Ottoneu Hot Right Now: May 5, 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

Erik Miller — 50 current auctions — 51.9% roster%

Unfortunately for all those Ottoneu players with an active auction for Erik Miller, he was placed on the IL on Monday with a lower back strain. He dealt with a back issue during spring training and it’s likely this is a recurrence of that same nagging injury. I suspect that if I pulled a list of most cut players in a few days, we’ll see Miller’s name there after all these current auctions are resolved.

Since we’re here, we might as well talk about the Giants’ bullpen anyway. Ryan Walker started the season as the presumptive closer after rookie phenom Randy Rodríguez underwent Tommy John surgery last year. Even though he had converted 27 saves over the last two years, Walker has struggled in the role this season. He’s blown as many save opportunities as he’s converted and the ninth inning role looks like it’s open for whichever reliever can seize the opportunity. It looked like it might be Miller, but now it’s down to Walker, Keaton Winn (90.4% roster% in Ottoneu), or possibly Caleb Kilian.

Kilian converted the first save of his career on Monday night, allowing just the third run of his season in an inning of work. His walk rate is a little high and a pair of home runs have pushed his FIP more than three runs higher than his ERA. As Ben Clemens pointed out last week, Kilian is throwing a lot harder and his strikeout rate is higher than ever. For those of you hoping to add Miller to your fantasy roster, I wouldn’t necessarily rush to start a bunch of auctions for Kilian, but his high leverage usage bears monitoring.

JJ Bleday — 45 current auctions — 20.4% roster%

Since being recalled from Triple-A on April 26, JJ Bleday has collected five hits and two home runs in six games. He was absolutely demolishing the competition in the minor leagues and the Reds outfield is unsettled enough that he has an opportunity to claim the strong side of a platoon in right field. Back in 2024, Bleday looked like a core piece of the Athletics future; he posted a 120 wRC+ that season with decent contact quality and an improved plate approach. Things fell apart quickly for him in ‘25 and he was eventually demoted and dumped off the roster. It’s far too early to draw any conclusions about his ability to stick in the big leagues now that he’s playing for the Reds, but his home ballpark is very favorable and he’s currently swinging a hot bat. I’d want to wait and see if there are really any significant adjustments to his plate approach to warrant a long-term investment.

Sean Burke — 41 current auctions — 42.9% roster%

Last week, I covered Davis Martin as one of the unheralded starters fueling the White Sox’s surprisingly competent starting rotation. This week, his rotation-mate Sean Burke shows up on this list. Burke showed flashes of promise last year — across nine starts in May and June, he ran a 3.33 ERA and a 4.06 FIP — but ultimately couldn’t really separate himself from the sea of below average starters populating Chicago’s roster. Fast forward a year and Burke looks a lot better on the mound. The biggest difference is his command; his Location+ has gone from 101 to 108 this year and his walk rate has fallen by more than half, down to 5.1%. He doesn’t strike out that many guys, but simply reducing the amount of traffic on the bases has helped him dramatically improve his topline results.

Of the two White Sox starters I’ve profiled these past two weeks, I’m slightly more interested in Burke, though there isn’t that much separating them. Burke’s Stuff+ is slightly better and he has a stronger foundation with a great fastball.

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

Nathaniel Lowe — 8.7 FGPts/G (last 14 days) — 18.1% roster%

With Eugenio Suárez on the IL with a strained oblique, Nathaniel Lowe has been thrust into an everyday role as the Reds designated hitter. He’s responded with a .274/.348/.597 slash line (a 154 wRC+) in 23 games. Over the last two weeks, he’s blasted five home runs and collected multiple hits in four games.

After bouncing around a couple of organizations last year, Lowe has added nearly two ticks to his average bat speed this season. His contact quality has improved dramatically as a result; both his hard hit and barrel rates are at career highs. It certainly looks like his bat is back to where it was at his peak when he was a middle-of-the-order masher for the Rangers. Cincinnati’s infield is pretty crowded, even with Suárez on the shelf, but if Lowe continues to hit well, I could see the team making space for him by shifting Sal Stewart over to third base.

Nolan Arenado — 8.0 FGPts/G (last 14 days) — 49.3% roster%

Are we seeing some signs of life from Nolan Arenado? Over the last two weeks, he’s slashing .417/.488/.639 (a 216 wRC+) with a pair of home runs and four multi-hit games. The underlying metrics aren’t convincing. His hard hit rate is all the way down to 26.7%, though his barrel rate has more than doubled up to 8.1%. During this hot streak, his BABIP has been .481, clearly an unsustainable rate. The other worrying trend has been a huge jump in strikeout rate. His strikeout rate and contact rate are both currently at career worsts. It seems like this hot streak is just that, a heater from a veteran on the downswing of his career. I don’t think it’s worth it to go out of your way to try and roster Arenado at this point.

Nick Martinez — 6.7 FGPts/IP (last 14 days) — 42.6% roster%

Over his last three starts, Nick Martinez has allowed just two runs in 20 innings. In fact, he hasn’t allowed more than two runs in any of his seven starts this year. It’s been a fantastic start to his stint with the Rays, though it certainly seems like some regression could be on the way. His 1.71 ERA significantly outpaces his 3.45 FIP, 3.90 xERA, 4.35 xFIP, and 4.50 SIERA. His 16.7% strikeout rate is the lowest it’s been since he returned from a stint in Japan even though his overall Stuff+ is right in line with where he’s been the last few seasons.

To me, it looks like he’s refocused his repertoire to generate a lot more weak contact instead of swings and misses. He’s significantly increased the usage of his sinker and changeup at the expense of his four-seamer. He simply isn’t getting as many whiffs with his sinker, and oddly enough, isn’t getting any additional groundballs with that pitch either. It does have a weird shape; it doesn’t drop off the table like you’d expect and he’s added a couple of inches of armside run to it this year. It’s almost like a running four-seam. Whatever it is, batters have had a very difficult time putting it in play with any authority. I suspect that he’s using his sinker a lot more often because it pairs well with his changeup, his best secondary offering.

So far, Martinez has managed to keep the ball in the park with these pitch mix adjustments. I’m a little weary of his new pitch-to-contact approach, even if all that contact is weakly hit, but I’m willing to ride his hot streak for now — I started a couple of auctions for him over the weekend to take advantage of his two-start week this week.