4 Fantasy Baseball Risers and Fallers - Shea Langeliers, Trevor Rogers, Lawrence Butler, Spencer Strider

Connelly's fantasy baseball risers and fallers for Week 20 of 2025. He assesses hitters and pitchers performing well and poorly to determine their future value.

Welcome, everyone, to another edition of RotoBaller’s Fantasy Baseball Risers and Fallers article series for Week 20 of the 2025 season! Today, I'll look at Shea Langeliers, Trevor Rogers, Lawrence Butler, and Spencer Strider.

Keeping up with the latest hitter and pitcher trends is a key component for a successful season, and RotoBaller is here to help fantasy managers! Each week, I will select a few players who have performed well recently and a few who have not, and I will analyze their performances to determine how their future outcomes may be affected.

Fantasy trade deadlines may have passed, but there is still work to do before the playoffs. Figuring out what to make of players on your roster could make the difference between making or missing the fantasy playoffs. With that, let's dig into some Fantasy Risers and Fallers!

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Fantasy Baseball Hitter Riser

All stats are current as of Sunday morning, August 10, 2025.

Shea Langeliers, Athletics (C)

.274/.323/.546 Slash Line, 23 HRs, 52 RBI, 5 SBs

In a surprising turn of events, catcher has been one of the deeper positions in fantasy baseball this season. There have been several new faces, as well as some familiar ones, who have stepped things up. Shea Langeliers is the latter; the former prospect is having a career season and has been on fire in the second half with a .412/.435/.894 slash line.

Power has always been his calling card, and he has delivered once again this season, although it has come in some interesting ways. Langeliers and the A’s moved from one of baseball’s most pitcher-friendly parks to a favorable hitting environment at Sutter Health Park. Despite this, Langeliers has hit much better overall on the road, with only six of his 23 home runs coming at home.

Additionally, he has almost as many HRs in the second half as in the first, despite not hitting the ball as hard. His 89.5 mph average exit velocity and 40.5% hard-hit rate in the second half are among the lowest marks of his career.

Shea Langeliers THREE-HOMER GAME! 😳 pic.twitter.com/gMgxfGbbaz

— MLB (@MLB) August 6, 2025

The good news is that his batting average is finally reflecting his BABIP. Langeliers owns a career .229 batting average despite a career .259 BABIP. This season is the first where the two align, with a .273 BABIP and a .274 batting average. His strikeout rate has dropped considerably to a career-low 18.1%, and he has made much more contact than ever before.

Langeliers has developed into a four-category contributor this season, maintaining his power while seeing a considerable uptick in batting average. He has mostly hit in the middle of a surprisingly strong lineup, making him a higher-end option at a position with a surprising number of viable options.

Fantasy Baseball Pitcher Riser

All stats are current as of Sunday morning, August 10, 2025.

Trevor Rogers, Baltimore Orioles

5-2, 1.44 ERA, 0.83 WHIP, 22.8% Strikeout Rate, 62 1/3 IP

The Orioles traded a pair of prospects, including 2025 breakout Kyle Stowers, for Trevor Rogers last season, leaving baseball fans scratching their heads. Rogers started this season in the minors and put up poor numbers. He joined the O's for good in the middle of June and has looked like a completely different pitcher. The O's have been disappointing overall for fantasy, but could Rogers be a bright spot?

Trevor Rogers appreciation post 🙌

10 GS, 62.1 IP, 1.44 ERA, 0.83 WHIP pic.twitter.com/ZOECsw0yoL

— Baltimore Orioles (@Orioles) August 6, 2025

First and foremost, no fantasy managers should expect Rogers, or any starter for that matter, to maintain a 1.44 ERA for the rest of the season. Moving beyond that, there are some specific signs indicating just how much Rogers has overperformed his peripherals.

Starting with his batted-ball profile, Rogers has allowed hard contact overall, with his average exit velocity in the 44th percentile of baseball and his hard-hit rate in the fourth percentile. He is a groundball pitcher, and it is not uncommon for those types of pitchers to allow more hits. Rogers has been the exact opposite, with a minuscule .212 BABIP that is almost 100 points lower than his career average.

Outside of his standout 2021 season, Rogers has never been much of a strikeout pitcher. He has still been able to rack up decent strikeout numbers by pitching deep into games. He has averaged 6 1/3 IP/GS, with eight of his 10 starts going over six IP. In those, he has amassed two six-strikeout performances and two eight-strikeout performances.

