Fantasy Baseball Today: Luis Castillo looks broken, good signs for Chris Paddack, Jacob deGrom returning

Happy Monday, everybody! Hope you had a great weekend. While offense remains down overall this season, we have seen it tick up in May. Just this weekend we had 10 different multi-homer games, with two of those coming from the same player: Austin Riley. The breakout appears to be real as Riley is now batting .320 with nine home runs and a .963 OPS. While he's slowly been added across leagues the past few weeks, 77% roster rate is still too low. Make sure to add Riley if he's available in any shallower formats.

One of the other hottest hitters in baseball is Jesse Winker, who hit three home runs in a game Friday and had five total for the weekend. He's now batting .355 with 13 homers and a 1.096 OPS! The guy could always hit, that was never a question. He just needs to stay healthy. Winker has yet to play more than 113 games in a season. I guess in a way that makes him a sell-high candidate if you're worried about that injury history. However, I'm inclined to just ride it out, and that's coming from somebody who is more conservative when it comes to injuries.

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Castillo continues to bring down rosters

The struggles continue for Reds SP Luis Castillo, who just can't seem to get things on track. He got lit up for five runs after only making it through five innings on Sunday. Here's one stat that probably best describes just how much Castillo has struggled in 2021: he has allowed at least four earned runs in six of 10 starts this year. It wasn't his worst start of the season -- or even the week -- but he continues to give up a ton of hard contact and his command is seemingly only getting worse, as he walked a season-high four batters on Sunday.

Chris has finally moved him way down his rankings and he's now just inside the top 50 among all SPs, but he can foresee that falling. As Chris noted, his release point has been less consistent than it has in the past, his changeup has more vertical drop and he's throwing it out of the strike zone more often, but the biggest issue overall is his command on all of his pitches.

This is a massive drop for Chris, who hadn't moved him outside his top 20 until now. Scott has him a bit higher than Chris, but both agree the right play is NOT to drop him.

Paddack flashes glimpses of his dominant 2019

Padres SP Chris Paddack was a popular mid-round target this March, but all the changes he was supposed to have made after a disappointing 2020 didn't appear to show up in the first month-and-a-half of 2021. However, Paddack may have turned a corner in his most recent start. Paddack went six innings and allowed just three hits, two walks and one earned run. He tallied six strikeouts with 14 swinging strikes on 91 pitches.

The raw stats were strong, but the big news here is that Paddack's fastball spin rate was up to 2317 rpm in this start. That was up 125 rpm from his average fastball so far this season. Remember, back in 2019 when Paddack was dominant, a key reason for that was the high spin rate on his fastball. In 2019, his fastball averaged 2230 rpm.

More news and notes

Mets SP Jacob deGrom has been cleared to return and start Tuesday against the Rockies in Citi Field. It's a great matchup to come back to.
Twins SP Kenta Maeda was placed on the 10-day IL with a right adductor strain. He had been battling groin tightness.
The Mets placed 1B Pete Alonso on the IL with a right hand sprain.
Phillies C J.T. Realmuto was placed on the IL with a left wrist bone bruise, retroactive to May 18
The Rays called up infield prospect Taylor Walls (former third-round pick in 2017). He was batting .327 with two homers and two steals at Triple-A. He's 9% rostered and just has SS eligibility on CBS.
The Phillies placed SP Matt Moore on the IL and recalled one of their top prospects in Spencer Howard, who started on Saturday. He allowed one run over three innings with four walks against the Red Sox. He's 22% rostered.
Indians OF Franmil Reyes was placed on the IL with an internal oblique strain. His initial diagnosis is 5-7 weeks. Cleveland recalled prospect Owen Miller, who came over in the Mike Clevinger trade last year. Miller was batting .406 with 2 homers and a 1.067 OPS a Triple-A this year. He's a deep sleeper to keep an eye on.
Mariners RP Kendall Graveman was placed on the IL with no injury designation so it's likely a COVID situation. The Mariners placed four other relief pitchers on the COVID IL Friday.
Dave Roberts said on Saturday that 1B/OF Cody Bellinger could return in 7-8 days, so don't expect him back this week but he should be back by next Monday.
The Blue Jays placed 2B Cavan Biggio on the IL with a cervical spine ligament sprain. They're optimistic he'll only be out the minimum 10 days.
Nationals OF Victor Robles was placed on the IL with a right ankle sprain, retroactive to May 20. Andrew Stevenson is set for more playing time and has speed for those in deeper category leagues.
The Reds placed both OF Nick Senzel and SP Wade Miley on the IL.
Rockies 2B Brendan Rodgers was indeed activated on Friday. He picked up two hits with two RBI in two games this weekend. He's 31% rostered if you need a middle infielder.
The Red Sox purchased the contract of Danny Santana on Friday and he started all three games this weekend, hitting two homers with one steal. He's 10% rostered with only 1B eligibility on CBS but started two games in the outfield already. Santana had 28 homers with 21 steals back in 2019 with the Rangers.
The Yankees announced Friday that OF Aaron Hicks needs surgery to repair his injured left wrist. It is potentially season-ending.
Padres OF Trent Grisham is dealing with a little bit of a heel bruise and some lower-half stuff.
Padres 3B Manny Machado is day-to-day with right shoulder tightness
Twins DH Nelson Cruz has been out of the Twins lineup four straight games now with a bruised wrist.
Pirates 3B Ke'Bryan Hayes and Royals 1B/3B/OF Hunter Dozier both started rehab assignments for their respective teams on Saturday.
Twins SP Michael Pineda will be activated off the IL Wednesday to start against the Orioles.
Cardinals SP Miles Mikolas left his season debut due to right forearm tightness.
Brewers 2B Keston Hiura update: He's batting .438 (14 for 32) with three homers but still has 13 strikeouts in his last nine games. He's 44% rostered.

Prospect updates

Red Sox OF Jarren Duran went 5 for 5 on Saturday and he's batting .299 with 7 homers and 4 steals but doing so with a 16.8% swinging strike rate.
Rays SS Vidal Brujan added another home run on Saturday and he's now batting .338 with seven homers and seven steals. He's 34% rostered.
Royals SP Jackson Kowar had a 10-strikeout game, and maybe he's the next big SP prospect we see get called up. He currently sports a 1.25 ERA and 1.02 WHIP in four Triple-A starts.
Twins SP Matt Canterino had a 10-strikeout game in High-A but he's 23 years old and could be a fast riser. I know he's been rising up prospect lists everywhere -- grab him in dynasty.