Fantasy Baseball Steals Report: Trevor Story running toward a record, Agustín Ramírez’s growing pains

As stolen bases continue to rise league wide, I’m here every Wednesday to help you track important stolen base trends so you can find more speed for your fantasy teams.

Stealing a base is as much about the opposing pitcher and catcher as it is the actual base runner themself. So, being able to spot which teams and pitchers specifically are being run on most frequently will help you to figure out who can swipe some bags over the next week.

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Last week, I talked about Corbin Carroll’s lack of stolen base attempts on the season and whether or not a move to third in the order from first could push him to steal more. He took three bases this week without being caught.

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Before we get to this week’s important trends, here is the stolen base leaderboard over the past seven days.

José Caballero has started four consecutive games for the Yankees heading into play on Wednesday. When he plays, he will be stealing bases.

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Can Luis Arraez keep stealing bases please? It’s the only way for him to salvage his fantasy value.

Now, here is the overall stolen base leaderboard on the season.

José Ramírez refuses to stop being an elite player. Here’s to him, we don’t appreciate his greatness enough.

Victor Scott II has been remarkably efficient on the basepaths this season, but more on that later.

Next, here are some players that we’d hoped would be more aggressive or efficient on the base paths.

It’s ironic that Brice Turang has improved his bat speed and become a legitimately good hitter seemingly at the expense of his base stealing volume and efficiency.

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Now, let’s go over the most important stolen base trends over the past week.

Fantasy Baseball Stolen Base Targets

Featured in this column time and time again, the Marlins gave up the most stolen bases over the past week with 14 and didn’t catch a single runner. That brings their full-season total to 157 stolen bases allowed. The Astros are the next closest with 126, 31 stolen bases shy of Miami.

As usual, rookie Agustín Ramírez was picked on most often. He caught five of their seven games and had eight bases stolen against him. On the season, he’s caught just 8% of runners, the worst rate in the league for any catcher who’s started at least 40 games.

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Tuesday’s game against the Cardinals may have been his worst defensive performance to date as well. They stole four bases in the first five innings while Ramírez made a throwing error and allowed a passed ball.

In total, he’s now up to three throwing errors, four fielding errors, and 12 passed balls on the season to go along being the worst catcher in the run game. He’s a nightmare behind the plate.

Edward Cabrera deserves a mention here as well. He was on the mound for all four of the stolen bases by the Cardinals on Tuesday and for three more in his previous start against the Red Sox. He’s slow to the plate and allows some of the biggest leads in the league and is slow to the plate, not giving Ramírez or Liam Hicks much of an opportunity to throw runners out.

Every stolen base matters this time of year so monitor whoever is playing the Marlins and be confident anyone with even average speed can take a bag or two.

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An Ode to Efficiency

Trevor Story deserves a lot of credit for his resurgent season. Putting up 19 homers and 22 stolen bases after barely hitting those marks in his prior three seasons has made him a tremendous value in fantasy leagues.

Plus, he’s swiped those 22 bags without being caught. Only three players have ever stolen at least 22 bases in a single season without being caught and Trea Turner’s 30 bags in 2023 is the highest mark. Story and Byron Buxton – who’s stolen 18 himself without being caught – have a shot to join that list.

Otherwise, Victor Scott II (31) and Kyle Tucker (25) are the next most efficient base stealers having only been caught twice. Neither take very big leads – in fact, Tucker takes some of the shortest – but both know exactly when to pick their spots to go.

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Also, CJ Abrams with 26 steals on 29 attempts has done well to improve his efficiency compared to last season when he was caught 12 times in 43 attempts.

Lastly, the Mets need some credit as they’re tracking to be the most efficient base stealing team ever with a 90.1% success rate. Francisco Lindor was “caught” this past week – after being picked off and bolting toward second base – which broke their streak of nearly two months without being caught stealing.