How to Approach Surging Fantasy Baseball Hitters: Jose Miranda, Brent Rooker, Christian Yelich, Trea Turner and Brenton Doyle

The baseball season is a long one, yet fantasy owners tend to make more trades during a 17-week NFL season than a 26 1/2-week MLB one.

Having games every single day allows fantasy owners to be more patient with players on their teams. If you are in a league where a bunch of trades are happening, the best time to trade players is when their value is as high as it can be.

Today, I wanted to highlight five hitters who are surging over the past couple weeks, meaning their trade value is higher right now. I’ll cover pitchers in another story, so check back for that.

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Surging Hitters

The MLB’s hottest hitter over the past couple weeks was Minnesota Twins’ Jose Miranda.

In the past 15 days, Miranda has a .468 average and .481 on-base percentage. He joined some elite company during that stretch.

After the insanely hot stretch, Miranda has a .325 average and .366 OBP for the season. He’s a career .276 hitter with a .327 OBP, so it’s unlikely Miranda is able to maintain his current numbers the rest of the season.

Miranda saw his player rating jump to 17.01 on FantasySP. He currently sits with a 16.17 mark, which is good enough for 59th overall on the Trade Value Chart.

You might not be able to land some of the players ranked right around him, but now is definitely the time to entertain trading Miranda if you rostered him before the hot streak. He’s actually only owned in 74% of leagues, so his trade interest should really come mostly from deeper leagues, although there might be some standard league fantasy owners who take a gamble on him.

At least throw his name on the block and see what offers roll in instead of hoping he continues his torrid pace. If you can’t get a good offer for him, just utilize him until he cools off.

Milwaukee Brewers’ Christian Yelich has also been trending in the right direction of late.

In the past couple weeks, Yelich has a .378 average and .462 OBP. He has four homers, three doubles and a triple among his 17 hits, along with seven RBIs, 11 runs scored, seven walks, six strikeouts and five stolen bases.

If not for being injured for a couple weeks earlier in the season, Yelich would probably be among the top fantasy hitters right now. 

For the full season, Yelich has a .329 average and .411 OBP. He’s got 11 total homers, 41 RBIs, 43 runs scored and 21 stolen bases. Yelich is looking a lot more like his MVP self from a few seasons ago than the hitter he was the past couple seasons.

His recent surge has his player rating up to 21.58, which has him 15th overall in the league. Yelich’s big name and season so far should be plenty to go after another highly-rated player if you don’t believe Yelich can stay this hot, or if you simply need to swap an outfielder for an infielder, pitcher or depth.

While Yelich might be able to keep popping homers, stealing bases, driving in runs and scoring, I don’t think he’ll be able to maintain the high average for the rest of the season. 

I expect his trade value to dip over time, so now is when I’d try to trade him. If you decide to keep him, you probably should just roll with him the rest of the season then.

Oakland Athletics’ Brent Rooker is another player who is trending upward right now. 

In the past couple weeks, Rooker has a .421 average and .500 OBP. He’s homered four times and doubled twice among his 16 hits, along with driving in 10 runs, scoring 12 times, walking six times, striking out on nine occasions and stealing two bases.

I called Rooker an underappreciated fantasy hitter a couple weeks back, and think it’s even more true now. His season numbers - .282 average, .362 OBP, 18 home runs, 55 RBIs, 40 runs, four stolen bases - are fantastic, and he’d likely be among the leading fantasy hitters if he hadn’t missed time earlier in the season.

He’s still available in nearly 25% of leagues, which is far too many with those numbers and his recent success. Stop reading this and add him now if he’s available in your league. 

He’s another fantasy hitter who will have more trade value in deeper leagues as a result. Rooker was an afterthought to many in fantasy drafts but currently ranks 28th on the trade value chart. In deeper leagues, you could probably get a couple decent players in return for him, or target an infielder or pitcher if those are the positions you are lacking at. 

While I think Rooker is underappreciated, I also don’t envision him hitting this well all season, and expect his trade value to drop over time. That’s why I’d be in favor of moving Rooker now.

Turner is a household name and is surging now after dealing with an injury for a decent portion of the season.

In the past couple weeks, has a .400 average and .423 OBP. He has three doubles and five home runs among his 20 total hits over that span, along with 16 RBIs, 13 runs scored, one walk, 11 strikeouts and one stolen base.

Turner went on average around pick 27 in fantasy drafts, and when he was injured, that looked like a disaster for the fantasy owners who drafted him.

Since returning from the injured list on June 17, all Turner has done is hit .349 and get on base at a .385 clip. After starting the season in the low 20s for a player rating, Turner has slowly seen his trade value go back up since returning to the field. 

However, unlike the first three players mentioned in this story, I’d be more in favor of holding on to Turner instead of trying to sell high on him. While his value is on the rise, I think his injury concern might hold you back from getting the right return for him.

Sure, if you are blown away by an offer for Turner, by all means do it. But otherwise, I’d try to finally take advantage of the player you spent an early draft pick on. While he might not stay as hot as he is now, you’re finally seeing a return on your investment, and that’s too much for me to give him up now.

Doyle has been extremely hot of late as well.

In the past couple weeks, Doyle has a .400 average and .423 OBP. He has five doubles and seven homers among his 18 hits in that span, along with 14 RBIs, nine runs scored, eight walks, nine strikeouts and two stolen bases.

For the season, Doyle now has a .277 average and .346 OBP, along with 13 homers, 39 RBIs, 53 runs scored and 20 stolen bases. I think he’s a bit underappreciated, as he’s owned in only 76% of leagues right now. He’s startable in all formats right now, but his trade value comes in deeper leagues.

His player rating is at a season high right now, and probably isn’t going to get all that much better, so now would be the time to capitalize on his value. He might have even been a waiver wire pickup in your deeper league, so while that might also knock his value down a bit, you could get a player in return with a lot more history in the league.

If you want to roll the dice on Doyle, you can certainly do just that, but I see regression coming, so I’d try to take advantage of the good situation you are in now and trade him for a nice return.