Players Trending Down: Kevin Gausman, Byron Buxton, Francisco Lindor (Fantasy Baseball)

It’s Thursday. You know what that means.

Every week during the fantasy baseball season we do a stock report looking at players whose value is rising or declining. If there are specific players you want me to dive into, feel free to tag me on Twitter.

Now, without any further ado, let’s get to it.

Fantasy Baseball Stock Report: Stock Down

Kevin Gausman (SP – TOR)

Kevin Gausman finally put together a bounce-back performance yesterday against the Yankees, striking out six and surrendering just one run over five innings of work. But he still walked three batters. It wasn’t good enough for the Blue Jays to squeak out a win.

He lowered his ERA from 11.57 to 8.16. His underlying advanced metrics show an xFIP of 4.18, which is still higher than his career average of 3.63. A concerning part about Gausman’s profile is the decreased velocity of his fastball this season. He was hitting the upper end of 94 miles per hour (MPH) over the last three seasons; this year he’s been averaging 93.8 MPH.

He should improve upon his first few starts. Gausman has been dominant over the last several seasons and finished third in American League Cy Young voting last year. But there is reason to be concerned with some of the issues we’ve seen with the 33-year-old this year.

Byron Buxton (OF – MIN)

The Twins as a whole are the coldest offense in MLB right now. For a team projected to win the American League Central, they currently rank 26th in wOBA (.281), 17th in ISO (.141) and 24th in wRC+ (83). Pitching has been another story. Minnesota leads the entire league in collective K/9 (10.09) and ranks fourth in xFIP (3.70).

To be fair, this offense has been dealt major injuries to Royce Lewis, Carlos Correa and Max Kepler. However, the top of their order still has not been producing, starting with Byron Buxton. He’s striking out a whopping 35.1% of his trips to the plate while walking just 1.8% of the time. He is still looking for his first homer and stolen base.

Perhaps when those key Minnesota pieces return to the lineup it will spark something in Buxton. For now, stay far away.

Francisco Lindor (SS – NYM)

Francisco Lindor finds himself in the basement of many advanced metrics for the Mets three weeks into the season. He currently ranks last in wOBA (.232) and wRC+ (47).

It’s early in the season and Lindor’s .150 BABIP implies he should see some positive regression, but it’s fair to wonder whether the 30-year-old will continue to produce the same numbers we’ve been used to. Again, small sample size, but Lindor’s speed on the base paths has been down this season. His speed score on FanGraphs is 2.7, much lower than his career average of 5.5.

The Mets, as a whole, are ranked in the middle of the pack in many offensive metrics, but it hasn’t been Lindor contributing to the numbers.