An Ottoneu Pickup at Each Position

With the first games underway, we are going to be flooded with new information. All the spring lineup speculation will give way to actual lineups. The dream that someone might not be stuck in a platoon will die. The hope that a player’s newfound spring plate discipline is a game changer will be dashed. And before too long, you will learn where your roster is deep enough to withstand those losses, plus injuries, and where you aren’t.

You will also potentially have some open roster spots. Maybe you roster Justin Steele and now he is on the 60-day IL. Maybe one of those guys you were dreaming on turns into a cut by April. The good news is, sudden roster needs and suddenly available roster spots go together like a hot dog and a beer – the existence of the former means you probably need the latter, and the latter is just so much better when you pair it with the former.

So let’s try to find readily available players to fill those needs on your open roster. Here is one guy at each position who is currently <50% rostered in Ottoneu who you can go out and pick up if you find yourself in need.N

Catcher – Bo Naylor (27.1% rostered)

You can call this a homer pick, if you want, but that isn’t fair to me Bo. It’s totally fair to me, this is a total homer pick for me. But Naylor has earned this. How? With some adjustments, including a very subtle one. Here is Naylor repping Canada in the World Baseball Classic and crushing a homer against Team USA:

You can feel free to enjoy his job around the bags, but the key moment is in the second second of the video, when Naylor does something revolutionary. He taps his toe.

I know, that seems like it shouldn’t matter. But if you go back to July of last year, the toe didn’t tap:

After working on his swing – including that toe tap – Naylor posted a 136 wRC+ in September. He only had 8 PA postseason, but he only struck out once and he hit a home run, as well. He had a .941 OPS including that long ball in the WBC. He had a 129 wRC+ with a 52.6% hard hit rate in Spring Training. Am I stacking small samples on small samples? Yes, I am. But that is four small samples! And you know what that makes? Still a small sample, to be honest, which is why he is only 27.1% rostered.

I am not the first here to mention Naylor or the toe tap, but if you need a catcher, he is widely available and we just might be almost 120 PA (stacking those four small samples together) into a legit breakout.

First Base – Spencer Horwitz (49.3% rostered)

Once again, Jake beat me to the punch, this time in his bold predictions, where he told us Horwitz would be a top-12 first baseman. But I don’t even have to go that bold to make this case. Horwitz has 836 career PA with a .343 wOBA. You need more than that for a legitimately starter-worthy first base option in Ottoneu, but only 13 current Ottoneu 1B had 400+ PA and better than a .343 wOBA last year. And one of those 13 was Horwitz, at .344.

But if you find yourself in need of games played at first early in the season, Horwitz is a great place to look. Jake is right to point out the legit breakout potential, but even if he is “only” what he was last year, that’s enough to keep you above water at the position for a while.

Second Base – Nasim Nuñez (13.4% rostered)

Nuñez may seem like an odd choice here. He’s gotten a lot of love on Sleeper and the Bust and popped up in both Justin Mason’s and Paul Sporer’s Bold Predictions, but that is all about speed and the value he brings in 5×5. That obviously would apply to Ottoneu 5×5 leagues, but I think he is a viable option in points leagues, as well.

Right now, you are pulling up his Ottoneu player page to tell me that 2.72 P/G is bad. And yes, it is. But it’s also misleading. In 2025, Nuñez pinch hit, pinch ran, and pinch defended. All of which explains why he played 39 games and managed just 92 PA, or 2.36 PA/G. This year, he appears to have a full-time role. He hit 7th on Opening Day and last year Nationals 7-hitters averaged 3.91 PA/G. But that was against a left-handed starter and many expect Nuñez to hit second vs. righties. Nats 2-hitters averaged 4.42 PA/G last year. Let’s split the difference and say he gets 4.17 – a little low if he actually hits in the two-hole most of the time; a little high if he doesn’t. At last years 1.153 P/PA and this year 4.17 PA/G, that is 4.81 P/G! That isn’t bad! That’s good!

He has room to regress from that (and he probably will) and still be a viable option for you to fill time at the keystone. Nuñez isn’t at elite bat, by any means, but he gets on base and he steals at a high volume and high efficiency. Gaudy steal numbers have limited value in Ottoneu points leagues if they come with a bunch of failed attempts. Nuñez is the right combination of efficiency and volume to make his speed a legit asset in Ottoneu points leagues.

