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USATSI

Let's talk about a player whose name may not have been mentioned once before in the Fantasy Baseball Today Newsletter: Kyren Paris.

Why have we never said Paris' name before? Well, because despite some vaguely interesting power/speed numbers in the minors, he has always looked like a pretty fringe-y talent, thanks to a massive 31% strikeout rate across Double-A and Triple-A. For a guy with a max exit velocity of 110 mph, who only had four batted balls all last season over 105 mph, that was just way too much swing-and-miss for him to ever likely matter as anything more than a utility player. That's not the kind of player we tend to care about for Fantasy. 

But he homered Tuesday, his first in just 26 plate appearances, and is suddenly hitting .429/.538/.952 on the season. He's forcing the Angels into giving him real run here after he forced the team to carry him into the regular season after hitting .400/.449/.667 this spring. 

But this is just a small-sample-size start we can safely ignore, right? The minor-league track record is a lot more important than a few weeks to open the season, right? I'm inclined to lean that way, but it's worth noting that Paris did spend the offseason rebuilding his swing – a "180-degree swing change" according to Richard Schenck, Aaron Judge's personal hitting coach, who Paris worked with this spring. 

That's all we have to go on here. That and a good spring and then a few weeks to open the season, which really isn't very much at all. But it's not nothing, especially when Paris showed some intriguing skills that were being held back by his contact issues in the minors. If he's solved those, maybe there could be something here.

Of course, with Zach Neto starting his minor-league rehab assignment this week, playing time in the Angels infield could be a lot harder to come by pretty soon. Paris might only have a week or two to keep making his case, so his margin for error here is awfully slim.

I'm betting against Paris being someone who matters all season for Fantasy, but I'm at least somewhat open to the possibility. If you've got a roster spot to play with and don't have a high-priority need to fill – unlikely, given the rash of injuries around MLB in the past week, I know – I don't mind adding Paris in a categories league, just in case there's something real here. 

And with that, let's move on to some names we have talked about. Here's everything else you need to know about from Tuesday's action: 

Wednesday's top waiver-wire targets

Here's who else we're looking to add coming out of Tuesday's action: 

Shane Smith, SP, White Sox (20%) – It's probably too late to say the White Sox pulled a diamond in the rough from the Rule 5 draft here, but I bet the Brewers wish they still had Smith, huh? He garnered nine whiffs on 83 pitches in this one against a lineup that doesn't swing-and-miss very much – he generated one especially ugly whiff from Steven Kwan, something you don't see very often – and rewarded anyone who streamed him. I think Smith is still mostly just a points league option thanks to his RP eligibility, but this start has me thinking there could be more there – especially when you look at his 29.6% strikeout rate, 7.6% walk rate, and 3.06 ERA in the minors last season. 

Josh Jung, 3B, Rangers (71%) – Talent has never really been the question for Jung, who hasn't even made it a week before requiring an IL stint in each of the past two seasons. Skepticism is needed, given his extensive injury history, but he is currently healthy after coming off the IL Tuesday, going 3 for 4 with a double, triple, run, and RBI. The only time he's managed to make it through most of a whole season healthy in 2023, Jung had 23 homers, 70 RBI, and 75 runs in 122 games, and there's 30-homer upside in a good lineup if he can avoid injuries this time. I understand if you're skeptical, but at least it won't cost you a draft pick to add him this time. 

Dillon Dingler, C, Tigers (8%) – Dingler probably needed a bigger role for the Tigers anyway, and with Jake Rogers going on the IL Tuesday, that's exactly what he's going to get. Dingler was never a big-time prospect, but he did hit .257/.344/.4589 in his minor-league career with solid power (and even better numbers in Triple-A), and now he's off to a nice start to this season, hitting .364 with his second homer Tuesday. I don't think he's a star or anything, but Dingler has enough pop to at least be worth a look if you're cycling through otherwise underwhelming options for your No. 2 catcher spot. 

Sean Murphy, C, Braves (39%) – Of course, the problem with adding Dingler is, Murphy is pretty widely available right now and I'd rather have him. I do think the Braves are going to be pretty careful about his playing time with top prospect Drake Baldwin around as his backup, but if Murphy can stay healthy and get back to even his 2023 levels of production, he's a must-start catcher in any two-catcher league. Go make sure he isn't available in yours. 

Landen Roupp, RP, Giants (27%) – We'll start with the caveat that the Reds are one of the best matchups in the league right now. Then we'll add that Roupp had just seven whiffs in this one, so he wasn't exactly dominant, despite allowing just one run in six innings of work. He did a good job of limiting hard contact, sure, but there was more contact than you typically prefer to see. I think could make a case for him being worth adding ahead of Smith, another RP-only pitcher, on the basis of Roupp being on a much better team, and his minor-league track record is probably a bit stronger. It'd just be nice to see some upside here from Roupp before viewing him as much more than a matchup-dependent SPaRP. 

Easton Lucas, SP, Blue Jays (7%) – Taking a shutout into the sixth inning against the Red Sox will get my attention, especially if it comes with eight strikeouts. I'm still mostly inclined to dismiss Lucas, who is 28 and has a limited track record of success as a starter. But that lack of experience as a starter might actually, weirdly, be a reason to give him a longer look. Before last season, he hadn't started a game since 2019, but he had some success pitching in longer chunks across three team's Triple-A affiliates in 2024, and now he's showing some flashes here in the Blue Jays rotation. He's probably just an AL-only target for now, but maybe there's some Bowden Francis funkiness going on here.