We’re using a relatively loose definition of “late-round” for our hitters – anyone with an ADP outside of the top 185 in the month of March in NFBC leagues qualifies here. These aren’t all bench picks, in other words, though most of them go late enough that you should know what your team needs by then.
I’ll also note: It’s a lot easier to find true category specialists among hitters because the categories are less correlated here. At least batting average and steals are – every home run you hit necessarily leads to at least one RBI and a run, so guys who are good home run hitters tend to be good at RBI and R production. But batting average and steals are less correlated, so finding guys who are true specialists there is a little easier.
Batting average specialists
- Luis Arraez, 1B, Giants – ADP: 262.3: The cover boy of this exercise for a reason. Arraez’s limitations are real, but he’s arguably the best source of batting average in the entire league. You might get below-average production or worse everywhere else, but if you took Kyle Schwarber and Jazz Chisholm with your first two picks, you won’t mind.
- Alec Bohm, 3B, Phillies – ADP: 231.4: The past two years, Bohm’s price was around 150-160 in drafts. He’s not a great hitter, but he wasn’t so much worse in 2025 that you should be totally out on him the way so many are. He’ll show up again in this article, too – which arguably makes him a poor fit for this article, but we’ll take it.
- Jung Hoo Lee, OF, Giants – ADP: 311.5 There was some hope that Lee might be positioned to make a leap in his second MLB season, but we haven’t seen it yet. I think the ceiling is probably no better than 10-15 homers and 15 steals, but we’re more interested in turning that 10.8% career strikeout rate into something like a .280 batting average. We haven’t seen it yet, but I still don’t think it’s asking too much.
- Brendan Donovan, 2B, Mariners – ADP: 257.4: The move to Seattle is probably helping keep Donovan’s price low, because T-Mobile is one of those venues that can be extremely hard to adapt to. We don’t know how it will impact Donovan, but given his very strong bat-to-ball skills, I’m hopeful we can still rely on him for his usual .280-ish average – and he’s probably in the best lineup of his career, so maybe we could hope for more helpful counting stats, too.
- Jake McCarthy, OF, Rockies – ADP: 476.5: McCarthy could fit in as either a late-round source of average or steals, but I’ll slot him here because the need for batting average is usually greater. McCarthy hit just .204 last season, of course, so there are no guarantees here. However, he strikes out at a below-average clip, has speed, and hit .285 two seasons ago. With the help of Coors Field’s BABIP-inflating properties, I think we could see a .275-.280 average and 30-plus steals from McCarthy with the Rockies.
Runs specialists
- Gleyber Torres, 2B, Tigers – ADP: 235.4: Torres is boring. He hasn’t hit more than 16 homers or stolen more than four bases in either of the past two seasons, and he hasn’t hit better than .257 in either, too. But he’s gonna play every day, usually near the top of the lineup, and he’s going to get on base. That should lead to at least another 80-run season.
- Ezequiel Tovar, SS, Rockies – ADP: 201.5: Tovar is a curious choice for this exercise given his sub-.300 career OBP. But even a much-diminished version of the Rockies offense will score a decent amount of runs at home, and Tovar will hit near the top of the lineup. He might be a better specialist for homers than runs, but I think he’ll be at least useful in both.
- Marcus Semien, 2B, Mets – ADP: 243.9: Ultimately, it comes down to this: Do you think Semien is going to bounce back this season? If you do, then you think he’s clearly undervalued given his spot in the middle of a good Mets lineup. He figures to be less of an obvious runs standout since he won’t be hitting leadoff like he did with the Rangers, but he should still get on base at a decent clip, and he still runs the bases well. If you think he’s going to bounce back.
- Daylen Lile, OF, Nationals – ADP: 201.7: The only real question for Lile here is whether the Nationals will hit him near the middle of the lineup or near the top. He has the on-base skills and athleticism to be a good choice for the leadoff spot, but his strong bat-to-ball skills could make him a great run producer if the Nationals slot him third or fourth.
- TJ Friedl, OF, Reds – ADP: 258.4: Friedl looks like he’s going to open the season as the leadoff hitter for the Reds, and he’s coming off an 82-run season. The speed wasn’t there in 2025, which is why he’s here instead of in the stolen base category, but I could see him being pretty valuable for both categories while chipping in his typical 15-ish homers.
Home run specialists
- Daulton Varsho, OF, Blue Jays – ADP: 189.6: For a while, Varsho was one of those hitters who had to really lean into pulling the ball in the air to get to his usual 20-ish homers. He was a power hitter who didn’t actually hit the ball very hard, ala Isaac Paredes. But he suddenly started hitting the ball a lot harder in 2025, putting up an 89.9 mph average exit velocity, more than 2 mph better than his previous career-best, and he did that while maintaining his elite pulled-air rate. That all led to 20 homers in 71 games, and while I don’t expect Varsho to just be a 40-plus homer hitter moving forward, I do think 30 could be pretty doable.
- Colson Montgomery, SS, White Sox – ADP: 228.5: A decade ago, there would be a lot more excitement for a 24-year-old top prospect coming off 21 homers in his first 71 games. But the thing is, I think the power here is probably legit. Montgomery has at least above-average raw power, as seen both by his average exit velocity (89.4 mph) and max (1145), and he does an excellent job of elevating the ball to the pull side consistently, ala Varsho. The strikeouts are likely to drag the overall profile down and make him a batting average liability, but I think it’s reasonable to hope for at least 30 homers from Montgomery, making him a viable late-round target for power.
