Last Updated on July 11, 2025 11:27 am by Paul Williamson | Published: July 11, 2025

Three of the four young hitters below have not been in the league long – the oldest is just 27-years-old – but each has seen both sides of the coin when it comes to their value to us as a fantasy asset. A couple of them broke onto the scene with some excitement before a demotion – or trade – altered their course, while one struggled out of the gate before flipping his fortunes in his sophomore season. Finally, we finish up with a prospect hitter who has put forth excellent surface stats without much attention from dynasty league managers. Could they be missing a diamond in the rough?

Colt Keith – 2B – DET – 24% Yahoo, 39% CBS

Last 14 Days: .436/.477/.744 – 2HR/0SB – .509 wOBA – .308 ISO – 23 wRC+

For a guy with 70-grade raw power as a prospect, hitting just 13 home runs in his first 148 games is undoubtedly somewhat of a disappointment, even it came at the precocious age of 22-years-old, but that’s where Keith stood after his rookie debut in 2024, carrying just a .689 OPS overall while being three percent worse than league-average when it came to wRC+.

The underlying metrics weren’t particularly favorable for him either as his xStats showed only a marginal difference from his actuals, so the hope from managers came from a place of belief in his growth, without any specific stats to back up their belief. Through the first half of this season, if you were to just glance at Keith’s surface stats once more, you may come away seeing the growth, but underwhelmed overall. A batting line of .275/.351/.449 with eight home runs and a goose egg in the steals department doesn’t immediately jump off the page at you but among second basemen with 250PA or more, Keith’s .275 average ranks 10th, his OBP of .351 ranks 7th, and his .449 SLG ranks 5th. Without question, I think Keith should be considered a top-10 second baseman and therefore universally owned already. But what if there’s even more growth to come?

You could certainly make the case, as Keith’s current line is being dragged down by some poor fortune on his batted balls. In fact, he’s one of the most snake-bitten hitters;

Remember the 70-grade raw power we mentioned? Well it turns out the Keith is quietly smoking the ball compared to his second baseman peers, with his barrel and hard-hit rates both ranking 6th at the position. With just a little growth, Keith could cement himself as a top-5 second baseman going forward.

Chandler Simpson – OF – TB – 35% Yahoo, 59% CBS

Last 14 Days: .383/.420/.447- 0HR/7SB – .380 wOBA – .064 ISO – 153 wRC+

A lot of fans and analysts will point to Simpson as a player whose value shifts dramatically in leagues that use some form of OPS rather than your standard average. While that’s true to some degree, it seems to suggest that Simpson is a difficult player to own in the more-sabermetric based formats but I want to shift the goalposts just a little here. I think that in OPS leagues, Simpson is still incredibly valuable – and if you happen to own him in a standard format league, he’s an absolute gamebreaker.

Yes, Simpson has been demoted once this season. But the reason was much more to do with the Rays’ roster construction and his disappointing defensive metrics than any deficiencies at the plate. Sure, he lacks any true modicum of power but he is far from a slouch with the stick – especially if you take into account his eye for avoiding strikeouts. Though he lacks the plate appearances to qualify, Simpson is in the top five percent of hitters for whiff rate, strikeout rate and squared-up rate, three of the most important bat control metrics. Though he only sports a 4.8% walk rate, that package of skills still gives him a solid OBP baseline, supplemented by his ability to leg out many a groundball.

It feels weird to go this far without having touched on Simpson’s speed but if you aren’t already familiar, Simpson is quite likely the fastest man in MLB currently. Though he has been caught stealing three times in the past two weeks, he’s managed to rack up seven more stolen bases en route to a current season total of 26 in 51 games. A steal every second game puts him on a full season pace of close to 80, which would be 13 more than last year’s leader (Elly De La Cruz) and 21 more than the second place finisher (Shohei Ohtani). A true talent .300 hitter with the capability to steal 80+ is likely a second- or third-round draft pick in standard formats, but here we have such a player with just 35%/59% roster rates. That needs to change – and likely will change – in the near future.

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Jeff Clowers

• Working The Waiver Wire: July 11th
• Working The Waiver Wire: July 4th
• "The Dynasty Diamond": July 1st