| | | | Monday, May 19, 2025 | | We've got a whole bunch of injury news and major performances to get to this weekend, so there's no need for a long intro this week. Let's just get right to everything you need to know before you set your lineup for Week 9 of the Fantasy Baseball season. | | Week 9 Preview | | | | Before we get to everything you need to know from this weekend's action, let's get those lineups set, with some help from Scott White and I. | | | | Week 9 waiver targets | | Ryan Weathers, Zebby Matthews, and Logan Henderson all look pretty much like must-add pitchers if they're still available in your league. I would prioritize them in that order, but I know Scott said on Sunday's episode of FBT that he prefers Henderson to Matthews. Weathers is probably on a tier of his own. Here's who else we're looking to add: | C: Moises Ballesteros, Cubs (28%)1B: Tim Elko, White Sox (10%)
2B: Hye Seong Kim, Dodgers (36%)3B: Max Muncy, Dodgers (49%) SS: Jordan Lawlar, Diamondbacks (55%)OF: Joshua Lowe, Rays (69%), Miguel Vargas, White Sox (17%), Parker Meadows, Tigers (22%) SP: Bubba Chandler, Pirates (78%), Hayden Birdsong, Giants (29%), Mick Abel, Phillies (14%) RP: Jordan Romano, Phillies (47%), Dennis Santana, Pirates (28%) | | For more deep-league targets, plus my thoughts on each of those players and more, head here. | | Week 9 sleeper hitters | | Best hitter matchups for Week 9 | 1. Phillies @COL4, @ATH3
2. Orioles @MIL3, @BOS4
3. Angels @ATH4, MIA3
4. Pirates CIN3, MIL4
5. Brewers BAL3, @PIT4 | | | | Worst hitter matchups for Week 9 | 1. Braves @WAS3, SD3
2. Royals @SF3, @MIN3
3. Twins CLE3, KC3
4. Rays HOU3, TOR3
5. Nationals ATL3, SF3 | | Top sleeper hitters for Week 9 | | Ryan O'Hearn, DH, Orioles (50%) @MIL3, @BOS4 Rhys Hoskins, 1B, Brewers (59%) BAL3, @PIT4 Trent Grisham, OF, Yankees (68%) TEX3, @COL3Kyle Stowers, OF, Marlins (76%) CHC3, @LAA3 Josh Jung, 3B, rangers (73%) @NYY3, @CHW3 | | Week 9 sleeper pitchers | | You can check out Scott's two-start pitcher rankings here, too. He ranks every projected two-start pitcher for the upcoming week, tiering them from must-starts to no-thanks. | | Top sleeper pitchers for Week 9 | | Logan Henderson, Brewers (48%) vs. BAL, at PITA.J. Smith-Shawver, Braves (76%) at WAS Drew Rasmussen, Rays (73%) vs. TORGavin Williams, Guardians (76%) at MIN, at DET Jose Soriano, Angels (52%) at ATH, vs. MIA | | | | Weekend Standouts | | Good pitchers | | Paul Skenes, Pirates @PHI: 8 IP, 3 H, 1 ER, 1 BB, 9 K – There's been a bit of handwringing going on about Skenes' "struggles," as he had 11 walks and just 14 strikeouts in 17 innings in his previous three starts – there was a great piece in BaseballProspectus.com last week about the lack of strikeouts , specifically. But the thing is, Skenes is so good that even when he's not quite at the top of his game, he's still terrific; and when he is on top of his game, as he was Sunday, he's still one of the most dominant forces in the league. He had everything working in this one, generating 22 swings and misses on 55 swings, but the Pirates offense being what it is, he ended up with a complete-game loss. They're wasting the prime of one of the most talented pitchers any of us has ever seen. | | Chris Sale, Braves @BOS: 7 IP, 5 H, 1 ER, 2 BB, 8 K – The thing about this exercise, where I write about the most noteworthy performances of the day is, pitchers doing what they are supposed to do isn't noteworthy. I have written a lot about Sale so far this season because he wasn't pitching like himself for the first month or so. Over his past four starts, however, Sale has allowed just five runs while striking out 36 and walking six. I don't think I'm going to be writing about Chris Sale much anymore because he's back to being himself. | | Bryan Woo, Mariners @SD: 7 IP, 5 H, 1 ER, 0 BB, 5 K – Remember when the knock on Woo was that he couldn't go deep into games? Well, he's gone at least six innings in each of his nine starts so far this season, and 17 of his last 20 dating back to the start of last August. He's solved one of the biggest limitations in his game, and now in 2025, he's taken a step forward as a strikeout pitcher thanks to a more effective