Each week we’ll look at a handful of different players who fantasy managers in deeper leagues should consider picking up. 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. This week it’s Jose Siri, Tommy Kahnle, Matt Brash, and Tommy Pham who are worth your time as potential additions in deep leagues.
All roster percentages mentioned in this column are via Yahoo fantasy leagues as of Friday afternoon.
Jose Siri – 10%
Jose Siri was mentioned in this column early this season as a potential deep-league add due to his encouraging start in terms of plate discipline and barrels. Of course, it was early and the outfielder had just 20 plate appearances at that point, but his early-season 21.6% chase rate and three total barrels were encouraging signs, largely because Siri hadn’t always posted strong metrics in those categories in his career.
Fast forward to late June and the chase rate has gone up a bit, and general swing-and-miss issues are still a concern for the outfielder, whose 43.2% whiff rate ranks in the first percentile league-wide.
Still, Siri’s chase rate would be a career-best if the season ended today. And perhaps most crucially, he’s continuing to collect barrels at a high rate. An elite rate in fact.
While Siri’s whiff rate percentile ranking is decidedly bad, his barrel rate is quite the opposite. It’s decidedly elite in fact, ranking in the 94th percentile.
Hitting for contact has never been the 27-year-old’s strong suit. Even as a prospect, it was never something that was a strength of his, so the 27-year-old’s ability to collect barrels is key to his fantasy potential.
So far, Siri has 12 home runs in 166 plate appearances for the Tampa Bay Rays this season, hitting .227 with a .285 on-base percentage in the process. Fantasy managers will likely have to live with a batting average in that vicinity – Siri’s xBA is just .232 – but for those with rosters constructed to do well from a hitting-for-average standpoint, Siri could be a shrewd addition.
Because it’s not just the home runs.
The former Astro has added seven stolen bases already and ranks in the 98th percentile in Statcast’s sprint speed metric.
Elsewhere, entering play today the outfielder had about a season’s worth of plate appearances for the entirety of his Major League career. About 540 to be exact. In those 540 plate appearances (coming over the span of 170 games), Siri had stolen 24 bases.
Despite missing a few weeks in April on the injured list due to a hamstring strain, Siri has a real shot at reaching 20 home runs and 20 stolen bases this season.
Playing for a team with one of the league’s two best lineups – only the Texas Rangers have scored more runs than Tampa Bay – certainly doesn’t hurt from a fantasy standpoint either with all the run-scoring and RBI opportunities that’ll be there for Siri.
Tommy Kahnle – 3%
Back healthy in the New York Yankees bullpen, Tommy Kahnle seems to quickly be on his way to reestablishing himself as a fantasy-relevant reliever.
The 33-year-old has made eight appearances so far for the Yankees this season, striking out nine batters while scattering just two hits, a walk, and a hit batter in 7.2 innings. He’s yet to allow a run and is sporting a 1.71 FIP.
It’s an admittedly tiny sample size, but it’s notable and worth keeping in mind considering how Aaron Boone has utilized New York’s bullpen.
The Yankees bullpen has been quite good so far, with only four teams having a better collective fWAR (2.7). Similarly, only four teams feature a bullpen with a lower FIP (3.70).
Still, Boone has mixed and matched at times with his ninth-inning options at times. And while Clay Holmes has established himself as of late as (seemingly) the preferred option with four of New York’s last seven saves, both Michael King and Kahnle have recorded a save in the last two weeks. In fact, the team’s last three saves in order have gone to King, Holmes, and Kahnle.
Kahnle probably isn’t going to ever step into a large share of the saves in New York, but the fact that so many relievers have worked in the late-inning mix gives the former Dodger plenty of saves+holds league upside here, with the potential to siphon off more ancillary saves than most other secondary save options in the league.
The Yankees, it should also be noted, entered play Friday with the 10th-most holds in baseball.
Matt Brash – 10%
Matt Brash, like Siri, appeared in this column pretty early in the season. The first week of the season, in fact.
Brash was a deep league add then due to his ancillary save upside, as well as the ability to potentially tip the scales in weekly stats like ERA and strikeouts.
And while Brash hasn’t quite lived up to the ancillary saves bit, he has just one of Seattle’s 16 saves this season, the right-hander should provide dynamic ERA and strikeout production moving forward.
Overall this season, the 25-year-old has pitched to a 3.94 ERA and a 1.55 FIP in 29.2 innings, adding 56 strikeouts compared to 11 walks.
It’s probably not a shock to say that, given the strikeouts and the low FIP, Brash is much better than his ERA would indicate. In fact, the ERA has been marred mostly due to a few early-season appearances that featured a few runs scored.
In his first 16.2 innings, through May 10, Brash had logged a 5.40 ERA with just a 1.53 FIP. In 13 innings since then, the reliever’s ERA (2.08) is much closer to his FIP (1.58) in that span.
The right-hander, arguably baseball’s best bat-missing reliever, has yet to throw more than 1.2 innings in an outing this season but has at least two strikeouts in 20 of his 36 appearances. What’s more, only Félix Bautista has more strikeouts among relief pitchers than the Seattle right-hander this season.
Armed with a slider sporting a 47.6% usage rate and a staggering 52.3% whiff rate, the second-best among pitchers who have thrown at least 250 sliders this season, Brash sits in the 98th percentile in whiff rate (40.9%) and the 99th percentile in strikeout rate (40.9%)
Regardless of format or scoring system, Brash looks like an impact fantasy reliever from here on out in 2023, despite the one save and only six holds due to his ability to keep runs off the board and his elite strikeout ability. He’s someone who can tip the scales in terms of both ERA and strikeout totals on a weekly basis, giving him matchup-winning upside in head-to-head formats.
Tommy Pham – 14%
A slow start to the season has played a part in Tommy Pham’s overall stat line for the year. The veteran hit just .191 with a .291 on-base percentage in his first 55 plate appearances this season through May 1.
Overall, he’s batting .260 with a .335 on-base percentage, seven home runs, and six stolen bases in 167 plate appearances.
However, he’s been one of baseball’s best hitters after that slow start.
From May 2 onwards, the outfielder is batting .290 with a .360 on-base percentage, five home runs, and six stolen bases in 114 plate appearances, with some elite underlying metrics.
Among those elite underlying metrics during that span are an 18.4% barrel rate and a 53.9% hard-hit rate.
For the season, due in part to the recent hot streak, Pham ranks in the 90th percentile or better in each of the following metrics: average exit velocity, xwOBA, xSLG, xBA, chase rate, barrel rate, hard-hit rate, and max exit velocity.
As of the beginning of play on Friday, the list of qualified batters to rank in the 90th percentile or better in hard-hit rate, xwOBA, barrel rate, xBA, and chase rate featured just three players.
One was Tommy Pham.
The other two were Aaron Judge and Mike Trout.
Graphic adapted by Aaron Polcare (@bearydoesgfx on Twitter)