Fantasy Baseball 2026: Winners and Losers from Week 7

Week 7 is when the grace period officially expires. The guys who were going to turn it around have either turned it around or they haven't, and the ones who looked too good to be true have mostly started looking exactly as good as they actually are.

The sample sizes are no longer small enough to hide behind. The excuses are getting harder to say out loud without your leaguemates visibly losing patience. This is the part of the fantasy season where good managers make moves and great managers already made them two weeks ago. Here's who helped you and who didn't during this past week in fantasy baseball.

Winner: Casey Schmitt, DH/2B/3B, San Francisco Giants

Nobody told Casey Schmitt he was supposed to be a placeholder. His wRC+ of 147 is elite company, his swinging-strike rate sits at a tidy 9.8%, and his Z-swing rate of 91.5% means he's about as likely to miss a pitch in the zone as the Giants are to win the NL West. Pair that with a 16.1% barrel rate and you've got a hitter who's doing real damage, not just running up a hot BABIP. Position eligibility at second and third from last year, DH this year and eventually 1B, makes him a roster Swiss Army knife. He's still sitting on waiver wires in a lot of leagues. Find him. Fix that. You're welcome.

Loser: Andrew Painter, SP, Philadelphia Phillies

Andrew Painter was supposed to be The Guy in Philadelphia for the next decade. Right now he's pitching like he'd rather be doing something else entirely. Through seven starts: 6.89 ERA, 1.71 WHIP. The low point came against the A's, when he gave up eight runs in 3.2 innings, surrendering three homers on two-strike fastballs that arrived with gift receipts attached. His four-seam and two-seam have been hit to a .348 average against with a 9.4% whiff rate, which ranks 118th out of 124 qualified starters. Hitters aren't guessing anymore. They're timing it. Dynasty managers hold and hope. Painter has potential, but it might be time to put the brushes away.

Winner: Liam Hicks, OF, Miami Marlins

The Marlins have assembled their lineup with roughly the organizational coherence of a garage sale, but as the Marlins keep Marlining, guys grow out of the ground like weeds. Liam Hicks is the real deal in the middle of it. He came into the week slashing a .928 OPS with a 160 OPS+, posted a 1.014 OPS with five home runs over his last 14 games, and then went 2-for-5 with two RBI Saturday in Miami's wild 10-5 extra-innings win at Tampa. The power-average combination is exactly what you want in a corner outfield spot, and he's still flying under the national radar. Your window to buy low is closing. Act accordingly.

Loser: Kyle Tucker, OF, Los Angeles Dodgers

The concerning thing about Kyle Tucker's slump is that there's no clean explanation for it. You can't point to a ground-ball rate that's spiked, or a batted ball profile that's cratered, or a plate discipline collapse that explains everything. The chase rate is creeping up a bit, but nothing that screams crisis. He's just not producing, and the longer that goes on in May, the harder it gets to sell high on him and the less appetizing buy-low looks as a roster strategy. He's talented enough that a two-week hot streak rewrites the whole narrative. The question is whether you can afford to wait for it.

Winner: Brandon Lowe, 2B, Pittsburgh Pirates

Brandon Lowe is slashing .266/.368/.573 with 10 home runs in 144 plate appearances, and he has cut his strikeout rate from 26.9% to 20.8%. That last number is the one that matters. A 30-HR pace from a second baseman is nice. A 30-HR pace from a second baseman who has demonstrably improved his approach at the plate is a profile change, and profile changes are what fantasy championships are built on. The Pirates offense has been one of the quietly pleasant surprises of the first quarter of the season, and Lowe is at the center of it.

Loser: Fernando Tatis Jr., OF/SS

The longer this goes on, the more seriously you have to consider the possibility that the slide is not a temporary detour but a destination. Tatis still has the tools to flip the script in a week and a half and make everyone who held him look like a genius. That's always been the Tatis bargain. But holding out for the turnaround is starting to feel less like patience and more like stubbornness, and those two things have a way of looking identical until suddenly they don't. Memorial Day is the day your fantasy baseball team is what it is, and it might be the day we decided this is who Tatis is now.

