With fantasy seasons now coming down to the stretch run and playoffs starting to ramp up, it’s imperative to realistically evaluate where your roster is at this point in the year. Shopping the waiver wire for who is available to fill any remaining needs can be a tricky but fun process, and picking up a player who then makes immediate points contributions is really satisfying. It’s a big part of the reason why so many non-producing players are expendable this late in the year — if they’re not producing, there is always going to be somebody on the wire who is.
Knowing when to make these moves can be the difference between winning and losing a points league playoff week. It all adds up, and being an active manager can make a huge difference in points leagues especially. With that said, let us get into some players who are under-rostered for the points production that they’re putting up, and who are all worth a look for the playoffs if you are unhappy with any of the players at the tail-end of your roster.
Miguel Vargas– 1B | 3B | OF (CWS)
2025 Stats (484 PA): .233 AVG | .314 OBP | .399 SLG | 13 HR | 48 RBI | 64 R | 4 SB | 18% Rostered (Yahoo!)
Miguel Vargas has been waiting quite a while for a run of consistent success in the big leagues, having been signed as an international free agent out of Cuba by the Los Angeles Dodgers in 2017 as a teenager, then developed through their system for many years. Vargas was then sent to the Chicago White Sox last year as part of the trade that sent Michael Kopech over to the Dodgers, having only logged about 120 games with his original team, and this season he has finally settled into an everyday role. Though he gets shifted around both the diamond and the lineup, Vargas plays every day when healthy, and of late he has been particularly productive. After struggling through much of June and July, Vargas is hitting .293 across the month of August with an equally impressive .400 OBP.
His power his limited and he does not attempt many stolen bases, but Vargas provides plenty of value by stringing together quality at-bats, getting consistently on base, and limiting strikeouts. While that isn’t the recipe for category-league success, it can be more than enough to make for a useful points league player, which Vargas certainly is at the moment. Now ranked within the top-120 players on the season despite going through the aforementioned inconsistencies earlier in the year, Vargas is a top-75 points league player over the past week, and all signs point to him being able to maintain this approach.
Interestingly enough, while Vargas’ numbers in June and July were quite poor, hitting around .210 across those two months, his Power+ rolling chart never showed indications of a poor hitter during that stretch. His decision-making remained very good, and his contact skills stayed above the league-average. Now that he has snapped out of that slump, expect Vargas’ rolling chart to start to climb even higher, as indicated by the nearly-straight line upwards over his recent stretch. If that trajectory continues, we will see Vargas’ rolling average plateau around that 125 mark that we like to look for here for productive hitters.
Taking a look under the hood of some of Vargas’ other underlying metrics shows a number of other indicators that he can be counted on to continue to pick up points.
As mentioned earlier, he is limiting his strikeouts at an impressive rate, especially for a hitter yet to log two full seasons’ worth of games played. Vargas’ 22.1% chase percentage is particularly impressive, indicating that he has command of the strike zone and is consistently seeing the ball well. Combine that with the fact that he is squaring up the ball at an efficient launch-angle at a rate greater than the majority of his peers, and the picture of a productive approach emerges.
The White Sox have shifted Vargas all around the lineup throughout the year, and of late he has been hitting second. He looks very comfortable in that spot, with multi-hit games in three of the six games that he has played since taking over that role. I personally have him in my 3B slot at the moment with Matt Chapman recently taking a trip to the IL, and even now that Chapman is back, I’m considering leaving Vargas in until he shows signs of cooling off.
If you need help at any of the three positions that Vargas is eligible to play, especially due to unanticipated late-season injuries, then he’s worth the free grab for clutch playoff points.
Jason Alexander – SP (HOU)
2025 Stats (49 IP): 4-0 | 4.59 ERA | 1.37 WHIP | 38 K | 1 Save | 19% Rostered (Yahoo!)
While not totally certain to maintain a rotation spot through the remainder of the regular season, Jason Alexander is worth the pick up this week — enjoy the points now, and worry about that spot later. Coming up just shy of four straight quality starts in his most recent outing for the Houston Astros, Alexander has climbed onto the The List, and now has a very enticing home matchup against the woeful Colorado Rockies coming up this week.
Alexander had a terrible start to the year, with a super inflated ERA in April and May, and then a questionable July that saw him put up a 4.61 ERA across 13.2 IP. He seems to have really settled down of late, though, and is officially in a groove. He is 3-0 in his four August starts, posting a 1.54 ERA and a WHIP slightly below 1.00, with opponents hitting only .176 against him. The Astros have also clearly been trying to squeeze six innings out of him in each start, allowing his pitch count to climb into the 90’s when necessary – he got himself into a sixth inning jam in the last outing, which prevented him from securing that quality start, but Alexander still finished that day giving up only two ER in 5.1 IP.
Living at the bottom of the zone with sinkers (his best pitch), changeups, four-seamers and sweepers, Alexander induces groundballs at a high rate when he is on his game, allowing him to scatter some hits without giving up too much damage. The Astros do have a host of pitchers who have either recently made their return from the IL or plan to soon, but the likes of Christian Javier and Lance McCullers Jr. have not shown all that much consistency, and it will be interesting to see what the Astros decide to do with Alexander moving forward. It’s hard to imagine them pulling him from the rotation until/unless his current run of form comes to an end. Either way, we’re at the point of the season where it’s more important than ever to take things one week at a time, and for this upcoming week, Alexander is penciled in to face the Rockies on August 28th.
I suggest grabbing Alexander if any of your back-end rotation options are making you nervous for the playoffs, letting it ride for that start, and then keeping an ear to the ground on what the Astros say regarding his rotation spot.
Ronny Henriquez – RP (MIA)
2025 Stats (59 IP): 6-1 | 2.59 ERA | 1.12 WHIP | 81 K | 18 Holds | 6 Saves| 24% Rostered (Yahoo!)
Ronny Henriquez has been part of my own points league bullpen for several weeks now, and I’ve had no complaints. I plan on keeping him for the playoffs, and I feel confident in Henriquez especially now that his July woes are behind him.
The 25-year-old Dominican right-hander went through a rough stretch from July 19-27 in which he gave up four ER across four appearances, surrendering damage in three of those four outings. Henriquez righted the ship after that, though, and has not given up a run since. His last nine innings have been clean, and equally important for points leagues, his strikeout percentage has gone back up towards the season rate of 33.1% that puts him in the 96th percentile for all pitchers.
That’s not the only impressive metric Henriquez currently has to offer.
It’s rare to find an arm with both a chase and whiff rate above the 95th percentile, and even rarer to find one on the waiver wire. Those numbers are backed up by a SwStr% of 17.4% and a CSW% of 33.4%, both of which rank 17th among all relievers.
Henriquez obtains these elite numbers with a surprisingly deep arsenal for a bullpen arm, employing four different pitches when he is out on the mound, including sweepers, four-seamers, sliders and changeups, with even the occasional sinker mixed in. The sweeper and four-seamer are both excellent pitches, while the rest of the stuff holds up just fine as well — the .214 average against his changeup is the worst of all his four main pitches, so hitters aren’t getting good contact no matter what he throws.
Currently ranked within the top-25 on the PL Saves+Holds List, Henriquez is a great option for anyone still looking for a solid bullpen piece for the playoffs.
