All-Bust Fantasy Team: Position Players

With the regular season in the rearview mirror, it's time for a look back. Over the last few weeks we examined the position players, starting pitchers and relief pitchers who provided the most value relative to their draft slot. This week, we're going to the other end of the spectrum with a look at players who were drafted early but disappointed. I'll be using RotoWire's preseason ADP numbers and earned auction values.

Disclaimer: I will avoid listing the players that suffered catastrophic injuries. Obviously, Ronald Acuna and Spencer Strider were huge busts for fantasy purposes, and injury risk is something you weigh during draft season. However, there's little to dissect in terms of what went wrong for those guys.

Catcher: Adley Rutschman, Baltimore Orioles

ADP: 46.83, 1st among catchers
EAV: 7th among catchers

This is a tough one. As the No. 7 catcher in fantasy, Rutschman was hardly crippling to have on your roster. However, he was so far and away the top catcher drafted, with many leagues going three rounds before the next catcher after Rutschman was taken. You also have to factor in what you're passing on when you use a top-50 pick on a catcher and that backstop finishes outside the top-200. Rutschman was well on his way to being a perfectly fine draft choice in the first half when he slashed .276/.339/.441 with 16 home runs, 59 RBI and 47 runs scored. However, he then cratered in the second half, slashing just .207/.282/.303 with three homers. Manager Brandon Hyde insisted in his end-of-the-year media session that nothing was wrong physically with Rutschman beyond normal wear and tear, but the 26-year-old simply didn't look like the same guy for the final few months. Rutschman's flyball rate (34.6 percent to 42.9 percent, per FanGraphs) and pull rate (38.4 percent to 42.1 percent) were up quite a bit compared to 2023. That's normally something we fantasy managers like, but flyballs weren't rewarded in 2024 as much as they have been in past years. The switch-hitting Rutschman also hit just .219/.290/.342 against right-handed pitching (he hit .329/.390/.512 versus lefties). It's the second straight year he's been better versus lefties, although he was fine against righties last year. Ultimately, I don't see much reason to have long-term concern with Rutschman, and I suspect he won't end up falling much in drafts next year.

Runner-up: J.T. Realmuto, Philadelphia Phillies
 

First Base: Paul Goldschmidt, St. Louis Cardinals

ADP: 66.21, 6th among first basemen
EAV: 16th among first basemen

Frankly, I was a bit surprised when putting this list together that Goldschmidt finished as high as he did at his position. He was able to pile up enough counting stats thanks to 654 plate appearances, though, that he wasn't a total disaster in fantasy even with an ugly .245/.302/.414 batting line. Still, Goldy was often selected in the first five rounds of drafts and was unstartable in 12-teamers for a large chunk of the season. It's not what you want, and I'm not sure a bounceback is on the horizon. The first baseman has slashed just .250/.320/.413 since June of 2023, which covers more than 1,000 plate appearances. In 2024, he had the highest strikeout rate of his career (26.5 percent) and lowest walk rate of his career (7.2 percent). Goldy is now 37 and opposing pitchers are finding it easier and easier to exploit him with fastballs, which is a troubling sign. He did still hit the ball pretty hard when he connected, and odds are the impending free agent will wind up in a more favorable home park than the one he had in St. Louis. Still, betting on an aging, declining first baseman typically isn't an investment you want to make. The good news is it shouldn't cost you much.

Runner-up: Spencer Torkelson, Detroit Tigers
 

Second Base: Gleyber Torres, New York Yankees

ADP: 78.17, 4th among second basemen
EAV: 18th among second basemen

Torres slashed .313/.386/.454 with five homers and 31 runs scored in the final 39 regular-season games after being moved back to the leadoff spot and has carried that over with a .297/.400/.432 line, one home run and nine runs in nine postseason contests thus far. However, that came after he slashed a miserable .236/.309/.349 with 10 long balls across his first 115 games of the season. The inconsistency with Torres is nothing new, of course, and his up-and-down power output has been especially frustrating. After clubbing a career-high 38 homers in 2019, Torres fell off to three in the truncated 2020 season and then hit just nine over 127 contests in 2021. He swatted 24 over the boards in 2022 and 25 in 2023, but in his walk year this year he managed just 15. Torres had an xwOBA in the 85th percentile in 2023, but it fell off to the 39th percentile in 2024. Additionally, after reaching double digits in stolen bases each of the previous three seasons, Torres swiped just four bags this year, with the last one coming on May 15. We don't know where the impending free agent will be playing in 2025, but a return to the Yankees seems unlikely and there aren't many new places where his fantasy outlook would be improved.

