With the fantasy season now coming down to the stretch run in most regular seasons and the majority of trade deadlines now having passed by, 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 week, and now is when those wins matter most. It all adds up, and being an active manager can make a huge difference in points leagues. With that said, let us get into some players who are currently under-rostered for the points production that they’re either already putting up or could potentially produce come fantasy playoff time.
Chandler Simpson – OF (TB)
2025 Stats (291 PA): .306 AVG | .340 OBP | .358 SLG | 0 HR | 18 RBI | 37 R | 34 SB | 33% Rostered (Yahoo!)
Known primarily for his blazing speed, many questions surrounded Chandler Simpson’s plate skills when the Tampa Bay Rays promoted one of their top prospects to the big leagues in mid-April of this year. While Simpson did hit .285 with 19 stolen bases over his first 35 games with the club, he had a very pedestrian .315 OBP and was subsequently sent back down to AAA on May 30th.
Now, having been back with the big league club since the end of June, Simpson has shown in his last 150 or so plate appearances that he can harness just enough plate discipline to be able to leverage his solid contact skills and get on base at a more regular clip. This has led to him becoming a much more relevant player for fantasy purposes, and he has been especially hot of late, ranking within the top-30 players in most points league formats over the last seven days. With multi-hit efforts in four of his last six games, Simpson has been slapping singles all over the field, which isn’t enough to get excited about — but it’s been plenty for him to use as a springboard for runs scored, stolen bases, and a handful of RBI. He has also only struck out twice across those six games, a pretty staggering feat in today’s game, and an attribute that makes Simpson especially valuable in points leagues versus other formats.
A look at Simpson’s metrics show in even starker contrast why he has so much more value in points leagues than may not exist in category leagues.
Simpson’s average exit velocity, barrel rate and hard-hit percentages are all dead last in the league, but again, it’s not his power that we are picking him up for in the first place. Blessed with a sprint speed that is faster than just about every other player in the league not named Bobby Witt Jr. or Byron Buxton, Simpson’s aforementioned contact skills should continue to play and allow him to get on base enough to put up the type of points that matter in fantasy. The fact that his expected batting average is right around .300 despite having an actual 0% barrel rate shows that he has found a unique approach that works for him – think Luis Arraez but with much, much more speed.
If Simpson if still available in your league and you’re not satisfied with a current outfielder or utility bat, do not let his zero home runs and otherwise lack of power scare you off here. There are plenty of other tools in Simpson’s bag to get you the points.
Lenyn Sosa – 1B | 2B | 3B (CWS)
2025 Stats (400 PA): .275 AVG | .303 OBP | .439 SLG | 16 HR | 50 RBI | 41 R | 2 SB | 31% Rostered (Yahoo!)
Blessed with eligibility at three separate infield positions, Lenyn Sosa has quietly become a pretty reliable hitter while batting second for the Chicago White Sox each night. Though his defensive position shifts around, that spot in the batting order has been rock solid for a while now, and for good reason. The 25-year-old Venezuelan native signed with the club way back in 2016 as a teenager and has found his groove at the plate this season, displaying a solid mixture of contact and power.
While Sosa’s decision-making could use some improvement, as seen by the above Process+ rolling average chart, that relative lack of discipline has not kept him from becoming a reliably above-average hitter. Of late, his Process+ rolling average line has crept up into that 125 mark that I mentioned last week and that I particularly look for when trying to find hitters. This is in large part due to a power spurt that Sosa has put together this month, knocking out six home runs so far in August, including this impressive 426-foot blast in his most recent game against the Royals. Given that the White Sox have invested in Sosa since 2016 and are finally reaping the dividends of that investment, there does not seem to be any reason for them to remove him from his current place in the order, creating a clear pathway for continued success for the remainder of the year.
A look at some of Sosa’s other underlying metrics confirms that he has honed in on a balanced approach at the plate that should lead to that sustained success.
Though Sosa’s chase rate and walk rates are quite poor, his contact skills are able to keep his strikeout rate at a respectable 21.8%, which is exactly league average. This allows Sosa to use an efficient bat path that leads to him squaring the ball up at an impressive rate. Unlike with Simpson, don’t expect much speed here, as Sosa doesn’t have a very inspiring sprint speed and has only tallied two stolen bases so far this season. However, especially at the second base position, his power gives him an edge among most of the other bats currently available on the wire. For an upside bat with the potential to have a huge week when it matters most, Sosa is worth a grab.
Nestor Cortes – SP (SD)
2025 Stats (17.1 IP): 1-1 | 5.71 ERA | 1.558 WHIP | 17 K | 20% Rostered (Yahoo!)
The overall season numbers for Nestor Cortes admittedly don’t inspire much confidence when analyzing whether or not you should add him to your roster this late in the season. It should be noted, though, that two of his four starts came at the very beginning of the season, prior to the left elbow flexor strain that sent him to the 60-day IL, and one of those initial starts was a disaster that is currently heavily inflating his ratios.
