Fantasy Baseball Dynasty Top 700 Rankings & Trade Value Version 2.16
This week: An emerging slugger in Colorado, one of the best save stashes in dynasty and a Marlins outfielder enjoying a strong start to the season.
New this week: A look at a Colorado Rockies slugger in the midst of a breakout stretch (and season) who is very much worth adding to your fantasy team.
Plus, an intriguing Minnesota Twins reliever with impact fantasy upside if he ever steps into a ninth-inning role, as well as a Miami Marlins outfielder making plenty of loud contact at the plate.
(A quick note, if you’re having trouble reading the table in full in the Substack app, it can be viewed in full either in the email or in a web browser.)
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Jordan Beck (#347, 30 trade value).
The Colorado Rockies have had a number of fantasy-relevant hitters so far this season. Or rather, breakout hitters who have seen significant upticks in fantasy relevance this season. First, it was Hunter Goodman, who enjoyed a strong spring training and has carried over that form into the regular season with a .274 average, a .349 on-base percentage, five home runs a .177 ISO and a 112 wRC+ in 126 plate appearances as of the start of play on Monday.
Then it was Zac Veen, who has shown plenty of fantasy promise as a prospect, but was limited to just 37 plate appearances before being optioned to Triple-A.
Now, it’s Jordan Beck.
Like Goodman and Veen before him, he’s eligible in the outfield.
And like Goodman, he’s enjoyed a strong start to the 2025 season. The 24-year-old is hitting .260 with a .329 on-base percentage, five home runs and four stolen bases in 82 plate appearances for the National League West franchise.
At 24, he seems (speculatively speaking) unlikely to be dealt by the Rockies this season, despite Colorado already being well out of the playoff picture.
Furthermore, he’s hit well away from Coors Field and hasn’t produced unideal splits against either left-handed pitching or right-handed pitching so far.
Jordan Beck 2025 Splits:
Home: 41 plate appearances, .257 average, two home runs, 114 wRC+
Away: 41 plate appearances, .263 average, three home runs, 143 wRC+
Against LHP: 26 plate appearances, .333 average, three home runs, 205 wRC+
Against RHP: 56 plate appearances, .224 average, two home runs, 93 wRC+
Those are all good things.
However, some fantasy managers might be skeptical of Beck’s production being sustainable, potentially still leaving him available via waivers.
And while all five of Beck’s home runs have come in a two-day span covering three games from April 24 to April 25, the power production looks very legitimate so far.
Remember those splits? Another good thing? Beck’s 21.7% barrel rate so far. Among batters with at least 75 plate appearances, only Aaron Judge, Oneil Cruz, Cal Raleigh and Shohei Ohtani have a higher barrel rate.
Since those five home runs in two days from April 24 through the 25th, Beck has collected five barrels on 23 batted ball events, good for a 21.7% barrel rate. And though he doesn’t have a home run to show for it, with just a .235 average, a .250 on-base percentage and a 55 wRC+, the home runs should start flying again, provided Beck continues to accumulate barrels at this rate.
What’s more, among hitters with at least 75 plate appearances this season, just six have a higher xwOBAcon than Beck at .530: Judge, Ohtani, Cruz, Jorge Polanco, Christopher Morel and Pete Alonso.
With a regular roles that features half of his games at Coors Field, Beck looks to be one of the few fantasy bright spots for the Rockies moving forward after a dismal first month. Don’t let the streaky power production fool you either. More consistent power numbers are coming for the 24-year-old outfielder.
Dane Myers (#538, 19 trade value).
The 29-year-old Myers has been with the club for parts of the last three seasons and has yet to establish himself in a full season at the game’s highest level, but is getting an extended look in the Majors so far and is enjoying a quality start to the season.
The outfielder is hitting .353 with a .397 on-base percentage, three home runs and six stolen bases so far in 73 plate appearances, with a .377 xwOBA and a 157 wRC+.
It’s a small sample size so far, to be sure, and the Marlins do have a number of outfield prospects in Triple-A – notably Victor Mesa Jr., Jakob Marsee, Jacob Berry and Andrew Pintar – but Myers should continue to play reasonably regularly for Miami.
As long as he can keep up a 23.9% chase rate and a .481 xwOBAcon, he’ll be in good shape moving forward, where his fantasy production is concerned. That he can provide solid stolen base totals is another significant bonus.
