shea-langeliers.jpg

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.

At what point should you abandon everything you know about a player and trust that what's currently happening is what will continue to happen?

Not after only a week, I can tell you that much. These latest samples are the newest we've gotten in quite some time, but they're still small and flimsy, just a drop in what's an ocean of a season. Most pitchers have made only one start, for goodness' sake.

In fact, I'd prefer not to make any changes to my rankings this early on. From a purely analytical standpoint, that's the likeliest right move. But I'm not here to play accountant. I'm here to shepherd you through the Fantasy Baseball season. Moves are made in response to changes to my rankings, and there are moves worth making right now.

That's particularly true at starting pitcher, which may seem strange given that, again, most pitchers have made only one start. But you can learn more from a single start than you can from a week's worth of at-bats, and the inherent volatility of the role leads to more turnover at starting pitcher than at any hitter position. There will be a number of pitcher breakouts that nobody saw coming, and those breakouts have to begin somewhere.

Your No. 1 goal right now should be to wrangle as many of those breakouts as possible, and to do that, you'll have to pounce before you're ready. The rest of your league isn't going to wait until there's a large enough sample to draw definitive conclusions, so you can't either. My rankings should reflect this reality.

I have to be smart about it, of course, which means certain sections of the rankings are simply untouchable right now. That's generally true the higher up you go at a position. We know who those players are, and the consequences of overreacting to a small sample from them could be detrimental. Still, there are sections of the rankings where the distinctions are thin enough to warrant the playing of hunches.

