Juan Soto (OF - Mets)
Soto hit his first home with the Mets Friday night. There isn't much more to be said about one of the best players in all of baseball. Soto has a chance for a huge season driving in runs hitting behind Francisco Lindor and scoring runs via Pete Alonso's bat. One fun Juan Soto fact: 2019 was the last time Soto had more strikeouts than walks and should easily get to his third 100 run and RBI season in a row. His numbers are quite excellent and it will be interesting if he can post an OPS over 1.000; he last did it in the shortened 2020 (1.185) and just missed it in 2021 (.999).
Ryan Pepiot (SP - Rays)
Pepiot allowed 1 ER over 6 innings striking out 8 while walking 1. It was a strong start for Pepiot who is coming off of a strong 2024 where he delivered 3.60 ERA over 26 starts with a 9.8 K/9. 2024 saw Pepiot feature a strong four seamer that generated a 31% whiff rate and .181 batting average against. With the Rays playing their home games in the hitter friendly Yankees Minor league park this year there will be additional scrutiny on Rays SP performances as the season goes on.
Hunter Goodman(OF/C - Rockies)
Goodman went 2-4 with a double Friday. He had a huge spring and got the opening day nod at catcher over vet Jacob Stallings. While they will most likely split playing time early on Goodman more fantasy upside for a few reasons. Goodman hit 30+ home runs in the minors in both 2022 and 2023 and while he smashed 13 longballs for the Rockies last year, a 28% K rate leaves some to be desired. He did hit .444 with an even walk to K ratio in the spring. What I like even more about Goodman is, depending on your league type you may get some duel eligibility with him being both catcher and OF eligible. You'll see me talk about "west coast dual position eligibility" a lot for fantasy purposes if you play in a league where you set your lineups daily and Goodman is a great bench piece to plug-and-play since he'll play the majority of his games with a later start time. He is one of my top bench adds and could force his way into the Top-10 catcher list by seasons end.
Bret Baty (2B/3B - Mets)
Baty went 0-2 and was lifted for PH Luisangel Acuna late in Fridays game. Baty sat against the lefty yesterday so this was his first start at 2B. A Jeff Mcneil injury opened the door and Baty responded with a monster spring that saw him slash .353/.441/.745 with 11 extra base hits allowing him to pick up reps at 2B. His track record over parts of the past 3 seasons isn't stellar as he owns a .215/.282/.325 line over 169 games. When Jeff Mcneil returns it will most likely come down to who is playing better between Baty and Acuna that gets the spot. As evidenced by today's game the Mets seem content to play the matchups with their second base setup early on which will eat into the at bats of both players.
Kameron Misner (OF - Rays)
Misner launched a walk-off home run to give the Rays the win at their new field Friday. What a day for Misner who went 1-15 with 10 strikeouts last season in his major league debut. His first career home run couldn't have come at a better time as he entered the game for an injured Josh Lowe. Misner raked during spring training to earn a reserve OF spot posting a 1.140 OPS. At 27 years old he is't showing up on any prospect lists but the outfielder actually may have a similar skill set to the aforementioned Lowe. Similar in size to Lowe, Misner spent almost the entirety of 2023 and 2024 at AAA where he hit 38 home runs and stole 51 bases across 243 games. Strikeouts have been an issue leading to lower batting averages but depending on the severity of the Lowe injury he is certainly a name to watch.
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