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
Josue De Paula (LAD) – OF (Yahoo – 16%)
De Paula got the call with Shohei Ohtani hitting the IL for 15 days and immediately stepped into his place in the lineup, if not exactly his spot in the batting order. To quote Eno Sarris, De Paula gets me hot and bothered in a statistical way. He was hitting .303/.401/.547 in Double-A this season with nearly as many walks as strikeouts, 27 homers, and 31 steals. I don’t think you should expect the steals to translate (he’s been caught 10 times in AA), but he’s got massive upside in the other four categories. While he didn’t do much in his MLB debut last night, going 0-3 with a walk, we have our first publicly available Statcast data for him. He saw 18 pitches and didn’t chase a single time. He swung the bat at 76.9 mph, the same speed as James Wood. It seems like he’s going to get everyday at-bats for the next two weeks, so there’s a rare combination of playing time and upside for this stage of the season.
Rico Garcia (BAL) – RP (Yahoo – 10%)
Garcia appears to have taken the closing job from Andrew Kittredge recently. Garcia has two saves since Kittredge’s last opportunity, including a one-out save last night after Kittredge pitched the 8th inning with a 7-2 lead. More importantly, if you were looking at the Orioles bullpen for freely available saves, Garcia is probably just a better pitcher than Kittredge right now. They both have below-average stuff for a reliever, but Garcia is getting more swing-and-miss, and his ERA estimators generally think he’s earned a mid-low 3s ERA instead of the roughly 4 that Kittredge has.
Griffin Conine (MIA) – 1B, OF (Yahoo – 8%)
Conine is getting practically every day playing time down the stretch for the Marlins, arguably the most important thing to pay attention to at this point in the season. His top-line stats don’t look that impressive – .255, 15 homers, runs and RBIs in the high 30s – but he’s only had 272 plate appearances this season. There are a lot of indicators that Conine’s power is real. He swings the bat over 74 mph on average. He’s got an average exit velocity of nearly 92 mph. He’s barreling over 14% of his batted balls. He’ll get the occasional day off vs lefties, and drop in the lineup when he stays in it vs. them, but he’s on a 30-homer pace with dual-position eligibility. He’s a great option for cheap power down the stretch.
Yahoo and ESPN Most Added Players
All starting pitchers for today’s most-added lists. As always, your best source for streaming starters remains Nick’s daily SP Streamers article.
Walbert Ureña is starting against the Nationals in DC. It’s a (relatively) cool and rainy day today in Washington, so the ball might not be flying quite as much as it usually does in Nats stadium. The Nationals’ offense has cooled off down the stretch, with a 79 wRC+ over the past month. Ureña has been excellent all season outside of one blowup against the A’s, and he’s sitting around 99 mph over the past 6 weeks after starting the season at 97-98. I’d be happy to stream him here.
Clay Holmes has been having success in Chicago despite a significant step back in his arsenal. He’s down 2 mph in his time with the Cubs, leading to a 90 Stuff+ and 7.6% swinging-strike rate. He got lit up his last time out at Miami, a start in which he threw the fastball 91.7 mph, another tick off his lower velo with the Cubs. The upside is a matchup against the struggling Pirates offense, so I’d throw him if I really needed the volume, but I’d be queasy putting him in the lineup.
Tyler Mahle is hosting the Phillies in Atlanta. It’s been a tale of two seasons for Mahle, with a 5.13 ERA for the Giants and a 1.24 for the Braves. His xERA is a peculiar 4.12 with both teams, but the rest of his ERA estimators are substantially better in Atlanta. He’s added a bit of velo with the Braves, sitting closer to 94 in several starts, including his last time out vs. Philadelphia. The main differences have been a dramatic reduction in walk and home run rates, as well as benefiting from a defensive upgrade behind him. The Phillies offense has been better of late, but it’s still not good by any measure, so I’d feel fine taking the swing with Mahle here.