Third Base – Nolan Arenado (48.7% rostered)

Look, I am not going to spend a bunch of time trying to convince you that prime Arenado is back. Instead, I am going to simply list a few relevant facts:

1. Third base is not deep. If you need help at 3B, you are likely digging deep and you have to temper expectations.
2. Arenado is 34, which is definitely not young, but he isn’t dead either.
3. Arenado was awful last year, but he was…well…not awful the years before that. Even as he was apparently in decline, he was serviceable and right now we are just looking for serviceable.
4. He doesn’t strike out, he walks, he makes a lot of contact, and that gives him a chance to run into a hot streak with some BABIP luck. Plus, his hard-hit rate was way up in spring.
5. Arizona is just below average for right-handed home runs per Baseball Savant’s park factors (97) but is the second-best overall park for right-handed bats (105). St. Louis was bottom-five (85) for righty power and a flat 100 for right-handed hitters overall.

It wouldn’t take a huge rebound for Arenado to be a decent fill-in for an injured or slumping third basemen, and there are some ingredients in place that make it possible.

Shortstop – Ummmm

Can I say Nuñez again? I can right? This is my own game, so I can do whatever I want. As much as we all gush over the talent at the top end of the shortstop pool (and with good reason), the position is actually not as deep as second, and it shows here. So I guess I double up on Nuñez.

Shortstop (Take Two) – Nick Gonzales (12.0% rostered)

This is not that inspiring, and I really would go Nuñez first, but let’s stick to the spirit of the game we are playing here. I debated Gonzales vs. his teammate Jared Triolo and landed on Gonzales for a few reasons.

First, I like his approach better. He strikes out less in part because he swings more. He chases more than Triolo but also attacks pitches in the zone at a higher rate, resulting in a slight more impressive Z-swing minus O-swing, which is a better way to judge a hitter’s approach than looking at Z-swing or chase-rate in isolation.

He’s a bit younger and there are elements of his old prospect profile that I like better. Triolo was the higher rated prospect by our scouting team, but some of that was glove and some of that was hit tool. Given what we know today about things like their approach and their zone-contact rates (similar), I think Gonzales is the more likely of the two to take a step forward. Basically, I see why Gonzales projects to the higher ISO, and I’ll bet on that.

Lastly, I think it is telling, in an odd way, that the Pirates went from planning on Gonzales at short to a sudden pivot to Triolo, moving Gonzales to third. And I think it’s a good thing for Gonzales. Because no matter who is playing shortstop today, we know who Don Kelly and company plan to have at shortstop in the near future, and it isn’t either of these dudes. Triolo was a Gold Glove utility guy last year, and I suspect the sudden swap signals that Gonzales has the inside track to a lineup spot and that third base job once Konnor Griffin appears.

So if you are truly desperate and short, I guess this is your play.

Outfield – Andrew Benintendi (33.5% rostered)

Outfield proved to be a challenge, as the depths of the position are loaded with interesting names who are small-side platoon guys that don’t fit this exercise. If you are looking to fill a need, you are looking for a player who will be in the lineup. Those lefty-mashers just aren’t reliable in that way.

But Benintendi should be, and he gave us 4.5 P/G last year. That’s not a particularly exciting number, but it’s enough to get you by while you wait for Kyle Stowers or Seiya Suzuki or someone else to get back. The question, of course, is whether he can produce that 4.5 P/G again, given he was under 4.0 the previous two years. I think he can.

Benintendi didn’t overhaul his game last year, but he made a series of small changes that I think likely add up to just enough to get by. He flattened out his swing a small amount, bringing his tilt down to 32%. He increased his attack angle, bringing it up to 16%. He increased his bat speed to 68.7 mph and his fast swing rate to 3.1%. If you are familiar with the bat tracking data, I am sure that last sentence scared you off – 68.7 mph average bat speed and a 3.1% fast swing rate are not impressive numbers. But that fast swing-rate is legitimately triple his 2024 number and the rest of those numbers (swing speed, tilt, and attack angle) all represent a trend dating back to 2024. It certainly looks like he is on an intentional trajectory to flatten his swing, increase his attack angle, and swing harder. He has also shifted his attacked direction from 7 degrees oppo to 0 degrees to 5 degrees pull.

All told, you would expect this to result in more balls hit in the air (the higher attack angle), more balls hit to the pull side (the shifting attack direction), less contact but higher quality contact (the more aggressive swing speed). And that is, in fact, what we see:

What happens your contact is more to the pull side, less on the ground, and harder? Your barrel rate goes from 2.9% to 6.3% to 11% over that same three year stretch. In 2025, Benintendi struck out less (because he took fewer called strikes), maintained his walk rate, and increased his ISO. And he did it through measurable changes to his approach. In Spring Training, his pull and ground ball rates both regressed a bit, but both remained closer to 2025 than 2024, let alone 2023. His hard-hit and barrel rates are both up. He is also striking out a lot more, so it’s not all sunshine and rainbows, but what do you want from a guy available in 2/3rds of leagues?

There’s enough here to feel okay throwing him into a lineup as needed. He isn’t your first choice and you don’t really want to be relying on him daily, but if your OF is thin and you need a bat to toss into the mix to stay on the games-played pace? Benintendi could be your guy.