Fantasy Baseball Winners and Losers from Week 8 2026
Your fantasy team is basically what it is - the roster you have today is probably the roster, and the statistic narrative it has written, you're riding into summer. So here's a final May report card: the players who rewarded your patience or your waiver wire instincts, and the ones who owe you an apology.
Winner: JJ Bleday, OF, Reds
The former fourth overall pick who bounced around three organizations finally looks like the prospect everyone drafted him as. In his first 21 games with Cincinnati after an April 25 callup, he slashed .292/.402/.653 with six home runs and 20 RBI. His Statcast line backs it up: 91.9 mph average exit velocity, 53.1 percent hard-hit rate, .439 wOBA, and 14.1 percent barrel rate. The one caveat: he's hitting .327 with a 1.158 OPS against righties and just .176 with a .730 OPS against lefties, so keep an eye on matchups. Still available in most leagues and absolutely should not be.
Loser: Cal Raleigh, C, Mariners
Last year: 60 home runs, Silver Slugger, the fantasy anchor your whole season was built around. You drafted him in the first round with visions of another 50-plus homer haul dancing in your head. Instead you got a .157 batting average, 31.4 percent strikeout rate, .253 wOBA, and a career-worst 40 percent whiff rate against 95-plus mph fastballs - and now, just to twist the knife, he's on the IL. If you haven't planned how to make up for the HR deficit he handed you, please make sure you've paid your league fees.
Winner: Gavin Sheets, 1B/OF, Padres
The guy non-tendered by the White Sox two years ago is now the offensive leader of a playoff contender and nobody seems to have noticed. He leads the Padres in home runs, slugging percentage, OPS, and OBP among hitters with 100-plus at-bats, and is hitting .407 with runners in scoring position. Over his last seven games he went 10-for-19 with four homers, eight RBI, and six runs. His season line sits at .262/.340/.556 with a .896 OPS across 141 plate appearances. He is still only rostered in 27 percent of Yahoo leagues. That number should embarrass every fantasy manager reading this column
Loser: Vinnie Pasquantino, 1B, Royals
Pasquatch was supposed to be a 30-homer threat after hitting 32 last season with 113 RBI. Instead: .201 average, .627 OPS, five home runs, and 22 RBI across 189 plate appearances, with the Royals sitting last in the AL Central around him. The Statcast profile explains why this is more than a cold stretch: an 88.9 mph average exit velocity, 36.2 percent hard-hit rate, .274 wOBA, and .301 xwOBA - the contact numbers of a guy who has simply stopped driving the ball. The xwOBA at .301 offers a sliver of hope that positive regression is coming. The lefty matchup problem offers a reason for caution: his performance against left-handed pitching has worsened every single season he's been in the big leagues. This is a legitimate structural concern heading into June, not a slump you paper over.
Winner: Spencer Steer, INF/OF, Reds
Steer spent April looking like a man who owed the Reds an apology, slashing .199/.271/.333 through his first 37 games. The last 10 games have looked considerably more like the Steer fantasy managers expected - .293/.370/.463 with two homers, six RBI, and a bat speed that has ticked up nearly a full mph as he's found his timing. The Statcast profile was never actually broken: a 90.2 mph exit velocity, .383 xwOBA, and a 14.6 percent barrel rate all suggest the results are now catching up to the contact quality. The multi-position eligibility remains the fantasy calling card in any format. He's worth holding - and in shallower leagues, still worth adding.
Loser: Fernando Tatis Jr., RF, Padres -zero home runs, and it's Memorial Day
This is the most fascinating bust in baseball right now and nobody has figured it out yet. Through 44 games, Tatis has yet to hit a single home run, slashing .233 with a .586 OPS, for a guy who has never hit fewer than 20 in a full season. Here's the maddening part: his hard-hit rate sits in the 98th percentile, his bat speed is up from last year at 75 mph, and his barrel rate is a healthy 11.7 percent. He is absolutely crushing the ball. It is going nowhere useful. The culprit: his air-pull rate has collapsed to 5.4 percent against a career mark of 14.9 percent - and the only year he was above average in that category was 2021, when he hit a career-best 42 home runs. He's hitting hard ground balls instead of pulled fly balls. As Tatis himself told reporters: "I don't know what the [expletive] is going on. But, man, just keep going out there and keep grinding." Hold him. But quietly.
Winner: Ben Brown, P, Cubs
The best ERA you haven't checked on since April. Injuries to Matthew Boyd and Justin Steele pushed Brown into a rotation spot he has absolutely not wasted. Over 38.2 innings in 2026 he owns a 2.09 ERA, 0.98 WHIP, and a 40:12 K:BB ratio - numbers that look made up for a guy who posted a 5.92 ERA last season. He took a bump against Milwaukee in his last start, allowing three runs, but still generated 15 whiffs in that outing, which tells you the stuff is real even when the results aren't perfect. His projection models see some regression coming - a 3.91 ERA rest-of-season estimate - but even that would make him one of the better streaming options available. He's next scheduled to face Pittsburgh. Add him now.
