Fantasy Baseball Lineup Lowdown: National League Trends

The goal with Lineup Lowdown is simple: we're looking for trends which could help identify players that might be undervalued or overvalued. Who is playing more/less? Who is moving up/down? This week, we will be focusing on players from the National League.

Trending Up

Abimelec Ortiz, 1B, Washington Nationals

The Nationals traded Luis Garcia Jr. to the Yankees at last week's deadline, creating a vacancy at first base against right-handed pitching. So far, that slot has been filled by Ortiz.

Acquired from the Rangers over the offseason in the MacKenzie Gore trade, Ortiz appeared in one game for the Nationals just before the All-Star break but otherwise spent the first four months of the season at Triple-A Rochester, where he slashed .244/.348/.497 with 18 home runs over 85 contests. He's hit the ground running with the Nats since last week's promotion, going 7-for-24 with a pair of home runs. Those long balls have come from the two-hole in the Washington lineup, as all five of Ortiz's starts since his recent call-up have been in the No. 2 spot. Ortiz has hit the ball with authority since arriving on the scene, boasting a 47.4 percent hard-hit rate, 15.8 percent barrel rate and 92.7 mph average exit velocity. He's also collected a 36.8 percent pull-air rate, which would rank first in all of baseball if he qualified. The lefty-swinging Ortiz hasn't started a game against a southpaw and that might not change, but it's a profile built for power.

Jake Cronenworth, 2B, San Diego Padres

Cronenworth has been neither productive nor healthy for much of this season, but that hasn't stopped the Padres from throwing him into a prime lineup spot lately.

Each of the last 13 times San Diego has faced a right-handed hurler, it has slotted the lefty-swinging Cronenworth into the No. 2 spot in the batting order. Though he's sporting a .267 average and .360 on-base percentage over that span, Cronenworth is homerless and only three of his 20 hits have gone for extra bases. He's never been a Statcast standout, but Cronenworth's 31.3 percent hard-hit rate and four percent barrel rate would both represent career lows. The Padres might continue to bat him second in between Fernando Tatis and Manny Machado as long as he can keep his OBP in a good spot, which could help make up for a lack of thump. However, Cronenworth hasn't batted higher than eighth versus a lefty all season, has been a below-average offensive performer three of the past four seasons, and even at his best he's been more of an accumulator during his career.

Willy Adames, SS, San Francisco Giants

Adames has a .631 OPS in August and a .684 OPS since the beginning of June, yet he's gone from hitting seventh for the Giants two weeks ago to batting either third or second for the past eight contests. A return to the middle of the batting order for the shortstop has been more out of necessity.

The Giants haven't had a good offense all season, but between the trades of Luis Arraez and Heliot Ramos and season-ending injuries to Casey Schmitt (knee) and Matt Chapman (abdomen), the club had little choice but to elevate Adames in the batting order. Adames is a notoriously slow starter, and that was the case in 2025 in his first year with the Giants when he had a .680 OPS in the first half and an .828 OPS in the second half. Perhaps he'll make a late-season push again, but with a .672 OPS since this year's All-Star break, it hasn't happened yet. Adames's batted-ball data doesn't point to much optimism, either, as his barrel rate (8.4 percent) and average exit velocity (87.2 mph) would be the lowest since his rookie season and his 38.3 percent hard-hit rate would be his lowest in three years. A 49.5 percent pull rate, 26.7 percent pull-air rate and 27.7 percent strikeout rate suggest Adames might be selling out for power a little too often.

Griffin Conine, OF, Miami Marlins

With Liam Hicks having been dealt to the Rays at the trade deadline, the Marlins have sought a new left-handed bat to slot into the middle of their lineup. That bat has belonged to Conine over the past week.

In six games versus right-handed pitching since the deadline, the left-handed-hitting Conine has batted cleanup and third twice apiece and hit second and fifth once apiece. The 29-year-old notched his first career two-homer game Sunday, and on the season has slashed a robust .282/.373/.613 with 12 home runs across 142 plate appearances versus righties. Conine is also striking out at a 31 percent clip against right-handers, as contact has remained an issue for him throughout his pro career. However, with a 10.6 percent walk rate, 55.1 percent hard-hit rate, 17.3 percent barrel rate and 92.2 mph average exit velocity, Conine has remained productive despite all the swing and miss.

