Stop me if you’ve heard this one before: A contact-hitting Arizona Diamondbacks infielder adds more than 3% to his Barrel rate, puts forth a top-15 fantasy point total among hitters during the season’s first month, and swiftly establishes himself as a viable top-third-of-the-lineup option.
While Geraldo Perdomo might immediately come to mind for his 2025 breakthrough campaign, Ildemaro Vargas (2B/1B, 41.5% rostered in ESPN leagues) is this year’s player who fits the description. With his 3-for-5 performance (with a homer) in the Diamondbacks’ 12-7 Sunday victory in the second of a two-game set in Mexico City, Vargas now has a 20-game hitting streak this season (and it’s actually 23 in a row, dating back into 2025).
Vargas has started each of Arizona’s last 12 games, hitting five home runs during that time and earning starts out of the leadoff spot in three of them (Sunday included). With Perdomo injuring his ankle during Saturday’s game, Vargas should see continued leadoff time, assuming Perdomo’s ailment requires an IL stint. Vargas’ ascent to starter status makes him worth a pickup.
Unfortunately, the Perdomo comparisons end with Vargas’ power ascent and his hot start to 2026, as the two are not otherwise equal. Perdomo broke through as a 25-year-old with a top-100 prospect pedigree (his 2021 debut year), while Vargas is a 34-year-old journeyman who, before this year, had never effectively hit right-handed pitching. He already has as many home runs against them this year (2) as he had in any of his nine prior MLB campaigns.
Vargas is one of the game’s most free-swinging hitters, with a 4.9% career walk rate and a sixth-percentile chase rate this season, so by all rights his hot spell is merely that: a hot spell. Short-term stats do matter in fantasy baseball, however, and with the expanded opportunity he’s seeing, he’s one of the week’s top pickups, especially if Perdomo’s injury requires greater time to heal.
Catching up
Among the most-anticipated new position eligibilities of 2026 was attained over the weekend, as Ivan Herrera (DH/C, St. Louis Cardinals, 19.2% rostered) made his 10th (Friday) and 11th (Sunday) starts behind the plate to add that important position in fantasy. Between that and his 16 starts as the team’s DH, Herrera is the only Cardinals hitter to have started all 27 games this season.
The significance is that Herrera, who has one of the keenest eyes among players who man the position, immediately slid in as the fifth-best fantasy point scorer among catcher-eligibles (65), ahead of notable names William Contreras (62, sixth), Cal Raleigh (51, tied for 12th) and Will Smith (50, 15th). That’s not to declare Herrera as a better fantasy catcher for the remainder of the season than those three, but it underscores his ability to offer a competitive point total if you’re thin at the position.
Herrera will most likely enter the catcher pool at No. 8 in my next positional rankings, right alongside players like Smith and Adley Rutschman, and ahead of preseason top-10 options Yainer Diaz and Agustin Ramirez.
Deeper league pickups
Deep (12-team mixed): Louis Varland, RP, Toronto Blue Jays (24.8% rostered): Jeff Hoffman‘s gopheritis — his 17 homers allowed between this and last season are tied for the most among relievers — finally resulted in his getting the boot from the Blue Jays’ closer role. General manager Ross Atkins announced on Friday that the team will go with a committee approach to closing games for now. Let’s be clear — that’s only the “proclaimed strategy.” Manager John Schneider certainly maintains the ability to summon his best reliever, Varland, at whatever critical time in the game is necessary.
Varland is the most-suited to handle save chances moving forward, as his 98-plus-mph fastball, 35%-plus-whiff knuckle curve and ground ball-inducing overall repertoire makes him an ideal fit. Best yet, after surrendering a run in a save chance on Saturday, Varland got the ball again to close on Sunday, giving him back-to-back successful conversions and signaling Schneider’s confidence in him. He needs to be rostered everywhere.
Deeper (15-team mixed): Lucas Giolito, SP, San Diego Padres (1.7% rostered): The lengthy time it took for him to find a 2026 team could have been a combination of both his asking price as well as prospective suitors’ concerns about the elbow issue that prematurely ended his 2025. Still, by landing with the Padres, Giolito is now in just about the softest landing spot for a pitcher with his skill set. Though he had a productive 2025 with his 271 fantasy points placing 62nd among starting pitchers, his underlying metrics strongly hinted regression will come due this year.
With the Padres, however, the right-hander will benefit from Petco Park’s pitcher-friendly home environment, not to mention a larger number of matchups against lighter-hitting divisional opponents like the Colorado Rockies (by the way, the Padres have already played three of their seven scheduled games at Coors Field) and San Francisco Giants. Giolito should be ready to join the Padres rotation in 2-3 weeks, so managers with bench space in this depth of league should consider stashing him for matchup purposes.
Deepest (AL- and NL-only leagues): Ronny Mauricio, 3B, New York Mets (0.6% rostered): With Francisco Lindor (calf) set to miss at least the next three weeks, Mauricio appears to be their primary choice at shortstop. Bo Bichette might have been a candidate to slide over from third, giving the Mets the luxury of sliding Brett Baty in at the hot corner, but they’ve gone in that direction only once in four games, with Mauricio handling three starts in Lindor’s stead.
Mauricio has been a Triple-A standout, batting .305/.360/.537 with 32/33 numbers in 140 career games at that level. He has not yet succeeded in the majors, but the expanded opportunity could finally give him a chance to display his five-category rotisserie ability. He’s well worth the pickup in deeper leagues, especially with the Mets in the midst of an extremely hitter-friendly portion of their schedule, facing the Washington Nationals (three games), Los Angeles Angels (three) and Rockies (three, at Coors) over the next 10 days.