Sent from the Milwaukee Brewers to the San Diego Padres at this year’s trade deadline, Cortes has looked much more solid recently in two starts with his new club. Sporting a 2.89 ERA through 9.1 IP with nine strikeouts, Cortes has yet to record a decision with the Padres, but looks right on the cusp of becoming a pitcher who can contribute the Wins and strikeouts that lead to valuable points at the back-end of fantasy rotations.
Cortes still relies heavily on the four-seamer/cutter combination that he deployed so heavily over the years with the Yankees, but he has also reportedly been refining his changeup as well since coming over to the Padres, and it looked very good in his last outing, registering 5/11 whiffs. His time with the Yankees ended on an especially sour note last season, when Cortes was shifted in and out of the bullpen, ultimately being brought out of the pen rather inexplicably in a crucial time in a World Series game and giving up a grand slam to Freddie Freeman. The 30-year-old lefty should still have plenty in the tank and should be as motivated now as ever to show that he is still a legitimate starting pitcher. While will and determination alone won’t ever lead to success in the majors, I personally would not bet against a motivated Cortes.
Nolan McLean – SP (NYM)
2025 Stats (5.1 IP): 1-0 | 0.00 ERA | 1.125 WHIP | 8 K | 24% Rostered (Yahoo!)
Those who spend a lot of time looking at stash lists, prospect watches, etc. will have likely seen Nolan McLean’s name popping up quite a bit over the last few months, with many fans of the New York Mets especially clamoring for their team to call up the youngster and replace one of the ineffective veterans clogging up their rotation. That wish finally came to fruition this past weekend, and McLean did not disappoint, as he shut down a star-studded Seattle Mariners lineup and pitched into the sixth inning while delivering a much-needed win for a floundering Mets club.
The eight strikeouts that McLean racked up came on a variety of pitches, all with wiffle ball-type movement — his curveball, for one, already has the highest average RPM in the league, eclipsing the curveball thrown by Charlie Morton, who has made a career off of that pitch. That’s not the only weapon McLean can deploy, though, as he also slings in sweepers, four-seamers and sinkers to create a filthy movement profile that keeps hitters guessing and flailing.
McLean admittedly struggled a bit to find consistent command in his debut, often starting batters off with a 1-0 count and forcing himself to dig out of small holes. The biggest issues were with his heaters, as he often tried to start at-bats off with first-pitch four-seamers or sinkers that were missing the plate by several inches. As long as he can raise his strike percentage on the heaters a tick or two, McLean should be able to replicate this success in future outings. And he should continue to get future outings for the remainder of the season unless he starts to totally implode, which is unlikely given what we saw from him in his debut. The Mets need him to succeed, for their team’s chances of success and for the morale of their fan base, and they will likely give him a fairly longer leash than they would have if they had been playing better prior to his call-up.
McLean was well worth the NA stash prior to that call-up, and now that he has arrived in the big leagues, he is well worth the spot at the end of your rotation for the stretch run.
Kyle Bradish – SP (BAL)
2025 Stats (0 IP): N/A | 15% Rostered (Yahoo!)
If McLean’s 5.1 IP in 2025 makes him a speculative suggestion, then Kyle Bradish’s 0 IP on the year could make him even more so. However, the fact that Bradish has already clocked 325.2 big league innings with a career 3.56 ERA and 332 strikeouts does make me wonder how only 15% of leagues currently have a team with enough room on their IL to stash Bradish. We are admittedly running out of time, with him due to finally make his 2025 debut within the next week or so, but the upside of even two starts of peak-Bradish is too good to ignore here, especially with so many other back-end arms turning in dud performances.
Bradish has struggled in some of his rehab starts, which may be one of the reasons fantasy managers aren’t flocking to include him as an IL stash. I would argue that minor-league numbers, especially when they are accrued during a rehab process, are to be mostly ignored, especially when most of his underlying ‘expected’ statistics have been much better than his actual recent results. Equally important, in his most recent outing, Bradish looked much more like the man seen in 2023-24, throwing 5.0 scoreless innings while racking up nine strikeouts and doling out only two hits and two walks.
I recommend grabbing Bradish now before news starts to trickle out about the exact date of his big league return. If you don’t have the room on the IL and would have to cut an established star dealing with a minor injury who is supposed to be back by the end of the playoffs (Jackson Chourio, for example), then no, do not cut said star to make room for Bradish. But if you have an IL spot open, which I suspect is the case for teams in more than the 15% of leagues that Bradish is currently rostered in, then go ahead and add him. As a ‘free’ IL stash with massive upside, there’s little reason not to – you can always (and we always advise this here) proceed with caution and leave him on the IL for that first start back. If he looks like the Bradish of old in that start, then you throw him out there with confidence next outing ,knowing that you have found yourself a legitimate top-50 starting pitcher for the playoffs.