fastball and some grown from his pair of breaking balls. There is still rightly some concern about whether Woo will be able to stay healthy after he dealt with so many nagging but ultimately minor injuries last season. If he can, I think he might just be a top-12 pitcher right now. He can't be ranked that way, due to the risk, but that's clearly the upside. | | Pablo Lopez, Twins @MIL: 6 IP, 2 H, 0 ER, 2 BB, 6 K – Given how up-and-down Lopez tends to be, it does feel like the other shoe is going to drop at some point. But he looks excellent right now, and he's showing signs of grown, working in a spike-change to give him another look with the slow-ball. Lopez's changeup has long been one of his best pitches, but it's a hard, fairly firm version of the pitch, and he doesn't do much to kill the spin on it – it averaged 2,108 RPM last season and got relatively little drop. The alternate changeup comes in much slower, as he's thrown 40 changeups with an RPM below 1,500, compared to just one last season (likely a mis-throw). It's another tinker from one of baseball's most cerebral pitchers, and he has seen an increase in his whiff rate with the changeup, which is nice to see. I don't think this is a difference-making pitch for Lopez, but it gives him another look in an already deep arsenal, so hopefully, it can't hurt. | | Corbin Burnes, Diamondbacks vs. COL: 6 IP, 2 H, 0 ER, 3 BB, 10 K – This was less "Vintage Corbin Burnes" and more "2025 Colorado Rockies ," but still, there have been times this season where it didn't look like Burnes was trustworthy even against the Rockies. Since missing a start with shoulder issues, Burnes has tossed consecutive scoreless innings, with 15 strikeouts and five walks over 13 innings of work. His cutter still doesn't look quite right, but he did add a few inches of break to his slider, which could help those two pitches tunnel with one another. Or maybe he's still tinkering and it's the Rockies. | | Joe Ryan, Twins @MIL: 6 IP, 2 H, 0 ER, 1 BB, 9 K – Ryan looks just about as good as ever, despite his velocity being down for much of the season. He's mostly back to 2024 levels now, and he's just dominating, with 24 strikeouts to two walks since the start of May – and his final start of April was an 11-strikeout effort, to boot. He's awesome. | | Reese Olson , Tigers @TOR: 6 IP, 1 H, 0 ER, 1 BB, 6 K – Between the changeup and slider, Olson has always had the stuff to be a strikeout pitcher. And now he's doing a better job of getting himself to two-strike counts where those pitches can thrive. What's most interesting is that Olson's four-seamer has taken a bit step forward, pushing closer to an average (though still not great) whiff rate, while generating much better results on balls in play. He's throwing it less than last season, so maybe it's just a case of less is more. Either way, Olson looks great right now, and he's backed up by, surprisingly, one of the best teams in the league. | | Ranger Suarez , Phillies vs. PIT: 7 IP, 6 H, 3 ER, 1 BB, 6 K – The thing that makes Suarez tough to trust is just how slim the margin for error tends to be for him. When he's going well, it's not like it usually comes with a big velocity jump or some kind of big change in pitch mix. He just … pitches better for a while, until he doesn't. His last two starts have seen him go seven innings with a quality start in each, and the biggest difference is, in that first start, he doesn't seem to have the feel for his changeup, and he's had it the last two, using it as his primary pitch in this one. Suarez is fully capable of ripping off a month or two of awesome pitching, but it usually ends eventually. But he's very useful when he's locked in. | | Jackson Jobe , Tigers @TOR: 6 IP, 6 H, 2 ER, 2 BB, 5 K – Is Jobe starting to figure it out? He's put together arguably his two best starts in a row, with 12 strikeouts in those two starts. Granted, one of those starts saw him walk five, so it's not like everything's hunky dory suddenly. But for a guy who looked very much like an unfinished product, we might be starting to see some of the rough edges get sanded down here. He generated 12 swinging strikes on 90 pitches in this one, and