We’re now past Memorial Day, a landmark date for the major league season. We must take an honest look at who’s playing well, who’s playing poorly, and who we can truly count on to help us out through the long summer months ahead.
So, we need to look a bit deeper to find gems on the waiver wire. Fear not, because there are still a handful of available players that have the chance to be difference makers in both the short and long term.
The most major league ready piece in the package that went back to the White Sox for Garrett Crochet this past winter, the 23-year-old Meidroth has played well to begin his career.
He’s riding a 13 game on-base streak as of Tuesday morning and has asserted himself as both their lead-off hitter and starting shortstop since being called up about a month ago.
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More than anything else, he is a pest at the plate. He consistently held high on-base percentages through the minor leagues by rarely striking out and drawing plenty of walks.
So far in the majors, Meidroth has the lowest swing rate of any player that has taken at least 100 plate appearances. On top of that, he has one of the highest zone-contact rates. So while he rarely swings, he will almost always make contact when the ball is in the zone and he decides to offer at it.
That approach has helped him to a .296 batting average and .387 on-base percentage through 31 games as a rookie.
This approach is not all that different from other contact mavens like Jacob Wilson, Luis Arraez, and Steven Kwan, Meidroth just takes it to an entirely different extreme by never swinging the bat.
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Of that trio, Meidroth’s approach is most similar to Kwan’s, who is also patient and takes his fair share of walks. Yet, Meidroth walks far more often, has a bit more raw power, and has managed a similar contact rate.
It doesn’t look like he’ll hit for much power though with just one home run and meager 107.1 mph max exit velocity. All four hitters from this group have very short swings – which minimizes their ceiling as power hitters – but often square-up the ball to shoot base hits all over the field.
Meidroth could still run into eight or so homers from this point on. He’s averaged that many in each of his last two minor league seasons and most projection models peg him for somewhere between five and seven the rest of the way. He also pulls his fly balls at a similar rate to Wilson, whose power output has been a surprise.
Instead, he’s surprisingly proven himself as a capable base stealer of late. He’s swiped five bags in his last 10 games and already has eight this season. He never stole more than 13 in any full minor league season. If this aggressiveness holds, it could dramatically increase his fantasy value.
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Bottom line, Meidroth is eligible all over the infield and will be a boost in both batting average and on-base percentage. Him stealing bases could be a huge bonus that counteract his minimal power production.
Brett Baty, 2B/3B Mets
(16% Rostered on Yahoo)
There’s some genuine skill growth happening right now with Baty. He has a .908 OPS since being recalled from the minor leagues on May 7th and has all practically usurped Mark Vientos as the Mets’ starting third baseman.
This is a borderline shock after he was statistically one of the worst players in baseball through April.
A hot spring training plus an injury to Jeff McNeil opened the door for Baty to make the opening day roster and get playing time at second base early on. While he held his own there defensively, he opened the season with a 3-for-27 slump.
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Worse than that slump, his approach at the plate was a disaster. He didn’t draw a walk, struck out over 40% of the time, and somehow fell behind 0-2 in the count in nearly half of his plate appearances during that stretch.
Again, it was an unmitigated disaster.
He showed some signs of life towards the end of the month with a handful of extra-base hits and a long home run against Zack Wheeler, but was demoted when McNeil returned from injury.
Now, he looks like a totally different player. His at-bats are much more consistent and his strikeout rate is down to 21.2% since coming back up. This comes with a zone-contact and overall contact rate that are right around league average.
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That’s very important for Baty because his carrying skill is his power and it will shine through as long as he’s literally able to make consistent contact. His pitch recognition was severely lacking though, until a recent and somewhat unorthodox adjustment.
While his bat speed is up there with the league’s elite power hitters, Baty has struggled to both pull and lift the ball in the past. To try and fix this, he seemed dead set on making contact with the ball out in front of the plate. That makes sense: if you want to pull and lift the ball for power, go out and get it.
For most, this could decrease power. Since Baty has such freaky raw power and twitch, he can still generate top-end power and that extra split second he’s afforded himself has drastically improved his pitch recognition for the time being.
