Ottoneu Cold Right Now: July 2, 2025
Cold Right Now (CRN) is a weekly Ottoneu feature focused on players being dropped or who should be dropped in Ottoneu leagues. In this feature, we will break down players into three sections:
- Roster Cuts: Analysis of players who have been cut in a high percentage of leagues.
- Recent Injuries: A look at the implications of recent injuries (not all, just some high-profile ones).
- Cold Performers: Players with a low P/G or P/IP in recent weeks.
This article will typically run once per week and will help fantasy managers keep track of players that need to be given extra attention to improve rosters.
Roster Cuts
Zach Eflin, Add% Change (7 Days): -15.0%
Take a look at Zach Eflin’s FanGraphs player rater card:
This is set for a 12-team classic 5×5 league setting, but it helps visualize how bad Eflin has been when he’s been bad. Each week is represented by a bar, and each bar represents his roto-dollar value earned in that week. When he’s been decent-to-good, he’s right on the purple line that represents his preseason Steamer projection. But, when he’s been bad-to-awful, he’s so bad the data point isn’t registering on the visual. What has led to such volatility? His home run rate, and in Ottoneu points leagues, home runs kill your totals. Eflin’s HR/9 sits at 2.32 on the year, and the MLB average among starters is 1.21. That’s more than one extra home run per nine.
You shouldn’t feel bad about dropping Eflin, but then again, maybe this next outing will be the outing in which he gives up no home runs, walks only one batter, goes more than six innings, and strikes out five! Well, he did that on June 11th. The majority of pitchers go through regular ups and downs, and Eflin’s 1.60 BB/9 has been a joy compared to the league average of 3.02 when the ball doesn’t fly out of the yard. But when a warm summer night with a slight breeze blowing out comes along, all that in-the-zone stuff doesn’t play well. With a 20.0% HR/FB compared to the league’s 11.9%, you could argue he’s been unlucky, but it would be tough to support.
Jordan Romano, Add% Change (7 Days): -12.6%
Believe it or not, Romano’s player rater looks worse than Eflin’s above. He hasn’t had the ups and downs that Eflin has. It’s mostly been down. His HR/9, 1.52, may not be as high as Eflin’s (2.32), but his BB/9 is tremendously higher, 4.25. For a reliever, that’s a tough height to hit. The average in 2025 sits at 3.62 for relivers. Romano has simply not had the stuff he’s had in years past. Take a look at his career swinging strike rates compared to this season’s:
Four-seamer, SwStr%
Career: 12.6%, 2025: 8.7%
Slider, SwStr%
Career: 17.1%, 2025: 13.8%
He’s only thrown the four-seamer and slider in 2025, and neither pitch has been even near average among pitchers with a comparable amount of each thrown. Want more bad news? Take a look at RosterResource’s Phillies page and note that Romano is the setup man in the bullpen with Orion Kerkering and Matt Strahm sharing the closer’s role.
Zac Gallen, Add% Change (7 Days): 12.6%
Gallen, Gallen, Gallen! What-is-happening!? Here’s what’s happening:
-Second-worst SwStr% 9.6%, of his career after 2021’s 9.1%. The 2025 league average is 10.5%.
-Lowest LOB% of his career
-Lowest K% of his career
-Second highest BB% of his career
-Each of his pitches has a Stuff+ grade at or worse than his worst
Zac Gallen just isn’t Zac Gallen in 2025, and if there isn’t an undisclosed injury causing these issues, it’s hard to justify keeping him on your roster. Paul Sporer made a great point in a recent Sleeper and the Bust Episode: if you’re not starting him, at this point, why are you rostering him? Well, Gallen answered that question last night with a seven-inning, ten-strikeout performance. So, maybe that’s why? Baseball is weird, and if you started Gallen last night, kudos to you, but there’s no way that one performance should make fantasy managers ready to auto-start him moving forward.
Injuries
Griffin Canning, Add% Change (7 days): -38.0%
Canning hit the 60-day IL with a ruptured Achilles while sporting a 3.77 ERA and a 1.38 WHIP. He’d been walking too many batters (4.13 vs 3.02 MLB Average), but he’d been limiting damage with only a 0.94 HR/9 (1.21 MLB Average). With this injury, it’s hard to find a reason to keep Canning on an Ottonue roster moving forward.
Max Meyer, Add% Change (7 days): -21.2%
Meyer has a hip injury and has been placed on the 60-day IL. He’ll take a pause with a 4.73 ERA through 64.2 IP (12 GS). His fastball velocity has been up, as has his CSW% and K-BB%, but he’s been getting hit. His WHIP is 1.42, and according to Jeff Zimmerman’s WHIP ERA Equivalent, he’s a 4.73 ERA pitcher. Funny how that works. Since it’s a hip injury and not an arm injury, you may feel more inclined to keep him as long as you’re rostering him below his $3 average salary.
Cold Performers
Cold performers are marked by measuring low P/G or P/IP in the last 14 days.
Michael Harris II, -1.7 P/G
Harris II will have to step on the gas if he’s going to match his preseason projections. As of right now, he’s on pace for ~15 home runs compared to a preseason projection of ~22. He may still reach his stolen base projection, but not if his batting average of .212 and BB% of 3.1% don’t start ticking up. We should consider his .249 BABIP low and his 90.2% Z-Contact% very good, but we should be concerned about his very low 6.1% barrel rate and career low 40.2% HardHit%.
Jung Hoo Lee 이정후 이정후, 0.1 P/G
Lee was Starting to Look Like a Star back in mid-April, but in May his batting average dropped to .231, and in June it dropped to .143. His June BABIP is impossibly low at .158, but his line drive rate also dropped to 13.2% from April’s 23.2%. He started putting the ball in the air (42.1%) more than average (38.4%) in June, and without any power.
Tomoyuki Sugano, -3.7 P/IP
The ball is flying out of the yard, and Sugano has given up 10 in his last eight games. He was an ERA darling in his first eight starts, but that measure has since jumped to 4.06.
Walker Buehler, -3.4 P/IP
Ouch, Walker, ouch. The Red Sox manager, Alex Cora recently said, “He’s healthy, eager to work and like I said yesterday, he feels like he’s getting close to finding it.” So maybe he will. But, until then, bench him! He’s given up 10 home runs in his last seven starts!