Ottoneu Cold Right Now: September 4, 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:

1. Roster Cuts: Analysis of players who have been cut in a high percentage of leagues.
2. Recent Injuries: A look at the implications of recent injuries (not all, just some high-profile ones).
3. 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

Eric Lauer, Add% Change (7 days): -14.4%

Lauer was somewhat inexplicably brilliant through 12 starts, posting a 2.59 ERA. He didn’t strikeout a ton of guys, but he avoided walks, limited the longball, and had a bit of luck with BABIP and LOB%. That was enough to carry him to unexpected fantasy relevance.

And then the bottom fell out. Over his next three starts, Lauer was awful. He was homer-prone, he was wild, he was giving up hits left and right. And the Jays decided it was time to move him to the bullpen.

Given his track record, it’s hard to question their thinking – as good as Lauer was, his career suggests the last three starts are more reflective of who he is than those first 12 starts. The regression monster came on hard and the Jays adjusted. Fantasy managers should, too.

Injuries

Randy Rodriguez, Add% Change (7 days): -43.4%

Rodriguez made across the board gains this year, piling up K’s and avoiding walks, thanks to absolutely elite stuff (both his fastball and his slider have 143 Stuff+). He was anchoring a ton of Ottoneu bullpens, but Tommy John came calling (well, probably a doctor called, I doubt Tommy John himself actually called Rodriguez) and that not only ends his 2025 season, it probably eats up most of his 2026. There’s just no justification to sit on a reliever – even this reliever – for that long.

Jason Adam, Add% Change (7 days): -23.2%

Adam wasn’t Rodriguez-level good this year, but he was excellent, so his recent injury will hurt managers. Adam went down the other night with a ruptured tendon in his quad and the surgery to repair that tendon will end his 2025 season. He’s going to be an interesting target once he is healthy, but I want to see him throwing again before I put money on him.

Xander Bogaerts, Add% Change (7 days): -21.4%

He isn’t the Bogaerts fantasy managers came to love a few years back, but he hasn’t been awful and he has been reliably in the lineup, which has real value. Or at least he was reliably in the lineup until he fractured his foot with a foul ball and hit the IL. The Padres are saying he could be back towards the end of the regular season, which is great for them. They are likely to be in the postseason and if Bogaerts can come back for a few games, get his timing back, and be ready for a Wild Card series, that’s a big boost. But for fantasy managers? He probably won’t do much for you this year and his salary was still generally high enough ($13 median) that he’s likely a cut in January, so you might as well move on now.

Cold Performers

Cold performers are marked by measuring low P/G or P/IP in the last 14 days.

Warming Bernabel,  -1.3 P/G

About a month ago, when Bernabel was first up and raking, I wrote this in a Hot Right Now:

Bernabel looks a bit, to me, like a poor man’s Luis Arraez. He will never match Arraez’s K-rates, but he is going to have to survive by putting the ball in play and getting high BABIPs, because he isn’t going to draw walks or hit for power. His home park will make that easier, but it doesn’t feel sustainable to me.

For me, nothing has changed except the results.

Logan Allen, -1 P/IP

From late June until late August, Allen put together a pretty solid stretch. Not an ideal Ottoneu-guy, given the lack of whiffs, but he was pitching well and putting up decent points. His last two starts – at Texas and vs. Seattle – have been awful and it’s hard to feel optimistic moving forward. Could you stream him in good matchups if desperate for innings? Sure. But I bet there are better options.