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These improvements at the plate have been underscored by his defensive prowess, where again he’s lightyears better than Vientos at third base and can hold his own at second.
All he needs to do is be something close to a league average hitter and he’ll play everyday. If he’s getting to this much power, he’ll be far better than that and a valuable asset in 12-team leagues with his dual position eligibility.
AJ Blubaugh, SP Astros
(0% Rostered on Yahoo)
This is one to file away for you deep league players.
With that, Ryan Gusto and Colton Gordon currently have spots on their pitching staff.
Gusto flashed some solid stuff early in the season, but his only plus pitch is a fastball and even that has drifted back closer to average. Gordon is a soft-tossing lefty that stays around the strike zone and doesn’t have many weapons to get right-handed batters out.
There’s a decent chance one of – if not both – of these two could be pushed out of the rotation before long.
And that’s without mentioning Lance McCullers Jr. who’s back after a two-year hiatus and walking nearly 15% of the batters he’s faced without completing five innings in any of his four starts so far.
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So, the door could be open for Blubaugh. Stuff wise, he’s more impressive than anyone on this list. He has a decent fastball that sits around 94 mph with solid ride and run plus a nasty sweeper, cutter, curveball, and changeup. That deep mix gives him ample weapons to attack hitters from each side of the plate.
He was called upon for a spot start on April 30th and struck out six Tigers. He also allowed two home runs and was pulled after four innings. Still, the stuff shone through and of this group of back-end starters in Houston, he has the most upside for the rest of the season.
Be vigilant on their team news and use the Rotoworld player news page to do so. That way, you can grab Blubaugh right when he snags one of these rotation spots.
Former Austin Peay volleyball coach Taylor Mott has been hired to the same position at Volunteer State Community College. ROBERT SMITH/APSU ATHLETICS
Volunteer State Community College has hired former Austin Peay coach Taylor Mott to lead its new volleyball program.
Mott coached the Governors from 2012-2024, winning 200 games in that span. Together they won the 2017 Ohio Valley Conference volleyball championship and the 2021 OVC beach volleyball title.
Their NCAA trip for volleyball marked the school’s second tournament appearance.
Mott led Brooke Moore to become the program’s all-time leader in kills, coached Ginny Gerig to the second-most digs in Austin Peay history and recruited NJCAA Player of the Year Mikayla Powell to the school in 2021.
She started her coaching career at Division II Flagler College, with 304 wins and two Division II Elite Eights in 13 years.
Mott and Austin Peay parted ways before the end of the 2024 season.
Vol State announced the addition of volleyball and women’s soccer in August.
The Pioneers hired Tye Cole to lead their soccer program. Cole coached at Averett University and West Georgia and was most recently Tennessee United Soccer Club’s Director of Coaching.
Justin McKinney and Brad Swope were also announced as additions to the athletic department – the former as assistant athletic director and Swope as athletic trainer.
“The growth of Pioneer Athletics reflects the momentum we are seeing across the college,” VSCC athletic director Bobby Hudson said. “By adding new teams and leadership, we are investing in our student-athletes and the future of the athletics program.”
The Appalachian Newspapers’ 2025 All Mountain Volleyball Team is composed of players from the 15th Region, Jenkins, Buckhorn, Knott Central, Perry Central and Hazard.
The 2025 All Mountain Volleyball team was voted upon by the Appalachian Newspapers’ Randy White, Steve LeMaster and Adam Mahan.
All Mountain Volleyball Player of the Year nominees:
Kylie Kinner — Paintsville
Miley Riddle — Shelby Valley
Lindy Gearheart — Pikeville
Taylor Baker — Knott Central
All Mountain Volleyball
Player of the Year
Miley Riddle — Shelby Valley: Riddle had an outstanding junior season. She led the state in kills with 838 (Paintsville’s Kylie Kinner finished second with 828). Riddle helped Shelby Valley to its most successful season in school history as the Lady Wildcats finished the season with a 34-6 record. Shelby Valley won the 15th Region All “A” Classic and advanced to the state All “A” Classic Bronze Division finals, the 59th District Tournament, their first-ever 15th Region Tournament championship, a win over Knott Central in the opening round of the KHSAA Volleyball State Tournament and an appearance in the state volleyball quarterfinals.