nine of them came on either his four-seamer or changeup. The four-seamer has been a disappointing pitch for Jobe, but if he's starting to figure out how to generate whiffs with it, that could be a big deal – it's a pitch that should generate plenty of whiffs, based on how hard he throws it if nothing else. Skepticism is still warranted, but if you haven't dropped Jobe by now, you shouldn't. | | Tyler Mahle , Rangers vs. HOU: 6 IP, 5 H, 1 ER, 2 BB, 3 K – This all just feels wholly unsustainable. I'm not saying Mahle is a bad pitcher or anything, but he now has a well below-average strikeout rate and about an average walk rate, making him extremely reliant on limiting damage on balls in play. He's been doing a good job of that so far, but that's hard to bet on repeating – he has a .233 wOBA allowed right now, compared to a .316 actual mark. Hence the more than two-run difference between his 1.47 ERA and his 3.77 expected mark. Again, that can be useful, but it's not particularly exciting. Neither is Mahle. | | Matthew Boyd, Cubs vs. CHW: 6 IP, 4 H, 3 ER, 0 BB, 8 K – I don't really have a good sense of how Boyd is succeeding right now. The strikeout rate is way up in recent starts, with 23 over his past three, which certainly helps. But how? Boyd's four-seamer isn't anything special, and his changeup and slider are more "good" than "dominant." He's on a nice run right now, and he's got another pretty solid matchup with the Reds on the way this week. It's a tough ballpark in Cincy, but Boyd looks worth trusting these days. | | Noah Cameron, Royals vs. STL: 6.1 IP, 2 H, 1 ER, 0 BB, 3 K – Cameron has been unbelievable so far, allowing just one run on three hits through the first two starts of his career. With six strikeouts to five walks in 12.2 innings. His fastball sits at 91 and hasn't generated a swinging strike yet, so none of this feels sustainable at all. I'm not looking to pick Cameron up essentially anywhere. | | Cade Povich , Orioles vs. WAS: 5.2 IP, 3 H, 2 ER, 2 BB, 9 K – Povich will occasionally flash this kind of upside, which makes his generally mediocre performance otherwise even harder to stomach. There's clearly a talented pitcher in here somewhere, but he just doesn't tap into it often enough. His biggest issue is that he just doesn't generate many swings on pitches out of the strike zone, which leaves him extremely dependent on pitching in the zone to generate strikeouts, and his stuff generally isn't good enough to get away with that. He continues to be a name to watch, but not much more than that. | | Logan Evans, Mariners SD: 6 IP, 7 H, 0 ER, 1 BB, 3 K – 2.57 ERA,4.69 xERA. He's been getting very lucky so far, and while that's been a Godsend for the Mariners' beat-up rotation, there just isn't much to get excited about here. | | Slade Cecconi , Guardians @CIN: 5 IP, 5 H, 3 ER, 0 BB, 8 K – Even beyond the surface-level numbers, this was a very impressive start from Cecconi, his first of the season. His velocity was up about 1 mph compared to last year, and he basically had the whole arsenal working, generating multiple swinging strikes on four different pitches, including five each on the slider and four-seamer. Cecconi's minor-league track record doesn't necessarily back this kind of effort up – he had 10 strikeouts in 13 innings before being promoted – but the stuff looked good here, so I'm interested enough to at least watch his next start, even if I'm not running out to add Cecconi anywhere. | | Chad Patrick, Brewers vs. MIN: 6 IP, 8 H, 3 ER, 1 BB, 2 K – Patrick is an extreme flyball pitcher who has allowed just four homers so far in 48.1 innings, which feels super unsustainable. His minor-league track record hints at some more strikeout upside than he's shown so far, but I'm not really sure where the whiffs are supposed to come from when he throws his cutter, four-seamer, and sinker a combined 89.7% of the time. That approach may help him limit walks, but it's going to come with few strikeouts and plenty of longballs, leaving Patrick consigned to the streamer pile. | | Bad pitching performances | | Clayton Kershaw, Dodgers vs. LAA: 4 IP, 5 H, 5 ER, 3 BB, 2 K – I'm never going to root against Kershaw, so