Runner-up: Nolan Gorman, St. Louis Cardinals

Shortstop: Bo Bichette, Toronto Blue Jays

ADP: 40.3, 7th among shortstops
EAV: 54th among shortstops

Yes, injuries played a role, but Bichette was so dreadful in his 81 games that there could be no other choice here. A career .299/.340/.487 hitter coming into the 2024 campaign, Bichette collected just a .225/.277/.322 batting line across 336 plate appearances for the Blue Jays. Among the 286 players to accrue at least 300 plate appearances Bichette ranked 236th in average, 264th in on-base percentage, 269th in slugging percentage and 275th in OPS. Bichette's 43.5 percent hard-hit rate was down only slightly from 2023 (44.9 percent) but well down from 2022 (50.3 percent) and his 4.4 percent barrel rate was by far the lowest mark of his career. He also turned in a sprint speed below the 50th percentile for the second year in a row. It's bizarre that a guy who used to be a well above-average runner and who will turn just 27 in March saw his speed deteriorate like this, but that's what's happened, and the stolen bases seem unlikely to return. I see no reason why Bichette can't bounce back to be a batting average asset in 2025, but as a guy who sprays the ball all over the field, his power could be affected more than most based on how the ball is playing. If it's similar to 2024, a return to the 20-homer level might be a stretch.

Runner-up: Ha-Seong Kim, San Diego Padres

Third Base: Austin Riley, Atlanta Braves

ADP: 18.60, 2nd among third basemen
EAV: 27th among third basemen

Riley managed just a .228/.295/.353 batting line and only three home runs through the first two months last season and missed more than two weeks of action at one point with an intercostal strain (though he never went on the injured list). He slashed a much healthier .275/.339/.531 with 16 long balls across his next 68 contests but then saw his season end in mid-August with a fractured hand. While he might not have had time to get his numbers to where we expected before the season, I suspect he would have wound up more in the "moderate disappointment" category rather than the "bust" category if he hadn't suffered the hand injury. Not only was Riley trending in the right direction, but his batted-ball data on the year was as good as ever, with the 27-year-old's 53.4 percent hard-hit rate representing a career high and his 14.9 percent barrel rate trailing just 2022. He had the 16th-highest gap in baseball between his xwOBA (.366) and actual wOBA (.338). Fantasy managers were burned by Riley in 2024, but they shouldn't have any trepidation in jumping back on the bandwagon in 2025.

Runner-up: Nolan Arenado, St. Louis Cardinals

Outfield: Julio Rodriguez, Seattle Mariners

ADP: 3.36, 2nd among outfielders
EAV: 16th among outfielders

Perhaps "bust" is too strong of a word, but Rodriguez was undoubtedly a fantasy disappointment, having been a consensus top-5 overall pick before finishing outside the top-15 at his position. Through the end of June, the 23-year-old was slashing merely .247/.297/.327 with seven home runs. Rodriguez then sported a .312/.364/.528 line with 13 long balls the rest of the way, which included an .895 OPS, seven homers and six steals in September. The surge at the end allowed Rodriguez to complete a 20-20 campaign, but his numbers in all five roto categories were career lows across the board. The good news is Rodriguez's hard-hit rate (48.4 percent), average exit velocity (91.7 mph) and barrel rate (10.2 percent) were all still very good and his xwOBA of .346 was actually a career high. Rodriguez will always be held back by T-Mobile Park (he had just a .655 OPS there in 2024) and potentially again by the Mariners' offense, but he should be a borderline first-rounder in fantasy leagues again in 2025.

Luis Robert, Chicago White Sox

ADP: 35.67, 12th among outfielders
EAV: 81st among outfielders

Everyone knew Robert's team context in 2024 would be poor. They also knew he was an injury risk. What they did not expect is for his performance to fall off so dramatically. Robert has always been an uber aggressive hitter whose career walk rate sits at just 5.6 percent. In 2022, we saw his strikeout rate surprisingly dip down to just 19.2 percent, but that rose back up to 28.9 percent in 2023 and spiked to 33.2 percent this season. His swing rate was actually down quite a bit to a still-above-average 53.1 percent, but his in-zone contact rate was a poor 76.6 percent. Striking out in a third of his plate appearances while also seeing his barrel rate drop from 15.4 percent down to 9.9 percent was too much for Robert to overcome, and he also again missed some time with injury. Robert did run more than ever and posted his highest sprint speed since his rookie season, so it's possible there's more in the tank from a stolen base perspective. The 27-year-old is due for a market correction on his draft-day cost and could wind up being a decent buy-low option, particularly if he gets traded to a better team.

Nolan Jones, Colorado Rockies

ADP: 55.68, 16th among outfielders
EAV: 160th among outfielders

Jones broke out with the Rockies in 2023, collecting a .931 OPS while going 20-20 in 102 games. That kind of profile, when you add in that he was a former top prospect and would be playing half his games at Coors Field, meant there was going to be plenty of interest from the fantasy community. Unfortunately, Jones fell flat on his face in 2024, seeing his OPS drop nearly 300 points down to .641 while he managed just three homers and five steals over 297 plate appearances. Jones' hard-hit rate was actually up a bit at 44.4 percent in 2024, but his barrel rate tanked from 15.7 percent to 5.9 percent and his ground ball rate rose all the way to 52.4 percent. The 26-year-old did make two separate trips to the injured list with back issues and also dealt with a knee problem, so it's possible injuries were the main culprit in Jones' decline. Jones has had strikeout concerns throughout pro ball but draws a lot of walks, as well. I'm curious to see how low his price drops, as I could see a moderate rebound if his health cooperates.

Runners-up: Michael Harris, Atlanta Braves; Cody Bellinger, Chicago Cubs; Jordan Walker, St. Louis Cardinals