Quick Hits: Matt McLain has made 11 straight starts at second base since coming off the injured list … Hector Rodriguez has been in the lineup for five games in a row versus righties … The Pirates have handed Ronny Simon five consecutive starts … Luis Rengifo has started every game since July 25 for the Pirates, and he's batted second the last eight times the Padres have faced a lefty … Osleivis Basabe has started every game in August thus far for the Giants … Christian Koss has handled third base in five straight games for the Giants and has started 12 of the last 14 tilts.

Trending Down

Christian Yelich, DH, Milwaukee Brewers

The Brewers have the best record in baseball, but they've managed to accomplish that despite their longest-tenured position player and former MVP in Yelich scuffling through his worst season. Lately, Yelich's struggles have finally resulted in a move down the batting order.

Through August 3, Yelich had not batted lower than cleanup all season, and he spent the overwhelming majority of the time during that stretch in the leadoff spot. Over the last seven contests, however, Yelich has batted fifth three times and sixth and seventh twice apiece. You have to go all the way back to 2015 to find the last time Yelich batted lower than fifth. The 34-year-old slashed .314/.375/.451 in his first 15 games this season, but then he landed on the injured list with a groin injury and also dealt with a flareup of his chronic back issue. He's hit just .216/.302/.361 since those injuries. Yelich did homer from the seven spot Monday, so perhaps he's about to right the ship.

Austin Riley, 3B, Atlanta Braves

One of my biggest draft-day whiffs was getting heavily invested in a Riley bounce-back campaign. His downward trend has continued in 2026 and he's shown no real signs of climbing out of his funk.

Riley got moved back up to the cleanup spot for two games just after the All-Star break following a stretch where he homered three times in three games, but a couple hitless contests meant a move back to the lower-third of the batting order. In seven of his last nine starts, Riley has been all the way down in the No. 8 spot. The 29-year-old's strikeout rate spiked to 28.6 percent in 2025, but he was at last still hitting the ball basically as hard as he always had. In 2026, his strikeout rate is all the way up to 31.2 percent, and it's been accompanied by significant drops in his batted ball metrics. 

Esmerlyn Valdez, OF, Pittsburgh Pirates

Valdez was the headliner in the Trending Up section a couple weeks ago, but I warned you at the time that regression was likely coming. It has indeed arrived in a major way.

When that initial article was published, Valdez was slashing .306/.377/.750 in his first 32 contests. Since then, he's hit .125/.359/.215, and he's still striking out at a 34.6 percent clip. An in-zone contact rate of 65.3 percent simply isn't going to work, no matter how hard he hits the ball. After spending 31 straight starts in the cleanup spot, Valdez was in the seven spot the last two times the Pirates went up against a righty, and he hit fifth the last time they faced a lefty. The rookie outfielder probably isn't in danger of losing his starting job just yet, but Oneil Cruz's (hand) impending return clouds the team's outfield situation a bit.

Alec Bohm, 3B/1B, Philadelphia Phillies

Bohm has a new position, having shifted over to first base after the Phillies' trade deadline acquisition of Luis Arraez resulted in some defensive musical chairs. It also seems he has a new spot in the Phillies' lineup. When he's actually been in the lineup, anyway.

In the Phillies' past four games, Bohm has been absent from the lineup twice and batted eighth in the other two tilts. That was after he batted either fourth or fifth in every one of his starts from May 20 to August 7. Batting in the middle of the Philadelphia lineup covers up some warts for Bohm, as he can still drive in a decent number of runs with the quality of hitters batting in front of him. However, the Phillies' lineup isn't deep, leaving Bohm in his current form unplayable while he's hitting toward the bottom of the batting order. It also doesn't help that Bryce Harper has been banged up and unable to play the outfield some recently, as Bohm has been the odd man out those days.

Quick Hits: Max Kepler has been part of the Diamondbacks' lineup in just one of the past four games and three of the last seven contests … Brandon Marsh has been down in the No. 7 spot in the Philadelphia lineup two of the last three times his team has gone up against a right-hander … Each of Xander Bogaerts' last four starts have come from the eight slot in the Padres' batting order.