Can Alex Verdugo Become a Decent Fantasy Baseball Asset with Braves?
Assessing Alex Verdugo after he was called up to the big leagues, while Bryan De La Cruz was sent down.
The Atlanta Braves have been surprisingly bad to start the 2025 season.
There's been really poor hitting, not the best pitching and had suspensions and injuries. You name it, the Braves have dealt with it.
Atlanta is not only 5-13 and sitting in last in the National League East Division, but that division is headlined by the Mets and Phillies, who lead the division, but probably have underperformed a bit themselves. The Braves have a ton of work to do if they want to remain a playoff team.
They decided to switch up their outfielders a bit on Thursday, calling up Alex Verdugo and sending down Bryan De La Cruz.
Let's discuss what that move means for fantasy baseball purposes.
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Player Numbers
Both players signed with the Braves as free agents this past offseason.
De La Cruz has played in 16 games and gotten 50 plate appearances so far, tallying a .191 average and .240 on-base percentage. He has a double among his nine total hits, along with no RBIs, one stolen base and run scored, three walks and 18 strikeouts.
That's simply just not enough production, and on a team lacking big production from its highly-paid players, the team decided to demote De La Cruz.
He's a career .251 hitter with a .295 OBP, so Atlanta was pretty disappointed in his early-season marks and decided to bring up Verdugo.
Verdugo was signed later in the offseason, so it made sense for him to open the season in Triple-A. In nine games and across 33 plate appearances, Verdugo had a .207 average and .303 OBP. He homered twice and doubled once among his six total knocks, while also posting four RBIs, a stolen base, four walks and strikeouts and eight runs scored.
In his eight-year MLB career, Verdugo owns a .272 average and .328 OBP. He's hit 70 home runs, drove in 316 runs, stole 22 bases, scored 409 runs, walked 230 times and struck out on 480 occasions across 800 games and 3,180 plate appearances.
Verdugo's Fantasy Outlook
With De La Cruz being sent to the minor leagues, we only need to assess Verdugo's fantasy value for the time being.
De La Cruz had been starting most days, and you can expect Verdugo to start more often than not going forward. The left-handed hitter will probably sit against left-handed starting pitchers, but be in the lineup often against righties.
Verdugo is coming off a 2024 season in which he hit .233 and got on base at a .291 clip. He did have 28 doubles, 13 homers and a triple among his 130 hits though, while also having 61 RBIs, two stolen bases, 74 runs scored, 49 walks and 93 strikeouts across 149 games and 621 plate appearances.
Those numbers alone should be able to show that Verdugo is just a deep-league fantasy option right now. If he's playing against righties, and hitting a bit, he could be a pretty solid fantasy asset to some deep-league owners.
For Verdugo to be a standard league option, he'd not only need to play everyday, but also be delivering good results at the plate. He'd need to at least match his career average and OBP, while probably hitting for more power, or swiping more bases.
How to Approach the Outfielders
Let's start with De La Cruz, who I thought was a potential fantasy sleeper in 2025.
He can be dropped in all redraft formats, and really, most fantasy leagues altogether. I wouldn't be surprised to see him get another chance in the big leagues this season, whether that be in Atlanta or with another team. He won't have a ton of fantasy value unless he leaves Atlanta though, or the team loses several players, thus affording De La Cruz with a bigger role.
Verdugo is a player to add in some deep fantasy leagues right now, and I'm talking very deep leagues. If he excels at the plate in his first MLB action of the season, more and more deep-league fantasy owners can pick him up.
I personally think Verdugo is going to top out as a deep-league fantasy option, but there might be stretches where he can be used in standard leagues (he'll have to be red hot at the plate for that to happen). He had some fantasy value with the Yankees last season, and very well could deliver similar numbers with the Braves the rest of this season.
If he improves closer to his career marks, then Verdugo not only would be a daily deep-league starter and possible standard league threat, but he could help turn the Braves season around.
