Ottoneu Hot Right Now: July 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.

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

Tyler Wells — 61 current auctions — 14.0% roster%

With Ryan Helsley back on the injured list, Tyler Wells has converted the last two save opportunities for the Orioles. A starter for the majority of his big league career, high-leverage work is new territory for Wells. He’s responded by posting a 3.02 ERA and a 3.40 FIP across 41.2 innings with an excellent 4.3 strikeout-to-walk ratio this year. The biggest change to his profile is an increase in the usage of his cutter. That gives him three pitches with at least a 32% whiff rate that he’s throwing a combined two-thirds of the time. That’s helped him push his swinging strike rate up to 14.2%, a new career high.

With Helsley’s health a complete question mark — he’s already missed time with elbow inflammation and this latest issue is being described as “discomfort” — the ninth inning role is wide open in Baltimore. Wells looks like the guy the team trusts right now, but Rico Garcia or Andrew Kittredge could also steal some save opportunities too.

Hot Performers
Players with a high P/G or P/IP over the last 14 days rostered in 80% of leagues or less.

Kyle Karros — 8.9 FGPts/G (last 14 days) — 17.2% roster%

Since the beginning of June, Kyle Karros has run a .352/.441/.625 slash line, good for a 174 wRC+. Granted, 18 of his 30 games during this stretch have come at home in Coors Field and another three came in Las Vegas during that wild series against the Athletics in mid-June. His batted ball quality has improved like you might expect during this hot streak — his hard hit rate is up to 51.4% and his barrel rate is up to 11.1% — but he’s also outperformed his expected wOBA by 79 points. If you’re up for managing a home/road platoon in your fantasy lineup and desperately need a third baseman, you could do worse than riding Karros’s hot streak until he cools off.

Joc Pederson — 8.5 FGPts/G (last 14 days) — 12.8% roster%

After really struggling in his first season in Texas last year, Joc Pederson has seemingly rediscovered his power this year. Since May 26, he’s slashed .250/.320/.586 (a 147 wRC+) with 11 home runs. It wasn’t that long ago that Pederson posted a 152 wRC+ with the Diamondbacks in 2024 and all of his batted ball metrics are similar or improved this year. The issue with rostering him in fantasy baseball is his lack of positional eligibility. He’s only eligible at UTIL which means he needs to be better than whoever your best bench bat is. He was that good in ‘24, and he’s trending that way this year, but that lack of flexibility will mean that he won’t fit on a lot of rosters

Javier Sanoja — 7.8 FGPts/G (last 14 days) — 6.4% roster%

Last week, Javier Sanoja collected 11 hits, three doubles, two triples, and a home run in seven games in Colorado and Sacramento. His hot streak in those two hitter’s ballparks raised his season line from an 80 wRC+ up to 101. With a swing geared for contact and an aggressive approach, he thrived on this road trip, but I don’t think there’s anything significant we should take away from this small blip.

Jack Flaherty — 7.7 FGPts/IP (last 14 days) — 64.1% roster%
Keider Montero — 6.8 FGPts/IP (last 14 days) — 49.0% roster%

I lumped these two pitchers together because their roles on the Tigers pitching staff are somewhat linked. Since being activated off the IL on June 28, Jack Flaherty hasn’t allowed a single run across 10.2 innings, striking out 14. It’s a continuation of a strong stretch of starts dating back to mid-May; over his last eight starts covering 38.2 innings, he’s run a 3.49 ERA and a 2.33 FIP. Most importantly, his strikeout-to-walk ratio has been an elite 6.0, a significant improvement over the 1.5 mark he posted through his first nine starts of the year. It certainly seems like he’s figured out the command issues that had been plaguing him during the first month and a half of the season.

When Flaherty returned from his injury at the end of last month, he bumped Keider Montero out of the rotation. Montero had been filling a spot in the rotation to cover for the litany of injuries suffered by the Tigers but they’re suddenly a lot healthier. In his two relief appearances since the end of June, he’s held opponents scoreless over five innings and even earned a three-inning save in his outing on Saturday. The save is a nice bonus, but I don’t think there are any high-leverage opportunities in his future. I do think he’s a nice guy to have on your watch list in case there are any additional injuries to Detroit’s starting five.