Big Kid Adds (Preseason)
Matt Marton-Imagn Images
Historically, when I’ve done the Big Kid Adds, I looked at the players added in about half of the Elite Leagues (previously named High Stakes). Most of the leagues had just drafted, so there weren’t many moves. This week, I decided to dive into the guys added in two leagues or those that warranted double-digit bids.
Hitters
Moisés Ballesteros: Ballesteros can hit, but it might be hard for the 22-year-old to get full-time at-bats at DH. A solid 20 HR and .275 AVG bat.
Carson Williams: With an injury to Taylor Walls, Williams is now the Rays’ starting shortstop. I think the idea of Carson Williams might be better than the actual player. While he has shown the ability to hit for power and steal bases in AAA, he has major contact issues. In 466 AAA plate appearances, he has a 34% K%. In 106 PA last year in the majors, he posted a 42% K%. And he showed no improvement this Spring Training, with his Contact% dropping from 74% last year to 69%. He’s a broke man’s Oneil Cruz.
Jake Meyers: I’d not be surprised if Meyers ends up being one of the most added and dropped players this year. There will be weeks when he’ll be needed because of an injury replacement.
Starters
Carmen Mlodzinski (2): Lots of preseason talk revolved around Mlodzinski going to the bullpen. Now he’s in the rotation, and I’m interested. Last season, he posted a 3.60 xFIP (8.1 K/9, 48% GB%). And he went off this spring with a 10.2 K/9, 1.5 BB/9, and 57% GB%. He’s changed his pitch mix by leaning into his sinker (67% GB%), splitter (23% SwStr%, 50% GB%), and curve (12% SwStr%, 68% GB%). A must add to see where this goes.
Sean Burke (2): He’s in the White Sox rotation, but has been struggling. The biggest key for him is throwing strikes, as seen by his 4.2 BB/9 last season. His walk rate is down to 3.1 BB/9 in Spring Training. The only change is that he’s not throwing his subpar curveball (9% SwStr%, 42% GB%) as much.
Ryan Johnson (2): Johnson made the Angels rotation. He got hit around last year with a 2.5 HR/9 and .426 BABIP, but posted a 3.97 xFIP. This spring, he focused on his sinker (67% GB%) and splitter (67% GB%), and his groundball rate increased to 57%. He might have similar results to his teammate, José Soriano.
Brandon Sproat: Made the Brewers rotation after a solid 9 IP (2.51 xFIP) this spring. All his pitch velocities increased by 1-2 mph. He threw five pitches between 34% and 14% last season and continued those rates this Spring Training. The four-seamer and change stink, and he might have some upside if he cut down or eliminated their usage.
Landen Roupp: I was hoping he would improve his control after a 3.8 BB/9 last season. Nope, his walk rate jumped to 4.9 BB/9 this spring. He can miss bats and keep the ball on the ground, but he just walks too many batters.
Walker Buehler: By default, he’s in the Padres rotation. He’s been horrible over the last two seasons (5.10 ERA, 4.86 xFIP, 1.53 WHIP) and lost almost 2 mph on his pitches this spring. There are so many better options.
Rhett Lowder: While Lowder’s ERA is all over the place, one item remains constant: he walks a ton of batters (4.5 BB/9 this spring). He destroys a team’s WHIP. In deep leagues, he might be worth adding-and-benching to see if he can start throwing strikes, but be ready to move on once a better option materializes.
Eduardo Rodriguez: In the WBC, he threw over four innings of shutout ball against the USA team. He’s had good starts before, never sticking. Over 10 seasons, his talent has varied from streamable to unplayable. I don’t expect that to change this year.
Relievers
Jordan Romano (2): Possibly in the mix for Saves with the Angels.
Didier Fuentes: After a great spring (0.22 WHIP, 0.66 ERA), the 20-year-old will be used out of the bullpen as a long reliever.
JoJo Romero: Possibly in the mix for Saves with the Cardinals.
Jeff, one of the authors of the fantasy baseball guide,The Process, writes for RotoGraphs, The Hardball Times, Rotowire, Baseball America, and BaseballHQ. He has been nominated for two SABR Analytics Research Award for Contemporary Analysis and won it in 2013 in tandem with Bill Petti. He has won four FSWA Awards including on for his Mining the News series. He's won Tout Wars three times, LABR twice, and got his first NFBC Main Event win in 2021. Follow him on Twitter @jeffwzimmerman.
These mostly aren’t adds, they’re up/down descriptions.
Woof. That’s a sorry list. None of it means a thing until the dang GMs start putting guys on the IL. Any time now.
I think Big Kid Adds just experienced shrinkage.
Where did the info for Carson Williams contact% come from? He’s improved across the board from last year to this spring. 63.5% contact in 2025 (AAA and MLB were 0.1% different) to 70.2% contact this spring. His O-contact is down 4-7 points (AAA-MLB) but his zone contact is up 77.6-72.8% (AAA-MLB) to 83.3%. O-swing down 3 points, Z-swing down 1 point. SwStr% down from 17.2-18.1% (AAA-MLB) to 14.4%. I have no idea how ‘sticky’ these spring stats are but he’s definitely shown improvements this spring. Edit* very SSS but his heart-zone swing rate and contact are up this spring (only have data from his limited MLB time)
Yeah, the comment on Williams seemed particularly glib and uninformed. You covered most of it, but his K rate this spring is down significantly, too. Now that all may be small sample size, but you can’t cherry pick one negative indicator as telling of “no improvement,” and ignore that virtually all of the rest of the indicators are in a distinctly positive direction.
By the way, same sort cherry picking in re improvement/lack thereof in AAA last season. Why cite to his K% without noting that it improved significantly over the 2nd half of his AAA season (and then reverted at the major league level, of course)?
No one would say there’s not red flags in his profile. But saying there has been “no improvement” is superficial; cherry picking out one small sample size indicator to prove the point is worse.
grab Sproat since his first match will be a cold White Sox game?
But it’s not so cold in Milwaukee when the roof is closed.