2023 Fantasy Baseball Waiver Wire Week 2
This weekly piece will look at five options under 50% rostered on Yahoo Fantasy for 12- and 15-team leagues that are worthy of waiver bids or claims. As the third week of the season gets underway, we starting to get a larger sample of data from which to draw conclusions. With just over five months left in the fantasy baseball season, let’s figure out who to target to help our fantasy rosters.
Waiver Options For 12-Team Leagues
Garrett Mitchell, OF, Milwaukee Brewers (50% rostered) – The cheese-heads are uniting around the young core that is emerging in Milwaukee including outfielder Garrett Mitchell and shortstop Brice Turang. Mitchell is more than just the dramatic walk-off home run he hit two days ago, checking in so far with a .300/.364/.850 slash line with three bombs and five RBI. The scary thing is, he hasn’t even started to steal bases yet. He stole 25 across four levels in 2022 and stole 17 in just 64 games in 2021. He hits sixth every day Milwaukee plays a right-handed pitcher and has a chance to move up to the two-hole if this kind of production continues.
Myles Straw, OF, Cleveland Guardians (24% rostered) – Straw is tied with Gleyber Torres for the Major League lead in steals (5). He has typically been thought of as a steals-and-nothing-else kind of guy, but he is hitting .364 so far this season and has also scored six runs because the players at the top of the order that follows him are a series of on-base machines. We can certainly take the under on a .364 average this season, but this is the type of player who will benefit most from the new base rules. He’s a guy who already had the green light when he reached base and now has more things working in his favor.
Trevor Larnach, OF, Minnesota Twins (14% rostered) – Perhaps the most encouraging thing about Larnach’s season so far is that he stayed in the lineup even when the Twins faced a lefty for the first time on Wednesday. He has hit third or fourth in every game against a right-hander this year, compiling a .391/.481/.609 line overall. His plate discipline is also improved in the early going, striking out six percentage points less and walking almost five percentage points more than in 2022.
Kenta Maeda, SP, Minnesota Twins (46% rostered) – Maeda was extremely solid in his first outing in about 18 months this week, going five innings, allowing one run, and striking out nine batters. The Twins removed him from the game with “dead arm,” but they still expect him to make his next start. Something like that is to be expected after such a long layoff, and he is, fortunately, going to miss pitching against Houston this weekend. His next start comes against the White Sox who strike out 21% of the time this season.
Andrew Chafin, RP, Arizona Diamondbacks (23% rostered) – Scott McGough has not been McGood so far, and Andrew Chafin has looked like the most competent reliever for the Diamondbacks through the first week of action. Chafin has a win and a save, both in high-leverage situations and has not allowed a run (McGough has an 18.00 ERA). The D’Backs are going to win a lot of games this year, and if they are looking for a stable, reliable force to close out games, my guess is Chafin gets his fair share of the save chances. Chafin has strikeout rates of at least 9.6 K/9 in six of his last seven seasons.
Waiver Options for 15-Team Leagues
Jose Siri, OF, Tampa Bay Rays (15% rostered) – Siri, show me what a breakout player looks like. The Tampa Bay center fielder has been phenomenal through five games, slashing .333/.350/.778 with a couple of homers, a steal, and eight RBI. Is he for real as a 27-year-old this season or just a product of the best offense in the league through the first week of the season? The issue with Siri has always been the strikeouts, and he is getting punched out 30% of the time so far and the contact rate looks bad. But we can overlook some things if a barely-rostered outfielder can get us 15 homers and 25 steals. Siri has multiple seasons in the minors with more than 25 swipes, so even a strong-side platoon in the outfield should be enough to get him over 20 steals this year.
Jason Vosler, 3B, Cincinnati Reds (7% rostered) – Jason Vosler now has three home runs on the season and should soon gain first base eligibility as he fills in for Joey Votto who is still on the IL. Vosler is certainly making a case for a full-time role moving forward with his 1.133 slugging percentage through five games, but he must start making better contact. His 33.3% strikeout rate is among the worst in the league so far but he is certainly in the right home ball park to take advantage of all the unique power he can bring to either corner infield position.
Logan O’Hoppe, C, Los Angeles Angels (20% rostered) – In the wasteland that is typically the fantasy baseball catcher position, we already have Willson Contreras dealing with minor injuries, Sean Murphy being relegated to a bench role for some reason, and Omar Narvaez on the long-term IL. But, emerging from that rubble is Angels’ catcher Logan O’Hoppe, a highly-regarded prospect who is seizing the everyday role with every passing day. O’Hoppe is hitting .278/.263/.667 with a couple of homers and eight RBI already. As you can tell from the OBP, he never walks but is only striking out 21% of the time through five games. he has hit eighth or ninth every day, but that could possibly change if he keeps displaying this level of power.
Roansy Contreras, SP, Pittsburgh Pirates (25% rostered) – I am very interested to watch Contreras’ next start against the Astros on Monday. He dominated the Red Sox over 5.2 innings in his first start but struck out only two batters. His WHIP was 0.71 against a tough lineup, but he is going to have to get back to his 9 K/9 or better rate to have the true breakout many are expecting from him this year. But he has filthy stuff and scouts have given him 60 grades on both his fastball and curveball. The next start may be tough, but that might present a buying opportunity if you can’t already get Contreras off your waiver wire this weekend.
Pierce Johnson, RP, Colorado Rockies (29% rostered) – Rostering a Rockies’ closer is never a fun proposition, but Daniel Bard and his 34 saves last season showed that truly anything is possible. Even a reliable Colorado pitcher. Johnson already has two save chances as Bard has begun the season on the IL, and has seven strikeouts in his first three innings pitched. That’s exactly what we need from a Rockies’ pitcher, someone with swing-and-miss stuff who is not even going to allow the ball to get in play at the high altitude of Coors Field. Ride this wave until Bard comes back, and we may still see Johnson get some saves after that point.
