It’s a great time of year to be a fantasy baseball fan with the entire regular season stretched out across the summer and a world of possibilities. With spring training getting underway in Arizona and Florida, we’re starting to get our first look at this year’s landscape. Whether you prefer season-long leagues, DFS contests, or DraftKings Best Ball, DK Network will have you covered throughout the upcoming season. To start off, we’re working our way through some of the potential players who are ready to take the next step in fantasy production, and in this post we’re focusing on 2B breakouts.
As spring training gets underway, I’ve laid out my top breakouts for multiple positions, taking a look at AL SP Breakouts, NL SP Breakouts, AL OF Breakouts, NL OF Breakouts, catcher breakouts, and 1B Breakouts. Wherever you’re shopping, there are plenty of options to consider as we head into the Grapefruit and Cactus League over the next few weeks!
Jackson Holliday, Baltimore Orioles
Holliday isn’t sneaking up on anyone for sure, but he still has potential to be one of the top 2B breakouts of 2025. Holliday was one of the top prospects in baseball and arrived with the O’s to much fanfare last season. He got off to a disastrous start, though, going just 2-for-34 (.059) in his first 10 games before heading back to Triple-A.
After time in Norfolk, he rejoined the Orioles at the very end of July and hit his first MLB home run in his first game back. He went 10-for-36 (.278) with five homers in his first 10 games after coming back, but then he went into another tough stretch, hitting .188 with no homers over his next 20 games.
Needless to say, consistency wasn’t his strength in his rookie season, and he finished hitting just .189 with five homers and a .251 wOBA in his 60 MLB games.
Holliday’s performance last year was extremely disappointing, but he has figured things out at every level of the minors and is only 21 years old starting the season. He was the No. 1 overall pick in the 2022 MLB Draft, and the talent and tools are all there for him to be an All-Star if he realizes his potential at the MLB level. He has an extremely high ceiling but also comes with big risk.
In preseason rankings, Holliday’s position is wildly volatile, but we should get a glimpse in spring training if he’s ready to realize his star potential as one of this year’s 2B breakouts, or if he’s still a year or more away. The Orioles definitely seem to be counting on him as their everyday 2B, so keep a close eye on him in camp this year. Don’t sleep on his teammate Jordan Westburg, either, who will have 2B and 3B eligibility in most formats.
Christopher Morel, Tampa Bay Rays
The Rays added Morel from the Cubs at last year’s MLB Trade Deadline in a trade that sent Isaac Paredes to Chicago. Morel flashed exciting upside in his rise through the Cubs’ system, but the 25-year-old hasn’t quite been able to put it all together yet. Maybe the Rays will be able to get him to be one of this year’s 2B breakouts after he played 21 games at that position for them last year while he also spent time in LF.
Morel showed his tantalizing ceiling in 2023, when he smashed 26 homers in 107 games while adding six stolen bases and hitting .247 with a .347 wOBA. Last season, though, he took a step backward, hitting 21 homers in 152 games between the Cubs and Rays while hitting a scary .196. Part of his low batting average seems to have been due to bad luck, since his BABIP was .233 (league average is around .300). He did radically cut down his strikeout rate from 31.0% in 2023 to 26.0% in 2024.
After arriving in Tampa Bay, Morel didn’t exactly set the world on fire, hitting only .191 in his 190 plate appearances with the Rays. He did have three homers but only managed a .098 ISO and .243 wOBA while stealing just one bag.
If his BABIP rebounds to near league average, Morel could have a big turnaround and cement himself in a key spot in the Rays’ lineup. The righty actually has reverse splits and hits right-handed pitching better than lefties, so he isn’t an obvious platoon player. If his batting average comes around, he could be one of 2025’s 2B breakouts even though it looks like most of Morel’s work in 2025 will actually be in the Rays’ crowded outfield and DH mix if Brandon Lowe and Junior Caminero are healthy.
Thairo Estrada, Colorado Rockies
Any time a batter signs with the Rockies they automatically get extra attention, and Estrada could be a great fit in the Colorado lineup. He’ll at least be worth watching closely in spring training to see how much to target him in home DFS matchups.
Estrada will be looking for a bounce-back season after battling wrist and thumb injuries on his way to a .590 OPS with the Giants last season. He ultimately was outrighted to Triple-A late last season after clearing waivers. He went to Triple-A and hit .333 with three doubles, three home runs and a .392 wOBA over 19 games for the Sacramento River Cats, and he did enough to earn the attention of the Rockies, who gave him a one-year deal that guarantees him $4 million and has a mutual option for 2026.
It wasn’t long ago that Estrada was a main building block for the Giants after hitting exactly 14 home runs in both 2022 and 2023. He had a career-high .346 wOBA in 2022 and posted .317 and .317 wOBAs the next two seasons before last year’s precipitous drop to just a .256 wOBA.
In each of those seasons that he had 14 home runs, he also added 20+ stolen bases, so there’s also potential for him to contribute with his speed.
Estrada is about to turn 29, so he may not be able to have a true “breakout” season, but his career .348 batting average with four home runs and 18 RBIs in 24 games at Coors Field and a move to such a hitter-friendly environment is enough to at least put him on your radar last in drafts. He could be one of this year’s 2B breakouts or at least be part of a patchwork solution at the position in roto leagues where you can play him at home and sit him on the road if his splits are too divergent.
He’ll be working to show he still has enough in the tank to be the team’s primary replacement for Brendan Rodgers, so keep an eye on how Estrada fares this spring.
