Welcome to the Waiver Wire Picks, our daily fantasy baseball article that looks at the best players you should be adding to your rosters. We’ll look at the players that are likely to be available in most leagues, as well as some deep league waiver wire options. We’ll also look at the most-added players in fantasy baseball across the major sites and tell you which players to add and which to leave on the wire.
Top Priority Players to Add
Walker Jenkins (MIN) – OF (Yahoo – 19%)
Jenkins is the latest top prospect to receive the call. The Twins’ chances of reaching the playoffs have dwindled to just under 8%, but at this stage in the season, there aren’t enough games left for Jenkins to exhaust his rookie eligibility, so they might as well give him a taste of major league pitching. Jenkins had a 150 wRC+ in AAA this season, with an excellent 50:43 K:BB ratio. He added 14 homers and 17 steals in 73 games, although there’s mixed evidence from his MLB debut about the power potential. On the one hand, both of his batted balls were around 100 mph. On the other hand, though, he swung the bat at 69.4 mph, well below the MLB average. This is a hitter with power-speed upside who’s likely to play every day down the stretch, with no risk of his team resting regulars to prepare for the postseason. If you’re trying to catch some teams in your league, you want to be adding variance at this stage of the season; that’s Jenkins.
Willi Castro (COL) – 1B, 2B, 3B, SS, OF (Yahoo – 55%)
If you’re in a shallower league where Castro is available, this is a great opportunity to stream him for the week. The Rockies will play all six games at home against the Orioles and Cardinals. You know that hitting in Coors is advantageous, but you might not realize how much it is for Castro. He’s hitting .310/.362/.480 at home and .218/.308/.370 on the road. He qualifies at every non-catcher position, which means all he has to do is be better than your worst non-catcher to justify the add.
Yahoo and ESPN Most Added Players
It’s uncommon to have even one position player in the most-added players, but today ESPN managers are moving on two of them. Jenkins was discussed above; he’s a good opportunity to make up ground in several categories. Tristan Peters is the other hitter ESPN managers are adding. The ex-Savannah Banana has been traded three times in his short career before making the All-Star Game this season. He’s just come off a streak of homers in five straight games, and even started against the last lefty the White Sox faced. He’s an aggressive hitter in the zone, with pretty solid contact skills. If a 15-10 type of outfielder with a good batting average would be useful to you down the stretch, go for it. The only issue is that he’s buried at the bottom of the White Sox lineup, which reduces his opportunities for runs and RBIs.
Kyle Leahy leads the streaming starters with a matchup against the Pirates at home. The Cardinals’ starter has had a lot of success this season, but he hasn’t passed 5 innings in his past 4 starts. The Cardinals also pulled him after 4 excellent innings his last time out in an effort to control his innings. Nick has him as a Do Not Start on his latest SP Streamer Ranks, and it’s hard to disagree. If he’s only going to face 15 hitters again, you’d be happy to roll with him as a follower, but if he’s starting the game, there’s very little upside.
Martín Pérez draws a start at home vs the Rockies. That’s an excellent matchup, and Perez is the sort of starter who can soak up innings for a good team. He’s a high-probability bet to pick up a win, although there’s little-to-no strikeout upside. Perez is outperforming his ERA estimators again this year, but his 1.21 WHIP is more meh than good. You know what you’re getting with him, though, so at least it’s easy to decide whether this stream would be useful for your squad.
Cal Quantrill has a start at Milwaukee today. That’s the worst matchup of these three potential streamers; the Brewers are 4th in MLB by wRC+ for the season, and 7th over the past 30 days. Quantrill has allowed 3 earned runs in his last 6 appearances (5 starts) covering 30.1 innings, with 28 strikeouts and only 5 walks. That’s a crazy run, and even if I’m firmly a Quantrill non-believer, it’s not unreasonable to stream him for this one. I wouldn’t be surprised if this was the end of his run, too.
Pure streaming on the Yahoo most-added list, with Walker Buehler and Shane Drohan joining Perez, Quantrill, and Leahy. Drohan gets the matchup against Quantrill and a Rangers offense that is 27th by wRC+ over the last 30 days. Drohan has much better skills than Quantrill this season, but a weaker body of recent performance. My inclination is to trust the overall body of work more, but if you’d rather ride the hot hand, go with Quantrill.
Buehler is starting for the Padres in Tampa Bay. He’s had excellent results in his past four starts, holding the Diamondbacks, Brewers, Mets, and Twins to a combined 5 runs in 22 innings. He’s only managed 16 strikeouts and a 7.8% swinging strike rate in that span, though, which would make me very uncomfortable starting him. The Rays are another very good offense, especially vs righties, and I’d rather not take this chance unless I was absolutely desperate for counting stats or punting ratios.
Speculative Adds
Nick Sogard (BOS) – 1B, 2B, 3B (Yahoo – 23%)
Sogard has the advantage of a doubleheader today. The downside is that he’s facing Max Fried and Carlos Rodón. Sogard does have a .317/.352/.463 career line vs lefties, though. The Red Sox don’t have an off day until September 10th, and Sogard has the 4th-most plate appearances in baseball and a 115 wRC+ over the past 30 days. He’s a useful volume play in deeper leagues where you’re starting some platoon bats or guys who are a bit dinged up.
Andrés Chaparro (WSN) – 1B (Yahoo – 2%)
Chaparro is on a heater, hitting .274/.392/.565 over the past month. He’s played his way out of a pure platoon role, starting against 4 of the past 6 righties the Nats have faced. He’s been better against lefties over his career, and the Nats face three of them in the next week. The only issue is that two of them are Blake Snell and Chris Sale. Eric Lauer is in there too, as well as a series against Marlins pitching. If you’re looking for cheap power in a deep league, Chaparro isn’t the worst flier to take.
Graphic by Carlos Leano
