Ottoneu Hot Right Now: June 13, 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

Grant Taylor – 61 current auctions

Taylor has been all over my watchlists, as an interesting pitching prospect. He was NOT all over my rosters, though, because he seemed to be at least a year away and not in that rarified top-ten air. But the White Sox had different plans.

Taylor opened the year with six solid starts in Double-A, posting a 1.56 ERA on the back of a 27.5% strikeout rate. Yes, the 14.5% walk rate was not ideal, but you figure he had more time in Double-A to work on that, then an adjustment to Triple-A. Instead, the White Sox moved him to the pen. Over 9.1 relief innings, he had a 0.00 ERA and his FIP was lower than that. This is what happens when you strike out 56.3% of hitters while walking only 3.1%.

Taylor’s long-term role is still TBD, but for now, he is a bullpen arm with the possibility of getting into high-leverage spots pretty quickly – there really isn’t anyone on the White Sox blocking him.

His first MLB inning wasn’t super exciting – it was a clean, 1-2-3 inning, but no strikeouts – but the stuff is clearly nasty and the potential is there for him to be an elite Ottoneu reliever. I am buying in and paying a bit more than I normally would for a reliever in Ottoneu in part because he’s half immediately-useful reliever and half 2026 SP prospect.

Reid Detmers – 44 current auctions

It would be easy to look at his 5.22 ERA and just walk away from this former prospect. Again. I have been in and out on Detmers so many times I can’t even count and the surface level stats tell me it is time to be out again.

But the move to the pen has given Detmers a little more life on his fastball, helping drive a career best K% and K%-BB%. That’s why he has put up 6.08 P/IP – a rate that isn’t great but is a far cry from what you’d expect given that ERA.

Over his last ten appearances, however, Detmers has posted 11.3 P/IP. Over that time, he has started to mix in a sinker, cut back his four-seam usage, and leaned more on his breakers. That mix seems to be working wonders for Detmers. And that is enough for me to want to take a shot on him, as well. Like Taylor, part of me hopes his days as a starter aren’t numbered – maybe this pitch mix can translate? But given how many chances he has gotten, I wouldn’t blame the Angels for taking his emergence in the pen as a development win.

Roster Adds

Lance McCullers Jr. – Add% Change (7 Days) – 26.7%

I did not think we would be talking about Lance McCullers in 2025 unless it was in the context of “dudes who could have been great if only their arms cooperated.” But after a couple of rough starts his first two times out, McCullers has now gone 25.1 IP over 5 GS, with a 3.20 ERA and 3.28 FIP. His 31.5% K-rate is letting him get away with a 9.0% walk rate over that five-game stretch.

The walks have come and gone – he has three starts with one walk each and then a start with three and a start with four – and he hasn’t exactly faced the league’s best offenses. And that is enough to keep me skeptical. I am very open to adding him at a low cost, but I expect I’ll be releasing him again before too long.

Chris Paddack – Add% Change (7 Days) – 26.1%

I fully expected us to be talking about Paddack this year, but in the context of “seriously why are you still rostering this guy?!” And his first start provided a perfect opportunity to mock people who picked him up. He got a cushy matchup with the White Sox and was an absolute disaster, walking four and giving up 3 HR while striking out two over 3.1 IP.

Since then, however, he has allowed just six more HR (and no more than one in any start), and walked just 22 more hitters, only once walking more than two in a start. He’s been rock-solid.

He’s also not striking anyone out, putting up just an 18.5% K-rate over that stretch with a K%-BB% of just 11.8. Among 79 qualified pitchers, that would rank 55th. It’s not an impossible task to succeed like that over time, but it’s not easy. As the weather warms up, will HR become a challenge? His GB rate is equally unimpressive. It’s not a formula I love.

Like McCullers, I am willing to ride the hot streak with Paddack, but where I have him, my cut finger is already getting itchy.

Hot Performers

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

Aaron Judge – (13.9 P/G)

I know, there is nothing actionable here, but given my typical beat (Hot and Cold Right Now), I never have an excuse to talk about Judge and what he is doing this year is absolutely bonkers.

Alejandro Kirk – (10.5 P/G)

Kirk, on the other hand, is rostered in barely half of leagues and has been setting the world on fire for the last couple of weeks. He is up to a .352 wOBA on the season, which is while given that he ended June with a .319 mark. But that roster rate is low regardless. Kirk has been excellent for over a month now. He has been decreasing his chase rate and increasing his contact rate, leading to one of the more fun K% and BB% graphs I can remember.

Turns out, if you walk a ton more and strikeout a ton less, you get better results. The thing is, this kinda looks like what we always expected for, or maybe hoped for, out of Kirk. The prospect graduation TLDR on his player page reads: “A bowling ball of a human who can really rake, Kirk still has plenty of questions to answer defensively but the bat should play anywhere.” He’s always walked a good amount and avoided strikeouts. This year, after a couple of down years in terms of quality of contact, he is pairing that plate discipline with the best EV and hard-hit rate of his career. Sometimes catchers take a little extra time developing, and Kirk’s path hasn’t always been clear. But this is looking like a legit breakout from a 26-year-old who is finally putting it all together.