I'll just say I don't think this is going to go well. He lost another tick of fastball velocity and didn't command his slider or curveball as well as we've seen in the past. I'd bet on Kershaw being better than this, but I don't have much faith in the 37-year-old being a Fantasy-relevant pitcher this season. | | Spencer Schwellenbach, Braves @BOS: 7 IP, 6 H, 4 ER, 1 BB, 3 K – That's now just 16 strikeouts over the past four starts in May for Schwellenbach, who has just one start all season with more than six strikeouts. He's still mostly getting the job done – even here, it was just one bad inning that culminated in a Rafael Devers grand small – but Schwellenbach is pitching more like a fancy version of Seth Lugo than the true ace many were hoping for. Under the hood, everything still looks pretty good – he still has a wide arsenal with at least four average or better swing-and-miss pitches. But his curveball and splitter have taken a step back, and not having those go-to putaway pitches has probably hurt Schwellenbach. He's still awesome, and it's not hard to see a world where he bumps that strikeout rate back up and takes the leap. It just hasn't happened yet, and that's frustrating. | | Zac Gallen , Diamondbacks vs. COL: 5 IP, 8 H, 6 ER, 5 BB, 4 K – Speaking of frustrating, the other two Diamondbacks starters in this series combined for 21 strikeouts and no earned runs allowed. Gallen isn't taking care of the opponents he's supposed to now, because his strikeout rate has taken another step back. His changeup is still a decent swing-and-miss pitch, but Gallen's feel for his curveball has been off all year, and his various fastballs have all taken a step back despite similar movement and velocity from last season. I suppose that's a reason to be optimistic about Gallen figuring this out, except that last season was pretty rough for Gallen, too. I'm not dropping Gallen, but if you can't trust him against the Rockies of all teams, can you really trust him against a suddenly hot Cardinals lineup? I'd try not to. | | Tanner Bibee , Guardians @CIN: 6 IP, 10 H, 4 ER, 1 BB, 4 K – Bibee is trying to transition on the fly into a contact pitcher, and maybe he'll figure it out and get back to being a must-start pitcher. His four-seamer has been a bad pitch all season for Bibee, so leaning more heavily on the sinker makes sense. The problem is, the four-seamer was his most-used strikeout pitch last season, and his cutter has also lost some effectiveness. Bibee seems like he's searching for answers right now, and he just hasn't shown us much upside at all this season. Again, I'm not dropping him, but I'm not starting him either. | | Shane Baz , Rays @MIA: 6 IP, 9 H, 5 ER, 3 BB, 2 K – Woof. Watching this start, my biggest takeaway is that Baz is one of the biggest examples of the difference between "command" and "control" going right now. His control isn't bad, in that he walks right around a league-average number of batters. But there's very little intent to where his pitches seem to end up. The fastballs are up in the zone, but not up in the zone enough to really miss bats consistently; the curveball is low in the zone, typically, but not often below the zone. I want to avoid dropping Baz because he's clearly very talented. But he's not as close to figuring it out as he looked in April. | | Sandy Alcantara, Marlins vs. TB: 5 IP, 5 H, 4 ER, 2 BB, 3 K – I'm also trying not to drop Alcantara, because I do still think at some point this season he'll be good. But he hasn't looked particularly close yet, and you certainly can't start him right now. I would hope I have a pitcher on my bench with less upside to drop, but Alcantara should be viewed as a pure stash at this point – someone with long-term upside but no immediate value, like a prospect down in the minors. | | Lucas Giolito, Red Sox vs. ATL: 4 IP, 8 H, 6 ER, 2 BB, 3 K – I am willing to drop Giolito, who just hasn't looked good at all in his return from elbow surgery. His velocity to pre-injury levels, but that still means he's sitting around 93 mph, and his fastball wasn't a particularly good pitch at that level in the final two seasons before his injury. The changeup has been