2025 Fantasy Baseball: Risers & Fallers from Week 2

It’s time for our second edition of fantasy risers & fallers for 2025. The risers’ list is headlined by several stars and former top prospects, including a pair of youngsters who made adjustments during the offseason. Those adjustments, thus far, have paid off significantly.

Risers

Good hitters tend to figure it out eventually. That can be said for Rafael Devers, who had a historically bad start to the 2025 season. But from April 2-9, there’ve been very few hitters hotter than Devers, who picked up 13 hits in that stretch. That total was good for a tie for first in the Majors.

For those wondering, Devers was tied with Paul Goldschmidt.

Aside from Devers & Goldschmidt, another former All-Star back in the swing of things is Jorge Polanco. Polanco, besieged by injuries the past few years, is batting a cool .370 with two home runs, 10 hits, and 10 RBI for Seattle thus far. He’s become a must-grab, given his past power output.

Lastly, two other hitters worth noting are Kyren Paris and Spencer Torkelson.

Listening to the YES broadcast a few days ago, former MLBer John Flaherty remarked Torkelson looks more “athletic” in the box. And it’s almost a night-and-day difference in his swing & stance from 2024-25.

Now, he’s more crouched than upright, isn’t as spread out with his feet, and looks quicker to the ball. even though the bat speed is technically down.

Torkelson is on a rampage to begin the year. He’s batting .311 with three home runs and a ridiculous 13.8% Barrel%. The 25-year-old looks more like the Torkelson seen back in his college days.

Another player who made a somewhat similar change was Kyren Paris. Paris’ new stance is different compared to Torkelson: it’s an open stance but like with Torkelson, cut out the upright in his stance. The 23-year-old is also off to a torrid start, as he was batting .423 with five home runs over 11 games.

Paris will strike out a lot — and that likely won’t change with the new stance. But, he’s got power and speed and that’s a good combo.

Moving to the pitchers, Hunter Greene has moved into elite status among fantasy pitchers. Greene struck out 15 over his last 15.2 IP and only conceded one run. The splitter has become a major weapon for Greene, even though he only throws it roughly 8% of the time. It keeps left-handers honest.

Greene’s teammate, Nick Lodolo, is also off to a good start. However, despite the 0.96 ERA, Lodolo has eight strikeouts over 18.2 IP. He’s been throwing the changeup more and getting a lot of ground balls.

Lastly, Easton Lucas is now a relevant fantasy option. The 28-year-old had just 13 MiLB starts to his name — nine of which came in 2019 in Batavia (SS-A) — before becoming a shutdown arm for the Jays. Lucas struck out 11 over 10.1 IP and he’s yet to concede a barreled-up ball.

His four-seamer (17.8” mean IVB) plays well up in the zone.

Fallers

As I stated last week, just because a player is on this part of this list does not mean you should drop any. But, it does mean their stock is falling (and in some cases, might be worth a prospective buy).

I’ll start with the pitchers.

Jeffrey Springs pitched very well in his first 2025 outing two weeks ago in Seattle. Since then, he’s made two starts in Sacramento with mixed results. He conceded nine runs (seven earned) over nine frames at home. And continuining what’s been a trend in Sutter Health, Springs conceded two home runs.

Now, there are positive metrics to ponder with Springs. Overall, he hasn’t given up much barreled-up contact (4.4%) and his changeup remains an excellent offering. Ten of his 16 strikeouts have come off the pitch.

However, he likes to work high with the fastball and with how that ballpark has played thus far, is concerning if the fastball drops too much over the dish.

Next up are two other left-handers: Yusei Kikuchi and Carlos Rodon. Both were borderline top-200 fantasy players heading into 2025 but the two have had control problems. Rodon, who’s average fastball velocity is -1.8 MPH compared to 2024, is walking batters at a near -13% clip. For Kikuchi, who walked eight over his last 12 innings, it’s 10.8%.

Lastly, reliever Devin Williams. Williams has thrown three innings this season and over those frames, walked four and ranked among the worst in the league in Barrel% (33.3%).

It’s a very small sample size and Williams, given his pedigree, should be given a good leash to work with. But, the early returns have not been good.

As for the hitters, Willson Contreras could easily be placed on this list. However, he was featured as a faller in Week 1 and hasn’t gotten on track since. Among qualified hitters, Contreras’ .102 average is second-worst behind only Jonah Bride (.091).

Getting to the players who are on this list, Eugenio Suarez cooled off after a massive start to 2025. Suarez hit five home runs over his first five games. But since then, a .074 average and a 33.3% K% rate.

Yainer Diaz, meanwhile, notched only one hit over his last 19 plate appearances.

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