It’s rare that I’m willing to highlight players with ownership percentages this high but unlike your favorite over-the-hill rock band, I’m not going to stick you with just deep cuts – I’m willing to play the hits too. Today’s foursome is highlighted by two players with late-career breakouts under their belt, as well as a duo of young Braves batterymates that are entrenching themselves as reliable fantasy options before the age of 24.

Away we go!

Kyle Stowers – OF – MIA – 56% Yahoo, 76% CBS

Firstly, shoutout to the managers asleep at the wheel on Yahoo – y’all are the only reason I’m able to include Kyle Stowers in this article at all! Maybe the lag is because it’s not all that frequently that we see a true-blue breakout take place in a player’s age-27 season but that seems to be exactly what’s taking place for Stowers in 2025.

After hitting just six total home runs through his first three seasons and 117 games played, Stowers carried a paltry batting line of .208/.268/.332 with a .265 wOBA and a .125 ISO. All together, that made him 31 percent worse than league average with his bat – as well as an after-thought for the fantasy community. To make matters worse, he was traded midway through last season from a relatively favorable situation with the Orioles to one of the least favorable with the Marlins.

Despite the chips being stacked against him with a diminished lineup and pitcher’s haven as his new home ballpark, Stowers has shown up as one of the most consistent hitters for the Marlins so far, currently holding a career-best .300 average and .946 OPS, along with new highs in wOBA (.403), ISO (.271) and wRC+ (156). He’s also knocked ten home runs in just 40 games, nearly doubling his previous career total in 1/3 the games played.

When it comes to surface stats, Stowers certainly looks like an entirely new player – but does it look the same under the hood? Fortunately, the answer is reassuringly positive there as well, as Stowers is showing a marked improvement in several important contact metrics;

Let’s start with the obviously and decidedly good, before moving onto the aspects that are a bit contradictory.

The improvement in swinging at pitches that are in the zone is naturally a great sign of improvement, especially since he’s seeing a higher rate of pitches in the zone than previously. Oddly though, he’s making less contact on pitches located in the strike zone, but he’s been buoyed by his newfound ability to avoid swinging at pitches thrown outside the zone and in turn, chasing at a new career-low rate. The trade-off has made next to zero difference in his overall whiff rate but he’s now whiffing on pitches that are much harder to turn into hard contact, which is actually a more sustainable skillset than you’d initially believe (for further context, see my previous breakdown on Kyren Paris’ similar swing decisions here).

Without a host of weak hit balls dragging down his slash line, Stowers is now able to work deeper into the count while looking for pitches he can actually hit hard and that’s shown up in several metrics, including his Barrel% (99th percentile), Hard-Hit% (87th) and xSLG (94th). But despite the variety of improvements, do be aware that he still only sits in the 11th-percentile for strikeout rate and in the 4th-percentile for Whiff% so there’s likely a touch of regression to come. Nonetheless, this is a player who should be picked up in any formats deeper than 10 teams. Take a look to see if he’s still floating on the waivers in your league – especially if you play on Yahoo!

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Jeff Clowers

• Working The Waiver Wire: May 16th
• Working The Waiver Wire: May 9th
• "The Dynasty Diamond": May 6th