Don’t look now, but it seems Major League Baseball perfected the flux capacitor, got themselves a DeLorean and went back to the 1980s, when stolen bases were all the rage.
This past week, Reds shortstop Elly De La Cruz stole his 30th base through just 44 games and joined an impressive club that features such greats as Rickey Henderson, Tim Raines and Vince Coleman.
If you made that seemingly bold move to pick him in the second round of your fantasy baseball drafts this year, you’re elated.
If not, you probably need some help finding stolen bases on your waiver wire.
If you were to extrapolate the current stolen base total of 979 heading into Friday’s action, you’ll see how important this category is for fantasy.
De La Cruz has been a beast, and we’re seeing plenty of other stars deliver — from Bobby Witt Jr. to Shohei Ohtani.
But acquiring any of them in a trade probably will cost you more than what you want to pay.
Yet over the past week, we’ve seen a number of active base-stealers ready to help your cause.
Few fantasy managers are enamored with rostering players from the Nationals, but they have been one of the top teams for stolen bases all year long.
In fact, they have the second-highest stolen base attempts in the majors and one of the top success rates.
If Jacob Young is somehow available, lock him down immediately.
But if not, take a look at a returning outfielder Lane Thomas or third baseman Trey Lipscomb.
They have 21 steals between the two of them, and Lipscomb had four in his previous six games heading into Friday. If the Nationals are going to continue running like this, then these two, alongside infielder Luis Garcia Jr. should be rostered.
The Rockies might rank in the bottom-five among steal attempts, but you cannot ignore the recent surge by outfielder Brenton Doyle — who had four over a six-game span.
Despite a near 28 percent strikeout rate, Doyle has managed to hit .281 with a .337 OBP.
With eight steals on the year, he is going to have the green light whenever he gets on-base.
People also keep adding and dropping Rays second baseman Jose Caballero.
The Rays are a top-five team in stolen-base attempts, and Caballero keeps running.
The strikeouts are a mess and the batting average is a bit of a disaster, but if you can withstand that, his 17 steals are potentially up for grabs.
Back in the ’80s, fantasy baseball strategists focused heavily on stolen bases, and those who drafted the likes of Henderson or Raines routinely came out on top.
De La Cruz managers are doing that now, so your attention needs to be laser-focused.
Stream in the stolen bases when you can, and don’t stop until your team sits atop the category standings.
You can thank me in October.
Howard Bender is the head of content at FantasyAlarm.com. Follow him on X @rotobuzzguy and catch him on the award-winning “Fantasy Alarm Radio Show” on the SiriusXM fantasy sports channel weekdays from 6-8 p.m. Go to FantasyAlarm.com for all your fantasy baseball news and advice