Jeff McNeil has the National League’s third-highest wRC+ (153) behind Christian Yelich and Cody Bellinger.

Long viewed as an empty source of batting average, McNeil has elevated into an all-around elite hitter by belting five home runs in his last 10 games. A .337/.407/.539 slash line puts him in the elusive .300/.400/.500 club with the following qualified hitters: Yelich, Bellinger, Anthony Rendon, and Bryan Reynolds. While Reynolds certainly stands out as another unheralded breakout star, his MLB-high .413 BABIP — no other active qualified hitter has one over .375 — makes it unlikely that the Pirates outfielder lasts among this prestigious company. McNeil, meanwhile, has been a hits machine ever since arriving in Flushing.

Including last season’s unforeseen emergence, the 27-year-old now has a full year of elite production under his belt. After notching home run No. 15 in Wednesday afternoon’s win over the Marlins, McNeil is batting .335/.396/.512 in 164 career games and 671 plate appearances. Only Yelich has hit for a higher batting average during this time frame.

Any residents from the tri-state area have likely heard a talk-show pundit and/or caller try to make an AL MVP case for D.J. LeMahieu. (Of course, this is only valid in an alternative universe where Mike Trout plays in the NL.) Well, McNeil now has his fellow New York infielder beat in wRC+ and wOBA. The only major difference in their fantasy value is the run and RBI discrepancy stemming from the Yankees’ superior lineup when previously healthy. Also perched in the leadoff spot, however, McNeil is making up ground by scoring 16 runs in his last 15 games.

It’d be silly to expect a major downfall now. McNeil has made significant improvements in his first full season. Courtesy of Statcast, he has upped his exit velocity to 89 mph and hard-hit rate all the way from 28.9 to 38.4%. He’s slugging over .500 against all pitches while attacking the first pitch in nearly half of his plate appearance. Per Baseball-Reference, he’s tallied nine doubles and 10 home runs when swinging at the first ball he sees.

Some extra power or speed was all McNeil needed to morph into a major fantasy contributor. While four stolen bases in nine tries is disappointing, 20 homers would be more than enough to support his profile. With so many sluggers readily available, managers have particularly benefited from pairing them with baseball’s leader in baseball average. He placed above J.D. Martinez as the 33rd hitter on FantasyPros’ Player Rater prior to extending his hot hand Wednesday. It’s time to catapult McNeil up the rankings.

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Mike Soroka: 15.9% Infield-Fly Rate
Soroka sports MLB’s third-best ERA (2.45) among all qualified starters behind Hyun-Jun Ryu and Max Scherzer despite holding a pedestrian 19.8% strikeout rate. Fantasy managers are taught to run from those mismatched results, and anyone viewing his 4.21 SIERA might see a clear sell-high situation.

The 22-year-old righty might dip some, but this isn’t a Jake Odorizzi or Jon Lester situation where he’s due a messy demise. One strong reason for optimism is a pop-up rate that ties Reynaldo Lopez for third behind Clayton Kershaw and Jacob deGrom. This is especially encouraging when combined with baseball’s fourth-highest ground-ball rate (54.9%). That’s a whole lot of weak contact. In fact, his batted-ball rates — and two other telling metrics — are a near carbon copy of Kyle Hendricks, who’s on the verge of posting a better ERA than FIP for the fourth straight season.

 
Along with age giving with more time to grow, Soroka also boasts an edge because of his ground balls. While the strikeouts limit his fantasy ceiling, Atlanta’s ace should continue to follow Hendricks’ lead as a remarkably sturdy SP3 who will ride weak contact and excellent command to a tremendous ERA and WHIP.

Josh Bell: .054 ISO after All-Star Break
Remember when Bell was among baseball’s hottest mashers? He has fallen hard, batting .176 with no home runs in the second half. He went 11 games with one extra-base hit (a double) before taking a seat Wednesday.

Some, of course, will blame the Home Run Derby. It doesn’t help that he commenced July with a three-homer outburst and went deep twice more before the contest. Before that brief resurgence, however, Bell already began to slide with a pedestrian 91 wRC+ in June. He’s now batting .209 (41-196) in 54 games from June 1 onward.

The metrics didn’t foretell major regression, but did you really expect him to hit .340 with 50 homers and 150 RBIs? Such heaters never last forever, especially for someone who recorded a wOBA between .335 and .340 in each of the previous three seasons. One would expect to see massive changes in his batted-ball profile from this early dominance to recent doldrums, but the differences aren’t overly defined besides one category.

 
The biggest gap lies in BABP, but his overall .299 rate has now fallen close to his career .293 clip. In other words, this is a textbook case of his luck evening out and regressing to the mean. Unless they traded for Bell during the summer, those who roster Bell can’t complain. Most would have gladly taken 27 homers and 89 RBIs from him all season, but the first baseman has plenty of more time to bolster those career highs. His .279 batting average and .378 wOBA both align with Statcast’s expected rates, so he shouldn’t stay ice cold throughout the final two months. Since the sell-high window has slammed shut, there’s nothing left to do but be grateful for Bell’s MVP-caliber start and wait out his slump.

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