It’s important to give your second basemen sleepers, but finding them hasn’t been easy. I’ve spent more time than I care to admit (27 seconds) trying to find a good second baseman who won’t be drafted high. I also know that most of you play in 12-team mixed leagues, so I’m trying not to give you too crazy deep sleepers. Let me show you some starting points for my research:
That is the maximum EV for the 2nd baseman with 150 batted ball events. Here you can see the appearance of the barrels per plate:
Finally, hard hit %:
Daniel Schneemann could be interesting if you’re in a 15-team roster with no waivers, like a Draft Champions League; Luis Garcia Jr. is a perennial favorite of mine, but I gave you a sleeper for him last year and won’t repeat myself; Casey Schmitt makes a few appearances, but is rated (at most) at 15 home runs and zero velocity with a career average of .228; maybe Kristian Campbell will come back and make things right; I even looked at Cole Young and Leo Rivas, both have speed but feel more like Only League guys, which brings us to Sosa Island. I think a guy named Lenyn would be happy to see a lot of different players get some shine at his post. Or shnyn, I guess. So, what can we expect from Lenyn Sosa for 2026 fantasy baseball and what makes him a sleeper?
Last year, Lenyn Sosa went 57/22/75/.264/2 in 518 ABs with a 3.3 BB% and 23.3 K%. His launch angle went from 12.3 to 18.4 year over year and his groundball percentage was 32%. Sammy Sosa’s brother from another mother and father hits the ball hard and in the air. [passing home plate and tapping chest with peace sign and signaling to the sky, Sosa-style] He had the fourth-highest line drive percentage in the majors. That list isn’t exactly a who’s who of GET SOME. The top four were Zach McKinstry, Luis Arraez, Steven Kwan and Sosa. Behind him, s’s and g’s, are JP Crawford, Bryan Reynolds, Xavier Edwards, Luis Rengifo and Gavin Lux. Are we sure line drives aren’t a bad thing? Okay, let’s sort it by something else. What about topline drive rates and over 40% fly-ball rates? Lenyn Sosa is number one, followed by Zach Neto, Ernie Clement, Mike Trout, Andy Pages, Ian Happ, Michael Busch, Brent Rooker and Seiya Suzuki. Not a perfect list, but a lot better. You could even say that they are all valuable names. Ernie Clement is a sneaky one, others are excellent or, you know, old, injured and trout. In fact (Gray has more!), since 2019 there have been three players with 544 plate appearances (Sosa’s last year), 24.9% line drive rate (also Sosa’s) and 43.1% fly ball rate (you guessed it): Mike Trout and Jorge Polanco in 2019 went: 45/.291 and 22/.295, respectively. It is rare to have line drives and flyballs, and excellent for power.
So that brings us to the third element of any great fantasy producer: speed. Well, there’s not much here. Maybe five thefts if we’re lucky. I’m kind of surprised there are guys slower than him. Okay, one of those was Josh Naylor, but Sosa doesn’t have much speed. He ranked 255th in the MLB for sprint speed. I’m not sure I can optimistically give him more than three steals. What about counting statistics? [staring into the abyss that is the White Sox lineup] Hey, he gets at-bats every day and hits right in the middle of the lineup! Good news, right? [listens for an answer and none ever comes, after a thousand years] …Right? Okay, that’s why I said second basemen are a struggle bus and why I tried to find you other troublemakers. It’s not a good position, but Lenyn Sosa has an excellent batted ball profile. If he could steal 15 bags, he would be a top 50 player, well above Altuve. What we learned from Naylor is that anyone can steal bags, but who knows with Sosa and his lack of speed. For 2026 fantasy baseball, I’m giving Lenyn Sosa projections of 63/25/81/.276/3 in 554 ABs with a chance of more.
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