Let’s look at three more hitters to target in points leagues, which is where I think the majority of trade deadline focus should be. Since about half of starting pitchers end up on the injured list at some point in any given season, this strategy minimizes the risk of giving up major assets for a top-tier arm who then ends up on an IL slot during the fantasy playoffs. We’re starting to get within arm’s reach of many leagues’ trade deadlines, so it’s best to do your shopping now in order to beat your competition to the punch. The following three hitters are worth targeting in trades this week for their consistently elite production.
2025 Stats: .260/.304/.520; 20 home runs ; 51 RBI ; 48 runs ; 5 stolen bases
At 21 years old, out of the Dominican Republic, Junior Caminero is already a superstar for the Tampa Bay Rays. One of the top-ranked prospects in the Rays’ system for several years after being traded from Cleveland in 2021 at only 18 years old, Caminero has not wasted much time in the big leagues making good on those bullish expectations. Hitting in the prime run-producing and run-scoring positions of third or fifth in the highly productive Tampa Bay lineup each night, Caminero is a key cog in an offense that ranks sixth in MLB in runs scored per game. That offense has been particularly good of late, ranking first in just about every offensive category since mid-May, and while there have been many consistent contributors, Caminero is already the star.
There is a lot to like in Caminero’s game. He easily and quickly passes the eye test, with a powerful yet smooth swing that’s built for doing damage. Equally important, the underlying metrics that he excels in are an impressively broad group.
Caminero excels in the power metrics, such as bat speed, hard-hit rate, and average exit velocity. Many hitters who excel in that group of metrics struggle with whiff rates and/or expected batting average, but there is no such issue for Caminero. His whiff rate is particularly impressive for such a young player, and his xBA of .277 is more than respectable.
Caminero’s one clear area for improvement is in a chase rate of 33.7% that ranks worse than 85% of his fellow hitters. Caminero’s Process+ rolling chart (my personal favorite tool accessible via a PL Pro subscription) confirms the fact that his decision-making needs work. His impressive power and above-average contact metrics, though, have kept him rolling as an above-average hitter for all but the first two weeks of the season.
With a Hard-Contact rate of 36.8% that ranks 14th in the league, one can imagine even slight improvements in Caminero’s decision-making leading to a stratospheric takeoff in his actual numbers. Already on pace for 40 home runs and 100 RBI with his current approach, no tinkering may even be necessary. But if he is able to maintain his power while honing in on better decision-making within each at-bat, the sky is truly the limit for the type of production that Caminero can put up. He’s already worth trading for at his current production pace, but what makes him truly one of the more enticing trade targets is his potential ceiling that is up in the clouds. Unless you already have one of the top three bona fide superstars at third base (Rafael Devers, Jose Ramirez, or Manny Machado), it’s worth trying to upgrade that position via Caminero.
2025 Stats: .286/.352/.575 ; 19 home runs ; 51 RBI ; 53 runs ; 15 stolen bases
Dare I say it, but it looks to finally be Byron Buxton’s year. I understand any hesitation in wanting to trade for a player with an injury history as long as Buxton’s, but he’s been producing consistently since Opening Day, and he looks as confident in his physical tools as ever. And those tools are still as impressive as any package in the league.
Buxton has maintained a 100th percentile sprint speed (31.3 ft/s) in his age-31 season, and his bat speed (75.1 mph) is in the 91st percentile. He has leveraged these tools to the tune of 15 stolen bases and 19 home runs through the first half of the year, putting him on pace for a monster 30 stolen base/38 home run season. He is also on pace to eclipse 100 RBI and 100 runs scored, making him one of the more well-rounded points producers in the entire league. Beyond the raw physical tools, there are plenty of other underlying metrics that support Buxton’s superstar-level production.
Though Buxton is striking out at a rate greater than 80% of his peers, this has not suppressed his points production, mainly because of how elite he has been in nearly every power metric. When he makes contact, which he does plenty often enough, Buxton does damage, period. Most of his home runs have been impressive shots, but this 479-foot blast from June 11 against the Texas Rangers certainly provides enough evidence one should need that Buxton is doing serious damage with his current approach. A look at his Process+ rolling chart bears this out.
