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SDP No more: Xavier Edwards

In 2019, Tampa sent Tommy Pham and Jake Cronenworth to San Diego for Hunter Renfroe and Xavier Edwards. We all remember that trade for one reason, which I’ll get to in a minute, but while fact-checking the terms of the trade, I just learned that Cronenworth was a two-way player at Triple-A Durham! In a parallel universe where the Padres keep Cronenworth as a two-way player, he might be what we remember most about the trade. Thanks to the ever-classy Blake Snell, however, we remember this as the “slap-dick prospect” trade.

Of course, the “SDP” that Snell was referring to is Xavier Edwards, who I think is quickly establishing himself as a top ten fantasy second baseman. In 2019, Edwards split time between Single-A Lake Elsinore and High-A Fort Wayne, batting .322 with one home run and 34 stolen bases. As I write this over six years later (May 20, 2026), he’s hitting .319 with five home runs and six stolen bases for the Miami Marlins. He’s on a bit of a heater right now, and 20 home runs is not out of the question. In fact, he’s among the league leaders in a few categories we track in fantasy baseball.

Check out the table below, stats as listed on Fangraphs on May 20, 2026:

He’s also in the top ten for second basemen in home runs and top 15 in RBI. In the Dynasty Guru pre-season rankings, he was our 17th-ranked second baseman, easily overlooked by fantasy managers. We’ll be publishing our midyear rankings in about a month, and it’s a sure bet he’ll be ranked much higher than that. There are still some names that would keep Edwards out of my top five, but he’s firmly ensconced in my top ten at the moment.

What’s he doing and is it sustainable?

I don’t want to overreact to a hot start, but we are a quarter of the way through the season, and he is showing no signs of slowing down. A look at the underlying statistics reveals that he has made some significant changes to his approach, and they are paying off.

First of all, he is hitting the ball harder than he has before. This year has seen increases in his hard-hit rate (29% to 37%), barrel rate (0.8% to 6.4%), and average exit velocity (86.8 to 88.6).

Nerd Alert! I spent some time looking at his bat tracking data, and I can see where some of the improvement is coming from. He is swinging harder with less of an uppercut, an approach that increases contact while maintaining loft. His Ideal Attack Angle Rate, defined as the percentage of his competitive swings that fall within the 5 – 20 degree attack angle range, has increased from 34% to 51%. All of his swing changes are basically the Driveline philosophy, and they’ve been working for Edwards. The former SDP is driving the ball all over,and out of, the park more than ever, and shows no signs of slowing down.

If you have him on a roster, you can consider selling high, but I’d hold unless I had the likes of Turang, Chisholm, Marte, or Hoerner on my roster. In leagues where I don’t roster him and don’t have one of the top five, I’d see if I could pry him away in a trade for the right price. And while I’m at it, I’m adding Marlins prospect Starlyn Caba to my watch lists…