upside, recently demoted Matt Shaw hasn’t moved as far down the rankings as you might think, clocking in at 28th. I’m anticipating a fairly straightforward mechanical tweak and quick return to the majors. After all, have you seen what else the Cubs are working with at third base? Egad!

Shortstop

• No major changes at shortstop this week. The biggest is that recently activated Zachary Neto is up to 15th, moving ahead of Jackson Holliday, Anthony Volpe, and Carlos Correa. There was some reason for caution initially, but he’s showing no ill effects from his offseason shoulder surgery.
• You may be surprised to learn that I’ve also ranked Neto ahead of Trevor Story, who’s still sitting at 19th for me even though the home run and stolen base output have been as good as anyone could have hoped for so far. There are still some concerning plate discipline issues, though, and I wouldn’t trust him to stay healthy for long given that he averaged just 54 games over the previous three seasons. I’m considering Story to be the ultimate sell-high right now.