All Mountain Coach of the
Year nominees:
Misty Riddle — Shelby Valley
Dawn Kinner — Paintsville
Shae Cornett — Knott Central
All Mountain Coach of the Year:
Misty Riddle — Shelby Valley: Riddle helped Shelby Valley to its most successful season in school history as the Lady Wildcats finished the season with a 34-6 record. Shelby Valley won the 15th Region All “A” Classic and advanced to the state All “A” Classic Bronze Division finals, the 59th District Tournament, their first-ever 15th Region Tournament championship, a win over Knott Central in the opening round of the KHSAA Volleyball State Tournament and an appearance in the state volleyball quarterfinals.
HONOLULU — Trevell Jordan didn’t see it coming. No one did.
The Grand Canyon middle blocker and his teammates were summoned to a meeting in April, for what the Antelopes assumed would be a talk about the following NCAA season.
In a sense, it was — there wouldn’t be one. GCU athletic administration informed players that the Phoenix school had opted to reclassify men’s volleyball to a club sport in 2026.
“It was shock,” Jordan recalled Monday. “All of us were very sad because we thought that this was going to be something great. We were building really great connections with each other, so we expected to keep those connections.”
Now Jordan, a 6-foot-10 sophomore from Mesa, Ariz., is in the process of forging new ones with Hawaii, one of the sport’s elite college programs over the last decade.
[Note: See below for more photos of Hawaii men’s volleyball’s Monday practice to prepare for Friday’s season opener against NJIT.]
The Rainbow Warriors, who return five starters and 12 letterwinners, openly aspire for the national championship after falling in straight sets to UCLA in May’s national semifinals.
UH is ranked No. 2 in the preseason AVCA and Big West Conference polls behind defending national champion and rival Long Beach State. It is the ninth straight year the Rainbow Warriors are in the national top five at season’s start.
Jordan is eager to test his abilities in a setting with more school and community buy-in and, to be sure, higher expectations.
“This is a whole different environment, different standards that I really love to see in the sport of volleyball,” he said. “I’m so pumped to be here.”
After fall training and some break time over the Christmas holiday, Charlie Wade’s group got back at it Monday as part of a breathless week leading up to Friday’s 7 p.m. opener against the New Jersey Institute of Technology.
UH players and staff will get their Big West championship rings after Sunday’s 5 p.m. rematch with NJIT.
GCU’s sudden announcement stunned the men’s volleyball community; the Antelopes were a program on the rise and GCU, formerly labeled a for-profit institution, was known for lavish spending for its athletics programs. Wade accurately predicted a feeding frenzy for the Antelopes’ talent. Some of the Lopes’ other standouts found homes: hitter Trent Moser went to BYU, setter Jaxon Herr went to Penn State, libero Matthew Thornton landed at UCLA.
Wade, UH’s 17th-year leader, felt it was a no-brainer to extend Jordan a life raft. Jordan played and started in 21 of GCU’s 28 matches last year, contributing 1.68 kills per set and 1.02 blocks per set. More importantly, he was already familiar with many of UH’s players, including Tread Rosenthal, Finn Kearney, Justin Todd and Kainoa Wade, as well as new UH assistant Donan Cruz, from his time over the summer competing with Team USA.
Junior setter Tread Rosenthal has emerged as the Rainbow Warriors’ unquestioned team leader, according to coach Charlie Wade. (Spectrum News/Brian McInnis)
“He had offers to go to every top program in the country,” Wade said, “and ironically they were pushing him to make a fast decision, and they pushed him towards us, because I was the one saying hey, ‘I’m in for the long haul, I want you to be here and take your time to figure it out.’”
Wade said it fascinates him to watch how newcomers like Jordan handle the trappings of men’s volleyball stardom at UH, especially once they become known in the local community.
