The MLB trade deadline has come and gone, but fantasy baseball trade deadlines are still open in a lot of leagues. Our analysts picked two buys and two sells worth considering in the fallout from deadline moves, including two players who were just traded themselves.
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4 Fantasy Baseball Buy Low and Sell High Trade Targets: MLB Trade Deadline Fallout (2026)
Buy: Royce Lewis (1B, 2B, 3B – MIN)
Lewis started the season poorly enough to get sent down to Triple-A, but he hit 10 home runs in just 15 games there and was quickly recalled. Since returning, he’s been genuinely impressive, posting a 120 wRC+ with nine home runs and seven stolen bases over 47 games. His bat speed has jumped meaningfully too, up from 73.7 miles per hour before the demotion to 75.7 miles per hour since his return, a real two-mile-per-hour gain. His counting stats back it up, with a .250 average, a .320 on-base percentage, and a .462 slugging percentage since coming back.
The Twins have quietly been a top-five offense in the American League this year, and the team confirmed itself as a buyer at the deadline rather than a seller, adding pieces instead of moving core players away. That points to a lineup that should keep producing down the stretch. Lewis remains available on a lot of waiver wires, and even where he’s rostered, managers focused on his poor season-long numbers may be willing to part with him without asking for much in return.
Buy: Luke Weaver (RP – PIT)
Weaver was just traded from the Mets to the Pirates, and the move should immediately clarify his role as a closer. He was already expected to close somewhere, whether in New York or elsewhere, and Pittsburgh’s own closer situation opened up further after another reliever was traded away and immediately struggled in his new spot. That clears a real path for Weaver to be the primary closer the rest of the way, with real potential to finish as a top-10 option at the position.
The situational fit is strong. Pittsburgh’s offense has been solid and the team is in playoff contention, meaning meaningful games and save opportunities through the end of the season. The rotation also has real depth, giving the bullpen a steady stream of close, winnable games to close out. His underlying stuff supports the profile too: a strikeout rate near 27%, the lowest walk rate of his career, a 1.84 ERA backed by a 2.84 expected ERA, and real gains on his fastball velocity along with whiff rates over 30% on both his changeup and cutter. His cost has risen now that his role is clearer, but there’s still a buy-low window if other managers are still valuing him as a fringe closer rather than a clear-cut one.
Sell: Troy Melton (SP, RP – DET)
Melton is a pitcher one analyst genuinely likes long-term, but his current results present a real sell-high opportunity. Through 11 starts and 67 innings, he’s posted a 1.75 ERA and a 0.93 WHIP, results that are running well ahead of his underlying performance. His expected ERA sits closer to 3.89, and his SIERA is right at 4.00, both suggesting a real correction is likely. His strikeout rate is solid but unspectacular at 23%, and his walks have trended in the wrong direction recently, with 10 free passes over his last three starts.
There’s also a market dynamic working in his favor as a seller. His team has a strong recent history of producing dominant, ace-level pitching talent, and other managers around the league may be inclined to view his current stat line as evidence he’s the next arm in that lineage, potentially leading them to overpay for a pitcher who’s currently a winning percentage and ERA outlier. Rest-of-season projection systems have him settling into a much more modest ERA and WHIP than what he’s shown so far, and that’s likely still not fully capturing the extent of his current overperformance. The recommendation isn’t necessarily to trade him today, but to be ready to cash in if a strong offer comes given how unsustainable his current results look.
Sell: Luis Arraez (1B, 2B, DH – PHI)
Arraez was just traded to Philadelphia, and this is described as something of an annual reminder that his profile, elite contact skills and batting average with minimal strikeouts, plays much better in points leagues than in standard roto or category formats. In points leagues, this recommendation doesn’t really apply, since he remains excellent there. But in roto and category leagues specifically, there’s a real opportunity to sell into his name value right now.
He’s added a few more home runs and stolen bases than usual this year, a nice bonus, but he remains fundamentally a low-power hitter, and a move to a good offensive situation in Philadelphia doesn’t change that underlying profile. He does have 52 runs and 40 RBI on the season, a pace that could produce one of his better RBI seasons yet, aided by roster changes on his new team that clear an everyday path for him. Even so, the belief is that his name value, especially freshly boosted by a trade to a bigger market team, exceeds his real production in category formats. His expected batting average sits meaningfully below his actual mark, and his barrel rate is at a career worst, though that’s never really been central to how he produces value. If his RBI and run totals hold and he keeps adding stolen bases, he could still hold up, but this looks like a strong window to sell while his name value is at a peak.
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