We’re nearly a month into the 2024 MLB and fantasy baseball seasons, meaning it’s time to look into improvements. Fantasy players could always look towards the waiver wire, or try to swing a trade for underperformers. Here’s a look at five players who are good fantasy baseball trade targets in April 2024, starting with one of the game’s best shortstops.
Bo Bichette
Ideally, one would want to target players with strong records who’ve underperformed to this point — and Bo Bichette fits that mold.
Bichette, an inside-out master who can find holes across the diamond and cover the plate with ease, has just a .227 average as of April 18. And across the board, all his metrics are down. Bichette’s Hard Hit% rate is down nearly 10% at 35.8% and he’s topped out at nearly a 7% rate compared to 2023.
The Blue Jays shortstop has been one of the game’s best contact hitters over the past three seasons, including in 2021 and 2022 when he led the AL in total hits. One shouldn’t think too much of this funk.
Alex Bregman
There are very few constants in Major League Baseball — but one that’s becoming a near constant is Alex Bregman struggling in April. Bregman batted just .219 in March/April last season and a .233 average in April two years ago.
This season, Bregman entered play with a .250 average — better than what we’ve seen — but just five extra-base hits and no home runs over 17 games. Still, a low Whiff% and an above-average Hard Hit% of 41.5% are positives.
Don’t expect Bregman to be the elite power hitter he was in 2018 and 2019. However, he’s been consistently in a 20-25 home run pace each of the last three seasons.
Luis Castillo
Mariners starter Luis Castillo has not put up numbers one would expect from an AL Cy Young Award candidate. Through his first four games of 2024, Castillo owns a 5.82 ERA and 1.66 WHIP, far removed from his numbers (3.34 ERA, 1.10 WHIP) in 2023.
Those numbers are quite interesting, given that Castillo’s Hard Hit% (38.2%) is down three percentage points from 2023, he possesses a low 4.0% BB% rate, and he’s still inducing plenty of chases.
Castillo has struck out 27 over 21.1 IP and while some balls haven’t gone his way to this point, the stuff is still premier.
Kevin Gausman
There was some concern with Kevin Gausman after his second start of the 2024 campaign when he gave up six runs (five earned runs) over 1.1 IP against the Yankees. Not only were the results poor but so was the velocity, as his fastball primarily sat in the low-90s.
Gausman struggled yet again on April 12 against the Rockies, an ominous sign given his shortened spring and what he chalked up as relying too much on his slider. “I think I kind of got away from throwing the fastball a little bit, stayed in that medium speed maybe a little too much, too many sliders, ” Gausman stated after that start.
Gausman flipped the script on April 17 when he struck out six over five strong innings against the Yankees and his fastball sat in the mid-90s. The righty’s been an elite pitcher over the past few years, so a down start to 2024 can be a path of opportunity.
Francisco Lindor
The first two weeks of 2024 were not kind to Francisco Lindor. Over his first 12 games of 2024, Lindor hit a dreadful .098 with two extra-base hits, although there were some positives, believe it or not. Lindor only struck out six times over his first 59 plate appearances.
Lindor, though, has started to come alive in the past week. Although Lindor picked up just one extra-base hit, the Mets shortstop batted .278 over New York’s recent homestand.
Lindor has been a reliable fantasy producer over the years, including in 2023 when the batting average was low for a good chunk of last season. With 47 stolen bases and 57 home runs in his pocket from the past two seasons, expect Lindor to build on a positive stretch.