Fantasy Baseball: Brandon Nimmo, Mike Trout, José Altuve — how are veteran hitters faring so far?

It’s fair to say Freeman has dropped a half-level over the past three seasons, but that doesn’t mean the current level of production isn’t helpful to us. His line since the beginning of 2024 is comfortingly consistent, a .289/.372/.490 slash and an OPS+ in the 141-146 range every year. He’s still very difficult to strike out, and supported by a deep Dodgers batting order. Freeman hasn’t attempted a steal yet and it’s possible he’s taken that club out of his bag for good, but this should be a safe place to park your fantasy investment. He’ll be very close to the stats we saw in 2024 and 2025.

José Altuve, 2B, Astros (36)

Many of Altuve’s stats align with the stage of his career, as he’s stopped running and has below-average bat speed. His hard-hit profile is unremarkable, too. But he’s walking at a 14.4% clip and generally swinging at good pitches, and his expected stats are solid (.279 expected batting average, .417 slugging percentage).

It’s often a good idea to apply more reasonable aging patterns for Hall of Fame-calibre talents, and Altuve checks that box. Houston’s lineup is also surprisingly decent this year, third in runs and second in OPS. The Astros might fall short of the playoffs, but it won’t be the fault of the lineup.

Trevor Story, SS, Red Sox (33)

We’ve always been willing to overlook the holes in Story’s game because he consistently provided category juice (homers and steals) and would specifically crush at home, working in two of the best hitting parks in history. But you wonder when the gaps in his swing might be too exploitable to overcome. He’s striking out 33% of the time this year, his chase rate is the worst in baseball and his bat speed is below average, too. Story is also stuck on just two steals, though part of that is a reaching-base problem.

Story’s poor slash has been mostly earned, too — his expected average is just .220, his expected slugging a paltry .320. He’s probably too good to drop, but if he shows an uptick, I might view that as a selling opportunity, not a vote of confidence.

Max Muncy, 3B, Dodgers (35)

He’s no longer the only Max Muncy in baseball but the Los Angeles version is still the one you want. Muncy is currently the 3B3 in current value, on the strength of eight homers and a .291 average. All of his hard-hit sliders are pushed to the right, and although he’s always going to strike out a fair amount, Muncy is still above average with respect to walks and zone judgment.

Muncy’s production against lefties has been shockingly good in a tiny sample (.333/.364/.762), though southpaws have eaten his lunch over the four prior seasons. Even as that part of his game normalizes, Muncy should crush enough righties to stay in our good graces.

Marcus Semien, 2B, Mets (35)

This one is painful for me, as the intelligent, hard-working Semien has been one of my favorite players for some time. Alas, he’s also a good reminder that while player development isn’t always linear, player decline almost always is. His OPS+ has been in a consistent free-fall for three years, to the point that he’s been an offensive liability since the beginning of 2025. And Semien is no longer a volume accumulator, as the Mets keep him in the bottom third of the lineup.

Semien is still rostered in 58% of Yahoo leagues, a number that is probably too high.