- Christian Walker, 1B, Astros – ADP: 199.8: Walker was so disappointing last season that I think most Fantasy players – and I count myself among this group – hoped he would just outright lose his job to Isaac Paredes this offseason. But that isn’t going to happen – the Astros value his defense too much. He’s going to play. And even in that disappointing season, he still had 27 homers and 88 RBI and more or less looked like himself in the second half. I’m not much of a believer in Walker either, but what if he just had a bad half-season?
- Giancarlo Stanton, OF, Yankees – ADP: 249.4: It’s pretty remarkable that a guy who can’t open a bag of chips due to the pain in his elbows is still capable of hitting the ball just about as hard as anyone in baseball. He probably won’t be able to stay in the lineup for anything like a full season, and he’ll strike out so much that you’re probably going to get a pretty bad batting average out of him, too. But Stanton is also still a candidate for a 40-homer pace, so just keep him in your lineup as long as he’s upright and enjoy the homer boost.
- Kyle Manzardo, 1B, Guardians – ADP: 240.1: Even if you aren’t much of a believer in Manzardo taking a big step forward, he’s a perfect choice for this exercise. Despite spending most of the season in a platoon, Manzardo hit 27 homers last season. He could get to 30 if the Guardians trust him more often against lefties (something I think they’ll do, at least to start the season); he might be able to get to 30 even if he’s a part-time player.
RBI specialists
- Alec Bohm, 3B, Phillies – ADP: 231.4: Bohm had 97 RBI in each of 2023 and 2024, and now he looks locked into the cleanup spot for the Phillies, hitting behind Trea Turner, Kyle Schwarber, and Bryce Harper. The case for Bohm’s inclusion here is pretty self-explanatory, isn’t it? He just has to avoid being a total disaster, and he’ll be a terrific RBI specialist.
- Jorge Polanco, 2B, Mets – ADP: 202.6: The Mets are sure buying Polanco’s bounceback from 2025, giving him a two-year contract to play a position he’s never played before so they can slot him into the middle of the lineup. Likely hitting cleanup behind Francisco Lindor, Juan Soto, and Bo Bichette. Polanco’s first 100-RBI season seems like just a matter of staying healthy, making him one of my favorite targets if I wait on either second base or first base (where he’ll end up eligible after the first week or so of the season).
- Marcus Semien, 2B, Mets – ADP: 243.9: Again, if he bounces back, Semien should just be an excellent pick all around. But he might actually be a better RBI producer than runs this season, given his projected spot in the No. 5 hole for the Mets. That’ll mean fewer plate appearances than he was used to as a leadoff man, but his contact-heavy approach could serve him very well as a run producer behind the Mets’ heavy hitters.
- Andrew Vaughn, 1B, Brewers – ADP: 268.6: What if what he did after joining the Brewers was real? Everyone is mostly approaching Vaughn as if that won’t be the case, but he’s having a great spring and might have just unlocked something. Vaughn always hit the ball hard and made a lot of contact; he just didn’t hit the ball to the right parts of the field often enough. What if the Brewers just unlocked the talent that has always been there? In that ballpark and lineup, I’m willing to take the cheap bet.
- Bryan Reynolds, OF, Pirates – ADP: 194.7: If we get the bounceback season many are hoping for from Reynolds, he’s probably just going to be a solid all-around contributor, like he was prior to 2025. But with the best lineup of his career surrounding him, Reynolds could push for 90-plus RBI, hitting third.
Stolen base specialists
- Jose Caballero, 2B, Yankees – ADP: 193.9: The true definition of a specialist. Caballero probably won’t give you much of anything beyond steals, but he’s eligible at four positions (3B/SS/2B/OF) and managed 49 steals in just 370 trips to the plate. Just stash him on your bench for when you need a fill-in or feel like you need to make up ground in steals.
- Victor Scott II, OF, Cardinals – ADP: 349.2: The bat just hasn’t developed the way we hoped it would – he swings and misses way too much for a slap hitter, and it’s held him back. But the speed has been there, with Scott stealing 34 bases in 463 plate appearances in 2025. He probably won’t do too much beyond that, though at 25, I suppose there’s still some room for a breakout.
- Nasim Nunez, SS, Nationals – ADP: 483.1: Nunez’s defense should help keep him in the lineup, and he stole 45 bases in just 102 games between the majors and minors last season. Can he hit enough to take advantage of the opportunity? On a better team, that might be a concern.
- Caleb Durbin, 3B, Red Sox – ADP: 222.1: Based on his 18 steals in 506 games last season, Durbin doesn’t appear to have the same stolen base upside as some of the other names here. But it’s worth noting that he did have 31 steals in 90 games in 2024, so there could be some untapped potential here. His pull-heavy swing should fit Fenway Park very well, too.
- Victor Robles, OF, Mariners – ADP: 568.9: The truth is, we really never got to see if Robles’ 2024 breakout was for real – he suffered a serious shoulder injury 10 games into the season and might have never been fully healthy even when he returned for the stretch run. I think he could potentially be a helpful source of batting average, but at the very least, it seems safe to bet on something like 25-plus steals if he stays healthy – he has 36 in 109 games since joining the Mariners.
- This exercise is a little harder to do with pitching, just because a lot of our favorite late-round targets are more of the “overall breakout” type. And, if your late-round breakout does put up a good ERA, it follows that they should put up a pretty good WHIP and will likely win a decent number of games. If your late-round strikeout upside pick hits, he’ll probably be pretty good at those other categories, too. And so on.
