Fantasy Baseball Player Notes

Marte's getting a little old for a player to rely on for stolen bases, and although fantasy managers need to start lowering their expectations as he enters his age-32 season, there should be enough left in the tank for him to be productive. He ranked in the top 11% in sprint speed last year and was caught stealing just twice in 10 attempts. The quality of his contact declined fairly significantly, however, and considering he now plays in Miami, anything more than 15 home runs should be considered gravy. But he'll likely continue to chip in for all five rotisserie categories and be an asset in both stolen bases and batting average, two difficult categories to fill. Again, temper expectations a bit against his historical production, but fantasy managers can still draft him with confidence.

Laureano had a down 2020, which included a .213 batting average and a sharp decline in his Statcast data, as well as his steal attempts. But he had provided a fairly solid baseline over the two prior seasons, with a .288 batting average, 29 home runs, and 20 steals while being caught just three times over 171 games. Laureano doesn't excel anywhere, but he'll chip in almost everywhere, and you can get him beyond the 12th round in most drafts. He's an ideal fourth outfielder in mixed leagues.

Fantasy managers seem to have declared Canha's 2019 season as a fluke after he hit just five home run last year, but much of his 2020 seems to suggest 2019 was fairly legitimate. Canha built on his massive gains in walk rate in 2019 (13.5%) and increased it to 15.2%, and his quality of contact largely remained the same. He's got 20-homer power still, and he'll likely lead off or bat second for the A's. You won't need to pay much for him and given his average draft position, there's a high probability of a profit.