Fantasy Baseball Waiver Wire Week 23
We are now almost twenty-three weeks into the long 2024 Fantasy Baseball season, and the injury bug and underperformance trends are rampant. Do you have any of Shane Bieber, Max Scherzer, Austin Riley, Kyle Tucker, Spencer Strider, Jacob DeGrom, Ozzie Albies, Mike Trout, 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 with your studs out of the lineup? 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 twenty-third week of the season gets underway, we have more than two-thirds of a season’s sample of data from which to draw conclusions. With only about four weeks left in the fantasy baseball season, let’s figure out who to target to help our fantasy rosters.
Waiver Options For 12-Team Leagues
Pete Crow-Armstrong, OF, Chicago Cubs (38% rostered) – After a rocky start to his official rookie season Pete Crow-Armstrong is now demolishing everything in site this month. In August, he is hitting .329/.398/.582 with four home runs and six stolen bases. This is the all-around player the Cubs acquired back in 2021 when he was a first-round pick the year before. Crow-Armstrong’s calling card in the Majors will be his on-base ability and his speed. He already has 26 stolen bases and that’s with two months of the season hitting under .200.
Dylan Crews, OF, Washington Nationals (35% rostered) – The number two overall pick from 2023 is now up with the big club and hit his first home run on Wednesday night. Crews flew through four levels of the minors in under two years and was hitting .265/.340/.455 in AAA with eight homers and 10 steals in just 49 games. Crews is known as a player with above average skills across the board and profiles as someone who could eventually be a 20/20 player in the big leagues. This year, he is going to get his chance to play every day and earn at bats against the best pitching.
Connor Norby, 2B/3B, Miami Marlins (38% rostered) – Connor Norby got sent from the penthouse to the outhouse when he was traded from the Orioles to the Marlins, but he is at least getting all the playing time he wants to end the season. In 39 August plate appearances, Norby is hitting .333/.385/.667 with eight extra-base hits and 10 runs. Norby is another player who had multiple seasons of double-digit home runs and steals in the minors and those skills should translate well to his big league career as well.
Ben Lively, SP, Cleveland Guardians (52% rostered) – The Cleveland Guardians’ rotation has been quite the carousel of players this season, and Ben Lively is the latest pitcher to have great success with his opportunity. Lively was in the Korean Baseball Organization for three seasons but came back in 2023 with only moderate success. But like many pitchers these days, he has ditched his fastball (just 32% of his pitches now) in favor of his sinker (28%) and slider (22%). That’s allowed him to have a 3.72 ERA in the second half with only a .219 batting average against. Lively now has back-to-back quality starts against the Rangers and Brewers.
Justin Martinez, RP, Arizona Diamondbacks (46% rostered) – Other Arizona relief pitchers are not getting many high-leverage innings right now, and the Diamondbacks have shown they want the ninth inning to go to Justin Martinez instead of trade deadline pick-up A.J. Puk or former closer Paul Sewald. Martinez has four saves since August 20th and has pushed his ERA under 2.00 for the season (1.98). With 73 strikeouts in 59 innings pitched, he has the swing-and-miss stuff that has success in save situations. It is a crowded room of relievers in Arizona with Sewald, Puk, and Ryan Thompson, but Justin Martinez has clearly separated from the pack and is going to be the ninth-inning man as Arizona makes a playoff push.
Waiver Options for 14-Team Leagues
Addison Barger, SS/3B/OF, Toronto Blue Jays (2% rostered) – With his eligibility at three positions and with how hot his bat has been, I am shocked to see Addison Barger at only 2% rostered in Yahoo leagues. Over the last week, Barger is hitting an even .400 with two home runs and five RBI. He has now moved up to fifth in the Toronto batting order which is the right move after he increased his line drive rate from 10% in July to over 27% in August. The scary thing is, his BABIP is just .227 in August, so he could get even better if his luck improves in that category.
Parker Meadows, OF, Detroit Tigers (12% rostered) – Parker Meadows has his bat and his speed going over the last two weeks, hitting .341 with four steals and eight runs in his last 41 at-bats. Finally getting his first real shot, it’s easy to forget that Meadows is just 24 years old despite spending parts of six seasons in the minor leagues. He already has a 9% walk rate this season in MLB and had at least a 10% walk rate in each of his four stops before the call-up this season. Meadows is a player who went 22/27 between two levels in 2023 and is showing his plate discipline and elite speed belong here for good.
Matt Wallner, OF, Minnesota Twins (14% rostered) – How good has Matt Wallner been lately? On Monday and Wednesday this week, the Twins kept him in the lineup against left-handed starting pitchers, something they had done only once in the last month. The reason for the trust is a .297 batting average with five home runs, three steals, and 16 RBI over the last months, a 30/18/96 pace for a full year. He is now hitting third or fourth most days against righties and has been one of the Twins’ most reliable bats as they fight for a playoff spot.
Ryne Nelson, SP, Arizona Diamondbacks (48% rostered) – Ryne Nelson has been announced as a full-time starter now, pushing Jordan Montgomery to the bench. Realizing his talent and what he can do over a lot of innings is a strategy that has paid off in a big way for Nelson. In the second half of 2024, Nelson has a 2.91 ERA across 43.1 innings and only allows a .210/.266/.350 line against him in that time. He has also really ramped up his strikeouts. In the first half, he struck out 59 batters in 86.2 innings. In the second half, they have exploded with 49 punch-outs in his 43 innings so far. In his last 10 starts, Nelson has allowed more than three earned runs just two times.
Manuel Rodriguez, RP, Tampa Bay Rays (4% rostered) – With Pete Fairbanks now on the IL for an extended period of time, it’s been a two-headed closer committee for Tampa Bay. But Manuel Rodriguez has really been pitching well lately and may have the larger slice of the pie. He has two saves in the last eight days and now has a 2.28 ERA and 1.08 WHIP on the season to go along with a strikeout per inning. Just 27 years old, Rodriguez has a 97-mile-per-hour fastball/sinker and an 89-mile-per-hour slider that has been devastating to hitters.
