Breakout Hitters for the Second Half

Of all the ways to build a winning fantasy team, including the draft, mining the waiver wire, and making in-season trades, the most impactful is often identifying players who get hot when it matters most. The difference in fantasy production when a player goes from ‘just a guy’ to a star, or from a star to a superstar, can be drastic. That’s why we’re looking for breakout hitters in the second half.

When batters get hot down the stretch, it can help rocket your fantasy team up the standings – and may help you win your league. The key, then, is making sure that potential breakout bats are on your roster. Whether that means acquiring them or simply holding on to underperforming bats, these managerial decisions can make all the difference.

Let’s take a look at three potential players that fit the bill – three bats that are primed for big second halves (post-all-star breaks). If you own them, hold on for the ride. If you don’t, start sending trade offers …

Second Half Bounceback Bats

Corey Seager, SS, Texas Rangers

The breakout has already begun for Seager, who has raised his batting average 39 points (.234 to .273) over his last 26 games. He has 17 extra-base hits, including eight homers, during that span, while sporting an impressive 20:22 walk-to-strikeout ratio. His home runs Tuesday and Wednesday were just his 14th and 15th of the year, in part due to missed time to injury (that’s baked in at this point for Seager), but if he can remain healthy during the second half, he’s primed for big numbers – and could get to 30 homers for the fourth year in a row.

The Rangers, winners of eight of their last 10 entering action Sunday, are just a half-game back of a wild card, and they need Seager’s bat in the lineup. There aren’t many hitters in the game with the potential to hit .300 and post close to a .400 on-base percentage, but Seager is one of them. He’s also shown the potential to get super hot. After the all-star break last year? The 31-year-old hit .294 with 12 homers and a .924 OPS. He’s got breakout hitter written all over him.

Gunnar Henderson, SS, Baltimore Orioles

Gunnar Henderson is going to be a fantasy stud for a long time. And he was drafted as such this year, going in the very early rounds. But it hasn’t panned out in 2025 – yet. The batting average is on par with last season’s breakout campaign. But where is the power? It’s coming. Henderson is sporting a higher ground ball rate than his career average, and his home run to fly ball rate is way down (13.1% compared to 19.8% for his career).

Expect those numbers to regress to the mean in the second half, and expect more home runs than the mere 11 he hit in the first half. The 24-year-old blasted 37 long balls last year, and while we didn’t completely expect an encore of that performance, this is a bat that’s capable of hitting 30+ every year – including maybe even this year. Despite the lack of long balls thus far, he ranks in the 92nd percentile in each of bat speed, average exit velocity and hard-hit rate. It’s been a forgettable season for the Orioles, but there’s no reason Henderson’s playing time should be impacted down the stretch. He’s a gamer (he played in 159 contests two years ago), and he’ll be in the lineup when you need it most. We’re betting on Gunnar to be a breakout hitter in the second half.

Julio Rodriguez, OF, Seattle Mariners

This is becoming a regular thing, isn’t it? We’re left wanting from Rodriguez in the first half, and then he turns it on in the second. Expect the same to happen this year. For his career, he’s a .260 hitter with a pedestrian .737 OPS before the all-star break. After it? .301 with a .908 OPS. Is there really such a thing as a ‘second-half hitter’? If so, Julio fits the bill, and we should look for him to do the same in 2025.

We got a glimpse heading into the all-star break, as he homered in each of his last three games while also stealing a pair of bases. And then he hit four in three games Thursday through Saturday (and recorded four straight multi-hit games entering action Sunday). That certainly looks like a breakout hitter. The long balls are now at 18 (wouldn’t it be nice to get him out of pitcher-friendly T-Mobile Park?), and as he proved in 2023, he can hit them in bunches. In 68 games after the break that year, he hit .308 with 19 homers, 54 RBIs, 15 stolen bases, and a .941 OPS. He remains an advanced metric darling with a bat speed in the 95th percentile.

Honourable Mentions:

Wyatt Langford … Oblique injuries have slowed Langford in what most in the industry predicted would be a breakout sophomore season. The talent is still real, of course, and he’s still only 23 years old. He entered the break on a heater with a five-game stretch going 10-for-21 with a pair of homers and four stolen bases. He’s been quiet coming out of the break, but expect that to change. He’s too good not to see a breakout stretch in his second season … Jackson Merrill … Speaking of being too good to be this bad, Merrill is the poster boy for that group this year. After some were drafting him, not a whole lot later than Jackson Chourio, Merrill has had a disastrous campaign with just seven homers and one steal in 72 games. Missed playing time has contributed, but he’s too good of a hitter to boast a .723 OPS. The second half will be kinder to Merrill in that Padres lineup. A sign of good things to come? His xSLG is 101 points better than his actual .402 mark.