The 10 biggest rankings moves for this week

  1. Naturally, the most abrupt change to a player's Fantasy value is when a reliever suddenly comes into saves, which, in most scoring formats, takes him from not mattering to very much mattering. Three meet that description already in 2026, with the most notable being Paul Sewald. He looks much like he did when he had 34 saves for this same Diamondbacks team in 2023, and it seems like manager Torey Lovullo intends to treat him the same way he did then. What about Jonathan Loaisiga's save Wednesday? Well, that only happened because Sewald had worked the previous two days and was unavailable. Meanwhile, Lucas Erceg has already replaced Carlos Estevez in Kansas City, and Jordan Romano appears to have first dibs on the Angels job with Kirby Yates sidelined by injury. Sewald and Erceg have climbed into my top 25 at relief pitcher, behind Ryan Walker but ahead Abner Uribe and Griffin Jax, two good relievers who don't seem like they're in line for save chances right now. Romano is a little further behind because I'm not sure what happens when Yates returns.
  2. The hitter to open the most eyes thus far is Chase DeLauter, who's been absent since fouling a ball off his foot Tuesday but, of course, homered four times in his first three games. His injury history is well documented, but so is his talent for hitting. Seeing it play out on the main stage has me a little more willing to overlook the risk, and seeing as he needs to be rostered even in three-outfielder leagues at this point, I've moved him into my top 36 at the position.
  3. I've said that starting pitcher is where I'm willing to stick out my neck a little more this time of year, and three in particular have caught my attention already. One is Kodai Senga, though less because his first start went so well than because his velocity gains from spring training have carried over to the regular season. He jumps from 70th to 57th at starting pitcher, putting him ahead of preseason favorite Michael Burrows (who's still largely unproven, I'll point out). Another is Andrew Painter, who may never live up to our greatest hopes for him with the way that Tommy John surgery has compromised his arsenal, but he was plenty effective in his debut Tuesday, enough to climb from 73rd to 60th in my starting pitcher rankings. Then, there's Jose Soriano, one of the few pitchers to have already made two starts, both scoreless. Integrating a four-seamer into his arsenal seems to have made his sinker even more effective, and the double confirmation has me moving him into the rosterable range at starting pitcher, right around Shane Baz and Merrill Kelly at 74th.
  4. Soriano has made the biggest leap among starting pitchers initially ranked outside of the top 100, but a few others showed enough in their first start to break into the top 100, at least. Mike Soroka struck out 10 in five shutout innings, leaning all the more into a slurve that had a 38 percent whiff rate and .118 batting average against last year. Lance McCullers struck out nine in seven one-run innings, throwing his new cutter a quarter of the time and offering a different movement profile with all of his pitches. Landen Roupp, whose curveball has always been the highlight of his arsenal, also had a new cutter and two-hit the Padres over six innings with it. All three have been around long enough that we can presume their stories won't have a happy inning, but because each of their exceptional performances hinted at a change to their process, I'm open-minded enough to give them a try ahead of boring Michael Wacha and Chris Bassitt types.
  5. One type of rankings change that would be impossible to argue against, even this time of year, is the addition of players to positions where they're newly eligible. By the time you read this article, there may be even more instances of this, but the three most significant right now are Bo Bichette, JJ Wetherholt, and Brendan Donovan. Bichette, who was my 11th-ranked shortstop, immediately becomes my eighth-ranked third baseman, which suggests, not surprisingly, that his new position is the better place to play him in most league contexts. Wetherholt, who's only my 16th-ranked shortstop as an unproven rookie at the deepest infield position, becomes my ninth-ranked second baseman. There are so few at that position with his sort of impact potential. Donovan, who's also picking up third base, is the one of the three with the biggest discrepancy in his Rotisserie (5x5) and Head-to-Head (points) value, placing 24th in the former and 17th in the latter.
  6. I've said that I generally wouldn't touch my rankings at the top of a position this early in the year, but I couldn't resist making one such change, elevating Shea Langeliers to my No. 2 catcher in Rotisserie leagues, ahead of Hunter Goodman, Ben Rice, and William Contreras. Him coming out of the gate with five home runs already reassures me that his big breakout last year really was all it appeared to be, and it doesn't seem like he'll be at any sort of playing time disadvantage, having started all six of the Athletics' games so far. The line between him, Goodman, and Rice was already so thin that I figured no harm could come from me shifting them around a little.
  7. Sandy Alcantara had a 5.36 ERA overall in his first season back from Tommy John surgery last year, but that mark dropped to 2.70 in his final seven starts, when we also saw him generating whiffs at a higher rate. Already this season, we're seeing indications that the former Cy Young winner really did rediscover his ace form. He gave up no earned runs over seven innings on opening day and then went the distance in his second outing Wednesday, needing just 93 pitches to do so. The workload is particularly reminiscent of his Cy Young 2022 campaign, and while he'll still need to prove himself against lineups other than the Rockies and White Sox, a jump from 38th to 30th in my starting pitcher rankings seems appropriate.
  8. Sal Stewart's rookie season is already looking like the dream outcome. He's batting .474 (9 for 19) with two homers, three doubles, and more than twice as many walks (seven) as strikeouts (three). He also walked more than he struck out in spring training, and his exit velocity readings have remained at the top of the scales at every step along the way. Even concerns about his playing time, to the degree that those existed, have been rendered moot by him starting all six of the Reds' games so far. I've at least moved him ahead of Jonathan Aranda and Yandy Diaz in my Rotisserie rankings, but part of me wants to keep going past Michael Busch, Tyler Soderstrom, and Vinnie Pasquantino. It may just be a matter of time.
  9. Connelly Early and Parker Messick both looked good in their season debuts, but their move up my starting pitcher rankings (about 20 spots for each) was more about them claiming a rotation spot for their respective teams, which is not an outcome I was expecting. Early, who had 13.5 K/9 in his four major league starts and 11.8 K/9 in his 21 minor league appearances last year, is up to 56th, right around Edward Cabrera and MacKenzie Gore, and it wouldn't surprise me if his clever sequencing of his six-pitch arsenal propelled him into the top 40. Messick, I don't think, has as much upside, but he has an effective fastball and controls the zone well, which is enough for me to slot him ahead of his higher-profile teammate, Tanner Bibee.
  10. I've already talked about Paul Sewald, Lucas Erceg, and Jordan Romano suddenly coming into saves, and I'll round out this list with another emerging saves source, Riley O'Brien. It's not clear that Oliver Marmol even wants a set closer, but after initially giving Ryne Stanek and Matt Svanson a ninth-inning look, only to see them struggle with it, the fifth-year manager went back to the pitcher who was converting saves down the stretch for the Cardinals late last year. O'Brien delivered in his first chance Tuesday and then pitched a scoreless ninth inning with the score tied Wednesday, which is a situation that would normally be reserved for a closer. I've actually moved him one spot ahead of Romano, up to 29th at relief pitcher, because I think his chances of securing the role for the long haul are slightly better, even if Romano would appear to have less competition.