From FOMO To ROMO | Baseball Prospectus

A concert is an entire event for me. I typically go to shows by myself at smaller- to medium-sized venues to see my sad girls. I love musicians like Carly Rae Jepsen, Lorde, Clairo, Holly Humberstone, Snail Mail, Blondshell, and the like. So when I go to these venues, I try to get floor tickets if I’m able to, with the understanding that they are general admission. With that being the case, I have this need to get up to the front of the stage to get the full experience.

But doing that comes with a cost: I have to get there early.

Well, let’s rephrase that. I tell myself that I have to get there really early to guarantee a spot at the front of the stage. Usually, if the doors open at 7 p.m., I aim to get to the venue at noon, oftentimes taking a half-day of work to ensure that I get the spot that I need. Time and time again, when I show up to the venue, I’m the only one who is in line and remain the only one in line for two to three hours. 

I just know, though, the one day that I decide to show up at 4 or 5 p.m. will be the day that there is a massive line and I’m stuck in the middle of the pit. My therapist calls this anxiety (rightfully so). I also think it’s a case of FOMO or the Fear Of Missing Out.

Not a new term. In fact, I think by saying it at all, I just admit that I’m washed. 

But this isn’t going where you think it is (unless you read the headline and then you win). I’m not going to look at the players who I’m feeling FOMO over by not drafting them. In fact, I’m going to look at the opposite.

See, when I was traveling recently and was (doom)scrolling, I saw a quote from Tyler Glasnow Cillian Murphy where he said that he was feeling a sense of ROMO: Relief Of Missing Out. That was new to me. Again, I’m washed, so maybe it’s not a new term, but it was for me.

Immediately, I thought about fantasy baseball and the players that I’m relieved that I didn’t draft this year based on their cost and their actual value. So in honor of Murphy, let’s take a look at some of my ROMO players.

Chandler Simpson (OF – TBR)

I feel like I’m piling on at this point, but while the industry has shifted away from drafting rabbits like Dee Gordon and Billy Hamilton, Simpson felt like a move in the wrong direction. His March ADP was No. 174, so it wasn’t as extreme as we saw with the likes of Gordon and Hamilton, but still felt a little rich for the profile.

Simpson is starting to run more again–he has 19 steals on the season–but went through a month-plus stretch where he didn’t have any stolen bases at all. He does have an xBA of .295 on the season, but his quality of contact is horrendous. He ranks No. 352 on the season as of July 1, and outside of steals–which he’s been streaky on–you aren’t getting a ton there.

Nolan McLean (SP – NYM)

I like McLean a lot. He has the look of being an ace, but his draft price kept going up and up as he gained more helium during the offseason. As a result, he was going No. 91 in drafts in March, which was a little bit too high. He’s been OK, of course, but when you are going that high–Yahoo! had him ranked No. 51 compared to the above NFBC ranking–you limit the ability to actually return value on the investment. That’s what fantasy is all about.

McLean now has an ERA of 3.78 and the issue is that he doesn’t miss a ton of bats. The best thing a pitcher can do is get a whiff. Until McLean can do that, he’s leaving himself vulnerable and fantasy managers frustrated by overpaying for him.

Garrett Crochet (SP – BOS)

In my model portfolio, I selected Crochet as the first starting pitcher that I’d take given that he was going after Tarik Skubal and Paul Skenes. If you listened to me, I am so sorry. (I didn’t even listen to myself, as I ended up with no shares of him.)

I avoided him totally in 2025 with concerns about his increased workload and moving to Boston as a lefty. He proved me wrong, so I wrote off my concerns. This year, in only 30 innings, he’s been brutal with a 6.30 ERA and a 45.3% hard-hit rate. 

Crochet is on the injured list recovering from left shoulder inflammation and a lat injury with no timetable to return. This is the biggest case of ROMO that I have had this season.

Cal Raleigh (C – SEA)

For once, my stubbornness has paid off. I hate catchers, and I loathe two-catcher leagues. I prefer to wait until one of my last picks to fill the position, especially given the talent pool that is made up of catchers in the year of our Lorde 2026.

Raleigh has missed time, limiting him to 207 at bats, but in those, he’s hitting just .164 with eight home runs.

In trade discussions, it’s important to remember that you’re not trading for the production that has happened already, but the future production. It’s the same in draft season. You weren’t getting his historic MVP-level 2025 numbers. Raleigh had an NFBC ADP of No. 17 (two-catcher leagues, of course) and a Yahoo! ADP of No. 19. Way too rich for my blood. 

I ended up with multiple shares of Dillon Dingler and Dalton Rushing. I couldn’t be happier.

Max Fried (SP – NYY)

All pitchers are one throw away from blowing out their arm. That’s why I traded Jacob Misiorowski in a 20-team dynasty league this offseason in fear of him blowing out his arm with his frame. It didn’t work out well for me (yet!).  But with Fried, we already had the understanding that he was working through some arm issues. He was still going No. 51 overall in drafts, which felt high given the concerns.

He went to the injured list in mid-May with a “left elbow bruise,” which sounds better than tightness or a strain. But it’s still concerning. Injuries occur enough on their own (just look at the first-round players in drafts this year). There’s no need to take on extra injury risk by drafting an already-injured player.

Freddy Peralta (SP – NYM)

This one wasn’t intentional. I was pretty high on Peralta coming into the season, but he just didn’t land on any of my squads. That’s a different kind of relief when it isn’t intentional, but it was just the way that the cookie crumbled.

He’s lost about a mile per hour on his four-seamer with a shorter extension, and he’s allowing a lot of hard contact. Bad luck? Change in skills? Curse of the Mets? One thing is for sure: it’s a relief.

Geraldo Perdomo (SS – ARI)

There’s a reason that we use three-year sample sizes. It paints a better picture and eliminates a lot of recency bias. But we still sometimes fall for it, and that was the case with Perdomo heading into the season. We took his breakout 2025 numbers at face value, choosing to ignore his previous career numbers. It hasn’t worked out for fantasy managers. Perdomo had an ADP on NFBC of No. 76 overall, and on the year, he’s ranked No. 255.

He was just recently moved back into the upper-third of the Arizona lineup after he was moved to the lower-third. Maybe it’ll get him going again, but I’m glad that I stuck to my process of not overreacting to singular seasons when it comes to Perdomo.