This article is part of our Sorare MLB series.
We've seen about a month of MLB action here in the 2025 season. Slow starts begin to become worrisome, while hot starts lead to wonder about whether or not things will continue. Of course, with your Sorare MLB lineup, nothing is etched in stone, but it's better to be ahead of the curve than behind it. Here are my upgrades, holds, and downgrades for your Sorare decision making. As we near May, and warmer weather, it's time to shine a light on the good, the bad and the curious.
Card prices shown reflect the most recent limited card sale price for each player on the Sorare Marketplace as of April 23.
Upgrades
Marcell Ozuna, ATL ($12.55): Atlanta started slowly offensively, but that was never likely to continue, and Ozuna's turn toward torrid hitting is a sign of that. He's now up to a .318/.500/.530 slash line. While his four home runs put him behind his 40-homer pace of the last two seasons, obviously home runs are not evenly distributed throughout the course of the season. Ozuna has a .457 wOBA, near the top of that particular stat, and all he needs to do is turn some of his medium-strength hits into hard hits. By doing that, he'll be approaching his usual numbers on both fronts, so you can say that the Atlanta slugger has been underperforming but still gotten on base half the time. Encouragingly, Ozuna only has one game with negative Sorare points in April.
Paul Goldschmidt, NYY ($7.74): Last year, Goldschmidt hit .245 and slugged .414, paving the way to forget he had 22 homers, 33 doubles and 11 stolen bases. Now a Yankee, a team one can't escape the limelight on, the first baseman has slashed .383/.433/.489. What kind of contact turns into hits the most? Line drives. Goldschmidt has a 33.8 line-drive percentage, and while he hasn't had many big Sorare days, he's been a consistent point producer, as opposed to an all-or-nothing option.
Geraldo Perdomo, ARI ($7.26): Perdomo hit .273 last year, so his .271 average this season isn't surprising. However, he's been even more patient this season and actually has more walks than strikeouts to start 2025. The shortstop has stolen four bases, and he's also shown more power, tallying three home runs. All that with a .268 BABIP, below his .283 career number. With the lineup Arizona has, Perdomo has the chance to pick up plenty of runs, RBI and Sorare points.
Matthew Liberatore, STL ($5.08): Remember when Liberatore was one of the most-vaunted pitching prospects? Those days faded into the distance as the lefty moved between the rotation and the bullpen for the Cardinals. So, you might see Liberatore with a 3.60 ERA in his age-25 season and think he's been lucky. Instead, he's been quite unlucky. Liberatore has a 1.87 FIP and has made three quality starts. His K/BB rate is a remarkable (and unsustainable) 12.00. With at least 17.0 Sorare points in all four of his starts, it's worth noting that Liberatore wouldn't be the first post-hype pitcher to emerge as a frontline starter.
Holds
Gunnar Henderson, BAL ($54.47): First, Henderson won Rookie of the Year. Then, he put up MVP-caliber numbers in his sophomore campaign. The Orioles third baseman started this season injured, and since returning the numbers don't pop as they have in the past. He has a few games with over 20.0 Sorare points, but more with negative points, and his .246 OBP is decidedly poor. Henderson is atop MLB in terms of exit velocity and hard-hit percentage. Well over half of his hits have qualified as "hard," and with that kind of quality contact, things should pick up soon enough.
Tyler Anderson, LAA ($3.99): In some ways, Anderson has been lucky. He has a 4.69 FIP compared to a 2.08 ERA, his BABIP is unsustainably low, and his left-on-base percentage is unsustainably high. On the other hand, only one starting pitcher, Kyle Hendricks, has induced a lower exit velocity. Anderson also has a 24.5 groundball percentage, which will likely improve quite a bit. He hasn't allowed a single run in either of his last two starts, and both have yielded at least 29.5 Sorare points. I'm willing to see where this all goes.
Downgrades
James Wood, WAS ($23.95): I'll start with a player whose hot start may be primed to dissolve. One-third of his fly balls have turned into home runs. On top of that, Wood has a 60.7 groundball percentage and a 4.9 line-drive percentage. Furthermore, his chase rate is 29.3 percent. Wood has hit his fellow lefties well in a meager sample size, but last year he had a .659 OPS in those matchups. A game with 27.0 Sorare points at Coors Field was surrounded by four games with 2.0 Sorare points or fewer. I think Wood will be good this season, but probably not All-Star good.
Brandon Nimmo, NYM ($7.74): Meanwhile, Nimmo's slow start is one I think could certainly continue. Last year was already tough for him, but he still managed 23 homers and 15 stolen bases. This season, the lefty has four home runs, but he's also hitting below the Mendoza Line. His strikeout percentage is 20.0, but alarmingly his walk percentage is 6.3. In each of his last nine games Nimmo has failed to net double-digit Sorare points, and that may be the norm this year.
Nick Lodolo, CIN ($4.11): Last season, Lodolo had a 4.76 ERA but a 3.94 FIP. That might have led one to believe the Reds hurler would be primed to improve his numbers in 2025. Indeed, through five starts he has a 2.79 ERA, but that's with a 4.30 FIP. He's actually been worse this season than in 2024 in many ways. While Lodolo has only walked 1.24 batters per nine innings, he's also only struck out 5.59 batters per nine innings. Even in the two games in which he didn't allow a run, Lodolo topped out at 26.5 Sorare points, owing in part to the lack of strikeouts.
