2025 Fantasy Baseball Post-All-Star Buy-Low Candidates Include Salvador Perez And Dylan Cease

The All-Star break has arrived. Baseball will celebrate its best players for the 2025 MLB season at Truist Park in Atlanta, Georgia this week.

But after the celebration, the playoff races around the leagues will resume. As will every fantasy baseball manager's chase for a championship.

A big key to winning the championship is not just relying on what players produced during the first half of the season. Fantasy managers should continue to seek roster improvements, and the All-Star break is a great opportunity to find buy-low trade targets.

Here are four players that didn't have stellar first halves of the 2025 campaign but could see improvement over the final 11 weeks of the season.

Salvador Perez, Catcher, Kansas City Royals

The Royals veteran catcher was one of my buy-low candidates in May. Since the start of June, Perez has been able to turn around his season, but he arguably remains someone managers can still get for a low price.

He's hitting .280/.327/.531 with nine home runs, 28 RBI and 14 runs since June 1. Perez has actually continued to get better, hitting .333 with four home runs already in just 12 games during July.

Despite that prolonged stretch of success, his numbers remain lower than his career average. So, the catcher may be available for cheap in a fantasy trade.

That should be appealing for managers. Perez appears poised to post superior totals over the rest of the 2025 campaign.

Ozzie Albies, Second Baseman, Atlanta Braves

The Braves lineup has a lot of potential buy-low candidates. The team still has plenty of position player talent, but for the most part, they haven't produced anywhere near expectations.

But on July 9, ESPN's Tristan J. Cockcroft rated the Braves with the most-favorable non-Rockies hitter schedule for the remainder of the 2025 season. That has me believing in a potential bounce back from one of the Braves former stars.

"Atlanta faces only two pitching staffs that the Forecaster grades 5% or more better than league average for the remainder of the year -- the Cleveland Guardians (Aug. 15-17, in Cleveland) andSeattle Mariners (Sept. 5-7, in Atlanta)," Cockcroft wrote. "Additionally, the Braves are the team likeliest to face the largest volume of left-handed pitching during the second half (potentially 30% of their opposing starters), which is a boon to Ozzie Albies, Austin Riley, and Marcell Ozuna, who have historically been excellent against lefties."

Among those three Braves hitters, Albies is the safest choice because he's the only one healthy. Riley landed on the injured list on Friday and Ozuna has been playing with a hip ailment the entire season.

If managers don't mind the injury risk, then Riley and Ozuna are prime buy-low candidates. I went with Albies for my list to avoid any injured players.

Albies slashed .220/.290/.316 with seven home runs, 29 RBI and 39 runs in 403 plate appearances during the first half of 2025.

Dylan Cease, Starting Pitcher, San Diego Padres

Cockcroft also rated the Padres with the most-favorable pitcher schedule for the rest of 2025.

"The Padres face a lot of bad offenses during the second half, including seven games against the Rockies and three apiece against the White Sox, Miami Marlins and Washington Nationals. They also make trips to extreme pitchers parks LoanDepot Park, Oracle Park, T-Mobile Park and Citi Field," wrote Cockcroft.

That makes Yu Darvish and Michael King potential buy-low candidates. But to avoid pitchers needing to fully recovery from injuries, Cease made our list.

The left-hander entered 2025 as a Cy Young candidate, but he went 3-9 with a 4.88 ERA and 1.326 WHIP in the first half. He has a chance to get going, though, with a favorable schedule the rest of the way.

Zac Gallen, Starting Pitcher, Arizona Diamondbacks

The right-hander has been consistently inconsistent this season. He appeared to be turning the corner to begin July, but in his last start before the break, he gave up six runs on eight hits in five innings to the Los Angeles Angels.

The analytics, though, suggest Gallen could be better in the second half. Even with his latest setback, he owns a 2.75 FIP in his last three outings. Gallen's ERA is also a respectable 3.50 during that stretch.

The 2023 All-Star could see an increase in fantasy value too if the Diamondbacks trade him. Arizona should be sellers at the MLB trade deadline, and as a starter on an expiring contract, he's a prime candidate to finish the campaign elsewhere.