Overall, Rogers has been great, exceeding his expected statistics. His 3.24 xERA and 3.77 SIERA, while good, are much higher than his ERA. Even so, fantasy managers can't argue with his production. He has given up a lot of hard contact but has kept the ball on the ground. He has given the O's much-needed length in starts, and his long leash has led to decent strikeout totals.

I don't buy Rogers' numbers, but regression doesn't always occur immediately. At this point in the fantasy season, I would be fine with riding the hot hand if or until things start to shift towards his underlying expectations.

Fantasy Baseball Hitter Faller

All stats are current as of Sunday morning, August 10, 2025.

Lawrence Butler, Athletics (OF)

.231/.305/.403 Slash Line, 15 HRs, 44 RBI, 17 SBs

I mentioned earlier that the A’s have put together a strong offense this season, and Lawrence Butler was supposed to be a part of that. He emerged as a power/speed fantasy threat last season, and he does have 15 HRs and 17 stolen bases this season. However, almost all of that production came in the first half, and he is batting an abysmal .123 with just two HRs and one stolen base in the second half.

It is difficult to say what has led to the drastic change, but it has clearly been a case of two halves for Butler. He produced a .251/.326.433 slash line with a 91.0-MPH average exit velocity, a 27.5% strikeout rate, and a 10% walk rate in 408 first-half plate appearances. Even that strikeout rate wasn't great, but Butler has a middling career strikeout rate of 26.5%.

Those numbers have plummeted in his 72 second-half plate appearances, settling at a .123/.186/.231 slash line with an 86.9-MPH average exit velocity, a 36.1% strikeout rate, and a 6.9% walk rate. The 25-year-old is well aware of his struggles, which could potentially be fueling them further.

Butler's profile offers plenty of fantasy value, but nothing has been clicking for him lately. He has been sitting out of the lineup more frequently as the A's cycle in some of their other young players. His roster rate has dropped to 87%, which is significant for a player who was being drafted at about pick 62 overall.

At this point, fantasy managers need every roster spot to count. I would be more patient with him if this were happening earlier in the season, but I would not blame fantasy managers for dropping him for any current producer with just a few weeks to go before the fantasy playoffs.

Fantasy Baseball Pitcher Faller

All stats are current as of Sunday morning, August 10, 2025.

Spencer Strider, Atlanta Braves

5-9, 4.04 ERA, 1.30 WHIP, 28.0% Strikeout Rate, 82 1/3 IP

Spencer Strider wasn't really able to get his season started until the end of May due to an elbow injury and a hamstring injury. However, he was one of fantasy's most electric pitchers in 2022 and 2023. He has not been the same since coming back, with a pedestrian 4.04 ERA and a 1.30 WHIP in 82 1/3 innings pitched. Could he potentially be a liability the rest of the way?

Strider's previous dominance came from his two-pitch arsenal of a four-seam fastball and a slider. He hasn't thrown his slider quite as hard and hasn't gotten quite as much spin on it, but his 25.5% swinging-strike rate on the pitch is still an elite mark. His .186 batting average against and .373 slugging percentage against the pitch are outstanding as well.

Spencer Strider, Ankle-Breaking 84mph Slider. 🦶 pic.twitter.com/vPqmpylpqN

— Rob Friedman (@PitchingNinja) July 11, 2025

The other half of his arsenal is the concerning part. Strider's fastball averaged 97.2 mph in 2023 but has been just 95.5 mph this season. The lack of velocity has almost halved his swinging-strike rate on the pitch compared to his 2023 mark, coming in at 7.0%. He has thrown the pitch in the middle-top of the zone, and it has gotten punished.

Strider has allowed a poor 91.7 mph average exit velocity overall, with his fastball being hit at 92.4 mph. He has also allowed a .284 batting average against and a .462 slugging percentage with the fastball. He has sprinkled in an effective curveball, but the bottom line is that his primary pitch has dropped off significantly from what it was.

It is difficult to come to a clear conclusion with Strider. He is still throwing hard while relying on his fastball and slider, and he is still getting big strikeout numbers. The problem is that his fastball has not been overpowering like it was before his injuries. Starting pitchers have a thin margin of error when they only rely on two pitches, and as good as his slider is, it seems like it may not be enough without the elite fastball.

Strider's strikeout skills make him appealing in points leagues, even with his pedestrian peripherals. Fantasy managers in roto leagues may want to take a more conservative approach. Unless they need strikeouts, Strider may be best deployed in favorable matchups only down the stretch.

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