Ian Seymour gets the nod against the Astros today in Tampa. Seymour may be hitting a bit of a wall, giving up 3 earned runs in each of his last 5 starts. He’s up to 116 innings, which shouldn’t be too big of a problem; he’s thrown over 140 in each of the past two seasons. The Rays have officially qualified for the playoffs, though, so they may be starting to look at their SP usage with an eye for banking innings for the playoffs. The matchup is good, and I like Seymour from a skills perspective, but I think there’s more risk here in terms of volume than a number of the other starters available.
Ranger Suarez is the best pitcher on either of these lists, and he gets a matchup against the Royals in Boston. Sure, you’d rather the game was on the road, but it’s a Royals offense that could still be missing Jac Caglianone. Even if JAC is back in the lineup, his OPS is 130 points worse against same-handed pitching. In the unusual case that Suarez would be on waivers for me to add, I’d grab him immediately.
Andrew Alvarez gets the ball for the Nationals hosting the Angels. It’s an excellent matchup for a pitcher with pretty dubious skills. I’m only interested if I’m desperate for volume, and that’s not even a guarantee with Alvarez not reaching 5 innings in 2 of his past 3 starts.
Cesar Perdomo hosts the Padres in San Francisco. He’s had 10 innings of outstanding results for the Giants. The strikeout rate is okay, but he’s been having success by not walking anyone, leading to a 17.1% K-BB rate. Stuff metrics don’t like his arsenal, but do like his command relatively more. I’m not a huge fan of the matchup, as the Padres have been an above-average offense over the past month by wRC+. It’s borderline for me.
Brandon Pfaadt and the Diamondbacks visit the Rangers tonight. Pfaadt has come crashing back to earth recently after a string of dominant starts following his return to the rotation. He’s had a 5.11 ERA over his past four starts, with his low-strikeout, low-walk approach being undermined by 5 homers in his past 24.2 innings. Texas has had the 6th-best offense over the past month by wRC+, so I’d approach this with caution, but I’d still probably roll with Pfaadt for volume and a low WHIP.
Connor Prielipp hosts the Guardians in Minnesota. I’m kind of into Prielipp despite the poor results so far. He’s got a solid 16.3% K-BB rate thanks to his 24.8% K rate. Stuff metrics like the arsenal and the matchup is pretty good. The Guardians have a pretty mediocre offense overall, and they’re 25th in baseball against lefties by wRC+. Steven Kwan has been on a tear in the second half, but he still has just a .618 OPS vs. lefties. That’s only .005 worse than José Ramírez’s output against lefties this year, too. I’m cautiously optimistic here, with a key feature being that Prielipp is likely to give you more strikeouts than most other streaming options.
Speculative Adds
Daniel Palencia (CHC) – RP (Yahoo – 45%)
Palencia hasn’t been good since returning from the IL, but fortunately for his closing prospects, neither has Jacob Webb. Palencia has some of the best stuff in the Cubs’ bullpen, and had the closing job locked down before his most recent injury. Palencia’s main competition for the role, if it becomes open, is Ryan Zeferjahn. Zeferjahn rates excellently by stuff metrics, but he hasn’t exactly had a great month-plus in Chicago. There’s no guarantee here with Palencia, but he’s got extremely high upside if you need to spike a good three weeks to win.
Category-Specific Adds
Victor Scott II (STL) – OF (Yahoo – 1%)
Scott got called up when rosters expanded on September 1st, but he hasn’t had a full game of at-bats since then. That’s probably a good thing for the Cardinals and your fantasy team, though, as Scott sits with a 64 career wRC+ in 261 games. The reason you should potentially be adding him, though, is that he’s been getting fairly regular opportunities to pinch-run for the Cardinals and has three stolen base attempts (two successful) in the past 5 days. If you’re in the middle of the pack in steals, or trying to win the category in a head-to-head matchup, you could get a couple steals from Scott and literally nothing else. At least that .197 average isn’t something to worry about on your roster!
Graphic by Carlos Leano
