Anyone can have an off season, for any number of years. But what if that poor season is actually the start of an actionable trend? Today, let\u2019s look at some hitters who underperformed in 2025 and try to reason if they\u2019re good fantasy baseball investments for the fresh season.<\/p>\n
Mookie Betts, SS, Dodgers<\/p>\n
Betts had the worst season of his career in 2025, setting new lows in all three slash categories and stealing just eight bases. His fantasy value was propped up by durability (he played in 150 games) and environment (boosted by able teammates, he scored 95 runs and drove in 82). His bat speed has noticeably fallen in recent years<\/a>, and his hard-hit metrics also tumbled into troublesome areas last season.<\/p>\n Advertisement<\/p>\n Player ascension isn\u2019t always linear, but player decline almost always is. Betts still has the mind and approach of a winning player, but his MVP-contention days are probably gone for good as he settles into his age-33 season. I\u2019ll need him to slip into the fourth round before I get tempted.<\/p>\n Bryan Reynolds, OF, Pirates<\/p>\n After four years of consistent fantasy production, Reynolds slumped for much of 2025, with his OPS+ dropping to 99 and his power and steals collapsing. A bad shoulder had something to do with it \u2014 although Reynolds played through the injury, he shut down the running game for good the final four months. His bat was more in line with career norms in the second half (.276\/.364\/.453) and the Pirates have improved their lineup for 2026. Reynolds feels like a solid value with a Yahoo ADP of 181.7.<\/p>\n Advertisement<\/p>\n Salvador P\u00e9rez, C, Royals<\/p>\n Although P\u00e9rez maintained his power stats last year, his average dropped to .236 and his OBP fell to .284, worrisome trends in an age-35 season. But appreciate the bad luck P\u00e9rez encountered<\/a> \u2014 his batted-ball stats suggest he should have held a .269 average and a .534 slugging percentage (88 points higher than his actual).<\/p>\n The Royals give P\u00e9rez plenty of DH time and occasional first-base starts, so he\u2019s not burdened by catching all the time. P\u00e9rez should also enjoy the Kansas City fences coming in (and down) and an upgraded lineup around him. I know betting on catchers in this age pocket isn\u2019t an easy assignment, but P\u00e9rez is a target with a Yahoo ADP of 95.9.<\/p>\n Advertisement<\/p>\n Willy Adames, SS, Giants<\/p>\n Adames picked a perfect time for his career year \u2014 he was the 15th-best fantasy hitter in 2024, coinciding with his free-agency tour. Last season\u2019s stat depression in San Francisco was predictable, a mixture of the size of the ballpark and the pressure of the enormous contract.<\/p>\n [Join or create a Yahoo Fantasy Baseball league for the 2026 MLB season<\/a>]<\/p>\n But Adames seemed to settle into his new situation by the middle of the year, conking 21 homers after July 1 and stealing eight bases in the last two months. Adames’ batting profile and the roominess of his home stadium will always make batting average a concern, but you can angle for profit with an affordable ADP of 105.1.<\/p>\n Advertisement<\/p>\n Gleyber Torres, 2B, Tigers<\/p>\n It might appear that Torres has settled into the useful but boring part of his career \u2014 respectable average, a few homers, the occasional steal. But last year\u2019s haul was probably unlucky, given the components. Torres bumped his walk rate and trimmed his strikeout rate and earned a .462 slugging percentage based on quality of contact<\/a> \u2014 but had a .387 slugging percentage on the back of his baseball card. Given normal luck, we\u2019re probably looking at a 23-26 homer season.<\/p>\n The Tigers were wise to keep Torres and his keen eye should allow him to hold the No. 2 slot in the lineup all year. Yahoo rooms are offering him at a cheap 183.4 ADP ticket.<\/p>\n Advertisement<\/p>\n Yordan Alvarez, OF, Astros<\/p>\n Hand and ankle injuries limited Alvarez to a two-month season last year, and he wasn\u2019t much of a treat when he was able to play (career-low 121 OPS+, just six homers). The previous year, Alvarez dealt with hand, arm and oblique injuries, though he gutted through 147 games and played well enough to finish ninth in the MVP balloting.<\/p>\n Alvarez has the batting eye of an angel but the body of an older man, and Houston\u2019s lineup is no longer the generous float of glory years. Still commanding a top-40 pick, Alvarez is not in my draft plans.<\/p>\n Luis Robert Jr., OF, Mets<\/p>\n Robert has been a down player for two seasons, with a laundry list of injuries keeping him out about one-third of the time. But his walk rate did rise appreciably last year and at least he offered category juice \u2014 14 homers and 33 steals in just 110 games. And while the .223\/.297\/.364 slash line is depressing to look at, he was somewhat unlucky with his results<\/a>, 23 points cheated in average and 62 points unfortunate in slugging percentage. He\u2019s on a better team, he\u2019s still just 28 and the ADP is a reasonable 152.0.<\/p>\n Robert isn\u2019t a circled target on my board, but I\u2019ll maintain an open mind when his spot comes up.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Anyone can have an off season, for any number of years. But what if that poor season is…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":516808,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[435],"tags":[36758,49,48,511,11142,93099,14557,462,10168,204505,3999,124317,82,3976,13599,204506,1512],"class_list":["post-516807","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-mlb","tag-bryan-reynolds","tag-ca","tag-canada","tag-dodgers","tag-fantasy-baseball","tag-gleyber-torres","tag-luis-robert-jr","tag-mlb","tag-mookie-betts","tag-poor-season","tag-salvador-perez","tag-slugging-percentage","tag-sports","tag-willy-adames","tag-yahoo","tag-yahoo-fantasy-baseball","tag-yordan-alvarez"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/516807","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=516807"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/516807\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/516808"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=516807"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=516807"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=516807"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}