Welcome to the 2023 Fantasy Baseball Week 8 Drop List!
In this week's drop list, we've had enough. We are dropping a preseason top-ten first baseman who has hurt all of us in every offensive category. Additionally, we are dropping a utility player drafted in the top 250 and a well-known starting pitcher for Toronto. Jose Berrios was the first Blue Jay staff member to make this article; we now have one more.
Dropping a high draft pick is the worst feeling in the world. It never feels like the right thing to do. What if I drop him, someone else picks him up, and THEN he starts performing? Well, fortunately, players don't know when you've dropped them. Don't be scared to hurt their feelings. Redraft leagues especially.
Is one drop going to ruin your season? Probably not. Theoretically, it could happen though. I don't see it happening here.
Let's take a look at the 2023 Fantasy Baseball Week 8 Drop List and see if we can agree on some players to cut loose.
2023 Fantasy Baseball Week 8 Drop List
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Jose Abreu, 1B, Houston Astros
Here it is.
Abreu could not have started a season worse than he has in 2023. He has been downright awful. To make matters worse, he was ranked as the No.6 first baseman in preseason drafts.
Through 44 games, Abreu is slashing .218/.273/.259. Yes, you read that right, a .259 SLG%. What happened here?
Abreu led the AL in RBIs in 2019, led the MLB in RBIs during the shortened 2020 season, and racked up 117 RBIs in 2021. In 2022 however, his RBI total dropped to 75 but his batting average shot up to .304.
Everyone who drafted Abreu could not have expected something like this to happen in 2023 as Abreu has not hit a single home run in 183 plate appearances! Something has gone terribly wrong.
Abreu's power numbers completely disappeared during the 2022 season. He went from 30 homers in 2021 to just 15 in 2022. His RBI total completely fell off a cliff as well, as mentioned earlier.
Sure, power isn't everything in fantasy, batting average matters too. Abreu has always been a solid hitter but he is batting a mere .218 this year.
Add all of this to the fact that he now plays in Houston, batting in the 4-5 holes, and is still absolutely ruining your teams' averages and totals.
His Baseball Savant page isn't even worth talking about.
I'm very concerned and you should be too.
Good luck trading Abreu at this point, that ship has sailed.
Yusei Kikuchi, SP, Toronto Blue Jays
By no means has Kikuchi ever been someone who has jumped off the page as a rotation lock for your fantasy team. However, I've always been one who has kept faith. His K/9 number has always been appealing to me, but that's really about it.
I highly doubt you reached for Kikuchi in the 2023 drafts, but if he snuck his way onto your team via stream or draft pick, he needs to be dropped.
Kikuchi's career ERA since his debut in 2019 is 4.93. His ERA this year sits at 4.08. When a 4.08 ERA is an improvement on a career ERA, things can't be great.
He's getting hit hard this year and I see things only getting worse for Kikuchi for the rest of the season.
Kikuchi is currently ranked in the sixth percentile in Avg Exit Velocity, 11th in HardHit%, 12th in xSLG, and 15th in Barrel%.
There's not much to like right now and even his K/9 number is at a four-year low.
If you can stomach the ERA and WHIP blowups, he does have five wins this year (somehow), but we all know how arbitrary wins are.
All in all, Kikuchi is doing more harm than good, and honestly, he's never really been that good in the first place. He's a well-known name, but I'm throwing him into the same boat as Jose Berrios, which is not a good boat to be in.
Move on.
Brendan Donovan, 2B, 3B, OF, St. Louis Cardinals
Hand up, I was a Donovan believer early this season. I even drafted him with the expectation that he could always fill in for a slumping hitter.
His positional eligibility is massive and he can play pretty much anywhere but catcher.
However, Donovan is providing a whole lot of nothing. Treading water would be an overstatement at this moment in the season. He's had 133 ABs with three doubles and three homers. That's it.
Moreover, this season, he's started only one game versus a left-handed starting pitcher. He's fallen into a platoon situation and that is never ideal for fantasy managers.
Donovan is slashing .241/.315/.331 thus far in 2023 and I'm nervous this may look eerily similar to how he finishes the year.
Over the past month, Donovan is 15 for 70 with one homer, six RBIs, and zero stolen bases.
Donovan's position eligibility is extremely valuable in fantasy baseball, but his offensive production thus far is doing significantly more harm than good.
I haven't fully given up hope for the 26-year-old utility player, but things are looking pretty grim. I'm dropping Donovan in my leagues but keeping an eye out to see if he (or St. Louis) manages to get something going. Patience is key in fantasy, but my patience gauge has hit empty.
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