Fantasy Baseball Waiver Wire Week 13
Less than thirteen weeks into the 2024 Fantasy Baseball season, the injury bug and underperformance trends are rampant. Do you have any of Trea Turner, Gerrit Cole, Shane Bieber, Cristian Javier, Spencer Strider, Max Scherzer, Ronald Acuna Jr., or other injured stars? Chances are you do, and you will be looking to fill those gaps somehow this weekend when waivers run. Who are the players who can adequately give you some level of production while you wait for your studs to return? That’s what we will focus on in this piece today.
This weekly piece will examine five options at or under 50% rostered on Yahoo Fantasy for 12- and 14-team leagues worthy of waiver bids or claims. As the thirteenth week of the season gets underway, we are getting a larger sample of data from which to conclude. With almost four months left in the fantasy baseball season, let’s figure out who to target to help our fantasy rosters.
Baseball Resources
Waiver Options For 12-Team Leagues
Joc Pederson, OF, Arizona Diamondbacks (42% rostered) – We know exactly who Joc Pederson is after all these years in the league. He is going to play every day against right-handers and mash. He is going to sit against lefties. That’s exactly what he is doing right now, and it has led to him being the third-most valuable fantasy hitter over the last week. All he has done in the past seven days is hit .444 with a couple of home runs and 10 RBI, with a steal thrown in as the cherry on top. The power is fully there even at age 32. He is over the 90th percentile in xwOBA, exit velocity, and hard-hit rate. He is one of the best at taking walks this season. And he has his strikeout rate under 25% on the season. He is a daily-transaction dream player, while weekly leagues have to deploy him when he is not facing too many southpaws.
Tyler Soderstrom, C/1B, Oakland Athletics (41% rostered) – The Athletics have recently jettisoned guys like J.D. Davis and Seth Brown, signaling they are turning full youth movement right now because their record is so poor. That means good things for the 22-year-old Tyler Soderstrom, who is now the full-time first baseman for Oakland (while still remaining eligible at catcher this year). A first-round pick in 2020, Soderstrom has unlocked some power in his 33 games played this year. He already has five home runs and 13 RBI thanks to elite hard-hit and barrel rates (52.5% and 15.3%, respectively). The best part about his opportunity is Soderstrom has played every game since June 6th and has bat either fourth or fifth in the lineup every day.
Andrew Vaughn, 1B, Chicago White Sox (50% rostered) – Andrew Vaughn may play for one of the worst teams in baseball, but when someone’s hitting well, the jersey doesn’t matter for fantasy baseball. Vaughn, whose overall .235/.288/.386 line does not look very good at all, has turned a corner as of late. In the last 14 days, he is hitting .327 with five home runs, 14 RBI, and is flirting with top-75 hitter status in fantasy baseball. In June, he has bumped up his flyball rate by 10 percentage points and cut his ground ball rate from 44% to 38% this year. That lifting of the ball allows him to take advantage of his 44% hard-hit rate and is giving him the power he needs to start piling up the home runs.
Matt Waldron, SP, San Diego Padres (53% rostered) – Jazz Chisholm Jr. came out a couple of days ago and declared Matt Waldron’s knuckleball “the best pitch I’ve seen in baseball.” He also described it as “deadly” and “going everywhere.” That’s a prevailing sentiment right now because no one seems to be able to hit Waldron when his knuckleball is really rolling. In the last 15 days, Waldron has two wins in three starts while putting up a 1.85 ERA and 0.85 WHIP. He is also striking out more than eight batters per nine innings, so he also contributes there. His excellent 3.46 ERA is backed up completely by an xERA of 3.57, according to Statcast data.
Chad Green, RP, Toronto Blue Jays (30% rostered) – Blue Jays manager John Schneider has declared Chad Green the closer while both Jordan Romano and Yimi Garcia are on the IL with various ailments. Green has experienced closing before and is sporting a pristine 1.72 ERA this season. He has such a strong ratio because he isn’t walking anyone (2.3 walks per nine innings), he isn’t giving up home runs, and his groundball rate has jumped from 28% last season to 42.5% in 2024. The strikeouts are not really a part of his game this season, but for a stop-gap closer option, your fantasy team could do a lot worse than Chad Green.