Though the power has been there from day one for Buxton this season, he started the year off with below-average marks in both contact and decision-making metrics, likely ending April off of many people’s radars in terms of who will end up in the top-20 hitters this season. If you look at rankings for the last 30 days, last 14 days, and last 7 days, though, then you will see a top-5 player within all of those respective time periods.
When looking at the Process+ rolling chart, it becomes pretty easy to see that Buxton tweaked his approach upon returning from a brief absence while on the 7-day concussion injured list after a collision with teammate Carlos Correa on May 16. Both Buxton’s decision-making and contact metrics have flipped to the positive side of the median line since his return from that injury, and he has continued to expand upon his already-impressive power.
Age 31 was likely not the time that Byron Buxton, or anyone else, would have predicted for his breakout to finally arrive. And yet here we are, watching him set the pace for what would be by far his best season. He is already only five RBI away from matching his previous career-high, and the 15 stolen bases rank second only to the 29 bags that he swiped way back in 2017. With all of the bad karma that Buxton has had to deal with since first arriving in the league ten years ago, he is more than due for a heaping dose of good karma, and I’ve personally seen enough evidence in 2025 to believe that this is finally his time. See if you can convince his current manager that his injury history makes him worth less on the dollar than similarly ranked hitters, and go get a league-winning outfielder in Buxton.
2025 Stats: .284/.388/.440 ; 9 home runs ; 43 RBI ; 42 runs ; 4 stolen bases
Gleyber Torres wasn’t given much thought by the New York Yankees when it came time to consider re-signing the second baseman at the end of last season. Torres himself has admitted that the team never offered him a new contract when he hit the free agent market, so he instead chose to sign a one-year deal with the Detroit Tigers. So far, those two decisions have worked out for everyone except the Yankees, as they struggle many nights to produce consistent offense around Aaron Judge. Meanwhile, Torres is leading off every night for the league pace-setters, as Detroit’s 52-32 record is currently tied with the Dodgers for the best record in the league.
A big reason for that 52-32 record is the improvement from last season in Detroit’s offense, and a big reason for that improvement is having Torres now setting the table at the top. The Tigers’ offense seemed to come sporadically last year, and they relied mostly on an excellent pitching staff. While the pitching remains excellent, the offense has taken huge strides, going from 21st in the league in 2024 with 4.16 runs per game to fifth in the league in 2025 with 4.96 runs per game. Obviously, Torres isn’t the sole reason for such a big jump, with Riley Greene continuing to take strides towards superstardom, players like Spencer Torkelson and Javier Baez having unexpectedly huge seasons at the plate. Even former-peripheral players like Zach McKinstry and Wenceel Perez stepping into more consistent everyday production. It’s Torres at the top, though, that immediately changed the look and feel of the lineup, and he has seemed to have a major trickle-down effect.
Let’s get into what Torres is doing well this season. Even as someone who has had him on my own points league roster since draft day and have greatly appreciated his production, I was still a bit taken aback at just how good his Process+ rolling chart looks.
The decision-making is as good as it gets, with a decision value score of 140 that ranks first in the entire league. That’s several points higher than the renowned strike-zone-master Juan Soto. This is an approach that Torres honed in on in the second half of the season last year with the Yankees, and he continued it during their playoff run into the World Series. It was a different, and much better, version of Torres than the more aggressive and less disciplined approach he displayed in the first half of 2024 and for several seasons prior.
Those who weren’t paying close enough attention may not have noticed the change, and he wasn’t putting up eye-popping power numbers, so Torres still wasn’t quite getting his due. But as a Yankees fan, I was disappointed when they didn’t re-sign him. Thankfully, I’ve at least been able to enjoy his production on my points team, and I can put my money where my mouth is in saying he is still one of the more underrated players in the league, especially among second basemen. Unless you already have Ketel Marte or Mookie Betts manning second base for you, consider going to get Torres for what should be a pretty reasonable price.
