8 Fantasy Baseball Risers and Fallers - Ketel Marte, Kyle Harrison, Geraldo Perdomo, More

May 28, 2026

Jeremy analyzes 8 fantasy baseball risers, fallers, breakouts for hitters and pitchers in Week 9 of 2026. He discusses buy/sell candidates for fantasy baseball.

Welcome to another mid-week edition of Fantasy Baseball Risers and Fallers for Week 9 of the 2026 season! In this piece, I’ll take a look at Ketel Marte, Kyle Harrison, Geraldo Perdomo, and more. 

It’s important to keep up with recent hitter and pitcher trends, whether it’s a hot streak sending someone soaring up the rankings or a cold spell that has them plummeting. Each week, we’ll take a look at four risers and four fallers and analyze how their season-long outlooks are being affected.

Knowing the recent trends will give you an edge over your league mates, whether it’s in the context of the waiver wire or trades. With so many players covered here each week, you’re bound to gain some insight on some potential adds, drops, buy-highs, or sell-lows. Without further ado, let’s get into it.  

Fantasy Baseball Hitter Risers

Ketel Marte, 2B, Arizona Diamondbacks

Ketel Marte was one of the most frustrating elite fantasy players to roster throughout the first month of the season, as he slashed just .233/.294/.388 in March and April. Many expected more out of one of the best offensive second basemen in the game, and he’s finally turned things around over the past couple of weeks. 

He’s the number one most valuable player in fantasy over that time span, as he entered Wednesday batting .471 with four home runs, 17 RBI, and 15 runs in the past 14 days. The 32-year-old is currently in the midst of an 11-game hitting streak, with eight of them being multi-hit performances. 

Ketel Marte has been on 🔥 over his last 10 games...

47 PA
.524 AVG
.553 OBP
.952 SLG
6 Doubles
4 Home Runs
14 Runs
17 RBI
4/3 BB/K#DBackspic.twitter.com/4omN2jbwig

— Eric Cross (@EricCrossMLB) May 27, 2026

Marte’s underlying metrics look just as good as they’ve always been, as his elite .313 xBA and .527 xSLG suggest that a part of his bad April may have just been bad luck. He still clearly belongs in the top tier of second basemen and still has what it takes to finish as the best overall. 

Gabriel Moreno, C, Arizona Diamondbacks

After missing a few weeks with an oblique strain, Gabriel Moreno returned from the injured list on May 1 and has been on a tear as of late. He is the most valuable catcher in standard 5x5 Roto over the past 14 days, batting .342 with two home runs, eight RBI, eight runs, and three stolen bases.

While he’s struggled to stay healthy over the past couple of seasons, Moreno has been one of the best bets for batting average at the catcher position since his debut in 2022, with a career average of .278. The lack of power was the only thing holding him back from being a must-start fantasy catcher, and he showed promise in that regard in 2025, with a career-high nine homers in 83 games. 

The power gains came from decreasing his ground-ball rate from 49.6% in 2024 to 39.4% last year, as well as improving his Pull AIR% from 7.8% to 14.6%. So far in 2026, he’s taken an even bigger step forward, producing a 35.3% ground-ball rate and an elite 22.4% Pull AIR%. 

This could be a sign of even more homers on the horizon, which would be a skillset similar to Yainer Diaz’s peak in 2024, when he hit for a .299 average with 16 homers to be one of the most productive fantasy backstops at the time. The catcher position has gained way more elite fantasy talent since then, but Moreno is already pushing into the top-12 at the position from a rest-of-season standpoint. 

Fantasy Baseball Pitcher Risers

Kyle Harrison, Milwaukee Brewers

Kyle Harrison first turned heads with a 12-strikeout gem over six shutout innings against the Pirates on April 26, and he’s once again on a red-hot run as of late. He’s now logged three straight scoreless outings spanning 18 innings, where he’s allowed 11 hits, one walk, and struck out 20. 

He was especially impressive on May 20, tossing seven shutout innings with 11 strikeouts against a great Cubs’ offense. The 24-year-old now holds a 1.57 ERA and 1.03 WHIP with a 29.6% strikeout rate, and this is something to get genuinely excited about. The youngster was a fairly highly regarded prospect when he made his major league debut at just 21 years old, and this could finally be him figuring things out at this level.

Kyle Harrison, last six starts...

34 IP
0.79 ERA
0.88 WHIP
5.4% BB
33.3% K

Harrison now has a 1.57 ERA in 10 starts after six shutout innings last night. That's the lowest ERA in the National League for pitchers with 50+ innings.#ThisIsMyCrewpic.twitter.com/rMshlI8rHP

— Eric Cross (@EricCrossMLB) May 27, 2026

Harrison should be considered at least a top-36 starting pitcher the rest of the way, and he has the opportunity to keep rising if he keeps this up. 

Cade Cavalli, Washington Nationals

Cade Cavalli has put up a few solid starts in a row now, with three straight quality starts dating back to May 16. Over that span, he’s allowed six runs on 17 hits and three walks with 24 strikeouts over 19 1/3 innings. 

