Houston Astros outfielder Yordan Alvarez continued to rake in Monday night's 8-5 win over the visiting Miami Marlins at Daikin Park by going 3-for-4 at the plate as the designated hitter with two home runs and a strikeout to raise his season average to .324 and his OPS to a stellar 1.083. Alvarez continued to scorch the ball all over the ballpark in the series opener against the Fish, and his two homers now have him tied for the major-league lead in homers with 33 with Philadelphia Phillies outfielder Kyle Schwarber. The 29-year-old Cuban left-handed slugger also leads baseball with a 1.083 OPS and is second with his .324 batting average and 75 RBI. There aren't many pitchers in the league right now who can shut Alvarez down offensively. He came into Monday's tilt with a .353 average (18-for-51) and 1.159 OPS with five home runs, four doubles, 13 RBI, and six runs scored across 13 games and 60 plate appearances in the month of July. If Alvarez can continue his torrid pace for the rest of the second half and stay healthy, he has an excellent shot to be the first Triple Crown winner since Miguel Cabrera did it in 2012.

Across 327 plate appearances this season, Milwaukee Brewers outfielder Garrett Mitchell is hitting .283/.368/.465 with eight home runs, 48 RBI, 44 runs scored, and seven stolen bases. Mitchell owns a 32.7% strikeout rate on the year, so his batting average is likely to regress along with his unsustainably high .423 batting average on balls in play. Health also remains a question mark for Mitchell, who had never reached 250 plate appearances in a season before 2026. However, Mitchell has posted elite underlying contact metrics this year with a 14.1% barrel rate and 50.3% hard-hit rate. As long as he can stay on the field, Mitchell profiles as a high-upside waiver wire target.

Across 187 plate appearances in 2026, Houston Astros catcher Yainer Diaz is hitting .242/.267/.393 with six home runs, 23 RBI, and 19 runs scored. The 27-year-old got off to a rough start to the season, hitting .238 with two home runs across 106 plate appearances before being placed on the injured list in early May with an oblique injury. However, Diaz has been heating up since returning from the IL in mid-June. Across his last 81 trips to the plate, Diaz is hitting .247 with home runs and nine RBI. Diaz owns just a 32% hard-hit rate this season, but he owns a career 43.4% hard-hit rate across nearly 1,800 MLB plate appearances. He also limits his swing-and-miss, as he's struck out in just 16% of his plate appearances in 2026. Fantasy managers in search of some upside at the catcher position may want to consider targeting Diaz on the waiver wire.

New York Yankees infielder Jazz Chisholm Jr. carried the offense in Monday night's 8-5 victory in the Bronx over the visiting Pittsburgh Pirates, going 2-for-4 at the plate with two home runs, five RBI, and two strikeouts to bolster his season average to .228 and his OPS to .726. It was Chisholm's first multi-homer game of 2026 after he did it four times in 2025. The big game on Monday night against the Bucs boosted Chisholm's season totals to 16 home runs, 43 RBI, and 26 stolen bases in 375 plate appearances in his second full season in the Bronx. The 28-year-old left-handed slugger continues to be a batting-average and on-base-percentage drain thanks to a 29.6% strikeout rate. Chisholm is also displaying less power with a 40.4% ground-ball rate in his 371 plate appearances so far this year. Still, the two-time All-Star should reach the 20-20 mark for the third straight campaign, and fantasy managers cannot complain for a player with second base eligibility. It's just not the high-end production that we expected after he hit 31 homers, drove in 80, and stole 31 bags in 2025. Chisholm has now homered three times in his last two games.