Loser (in waiting): Colson Montgomery, SS, White Sox
Last summer Montgomery came out of nowhere - literally debuting on July 4 - and hit 21 home runs in 71 games, making him one of the most exciting young shortstops in the game. Fantasy managers who stashed him in dynasty leagues felt like geniuses. Then 2026 happened. Through the first two months of the season he has 13 home runs and 31 RBI, which look fine on the surface, but his whiff rate has climbed to 16.8% and his strikeout rate sits at 30%. The deeper problem: his 24% home run per fly ball rate is wildly unsustainable - meaning the homers he's hitting are coming at a rate that math simply won't allow to continue. Pitchers identified his vulnerability to offspeed pitches below the zone as a rookie and he's been chasing the same pitch in the same location ever since. The power is real. The approach isn't there yet. Hold him in dynasty leagues but adjust your expectations in other leagues.
Winner: Carson Benge, OF, Mets
We already covered Benge's turnaround and new batting stance in depth this week, but it's worth the recap: a stance correction from too wide in the box has turned him into a completely different hitter. Over a recent 10-game stretch he slashed .389/.450/.556 with three doubles, a homer, seven RBI, and eight runs, all while locked into the Mets leadoff spot. Still available in most standard leagues.
Winners and Losers: ABS System Edition
Winner: Dillon Dingler, C, Tigers - by a wide margin
Dingler has challenged 21 pitches this season, with 19 being overturned in his team's favor. That's a 90% success rate at a time when the league average for catchers sits at 59%. The Tigers as a whole are the best team in baseball at ABS challenges, and Dingler is the reason why, he's essentially turned the challenge system into a competitive weapon. For context, the overall MLB success rate across nearly 3,000 challenges is 54 percent, essentially a coin flip, so Dingler is operating at a completely different level. Honorable mention to teammate Kevin McGongile, who is 7-of-9 on challenges.
Loser: Edgar Quero, C, White Sox
The biggest loser in the ABS challenge standings isn't a star trying to protect a big at-bat. It's White Sox catcher Edgar Quero, who has issued 42 challenges this season - more than almost anyone - and is winning just 42.9% of them. He is challenging more than Dingler and winning less than a coin flip. That is a special kind of confidence. The White Sox, for the record, are 24-22 and sitting second in the AL Central - which is genuinely one of the better stories in baseball this season. Edgar Quero's ABS strategy is not why.
Winners and Losers: Fan Edition
Winner: The Johnsons of Glendale, AZ
AJ and Mary Jane Johnson showed up to Chase Field on a Tuesday night for the D-backs vs. Giants game, but actually had purchased tickets to the following night. Already at the park, they bought tickets for that night's game anyway, like good baseball fans.
During Game 1, AJ - who brought his glove - caught a Willy Adames home run ball that ricocheted out of the bullpens. Very cool.
The next night, sitting in about the same place, AJ … say it with me now …. Caught a home run ball by Willy Adames.
Loser: This Guy
You've probably seen the clip on Twitter, Instagram, or Facebook - and then again in your nightmares. A fan pursuing a foul ball by the Cubs Matt Shaw … let's just say had a tough time. You can tell it was a night game because the full moon was out.
"Ooh. Everybody okay down there?" - Jim Deshaies
— js9innings (@js9inningsmedia) April 8, 2026
Boog Sciambi stayed silent after seeing a full moon https://t.co/Wc0sBnJ1bT
Cubs color commentator Jim Deshaies delivers another unintentionally funny line instead of actually saying something intentionally entertaining, but that's just me editorializing.
So let's remember the two lessons we've learned. 1. Check the date on your tickets. 2. Make sure you are wearing your belt before you head out to the park.
Winners or Losers: I honestly don't know
During the Mets' road trip to Coors Field, broadcaster Keith Hernandez and reporter Steve Gelbs ate Coors Field's famous 23-inch Glizzilla hot dog from opposite ends, resembling the spaghetti scene from "Lady and the Tramp."
Gelbs this season has added a "Let's Be Frank" segment to the SNY broadcasts, during which he tastes and grades the hot dogs in each park and he needed assistance at Coors Field. Hernandez noted the hot dog was "kind of beefy" and originally had no idea what "Lady and the Tramp" was. Cohen ribbed them that the image would "live forever," to which Gelbs jokingly replied, "For Keith, he won't be able to live it down. For me, it's a career highlight."
There is no doubt that the Mets are 2026's most meme-able franchise but I honestly am waiting for the proper context of this moment to make itself clear.
Questions About Winners And Losers, Answered
Who were the biggest fantasy baseball winners in May 2026?
JJ Bleday, Gavin Sheets, Ben Brown, Carson Benge, and Spencer Steer all rewarded managers who rostered them with standout May production.
Which players lost the most value in May and why?
Cal Raleigh (IL, career-worst contact metrics), Fernando Tatis Jr. (zero home runs despite elite exit velocity), and Vinnie Pasquantino (structural lefty splits, stopped driving the ball) were the month's biggest disappointments.
What are the top waiver-wire adds coming out of May?
Gavin Sheets at 27 percent rostered and Ben Brown with a 2.09 ERA are the two most inexcusable names still available in fantasy leagues right now.
Should I trade for or sell any of May's winners or losers?
Sell Colson Montgomery while his 13 home runs still look pretty, and buy Tatis if a panicked leaguemate will deal him cheap.
How do Statcast trends support these May evaluations?
Bleday's .439 wOBA, Steer's .383 xwOBA, and Tatis's 98th-percentile hard-hit rate all confirm that the underlying skills are real - the surface stats are just catching up or lagging behind.
What roster moves should managers make heading into June?
Add Sheets and Bleday immediately, hold Tatis, drop Raleigh in shallow leagues, and adjust your Pasquantino expectations before his lefty problem gets worse.
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This story was originally published May 24, 2026 at 10:54 AM.