Ottoneu Hot Right Now: July 10, 2025

The 2025 version of Hot Right Now will typically include three sections:

1. Current Auctions: A closer look at players being auctioned at a high rate.
2. Roster Adds: Analysis of players with high add% changes.
3. Hot Performers: Players with a high P/G or P/IP in recent weeks.

The FanGraphs 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

Romy Gonzalez – 47 current auctions

I have to be honest, when I saw Romy Gonzalez atop this list, I almost gave up and just asked other people why this was happening. Romy Gonzalez? The soft-hitting utility player? But I am professional, so I decided I should at least take a cursory look at his player page and…uh…wow. Gonalez has a .408 wOBA and before you just look at the .410 BABIP and skoff, his xwOBA is .399! He has been legitimately excellent!

Romy’s journey towards fantasy relevance started when he changed Sox last year. Maybe this was bound to happen, just a part of his development, but it certainly looks like his new org has helped him to tune his swing into the right pitches.

 

And it isn’t just chasing less (a little anyway) and being more aggressive in the zone. Look at how his swing heat map differs since moving to Boston.

He is being more aggressive up in the zone and focusing more on the center of the plate. We don’t have bat tracking data for him for 2023, but he has also increased his bat speed this year and now has an average swing speed of 75.3 mph (vs. 71.6 league average) and a fast swing rate of 54.3% (vs. 23.1% league average). Romy is letting it rip, but being smarter about when he lets it rip. That is leading not only to a big drop in K-rate and a nice walk-rate boost, but a higher rate of hard contact.

Gonzalez is also currently playing regularly, starting 6 straight games, and often hitting 2nd in that stretch. He hasn’t been on the bench vs. a lefty since coming off the IL and is now earning regular PA vs. righties, as well.

Which does lead me into one of my three notable concerns:

1. Romy still can’t really hit RHP. The .505 wOBA vs. LHP looks great; the .303 vs. RHP, not so much. You need to pay attention to who he is facing and (at least for now) he needs to be on the bench vs. RHP.
2. His playing time isn’t all that secure. He has played 2B lately, had some time at 1B, filled in at DH. But Masataka Yoshida is back and you have to believe Kristian Campbell will be back at some point. He really should fall back into a platoon role soon and he might fall into even less than that as the Sox get healthy and integrate the kids.
3. We can’t just totally ignore the track record, right? In his defense, that track record is more “lefty-mashing platoon bat” than “just bad.” The overall numbers from his South Side days are skewed because the White Sox either didn’t realize he was best deployed as a platoon bat or were giving him a chance to see if he could solve that problem (or maybe they just didn’t have better options).

All that said, I Gonzalez is way more interesting than I anticipated, but I think he is purely a platoon guy. I would happily roster him in leagues where I know I can start him vs. any LHSP.

Cam Schlittler – 36 current auctions

Schlittler came up for his MLB debut and it wasn’t exactly a sterling effort, but that hasn’t stopped the auctions from rolling in. That is heavily impacted by allowing 2 HR in 5.1 IP – a lot of his other numbers look ok – but he didn’t stand out.

After a good 2024, he found another level of success in the high minors in 2025, but there have been flaws. Keith Law noted an inability to throw anything to keep lefties off-balance. Eric Longenhagen talked about the fastball-heavy approach and seemed to view him as a back-end guy, not a front-line starter.

And that kind of matches what we saw in his debut. He stymied righties, striking out three of seven, and allowing just one hit and no walks. But against 14 lefties he had only 4 strikeouts, gave up the 2 homers, walked 2, and allowed a single, as well. Those homer issues, by the way, were already showing up in limited Triple-A innings.

With the All Star Break nearly upon us, we’re unlikely to see Schlittler start again for at least a week or two, and it’s unclear when or where that start will come. For now, I am out. He looks like an interesting MLB pitcher and likely will help the Yankees, but I think he falls in that in-between stage where the future isn’t bright enough to stash him and the present isn’t clear enough to count on him.

Roster Adds

Trevor Rogers – Add% Change (7 Days) – 36.2%

Trevor Rogers is back! And making good on what we all knew was coming years ago! Kinda. Sorta. Ok, not really.

The version of Rogers that is stabilizing the Orioles rotation looks nothing like the phenom we saw in Miami all those years ago. Gone are the gaudy strikeout numbers. Gone is the guy who leaned heavily on his four-seamer (58% in 2021). Instead, Rogers is mixing in a sinker with his four-seam, and has added a sweeper to his slider. Or, perhaps, is just throwing a sweepier slider that Statcast is classifying as two different pitches. The sweeper is a bit slower and has both more break and more rise, so there does appear to be a difference there.

The result is a legitimately strong performance that comes courtesy of limited walks and even more limited HR. The big question is how sustainable is this? I think we can all agree the sub-2 ERA is not likely here to stay, but the underlying performance is still strong, so is there enough to lean on here?

I think there is enough to ride the hot streak, for sure. Even if he regresses to his FIP (2.81), you’d be ecstatic, and if the HR suppression proves too good to be true, the 3.80 xFIP is still interesting. Rogers gets the Marlins Saturday and I would start him there. Depending on rotation plans, he looks like he might get the Guardians and Rockies (in Baltimore)  as his first two post-break starts, and those are easy places to start him as well. After that, you’ll have more data to make more decisions before the O’s get a run of the Jays, Cubs and Phillies. My guess is we’ll be done riding Rogers by then, but might no reason to stop now.

Ronny Henriquez – Add% Change (7 Days) – 30.1%

It would be easy to say “saves = adds” and call it a day. And that is kind of true. But Henriquez is also pretty interesting even outside the role. Since debuting with Minnesota in 2022, Henriquez has added more than 3 mph to his fastball and has been messing with his pitch mix to find something that works. And it seems to have clicked.

Henriquez is currently throwing a sweeper 31% of the time, his four-seamer 30%, and a slider 20%. Last year he led with his change, but this year it is down to 16%. The result is a near doubling of his K% from 18.2% with the Twins to 33.1% with the Fish. That hasn’t come without tradeoffs – his GB% is way down, helping drive up his HR rate; and his walk rate is up a bit, as well.

But the walks have been coming down month-over-month. The HR may be an ongoing issue – while he doesn’t allow a high average EV, his hard-hit and barrel rates against are both concerning – but given the progress he has made, I wouldn’t rule out another step forward.

His 6.41 P/IP on the season isn’t that exciting, but he is over 10 P/IP across his last 10 appearances, and that is certainly worth noting. In the ever-evolving world of Ottoneu relievers, Henriquez is a guy I want to gamble on.

Hot Performers

Stats reflect the last 14 days for both hitters and pitchers. Players selected are usually rostered at lower levels.

Jordan Westburg – 11.8 P/G

Westburg isn’t rostered at lower levels, but if you are like me, you may not have realized that despite being under 4.5 P/G most of the season, Westburg has put up 39 points over 3 games since returning to the lineup on July 4, and is now up over 5 P/G on the season. Any time three games can sway your season line that much, you know that playing time has been limited, and Westburg has missed some time. But if he is now healthy and getting locked in, this could be a big second half.