Ottoneu Hot Right Now: April 7, 2026

Hot Right Now (HRN) is a weekly Ottoneu feature focused on popular players currently being auctioned or players who you should think about auctioning in your Ottoneu leagues. Even if you don’t play Ottoneu, we’ll be highlighting players you should be looking at in deeper and keeper formats. In this feature, we will break down players into two sections:

1. Current Auctions: A closer look at players being auctioned at a high rate.
2. Hot Performers: Players with a high P/G or P/IP over the last 14 days who are also rostered in 80% of leagues or less. (I won’t include this section until we’re a few weeks into the regular season.)

The RotoGraphs Ottoneu team plans to run this feature weekly, updating fantasy managers on the biggest movers in Ottoneu leagues with an analysis of how these players could or could not help your roster.

Current Auctions

Garrett Mitchell — 81 current auctions — 35.2% roster%

Garrett Mitchell has had a terrible time staying on the field, which in turn has affected his ability to progress in his development. He’s missed more than 400 games over the last three years thanks to a shoulder injury in 2023, a fractured finger in ‘24, and an oblique strain in ‘25. He’s healthy now, and currently raking for the Brewers to start the season. He’s collected multiple hits in three games already and has four extra-base hits in eight games (seven starts). Many of his underlying peripherals look promising too; his hard hit and barrel rates are well above his career norms and his walk rate is up nearly six points.

I’d caution you to pump the brakes a bit. Mitchell has always struggled with contact issues — his career strikeout rate is 34% — and it doesn’t seem like he’s solved that problem despite the improvement in contact quality. So far this year, he’s chasing more than ever, swinging less frequently, and making contact at just a 63.3% rate. Sure, the contact that he has made has been loud, but his plate approach just isn’t sustainable at this rate.

It’s all super small samples right now, and it’s very possible Mitchell will be able to figure out his contact rate issues. With the improvement in contact quality he’s shown, that would probably lead to a pretty significant breakout. I don’t think he’s there yet, and you might be stuck with paying for a hot start to the season without the foundation to back up the results.

Liam Hicks — 62 current auctions — 32.9% roster%

Unlike Mitchell, Liam Hicks already had a solid plate approach established but simply lacked the ability to make authoritative contact. Last year, Hicks ranked in the 91st percentile in whiff rate and the 98th percentile in chase rate, leading to a solid 14.4% strikeout rate and a 11.0% walk rate. Unfortunately, his hard hit rate was 16th worst in baseball and his EV90 was just a hair better at 17th worst.

This year, he’s reworked his swing to add a big leg kick and the results have been dramatically different. His swing speed is up two miles per hour, his hard hit and barrel rates are significantly improved, and his approach looks just as solid as it did last year — he hasn’t whiffed a single time in eight games! The results speak for themselves; he’s blasted three home runs already and is currently sporting a 214 wRC+ with just a .238 BABIP and a .495 expected wOBA. It really seems like the changes he made to his swing have unlocked a new ceiling for him.

What makes Hicks even more exciting from a fantasy standpoint is that he’s eligible at catcher and he’s picking up playing time at first base when he’s not behind the plate. The one thing to monitor is his platoon usage; he’s sat against four of the five left-handed starters the Marlins have faced so far.

James Tibbs III — 57 current auctions — 14.5% roster%

James Tibbs III is getting some attention because he blasted seven home runs in his first nine games at Triple-A this year. He bounced through three organizations last year — he was included in the Rafael Devers trade in June and then in the Dustin May trade in July — and finally landed with the Dodgers to close out the year. As the results indicate, Tibbs has monstrous power from the left side and a pretty good plate approach to support the raw power. His issue as a prospect — and the reason why he was flipped twice in the span of two months — is that he doesn’t really have a defensive home. He’s been used in right field and at first base after joining Los Angeles’s farm system, and it’s likely he’ll make his way to the majors as a bat-first, platoon outfielder. Unfortunately, the Dodgers have a pretty crowded big league roster, particularly at the positions best suited for a player like Tibbs. Yes, he’s currently raking in the minors, but the path to a major league debut is pretty murky right now.

Bryce Elder — 56 current auctions — 7.6% roster%

It’s hard to notice beneath his ugly season stat line, but Bryce Elder actually finished 2025 on a hot streak. Over his final seven outings last year, he ran a 2.82 ERA and a 3.30 FIP, backed by a fantastic 18.6% K-BB%. The key to his success in those final outings down the stretch was a fastball that had a little extra oomph behind it and a slider that had a few extra inches of sink to it.

Fast forward to this year and he’s continued his run of success with two excellent starts. His fastball velocity has fallen back towards his career norms, but his approach and pitch mix look a little different. Adding a cutter to his pitch mix was actually Greg Maddux’s idea — maybe Elder’s improvement this year can be traced back to his conversations with the Hall of Famer back in 2024 — and he’s used the new pitch to attack left-handed batters. That’s allowed him to cut back on the usage of his sinker, and he’s now throwing his slider as his primary pitch. That breaking ball still features the additional vertical movement he added late last year and the pitch has limited batters to a .116 expected wOBA so far. Elder still has excellent command of his repertoire, though Stuff+ isn’t necessarily enamoured with his arsenal despite the tweaks. He isn’t a guy who is going to overpower batters with raw stuff anyway, and he was an All-Star back in 2023, so there’s at least some history of success with his approach.

With starting pitching always difficult to find, I’m interested in seeing if Elder has actually taken a significant step forward with all these changes to his mix and pitch characteristics. He’ll get plenty of runway to prove himself with all the injuries in Atlanta’s starting rotation.