Ideally, you’re probably playing for a fantasy championship right now.
Ideally, your lineup is very much a set-and-forget type of situation where you’re starters are locked in.
But even in the most ideal situations, sometimes you might need to make a roster tweak based on what a head-to-head matchup might call for.
All in all, perhaps more than any other time of year save for a season-ending injury earlier in the campaign, the right waiver wire addition can be key.
With that in mind, finding the right pitcher or hitter to add via waivers this week could be key in winning a championship or not.
These three players could prove to be crucial fantasy options for managers in need of short-term reinforcements in the coming days.
If you’re looking for a late-season boost in batting average, Jose Iglesias is probably the hitter for you and your fantasy team.
The veteran has been excellent as of late, or really this entire season for the New York Mets. He’s batting .336 with a .379 on-base percentage, four home runs, and five stolen bases in 269 plate appearances.
He’s been particularly great as of late from a batting average standpoint, batting .351 with a .395 on-base percentage, a 137 wRC+, a home run, and three stolen bases in 119 plate appearances since August 13, collecting 13 multi-hit games during that stretch.
Zoom in further in terms of the game log and the calendar and Iglesias has eight multi-hit games in his last 13 contests.
Ultimately, Iglesias isn’t doing too much different at the plate from what he’s done for basically his entire career. He’s still making a bunch of contact, striking out at a low rate, not chasing much, and not swinging and missing (in general) too much.
Except that, and this technically isn’t anything Iglesias is doing, the BABIP is very much cooperating.
And while it’s probably a bit unfair to say all of this production is down to the BABIP – Iglesias’ xwOBA and xwOBAcon are all in line to be career bests for a season with 200 or more plate appearances – the BABIP is playing a huge part here.
Furthermore, it’s helped the veteran ascend to the top of the Mets’ lineup bringing with it more fantasy-friendly plate appearances and run-scoring opportunities. Iglesias has hit leadoff all but once since September 14, a stretch in which the Mets have scored the seventh-most runs in the league.
And even if Iglesias’s BABIP makes his overall production a bit unsustainable – his previous career best in terms of wRC+ in a season with 400 or more plate appearances is 97 – that shouldn’t keep him out of fantasy lineups this week.
If we were looking at a handful of months left in the regular season, this probably wouldn’t be all that sustainable. But the fact that we’re looking at a handful of days (and games) instead? It puts Iglesias firmly on the fantasy radar in most leagues, particularly for fantasy managers in search of help where batting average is concerned.
Sticking with shortstops, Masyn Winn is hitting for power at the right time for fantasy managers.
The 22-year-old has enjoyed a solid first full season in the Majors, batting .266 with a .313 on-base percentage, 15 home runs, and 11 stolen bases in 616 plate appearances so far for the National League Central club.
The power and speed production certainly doesn’t hurt from a fantasy standpoint – not to mention 78 runs scored for the Cardinals.
Winn has three home runs and a .255 ISO in his last 49 plate appearances since September 12, and while he’s hitting just .213 with a .245 on-base percentage during that stretch, he’s also sporting a minuscule 10.2% strikeout rate and a rather unlucky .179 BABIP during that span, pointing to some potential positive regression coming soon.
Starting Wednesday and running through Thursday, Winn will have two more games at Colorado’s Coors Field, a place where he went two-for-five with a double, a home run, and four RBI on Tuesday.
And while his remaining schedule after that (three games in San Francisco against the Giants) is hardly fantasy-friendly, even adding someone like Winn for one game at Coors could have an outsized impact in head-to-head matchups.
Speaking of batters playing well at the right time, as well as those providing quality home run and stolen base production, Taveras is hitting .264 with a .350 on-base percentage, a .351 wOBA, a 130 wRC+, three home runs, and six stolen bases in 60 plate appearances since the calendar flipped to September.
The veteran logged a 77 wRC+ in 454 plate appearances before September and owns an 84 wRC+ for the season, but his improved production has come at the right time for fantasy managers.
(Elsewhere, his recent stretch has seen him collect five barrels on 40 batted ball events since September 1. Prior to that, he had 17 barrels on 328 batted ball events this season).
For reference, just nine players have more stolen bases than Taveras this month. Of that group, just one player (Shohei Ohtani) has more than two home runs.
And while Taveras hasn’t vaulted to the top of his team’s lineup in the same way that Iglesias has as of late, he does have a decidedly fantasy-friendly stretch of games coming up to close the season.
After two more games in Oakland on Tuesday and Friday, the outfielder and the rest of the Rangers will close the regular season with three games on the road against the Angels.
Entering play Wednesday, the A’s and Angels were two of 11 teams to log an ERA of 4.40 or higher this month.
For the season, both rank in the bottom 10 in the league in terms of FIP. A list in which the Angels have the second-highest FIP and the A’s are tied for the eighth-highest.