It’s great to see this increased efficiency from the youngster, as he previously threw at least six complete innings only twice out of his first nine starts. If he can consistently go deeper into games, that will allow his above-average 25.4% strikeout rate to rack up even more punchouts for your fantasy squad and would help balance out his WHIP, which has had the tendency to run on the higher side early in his career. 

The 27-year-old’s ERA now sits at 3.62, and he’s only given up more than three earned runs in an outing once all season. That type of consistency has made him a reliable streaming option, as even his bad starts aren’t the disaster outings that will completely ruin your ratios. It may be time to consider Cavalli as more than just a streaming option, as he can be a solid rotation piece in standard-sized or deeper leagues. 

Fantasy Baseball Hitter Fallers

Kyle Tucker, OF, Los Angeles Dodgers

Kyle Tucker has not looked like himself this season, slashing .245/.345/.398 with four home runs and four steals. While it’s usually best to keep faith in elite talent after a slow first month and a half, the reality is that this has been a much longer trend. 

The outfielder slashed .231/.360/.378 in the second half of last season, which gives him a .239 batting average with only a .389 SLG and nine homers in his past 94 games. That’s far from the early-first or late-second rounder that many fantasy managers drafted him to be, and it’s been long enough to start to worry that he won’t return to that level. 

It certainly hasn’t gotten better for the 29-year-old in the past 14 days, as he’s posted a .217 batting average and no home runs in that span. With rising stars such as James Wood, Jackson Chourio, and Oneil Cruz and rebounding superstars such as Yordan Alvarez and Mike Trout, Tucker could be on his way out of the top-10 outfielder discussion.

Geraldo Perdomo, SS, Arizona Diamondbacks

Geraldo Perdomo was one of the most surprising breakouts of 2025, batting .290 with 20 home runs, 100 RBI, 98 runs, and 27 steals after a pretty unexciting career up until that point. That made him one of the most polarizing players in fantasy this offseason, as many argued whether he’d be able to repeat it or not. 

So far, the answer to that debate is a resounding no, as he’s slashing just .223/.336/.335 with two homers and eight steals. There are no signs of a turnaround either, with a .213 batting average over the past 14 days. While the quality of contact metrics are down slightly, the biggest culprit is his ground-ball rate, which has spiked to 48.1% this year after being 39.8% last season. 

Even during his breakout 2025, Perdomo’s hard-hit rate was only in the 11th percentile, so there’s not much margin for error for someone who hits that ball that weakly. While I do think there are better days ahead for the 26-year-old, it won’t come close to touching what he did last season. It’s safe to consider him firmly outside of the top-12 shortstops at this point, surpassed by newcomers such as JJ Wetherholt, Konnor Griffin, and Kevin McGonigle.

Fantasy Baseball Pitcher Fallers

Nolan McLean, New York Mets

Nolan McLean was cruising through the early stages of this season, cementing himself as an ace with a 2.92 ERA and 0.96 WHIP through nine starts. However, after surrendering six runs to the Nationals on May 19 and seven runs to the Reds on May 25, his season stats look very different. 

The nine-inning stretch of 13 runs has worsened his ERA to 4.40 and his WHIP to 1.09, making his 2026 look not so elite anymore. Bad starts do happen to everyone from time to time, and this isn’t enough to send him plummeting down the rest of season rankings. After all, he still has maintained a 91st percentile strikeout rate of 29.6%, which is something many didn’t think he’d be able to do heading into the year. 

Even though I’m not declaring McLean an immediately worse pitcher because of this, I do think it’s notable enough to consider him a faller. The 24-year-old showed he’s not as untouchable as he appeared to be, and it’s important to see how he bounces back from this. This two-start stretch marks the first major hiccup of the righty’s major league career, so it will be telling to see if he has what it takes to identify and correct his mistakes in a timely manner.

Nolan McLean on the issues in his past two starts:

"Combination of things. Getting behind in counts, not landing my off-speed pitches like I should, and I've been hitting guys with two strikes too which isn't a great recipe for success" pic.twitter.com/yimaJ7fl6R

— SNY (@SNYtv) May 25, 2026

Shota Imanaga, Chicago Cubs

Shota Imanaga was looking like one of the biggest breakouts of the season, posting a 2.32 ERA and 0.90 WHIP through his first nine starts. That all changed in his past two outings, where he allowed a combined 15 runs, 16 hits, and four walks over 10 1/2 innings. 

The biggest concern is the fact that he allowed five home runs in those two starts, which doubled his season total. He gave up 31 homers last season, which tied for fourth-most in the majors, and this recent regression shows that he may not have put that weakness behind him. With a 9.7% barrel rate and a 38.1% ground-ball rate, there are bound to be balls that leave the yard, especially in Wrigley when the wind is blowing out. 

The recent bad stretch brought his ERA to 4.04 and WHIP to 1.07, which shows just how quickly season-long stats can still change in May. While Imanaga should still be considered a high-end pitcher for fantasy and will likely continue to be a standout contributor in WHIP, this is a reminder that the home run tendencies will likely prevent him from ever breaking into the true ace tier of starting pitchers.

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