Don’t be surprised if Myers pushes for 20 home runs and 20 stolen bases this season if he can get regular playing time the rest of the way. The Marlins outfield picture is reasonably crowded, with Griffin Conine and Derek Hill on the injured list and Jesus Sanchez and Kyle Stowers occupying outfield spots, but not too crowded where Myers might lose significant playing time.
There’s plenty of fantasy upside here moving forward if Myers can play regularly.
Griffin Jax (#500, 20 trade value).
The Minnesota Twins haven’t been, in a word, good this year. Or, more specifically, they haven’t been so far. Neither has Griffin Jax’s ERA. But more on that in a bit.
The Twins entered play this week with a +9 run differential, which isn’t bad. But Minnesota is just 16-20 and staring at a 6.5-game deficit in the standings to the Detroit Tigers after the first month and change of the season. They’re only four games back in the Wild Card, so perhaps all is not lost, but the start has not been encouraging, particularly when paired with last season’s late-season collapse that helped cost the American League Central club a playoff spot.
It's early, but it begs the question: if this continues, do the Twins trade away veterans at the deadline?
Would closer Jhoan Duran be one of those veterans?
Again, this is all speculative for the time being, but if Minnesota does trade away their closer, Griffin Jax could step in and immediately push for being a top 15 or 12 fantasy closer.
Jax has closed games before. He rattled off four saves in 2023 (in 71 appearances) and logged 10 in 72 appearances last season.
Since the start of 2023, Jax owns a 30.4% strikeout rate, just a 6.0% walk rate, a 328 ERA and a 2.61 FIP in 151 innings.
Here are the qualified relievers with a higher fWAR than Jax (4.1) during that stretch:
Tanner Scott
Jeff Hoffman
Emmanuel Clase
End of list.
Looking more recently, or at this season’s stats, rather, Griffin Jax is sporting a 6.75 ERA. We promised we’d discuss it. It hasn’t been good. And while it remains to be seen if the Twins can turn things around this season, Jax seems like a much better bet to to in a larger sample size.
The 30-year-old is sporting the aforementioned 6.75 ERA, but he’s also logging a 3.06 FIP in 16 appearances and 14.2 innings with 24 strikeouts compared to three walks.
He ranks in the 89th percentile in walk rate (4.5%), as well as the 96th percentile or better in chase rate (100th percentile, 42.4%), whiff rate (96th percentile, 36.5%) and strikeout rate (96th percentile, 36.4%).
Jax has ranked in the fifth percentile in barrel rate (15.4%) and the first percentile in hard-hit rate (61.5%).
And while the loud contact the reliever has allowed hasn’t been ideal, it’s something to watch moving forward as a potential outlier. Jax has allowed six barrels so far in 2025. He gave up 13 all of last season and six total in 2023.
The 30-year-old has also limited batters to a hard-hit rate between 33% and 39% in the last three seasons.
In short? Those numbers might regress to the mean the more Jax pitches and the more Jax keeps missing bats. Right now he’s one of better save stashes in dynasty.
Beware the Open Roster Spot (Or lack thereof)
Oh and one more quick note, beware the open roster spot, or lack thereof rather, in trades.
While a two-for-one or even a three-for-one or four-for-two deal might line up from a trade value standpoint, the roster spots are worth considering. Essentially, if you’re having to cut someone, it turns into you giving up another player or players in addition to potentially the best player in the deal. It’s obviously a different story if you’re working with a flexible roster or open roster spots, but it adds another layer to deals that can potentially change the calculus of things considerably.
Also a quick note on prospects:
Proximity matters. Upside is obviously king here, but proximity to the Majors matters here as well with prospects, at least from a fantasy standpoint. It can be a bit of a tie-breaker with prospects with similar upside but at different minor league levels. Furthermore, the farther away a prospect is from the Majors, the more it impacts their fantasy trade value.
Of course, that’s not going to have much of a difference with elite prospects in the low minors like Ethan Salas or Max Clark, but it’s why some prospects who aren’t necessarily in the upper echelon of fantasy prospects, may have a lower trade value number in dynasty formats than a lower ceiling player already in the Majors who is guaranteed to provide MLB (and fantasy) production at least in the coming years.
Last week’s rankings and analysis:
New Weekly Column Alert! (Check out Week 1’s column for free!) Really excited about this!
League Winners Week 1: Three Potential (Future) Aces
Welcome to League Winners! A new weekly, in-season column that I’m really excited to debut.