Waiver Options for 14-Team Leagues
Michael Toglia, 1B/OF, Colorado Rockies (3% rostered) – With Kris Bryant and Nolan Jones perpetually injured this year, Michael Toglia is getting a shot to play at first base and right field for the Rockies right now. His first couple of weeks were very shaky, but he has settled into a groove after a series of home games at Coors Field and has picked up the production as of late. He is hitting .255 with two home runs, a steal, and 11 RBI in the last two weeks and has shown some of the promise that made him the 23rd overall pick in 2019. His numbers overall should improve because he has come up to the majors this year and provided a 46.7% hard-hit rate and a 13.3% barrel rate. For comparison a 13% barrel rate is the same as players like Gunnar Henderson and Yordan Alvarez.
Ernie Clement, 2B/SS/3B, Toronto Blue Jays (4% rostered) – Bo Bichette’s injury has shifted Isiah Kiner-Falefa over to shortstop and Ernie Clement has taken over third base for Toronto. What followed was the best stretch of Clement’s career. In his last 25 plate appearances, he is hitting .500 with a home run and four RBI. Just in the last seven days, that jumps to an insane .571 batting average. The major change to Clement’s approach this season after three years of playing minor roles for the Guardians and Blue Jays is how much he is putting the ball in the air. Last season, Clement’s groundball rate was over 40% and his flyball rate was 36%. This season, he has flipped those and he is hitting 45% flyballs and just 33% of balls on the ground. He doubled his barrel rate, and his launch angle is higher. Clement’s versatility around the diamond will get him semi-regular playing time no matter what, but with Toronto’s injuries, Clement looks to have a secure job at least temporarily.
Nolan Schanuel, 1B, Los Angeles Angels (5% rostered) – The Angels have problems up and down their offensive lineup with Mike Trout injured and Shohei Ohtani on the other side of town now, but Nolan Schanuel has not been one of them the past few weeks. Firmly planted in the leadoff spot, 22-year-old Schanuel has seen his production pop in June. The .245 batting average is nothing to get excited about, but he has a very strong .354 on base percentage and a .453 slugging percentage this month. He has three home runs and seven RBI this month from the leadoff spot and also has 10 walks, already more than any other month this season. Schanuel is the perfect player for OBP leagues as he will get on base more than 35% of the time and hits leadoff, meaning his plate appearances are maximized. But the power for 2023’s 11th overall pick is growing and should only develop more as he gets older and gains more experience.
Tobias Myers, SP, Milwaukee Brewers (28% rostered) – The interest (and roster percentage) for Tobias Myers shot way up in the last three weeks after a series of dominant performances ever since he was inserted into the starting lineup on June 7th. In that time, he has pitched 20.1 innings, allowed one run, and struck out 15 batters while earning three wins. He has been a godsend for the Brewers’ rotation that is missing multiple starters this year. Despite entering professional baseball eight years ago, Myers is getting his first shot at the majors but is still just 25 years old. He has shown major strikeout potential in the minors, rarely allows home runs, and features a change-up with a 113 Stuff+ grade, meaning it is at least 13% above the league average. With Brandon Woodruff, Wade Miley, and Jakob Junis not expected back anytime soon, this could be a season-long stint in the starting rotation for Myers.
Alex Vesia, RP, Los Angeles Dodgers (11% rostered) – Evan Phillips is healthy again for the Dodgers (right now), but manager Dave Roberts has shown Alex Vesia will get save chances when Evan Phillips can’t go for any reason and also will put Vesia out there in the ninth when the lineup has them facing a series of left-handed batters. He already has three saves this season and has pitched in a number of high-leverage situations thanks to his ability to get strikeouts and keep the ball in the yard. Vesia is now striking out more than 12 men per nine innings and only allows 1.07 homeruns per nine innings on the season.
