Each week we’ll look at a handful of different players whom fantasy managers should consider picking up in deeper fantasy baseball leagues. Many of these players will have the most value in larger leagues where waiver wire options aren’t as plentiful. Still, they could also occasionally be useful additions in other, more standard-sized leagues depending on your options at their position.
All roster percentages mentioned in this column are via FantasyPros as of Friday afternoon.
All 2024 stats are as of the beginning of play on Friday.
Jose Quintana – 15%
Jose Quintana is once again posting an ERA below the 4.00 mark. He’s at 3.91 so far in 18 starts spanning 96.2 innings.
It’s more or less in line with the 3.57 ERA he logged in 75.2 innings last season and the 2.93 number he posted in 165.2 innings in 2022.
What’s different, though, is the jump in FIP. If the season ended today, Quintana’s 4.72 FIP would be the highest of his career.
Despite another drop in strikeouts this season, Quintana has largely kept the ERA down by limiting barrels (with a 6.7% barrel rate) and inducing grounders (with a 47.2% ground ball rate).
The elevated FIP and lower strikeout numbers make Quintana more of a streaming option moving forward, or rather a short-term addition for a few starts.
Still, he makes for a quality addition for the next few starts, both given the run of form he’s been in, as well as the Mets’ upcoming schedule.
Quintana has given up just three earned runs in his last five starts, pitching to a 0.89 ERA and a 3.53 FIP in 30.1 innings while striking out 27 and allowing 10 walks and two home runs. He hasn’t allowed a run in his last 14 innings and has surrendered just two in his last 25.1.
He also gets the benefit of closing out the first half with a home start against the Colorado Rockies and potentially getting a start in the Mets’ first series of the second half, which is a four-game set in Miami against the Marlins.
Quintana has shown he can provide quality fantasy production in the right matchups. His last two starts have featured consecutive outings in which he’s held the Washington Nationals scoreless over seven innings.
(Washington, it should be noted has the league’s lowest barrel rate and fourth-highest ground ball rate.)
And starts against the Rockies and Marlins are very much the right matchups for a pitcher like Quintana.
Things get a bit dicey after that with six consecutive games against the Yankees and Atlanta, followed by three at home to Minnesota, so Quintana might be a candidate to drop to waivers after that, but for now, he’s a solid streaming option for the next few weeks in most all fantasy formats.
(For reference, the Marlins are tied for the league’s sixth-lowest barrel rate, while Colorado has posted the league’s seventh-lowest collective ISO on the road this season.)
Spencer Schwellenbach – 11%
Two things can be true here.
One is that Atlanta is in need of a consistent fifth starting pitcher.
Another is that Atlanta is a very fantasy-friendly situation for starters where pitcher-win potential is concerned.
Due to Spencer Strider being out for the year due to injury and the ineffectiveness among a number of other rotation options, Atlanta has utilized seven different starters after the first four names (Max Fried, Chris Sale, Charlie Morton, and Reynaldo López) in their rotation. Spencer Schwellenbach has arguably been the best of those options to occupy the fifth spot.
Given the number of pitchers who’ve filled in after Fried, Sale, Lopez, and Morton, it wouldn’t be a shock to see Schwellenbach continue to stay in the rotation for the foreseeable future (although that’s purely speculative on my part). An outcome that could present plenty in the way of pitcher-win opportunities.
Entering play Friday, only the Phillies, Orioles, and Yankees had registered more pitcher wins from their respective rotations than Atlanta’s 34 number.
Of the aforementioned quartet, Morton is last with five pitcher wins. Fried and Lopez have seven each and Sale has rattled off 12.
Overall, Schwellenbach has pitched to a 5.02 ERA in 37.2 innings, but his 3.57 FIP is right in line with Fried’s and significantly ahead of Morton’s number. And while the sample size is still somewhat small for the rookie, the fantasy upside is too much to ignore here.
Andre Pallante – 8%
Like Quintana, Pallante’s isn’t going to overwhelm with strikeouts. He’s struck out just 7.62 batters per nine frames and is sporting a 20.7% strikeout rate as a starter.
And while he has struggled in a pair of starts, giving up five or more runs twice in his eight starts, the right-hander’s rotation success looks a bit more sustainable.
He’s sporting a 3.70 ERA and a 3.90 FIP in 41.1 innings as a starter this season, holding batters to a .320 on-base percentage and a .308 wOBA.
And for those two unideal starts, he also has allowed one or no earned runs in five of his other outings.
At worst, he looks like a starter who can be deployed by fantasy managers in the right matchups.
And like Quintana, there are a number of those on the horizon.
Unlike Quintana, the run of fantasy-friendly, on-paper matchups potentially extends beyond a start or two.
After three games in Atlanta to open the second half, the Cardinals play 16 of 17 games against Pittsburgh, Washington, Texas, the Cubs, and the Rays, with the only game not mentioned one game against the Mets on August 5. Putting the Mets to the side for a moment, all of those teams rank in the bottom half of the league in runs scored, with the Pirates, Nationals, and Rays all in the bottom third.
Rowdy Tellez – 10%
Rowdy Tellez enjoyed a career year in 2022, particularly from a power standpoint, hitting .219 with a .306 on-base percentage, a 110 wRC+, 35 home runs, and a pair of stolen bases in 599 plate appearances for the Milwaukee Brewers. The veteran also added a .242 ISO that season and a 12.9% barrel rate.
The home runs, wRC+ and ISO were all career highs for the slugger.
Since then, the power production hasn’t been quite as consistent.
Tellez logged an 8.7% barrel rate, 13 home runs, and a .161 ISO in 351 plate appearances last season.
Through his first 153 plate appearances this season, Tellez was logging just a 3.7% barrel rate, one home run, and a .050 ISO.
Then the calendar turned to June 8. Tellez hit a home run as part of a two-hit effort against the Minnesota Twins, adding a pair of runs scored and three RBI in the process.
Since then, he’s very much resembled the hitter who mashed 35 home runs in 2022, at least from a barrel rate standpoint. Across the board, Tellez’s other numbers have actually improved from that career year.
Admittedly, it is a much smaller sample size, but Tellez has shown he can sustain this type of barrel rate in a full season’s worth of plate appearances before.
The 2024 full-season stats might still look hit and miss in places, and might for some time considering the slow start Tellez got off to, but if his power production is anywhere near his 2022 numbers from here through the rest of the season, he’s a fantasy must-add.
Even if the BABIP drops a bit and finishes the year somewhere in between the unsustainably low number it was in 2022 and the (somewhat) unsustainably high number it’s been since June 8, Tellez has a chance to be an impact power option for fantasy managers as long as his barrel rate stays hovers around that 13.0% mark.
Photo by Adobe Stock | Adapted by Carlos Leano.