Leaderboard of the Week: Underperforming Hitters

This week, I'm going to examine underperforming but still highly rostered hitters. To find the players, I took all the hitters with at least a 50 percent rostership rate in the RotoWire Online Championship (min. 100 PA) who were the lowest ranked according to the FanGraphs player rater.

Fantasy managers must be holding out some hope for these guys, but in many cases, it's time to move on. Here are the 30 lowest-ranked hitters, with my thoughts on some of them.

Kyle Stowers: After a power breakout last season (25 homers in 457 plate appearances), the power has all but disappeared this year, with his ISO decling from .256 to .082. He's not making any solid contact, as he owns a 46 percent groundball rate and a seven percent popup rate, with his barrel rate dropping from 19 percent to six percent. He might still be dealing with his early-season hamstring injury.

George Springer: Over the offseason, I noticed that late-career breakouts like the one Springer experienced in 2025 were uncommon. And when they did happen, the hitters struggled the next season. Springer continues the trend, with a .596 OPS and just three homers on the season. His power has disappeared, with his Average Exit Velocity dropping from 89.9 mph to 86.9 mph. 

Roman Anthony: Anthony was an offseason darling with all his beautiful StatCast numbers, like his 60 percent hard hit rate, the league's highest value (min. 300 PA). Currently, he's on the IL with a wrist injury. I wonder if the wrist was hurt and affecting his performance. 

Francisco Lindor: Injuries have derailed his season, and a .226 average doesn't help. The biggest change has been his BABIP dropping from .404 to .320. Additionally, he continues to put too many balls on the ground (49 percent groundball rate) limiting his power upside. 

Ezequiel Tovar: I've dropped Tovar in a few leagues, but I might buy back in on him. Looking at his core stats, power and ability to make contact, he's either steady (71.6 mph BatSpeed to 71.5 mph) or improving (71 percent contact rate to 73 percent). So far this season, he's hit eight barrels, with only one going for a home run (league average is 51 percent). Additionally, he has a career .326 BABIP but only a .277 BABIP this year.

Royce Lewis, Eugenio Suarez and Brendan Donovan: Dealing with injuries. 

Matt Chapman: It might be time to stick a fork in Chapman. He's not making any hard contact, with several of his stats trending down for the third straight season.  

Additionally, his attack angle has dropped below the six-degree mark (leading to a 50 percent groundball rate), which is when hitters struggle to hit home runs (pending research). 

Austin Wells: Wells' performance seems horrible compared to last season, but all of his underlying stats have remained constant. He probably overperformed compared to his underlying talent in 2025, and he is underperforming this year. He's on pace for 12 home runs (he hit 13 homers in 2024), but so far this year, he has one double (after hitting 18 in 2024 and 22 in 2025). He just needs a few more hits to fall in. In 2025, he had a .293 xwOBA and .302 wOBA. This year, it is a .306 xwOBA but an actual .257 wOBA. He's a solid buy-low option. 

Steven Kwan: The career .276 hitter is down to a .204 average in 204 plate appearances. He's being extremely passive at the plate with his walk rate (8 percent to 15 percent) and strikeout rate (nine percent to 11 perecnt) both up. And while Kwan's power was never great, it's exceptionally bad this year. His 82 mph avgEV and 10 percent hard hit rate are the league's lowest values (min. 200 PA). He doesn't do anything anymore.

Lawrence Butler: No matter how well or poorly Butler is hitting, his current fantasy value hinges on him finding more playing time. The Athletics are loaded in the outfield, especially with the promotion of center fielder Henry Bolte. Also, defensive wizard Denzel Clarke (foot) is about to come off the IL, muddying the problem even more. With so many outfield options, the team doesn't have to wait for Butler's .230 BABIP to regress upward. He's a drop in all leagues. 

Adolis Garcia: Garcia has been bad in the past; it's just who he is now. In 48 games this season, he has a .612 OPS. He has been at that level several times, as seen by his rolling 48-game OPS. The only surprise to me is why managers are holding on expecting him to change back to his 2023 levels of production.

Spencer Torkelson: Torkelson has always been a one-trick pony, with power and nothing else. This season, his contact rate dropped from 76 percent to 72 percent, with his strikeout rate up from 26 percent to 34 percent. He is major drag on a team. It really comes down to how much a team needs power to keep Tork on their team.

Alec Bohm: All of his struggles stem from his BABIP dropping from .324 to .234. His BABIP has dropped this low a couple of other times in the last few seasons and bounced back up. Seems like a perfect time to buy low.

Evan Carter: I've never understood the love for this strong-side platoon bat (career .248 OPS vs. lefties, .788 OPS vs. righties). Yes, he can be somewhat useful as a streamer in weeks when he faces a ton of righties, but there should be better waiver-wire options. 

Geraldo Perdomo: Perdomo's 2025 breakout centered around his bat speed jumping from 66.8 mph to 68.3 mph. This year, it dropped to 66.1 mph. Besides not swinging as hard, he's dropped his launch angle from 16 to 11 degrees, thereby pushing his groundball rate from 38 percent to 47 percent. The breakout can't continue with him hitting weak groundballs. 

Vinnie Pasquantino: He's not doing anything right. His strikeouts are up (from 16 to 20 percent). His bat speed (72.5 mph to 69.6 mph) is down, along with all of his power metrics (.211 ISO to .131 ISO). He missed some time in late April for a back issue, and I wonder if his back is still bothering him.

Willy Adames: We're just getting near the bottom of the list, and Adames has already turned around his season. After posting a .593 OPS in April, he has an .800 OPS in May.