terrible so far (15.6% whiff rate) and the slider is getting crushed, so there really isn't anywhere to turn. I think Giolito will be better at some point, but I'm not sure the upside is going to be high enough to be worth chasing – remember, the last time Giolito finished a season with an ERA below 4.88 was 2021. It's been a while. | | News and notes | | Jose Alvarado has been suspended 80 games after testing positive for a performance-enhancing drug. He will be ineligible for the postseason as well. I figure Jordan Romano will be the first option for the next save, but I don't think he's just going to suddenly get every save opportunity; Matt Strahm and Orion Kerkering will mix in as well. | | A bunch of big names were added to the IL this weekend: | | Cole Ragans with left groin tightness, the same injury that previously caused him to miss time. I'm going to guess this will be more than a minimum stay on the IL to let it fully heal since he's already had one setback. | | Aaron Nola with a sprained right ankle. Maybe this has been bothering him for a while and letting it heal will get him back on the right track. The likelier explanation is the performance explains the injury rather than the other way around if you catch my drift. | | Seth Lugo with right middle finger inflammation. Hopefully, it's a minimum stay. | | Both Carlos Correa and Byron Buxton went on the 7-day concussion IL after that nasty collision Thursday. Both will be out at least this week, but the truth is, you just never know how long concussion symptoms will last. | | Eduardo Rodriguez with left shoulder inflammation. | | Tyler O'Neill went back on the IL with left shoulder discomfort. | | Xavier Edwards was placed on the IL due to a left mid-back strain, retroactive to May 15. | | Spencer Strider appears set to return Tuesday against the Nationals, which could set him up for a two-start week. I'm not sure I expect Strider to be 100% back to his old self – his velocity has been pretty consistently down this season, including during a simulated game prior to his activation – but I do expect Strider to more or less be a must-start pitcher. | | Yordan Alvarez is still feeling the muscle strain in his right hand that landed him on the IL. The Astros will not activate him until the issue is completely gone. | | George Kirby said Sunday that he's ready to rejoin the Mariners after making his third rehab start Friday, though a decision has yet to be made. | | It turns out Hayden Wesneski will undergo Tommy John surgery this week. He'll be out until next summer, at least. | | Speaking of elbow injuries that may require surgery, Jared Jones will meet with doctors on Tuesday. He just isn't recovering from that elbow strain the way we hoped, and surgery could be on the table. It's a bummer. | | Jazz Chisholm fielded grounders Friday. He's been out all month with a right oblique strain. The hope is for him to return mid-late June. | | Kristian Campbell was seen taking reps at first base on Friday. He's never played the position in pro ball, but obviously, they have a need, and it could potentially open a spot for Marcelo Mayer or Roman Anthony to earn a promotion. | | Evan Carter went on the IL due to a right quad strain, retroactive to May 17. That didn't last long, and a Grade 2 strain means he'll miss more than minimum time, in all likelihood. | | Justin Martinez is scheduled to throw an inning at Triple-A on Tuesday as part of his rehab, and he could be back from his shoulder injury shortly after. | | Chandler Simpson was out of the lineup Sunday with right hand soreness. Also suffered some facial injuries after a hard slide Saturday. | | Brandon Woodruff threw multiple simulated innings during a bullpen Sunday and is expected to begin a new rehab assignment Wednesday after suffering an ankle injury a few weeks back. | | Tommy Edman was activated and in the lineup Sunday. Good to activate him in Fantasy this week. | | | | | | | | Golazo Network | | 24/7 Sports News | Watch LIVE global soccer coverage on the CBS Sports Golazo Network, available FOR FREE on the CBS Sports App, Pluto TV and streaming on Paramount+.
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