Winner?: Trent Grisham, OF, New York Yankees

Not sexy, but useful, which describes about half the best fantasy baseball decisions you'll ever make. The .177 batting average is doing all the heavy lifting in keeping Grisham off rosters, but his expected batting average of .230 and an expected slugging percentage roughly 100 points above his actual number say positive regression is not a matter of if, but when. His counting stats for runs, hits, RBI and walks are all nearly identical to his strikeout total. He accumulates. He doesn't swing and miss. He's the guy who looks boring in your lineup and quietly helps you win categories. Statcast is yelling. Are you listening?

Loser: Cal Raleigh, C, Seattle Mariners

Cal Raleigh became the first catcher in major league history to hit 60 home runs in a season last year. He is also 2-for-44 over his last 11 games with 19 strikeouts, and he is now on the injured list with a right oblique strain (that should be spelled Oh-blique!) that he has almost certainly been playing through for some time. Oblique injuries are notoriously slow healers. The 10-day minimum is almost never the actual stay. Hold if your roster depth allows it. Stream if it doesn't. And reset your expectations for what "ramped back up" looks like when he does return, because 60 home runs last year tells you what the ceiling is, not what the floor looks like after three weeks of playing hurt.

And Another Thing ...

Two items this week, because the sport earned it.

The Chicago White Sox Are a Playoff Team and Nobody Knows What to Do About It

For the first time since 2022, the Chicago White Sox have a winning record in May. They swept the Royals, won five straight, and are now sitting at 23-22, currently one game out of first and as the No. 2 AL wild-card. After three seasons of historically catastrophic baseball, this is genuinely disorienting news. The White Sox being a legitimate playoff contender in mid-May is baseball's version of a guy who had his license revoked three years ago casually asking to borrow your car. You want to say no on principle. But he seems to have turned things around, he's been responsible about it, and honestly, you're a little curious to see what happens. Just ride with him (and them), but keep your hand on the door handle.

Jung Hoo Lee and the Line Nobody Knew Was Blank

Giants outfielder Jung Hoo Lee hit the first inside-the-park home run at Dodger Stadium in the history of the Giants-Dodgers rivalry last week. Think about that for a moment. Sandy Koufax. Willie Mays. Kirk Gibson. Barry Bonds. Clayton Kershaw. Generations of the most bitter rivalry in the sport, played out across thousands of games at Chavez Ravine, and it took until 2026 for someone to leg one all the way around. The Giants are having a rough year by any measure. But they still managed to write a line in the record book that nobody even knew was sitting there empty. That's baseball, and it's one of the reasons we never completely walk away from it.

Questions About Fantasy Baseball Winners & Losers, Answered

Who were the biggest fantasy baseball winners from Week 7 in 2026?

Casey Schmitt, Liam Hicks, and Brandon Lowe headlined Week 7 risers. Schmitt posted a wRC+ of 147 with a 16.1% barrel rate and three-position eligibility. Hicks continued his tear with a 1.014 OPS over his last 14 games. Lowe is on a 30-HR pace after cutting his strikeout rate from 26.9% to 20.8%.

Which players were the biggest fantasy baseball losers from Week 7?

Andrew Painter, Kyle Tucker, Fernando Tatis Jr., and Cal Raleigh all had rough weeks. Painter's ERA sits at 6.89 through seven starts. Tucker continues to slump without a clear explanation. Tatis remains stuck in neutral, and Raleigh landed on the IL with a right oblique strain while hitting .045 over his last 11 games.

Should I add Trent Grisham to my fantasy roster after Week 7?

Yes, in most formats. Grisham's .177 batting average is masking a strong underlying profile, with an expected batting average of .230 and an expected slugging percentage roughly 100 points above his actual mark. Positive regression is coming; the only question is timing.

Should I drop or trade Andrew Painter after his Week 7 struggles?

It depends on your format. Dynasty managers should hold given his long-term upside. Redraft managers need to weigh whether they can absorb the ongoing damage to their ERA and WHIP while waiting for a turnaround that isn't guaranteed to arrive soon.

What should I do with Cal Raleigh now that he's on the injured list?

Hold if your roster depth allows it, and stream a backup in the meantime. Oblique strains routinely exceed the 10-day minimum. When Raleigh returns, expect a gradual ramp-up rather than an immediate return to his 60-homer form from last season.

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This story was originally published May 17, 2026 at 8:43 AM.