Fantasy Baseball Third Basemen Draft Bust Candidates for 2025: Royce Lewis, Isaac Paredes, Jordan Westburg and More
Morgan lists some of his fantasy baseball third basemen draft busts for the 2025 season.
It’s time to begin a new fantasy baseball series!
This series is going to center around draft busts for 2025. I’m going to start with third basemen. Check back in the coming days for more parts to this series, along with more fantasy baseball coverage as we prepare for the start of the season.
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1. Royce Lewis
Lewis is my No. 6 fantasy third basemen for the 2025 season, but he could be one of the top fantasy busts too.
Lewis has done some special things when on the field, but far too often, he’s missed time with injuries. He only got in 82 games in 2024, and played in just 58 in 2023.
It’s unfair to dock a player for getting injured, but they also need to be on the field to deliver for fantasy owners. Lewis could be a breakout star in 2025, or he could continue his injury-riddled ways and never reach his full potential.
That’s what makes Lewis such a fascinating pick for this upcoming season. His fantasy ceiling is really high, but his fantasy floor is also really low if he only can play half the season again.
I see him being ranked sixth on a lot of preseason lists, including mine. He could finish higher than that, or nowhere near the top 10 if he’s battling injuries all season again.
I guess what I’m trying to get at is that you need to have a backup plan in place in case Lewis gets injured again. Ideally Lewis is your backup plan, but that might be hard to accomplish with him going pretty early in fantasy drafts.
2. Junior Caminero
Caminero is No. 9 on my top-10 list. He only has 50 games under his belt, so I’m ranking him high (others are too) based on speculation and some expectations he had coming up through the minor leagues.
Any time you are putting a top-10 label on a player who doesn’t even have a full season of experience under his belt, it’s a risky proposition. He flashed some potential with six home runs and 18 RBIs across 43 games last season.
If you multiply his numbers to a full 162-game season, you can see why Caminero has some lofty expectations going into 2025. He’s expected to hit in the heart of the team’s lineup, but struggles at the plate could move him out of a fantasy-beneficial spot in the lineup, and make it an uphill climb to reach his preseason expectations.
He’s another player who I would much rather prefer to be my No. 2 option at third base, but if Caminero is your top option, I’d make sure you have a very good backup plan in place. He’s another player who could finish comfortably inside the top 10 at the position, but he could also finish nowhere near it.
There’s definitely some risk involved with taking Caminero as a top-10 third basemen, and while I believe in him, there’s also a chance he’s a bust who really sets your fantasy team back.
3. Isaac Paredes
Paredes is outside my top-10 list, but I’ve seen him as a borderline top-10 3B on a few lists.
He took a step back as a hitter in 2023, with his average and on-base percentage dropping a bit, but seeing a big dropoff in home runs and RBIs despite playing more games than the season before.
Paredes started the 2024 season with Tampa Bay, but went to the Chicago Cubs at the trade deadline. He was traded to Houston this offseason in the Kyle Tucker deal.
Paredes’ fantasy outlook improved, in my eyes, with the offseason trade, but it also sets him up for failure if he cannot get back to his 2023 self. He’s expected to hit near the top of the lineup, maybe between Jose Altuve and Yordan Alvarez.
That’s a really great spot to be as a fantasy hitter, but based on what we saw last year from him, Paredes could slide way down the order if he continues to struggle at the plate. He’s got bounceback potential, but just as good a chance to continue sliding and be a draft bust.
Him being on his third team in the past year and fourth team in just five MLB seasons also is a bit of a red flag to me. Tread very carefully with Paredes, and make sure he’s not being relied upon too heavily going into 2025.
4. Eugenio Suarez
Suarez had a really productive 2024 season, but I think he’s going to regress back to closer to his career numbers in 2025.
In 158 games with the D-Backs, Suarez had a .256 average and .319 OBP, along with 30 home runs and 101 RBIs. He’s a career .248 hitter and he also strikes out a bunch.
He’s expected to hit in the bottom half in the lineup and is 33 years old going on 34. At some point, I expect Suarez’s numbers to start declining. I like the D-Backs’ lineup overall, but I just have a hard time seeing Suarez replicating his numbers from last season.
He’s a fine player to take a late-round chance on, but I only see Suarez being a really good fantasy asset to those of you in deeper leagues.
5. Jordan Westburg
The last player I want to mention here is Westburg, who had a solid season in 2024 before injuries derailed things.
Westburg is about to turn 26 years old and hasn’t played more than 110 games in either of his two MLB seasons so far. He has a .263 average and .312 OBP, and has an 162-game average of 18 home runs and 63 RBIs.
I’ve seen Westburg as a top-10 fantasy 3B on a few lists, and much like in the case with Caminero and Lewis, there’s a lot of speculation involved. Westburg hasn’t shown us a full season yet, and there’s still more working against him.
For starters, he’s expected to hit near the bottom of the lineup, which will hurt his fantasy value for 2025. The Orioles’ lineup is good enough for any player in the order to be a decent fantasy asset, but not many top-10 3B are hitting at the bottoms of their lineups.
Baltimore is one of the more prospect-rich teams coming into 2025, and one of the best ones in the organization (Coby Mayo) is a third baseman. Mayo struggled in his first taste of MLB action in 2024, but has raked and got on base at a high rate across several minor league stops. Baltimore isn’t going to give up on Mayo until at least the end of this season.
Mayo could push for the starting 3B spot with a strong spring training or start to the regular season. If Westburg were to go down with another injury, Mayo could take on the starting role and never give it back.
I just think there’s too much working against Westburg to trust as a big fantasy asset for 2025. I get the hype looking at some of his numbers from last season, but at the same time, it came in less than 70% of the season. His 162-game averages don’t look all that impressive, and you also have to worry about him maybe being injury prone.
Outside a late-round draft pick, I’d try to stay away from Westburg in 2025.