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Guaranteed Human.

Welcome in, everybody, to Fantasy Pros.

This is the Fantasy Baseball podcast.

It is me Joey P.

Joe P. Zapia.

And today we're going to look out some potential breakouts for 2026.

And who better to talk about that with than the man from Brodewire and the Sleeper in the Bus. It's Jason Collette, everybody, and the beard looks spectacular. I just want to say, I haven't seen you in a while. I don't know how long the bearded beard has been in effect, but it looks fantastic. Speaking of bearded people, we like, Joe Rico also here on the program, everybody's favorite Canadian. And God knows, we got to keep those Canadians around, keep us all level headed. They're the only level ones we have nowadays. And we're going to talk about some of the guys who could find 2026 to be the ultimate season where they take their game to the next level. Maybe there's some rookies on this list, some second year players. You'll see in just a moment. Before we get into it, Jason Collette, real quick, give me your take on that Louis Robert trade. Certainly, it seems like all upside for the Mets there. They get a plus defender. Certainly a guy a couple years ago in 2023 had a great offensive season. He's entering his prime years. They give us Louis Angel Acuna in return to

the White Sox. So that is the swap. Acuna, I assume, is going to play every day for the White Sox somewhere.

What's your take from the fantasy fallout from that trade? I mean, I love the upside deal for the Mets and

for Robert Jr. last year, I actually dropped him about three weeks before he got super hot for that six weeks

and then he cooled off again. But I took him high and I was like, oh, this really, this is,

this is tough to watch him succeed for somebody else with that. But you know what he's capable of.

He's done it in stints. We just need to see him stringing along and stay healthy. I'm really

curious to see how the running game plays out,

because that's been a huge part of his success. And I know that the Mets have had some changes

on the coaching staff. That was very helpful for them last year with running and getting those

stolen bases from guys with single-digit sprint speed. So let's see where things go. But I woke up

to that news this morning.

I was like, that's a good deal.

That's a deal the Mets really needed to make. And they traded from some depth and got what they needed. Well, look, his worst offensive season sounds a lot like Tyrone Taylor anyway. So at least you're getting the upside of maybe there's more. And maybe it's just a change of scenery, Joe, because look at Andrew Vaughn leaves the White Sox last year for the Brewers and look at how he did in that change of environment. Maybe that's all it takes for a guy like Robert to kind of rediscover himself. Because again, I think we take for granted. I was like, oh, this guy's in his 30s. No, he's not. He's 28 years old. feels like he's been around forever. He came up when he was 22, and we've seen such great flashes from him.

I think I agree, Just getting out of Chicago, a situation that hasn't been great for the last couple of years, mentally reset. You go to a really good lineup where right now, Fangraphs are projecting him to hit eighth. That's how deep the lineup is looking for your Mets right now, Joe. So I think it's all good for Robert.

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