He’s constantly tinkering with the formula of what will keep UH in the hunt for a third national title. That included booking his team for an as-of-yet unnamed tournament in Anaheim, Calif., Feb. 19 and 20 that will provide the four participating schools — UH, UCLA, USC and LBSU — with Name, Image and Likeness revenue for their players.
“That’s what keeps me up at night, for sure,” Wade said. “It is sustaining the success. To have a good year, but we’ve been really good for a long time and we need to not only be really good, but be the best. The best every year. That is difficult to attain, and that is the expectation — to be the best. Do everything you can to be better today and be the best at the end.”
Jordan joins a pair of capable sophomores at the middle position in Todd and Ofeck Hazan. Maryknoll School alum Alex Parks and 7-foot freshman Roman Payne round out the group that lost vocal leader Kurt Nusterer to a lucrative job in economics.
Wade said Rosenthal has emerged as a true team leader at setter and he hopes for a “payoff year” for him in his junior season. He’s backed up by sophomore Victor Lowe, senior Vladimir Kubr and freshman Magnus Hettervik of Norway.
UH has an embarrassment of riches at the pins with Adrien Roure, Louis Sakanoko, Kristian Titriyski, Kearney and Kainoa Wade. Sophomore Mitchell Croft and freshman Thatcher Fahlbusch add depth.
The Warriors lost a fan favorite at libero in Farrington High alumnus ‘Eleu Choy but brought in a player with Canadian U21 national team experience in junior Quintin Greenidge. Kai Taylor and Matthew Wheels are the team’s other defensive specialists.
“I think we got really good recruits,” Sakanoko said. “Quintin, Trevell, Mitch, all those people, they’re going to step on the court and be really, really good. We lost Eleu Choy, who’d been here for a while, but we got Quintin, who’s as good as he is.”
Rosenthal, Roure and Titriyski were named to the preseason All-Big West team.
UH confirmed Monday that assistant coach Kupono Fey has been elevated to associate head coach, replacing Milan Zarkovic in that role. Zarkovic, in some ways the emotional pulse of the team, took an assistant job at UCLA in the offseason.
Cruz, a Maui native and the former head coach at Ball State, was hired in September and is focusing on the setting/offensive game.
“Kupono and Donan have stepped up amazing for us,” Rosenthal said. “Obviously Milan is one of the best coaches in the world and it’s a huge loss. I’m sure UCLA’s happy that they got him. But Kupono and Donan have trained us very well.”
Hawaii coach Charlie Wade, right, has a new makeup of his staff with associate head coach Kupono Fey, center left, and new assistant Donan Cruz, left. (Spectrum News/Brian McInnis)
Kupono Fey, a UH alumnus, has been on staff with Wade as an assistant since 2023. (Spectrum News/Brian McInnis)
Hawaii hitter Louis Sakanoko voiced confidence in the team’s handful of newcomers to join an experienced roster. (Spectrum News/Brian McInnis)
Brian McInnis covers the state’s sports scene for Spectrum News Hawaii. He can be reached at brian.mcinnis@charter.com.
The University of Hawaiʻi at Mānoa men’s volleyball team was picked second in the preseason Big West coaches’ poll while a trio of Rainbow Warriors were named to the seven-member preseason team—setter Tread Rosenthal, outside hitter Adrien Roure and opposite Kristian Titriyski.
UH Mānoa received 22 total points, just two points behind preseason favorite Long Beach State. UC Irvine was ranked third followed by a three-way tie for fourth among CSUN, UC San Diego and UC Santa Barbara.
The Rainbow Warriors, who captured their fourth Big West Championship title last season, were also ranked No. 2 in the American Volleyball Coaches Association (AVCA) preseason top 20 coaches poll.
UH Mānoa returns five starters—Rosenthal, Roure, Titriyski, Justin Todd and Louis Sakanoko—and 12 lettermen from last year’s squad that finished 27–6 and advanced to the NCAA Championship semifinals. Rosenthal and Roure were AVCA first-team All-Americans while Titriyski was named to the second team.
The Rainbow Warriors open the 2026 season with a two-match series against NJIT on January 2 and January 4. See the entire 2026 schedule on UH News.
