Fantasy Baseball Stock Watch 2024: Yanier Diaz, Paul Goldschmidt & More

We are just a few days away from September call ups arriving, so let’s take a look at some of the veteran MLB players rising and falling in this week’s Fantasy Baseball Stock Watch.
MLB player stock is always relative to your league. If you play in a shallow 10-team league, the value of a player can be much lower than if you were playing in a 14-teamer. But if there’s one thing we know about the fantasy community, the value of a rookie can be wildly overrated.
People are going to be adding and dropping players like crazy this week, so paying attention to your league’s add/drops is going to be vital. Someone always makes a mistake. They’ll think the MLB player stock of a veteran in a one-week slump is in the trash and will bounce him for the flavor of the week. Sometimes, a little patience is all you need to gain some ground and that’s what we hope to help you with our Fantasy Baseball Stock Watch.
On the other side, some veterans just need to be cut loose. The MLB player stock of an aging veteran everyone hopes will bring it back is not worth the dust off an old piece of bubble gum you find in an unopened pack of 1980 Topps baseball cards. Wishing and hoping they come around is an exercise in futility, so it’s always important to rip off the band-aid and move on.
All that being said, let’s play a little ‘3 Up, 3 Down’.
Fantasy Baseball Stock Watch: Risers
- Yainer Diaz, C Houston Astros
- Masataka Yoshida, OF Boston Red Sox
- Eugenio Suarez, 3B Arizona Diamondbacks
Fantasy Baseball Stock Watch: Fallers
- Paul Goldschmidt, 1B St. Louis Cardinals
- Steven Kwan, OF Cleveland Guardians
- Randy Arozarena, OF Seattle Mariners
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Jorge Polanco homered and doubled twice in a loss to the Royals on Thursday.
It’s nice to see some offensive life from Polanco, as he’s been about as hot and cold as any player in the sport this year. He blistered a homer off Seth Lugo to make it 1-0 Mariners in the fourth in his first three-hit game since April 27. Polanco certainly has offensive upside, but you have to take a lot of bitter with the better based on the last year and a half.
Carlos Estévez gave up a run over 1 1/3 innings while picking up a save against the Mariners on Thursday.
Estévez got the final out in the eighth inning to escape a jam, but then put himself into a big one in the ninth. He gave up a solo homer to Dom Canzone, and put runners on second-and-third with one out. He was able to strike out Julio Rodriguez on a perfectly-located pitch on the inside corner, and then got Cal Raleigh to ground out meekly to end it. Estévez now has 24 saves on the season with a 2.19 ERA. There’s a good chance he’s an All-Star in 2025.
Logan Evans didn’t factor into the decision despite going 5 1/3 innings and not allowing a run against the Royals on Thursday.
Evans wasn’t exactly dominating the KC bats with swings and misses, but he was able to procure three strikeouts while allowing just three hit in his spot start. There’s a pretty good chance this will be more than a one-off, as Emerson Hancock hasn’t shown muh consistency and Evans has had just enough moments like this to suggest he’s the better option. If he does start again before the break it’ll come against the Yankees, so fantasy managers should keep Evans on the radar but look elsewhere for that outing.
Seth Lugo held the Mariners to one run over 6 1/3 innings to get a win over the Mariners on Thursday.
Lugo gave up a solo homer to Jorge Polanco, and outside of that was outstanding. He scattered five hits and struck out seven while lowering his ERA to 2.65 in the process. Lugo’s metrics suggest there’s some good luck, but there’s simply no denying that he gets the job done the overwhelming majority of the time. He’ll have a chance to do the same against the Pirates on Tuesday.
Brooks Baldwin hit a two-run homer in a loss to the White Sox on Thursday.
Baldwin got the White Sox on the board with a two-run homer off Dustin May, but it came in the eighth inning with the White Sox trailing by six runs. Still counts. Baldwin has gone deep four times in 2025, and offers zero redraft value.
Mookie Betts hit a solo homer and scored twice in a 6-2 win for the Dodgers on Thursday over the White Sox.
It’s the 10th homer of the season for Betts, but the first time that he’s gone deep since June 8; a lengthy spell for a player of his quality. The 32-year-old scuffled for the majority of the last month as seen in a .633 OPS, but everyone is aware of how good Betts remains and what he’s capable of. It’s still nice to get a reminder from a player who is slashing a disappointing .246/.321/.383 over his first 79 games.