Ottoneu Cold Right Now: June 5, 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
Luis Mey, Add% Change (7 days): -27.2%
The 23-year-old Reds reliever with a near-elite slider was optioned to AAA at the end of May. He went through a rough patch in his last five outings (4.2 IP); he only struck out two, gave up five earned runs, including two home runs, and walked four batters. In that span, his sinker was mostly responsible. Both home runs and four of the five walks came off the pitch.
While the Stuff+ on his slider is excellent, the sinker is just around average, and those are his only two pitches. Still, it’s fun to click the “Load Random Video” button on his Savant player page. You’ll either see a slider or a sinker, but regardless of the pitch, you’ll see a lot of them moving out of the zone. He throws his sinker in the zone less often than average and generates a good deal of swinging strikes and chased pitches because of it. But, something will need to change as it doesn’t appear the sinker is much different from the average reliever as far as its movement is concerned, and he uses the pitch nearly 80% of the time. Yet, its velocity has Eric Longenhagen writing:
Mey is one of the hardest throwers in the entire sport, with a fastball that sits 99 and will touch 103…Mey will touch 103, and his fastball sometimes has enough hair on it to break the bat of both the hitter and the guy in the on-deck circle at the same time.
While Mey is a very intriguing prospect, it may be frustrating to hold him in hopes that he one day ends up in a high-leverage role. More from Longenhagen:
After years of walk rates in the 15-20% range, it looked like things clicked for Mey in the 2024 Fall League, when he allowed just one hit in eight appearances. He was dominant for stretches during 2025 spring training and wild for others, which has continued at Louisville to start 2025…His best sliders have incredible wipeout movement, while his worst ones are crushable hangers. Mey has flashed late-inning stuff like this since he was 19, but he’s never been able to control it for any length of time. He struggles to repeat his release, as if his body is too explosive for its own good, but what the entire industry saw in the 2024 Fall League and during the Reds’ 2025 Spring Breakout game was a slam dunk closer.
Michael Toglia, Add% Change (7 Days): -20.8%
Demoted to AAA after slashing only .194/.266/.349 in 54 games and striking out 39.1% of the time, Toglia has fantasy managers giving up. He’s now had 937 MLB plate appearances across four seasons, and his career strikeout rate is 34.4%. His 2025 zone contact rate has fallen to a well below-average 77.7%. He posted the best walk rate (11.8%) of his career last season, along with a .218/.311/.456 slash line and 25 bombs. That .218 batting average was manageable in fantasy-land thanks to the .456 slugging percentage that it came with. But, in 2025, Toglia has not made contact often enough to tap into his power, and he’s now on pace to only hit around 12 or 15 home runs by season’s end. He has struggled tremendously with fastballs. His statcast run value on the pitch in 2025 is -7.3. Toglia will have to prove he can make contact more often in AAA before he can be considered for fantasy purposes.
Kevin Ginkel, Add% Change (7 Days): -19.9%
Ginkel began the season on the IL and returned to action at the end of April. He had the month of May in the big leagues to build up, but has now been demoted. He leaves the big leagues with a 2.10 WHIP and a 12.60 ERA. Stuff+ has given each one of Ginkel’s pitches (FA, SI, SL) grades below average. While his K% stands out at 28.8%, so does his walk rate of 13.5%. Ginkel’s slider has been performing, but his fastball has not, and when a reliever who mostly throws a near 50/50 split of good sliders and bad fastballs, they tend to get hit. The Diamondbacks will hope he won’t be in the minors for very long, as their starting rotation will need a few more pitchers pulled from their bullpen to make up for the Corbin Burnes injury.
Injuries
AJ Smith-Shawver, Add% Change (7 days): -37.0%
Smith-Shawver is set for Tommy John surgery and probably doesn’t warrant keeping. Yes, he’s a young pitcher with a lot of potential, so if you really want to hold for the 1.5-2 years it will take for him to work his way back to fantasy relevance, you could. It’s your team, you’re the boss.
Evan Phillips, Add% Change (7 days): -18.4%
Phillips will also undergo Tommy John surgery. It’s wild to look at all the relievers on the IL on the Dodgers’ RosterResource page. If you’re trying to figure out how you’ll fill the space left by Phillips, take a look at the Closer Depth Chart. You’ll see that Tanner Scott is “On the Hot Seat” and that Alex Vesia and Ben Casparius are next in line.
Cold Performers
Cold performers are marked by measuring low P/G or P/IP in the last 14 days.
Jorge Polanco, -1.9 P/G
Last week, Polanco made the “Cold Performers” list with a -1.1. Things are not improving. He’s had two hits and one walk in his last 38 plate appearances and has been doing a lot of pinch-hitting. Besides the fact that he’s not hitting lefties, Polanco appears to be in a manageable slump for now. Here is an overly complicated chart that may tell you it’s not time to drop Polanco just yet:
Why? None of his plate skills are drastically changing. His wOBA and HardHit rates are down, yes, but there’s still some indication he’s been getting unlucky:
BA: .253 xBA: .308
SLG: .487 xSLG: .532
wOBA: .341 xwOBA: .382
Corey Seager, -1.6 P/G
Upon return from injury, Seager has two hits and one walk in 25 plate appearances. He’s struck out 11 times. He may still be bothered by a hamstring issue. In the 14 games he played in before the injury, he slashed .375/.407/.607. If he doesn’t start hitting and the issue is tied to a lingering injury, we may see him go back on the IL.
Jesús Luzardo, -0.1 P/IP
Luzardo was crushed in his latest appearance after being rather dominant in the prior start. See for yourself:
5/25 vs. ATH: 7.0 IP, 1 HR, 1 BB, 10 K
5/31 vs. MIL: 3.1 IP, 2 HR, 3 BB, 4 K
While earned runs don’t count in Ottoneu points league formats, Luzardo was tagged for 15 in total between the two starts. It’s tough to say whether there’s some underlying issue or if this was a bad, bad start. Paul Sporer thinks he will rebound:
Suffered through one of the worst starts of the yr (12 ER) in MLB but w/no indications of it being injury-related and instead just a nightmare outing, I’m willing to get back on the horse in most spots
Andrew Heaney, 0.6 P/IP
Heaney has done well to fend off the strong offenses of the D-backs and Padres while on the road in his last two starts, but he only combined for five strikeouts in those two starts (10.2 IP). Arizona tagged him for five earned runs, and he walked three in that game, but it certainly could have been worse. He’s lined up to take on yet another explosive offense in the Phillies next.