Fantasy Baseball Waiver Wire Week 4
We are less than four weeks into the 2024 Fantasy Baseball season, but the injury bug is already biting all across the league. Do you have any of Gerrit Cole, Tyler O’Neill, Christian Yelich, Shane Bieber, Royce Lewis, Spencer Strider, Framber Valdez, 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 look at five options under 50% rostered on Yahoo Fantasy for 12- and 14-team leagues that are worthy of waiver bids or claims. As the fourth week of the season gets underway, we are getting a larger sample of data from which to conclude. With over five months left in the fantasy baseball season, let’s figure out who to target to help our fantasy rosters.
**MLB Picks: We went 3-1 yesterday, not too bad. Check out Friday’s Picks Here for free.
Waiver Options For 12-Team Leagues
Ryan O’Hearn, 1B/OF, Baltimore Orioles (32% rostered) – Just when the roster squeeze was starting to get tight for Ryan O’Hearn with all of the young stud prospects starting to get called up, Ryan O’Hearn decided to play some of the best baseball of his career. In the past two weeks, he is hitting .343 with four homers, six RBI, and nine runs. Even after a very strong .289/.322/.480 performance last season, O’Hearn has improved on all those numbers this year and is striking out only 10% of the time (25% for his career). It’s mostly due to a barrel rate that has jumped to 16.7% this year (9.6% for his career), and if he can maintain that power, he should be able to maintain his spot on the roster.
Jesse Winker, OF, Washington Nationals (18% rostered) – Jesse Winker has been left for dead by fantasy managers so many times over the years, and now he languishes in the Washington Nationals lineup. However, that has meant good things for Winker as he is traditionally batting third behind young stars C.J. Abrams and Lane Thomas. On his own, Winker is chipping in a little bit of everything. Over the last 14 days, Winker is hitting .341 with 10 runs, two bombs, three RBI, and two steals. The steals are a huge bonus for a player who has two total steals since 2018. Winker has been a nice surprise and would be a welcome OF4 or OF5 on any fantasy team right now.
Daulton Varsho OF, Toronto Blue Jays (24% rostered) – It was a very slow start for Daulton Varsho this season, but he has started to really pick it up over the last 12 games. In that span, he is hitting .265 with four home runs and a steal to go along with eight RBI and nine runs. Strangely, this has all occurred as Varsho moved down in the order from fifth to seventh thru ninth after his initial struggles. But if that move is what he needed to get a jumpstart, fantasy managers are not going to complain.
MacKenzie Gore, SP, Washington Nationals (45% rostered) – Another player who came over to Washington in the first Juan Soto trade (C.J. Abrams the other), Gore has been a mild disappointment since his 2021 debut. He has back-to-back seasons in 2021 and 2022 with an ERA around 4.50, strikeout per nine under 10, and more than four batters walked per nine innings. But this season, it is all starting to come together. Gore has transfixed opponents with a 2.81 ERA, 12.9 strikeouts per nine, and is only walking 2.8 batters per nine. The interesting thing is, Gore is doing all of this with a very high .388 batting average on balls in play (BABIP), which means he could have better luck the rest of the way and his numbers could get better.
James McArthur, RP, Kansas City Royals (47% rostered) – The days of Will Smith as closer in Kansas City have officially ended, as James McArthur has the last four saves for Kansas City. They have all come in the last two weeks, and McArthur has simply been unhittable. He has a 0.00 ERA, 0.90 WHIP and nine punch-outs in 6.2 innings over that span and has benefited from the Royals being a surprise winning team to start the season. After this weekend’s waivers, McArthur will surely be 80% rostered or more, so make sure you secure his services if your fantasy team is desperate for saves and strikeouts.
Waiver Options for 14-Team Leagues
Bryan De La Cruz, OF, Miami Marlins (14% rostered) – If you are able to pick up free agents on Fridays, De La Cruz may be one of the best ones available as he plays in a doubleheader against the Cubs after a rain out on Thursday. De La Cruz is playing literally every day, and while he still never walks (1.6% walk rate), the power has shown up this year and he is hitting .333 with a couple of homers and nine RBI in the last two weeks. His power and slugging percentages are at career highs in the early part of the season thanks to a 15% barrel rate which is five percentage points above his career number and his launch angle has improved to 14.2 degrees, something he spent the offseason working on. His slugging percentage (.450) doesn’t even truly reflect what he could be doing (.571 xSLG) so better things could be on the way.
Amed Rosario, 2B/SS/OF, Tampa Bay Rays (20% rostered) – A late addition to the Ray’s spring roster, Amed Rosario has been a revelation for them at times this year as they have struggled with injuries and ineffective lineups. Rosario is the sixth-most valuable fantasy hitter in rotisserie formats over the last week and is hitting over .400 with two home runs, nine RBI, and a steal in the last 14 days. In that time, he has moved up to hitting third in the lineup once and fifth a total of six times. After a sporadic start to the season in terms of playing time, Rosario has now started five out of six games and seems to be a fixture in second base and right field. The days of Rosario stealing 18-22 bases might be over, but his hard-hit rate is a career-high 49% and his barrel rate this year (9.4%) is triple his career number.
Harold Ramirez, OF, Tampa Bay Rays (8% rostered) – In addition to Amed Rosario, Harold Ramirez is also hitting high in the batting order for the Rays right now, oscillating between second, fourth, and fifth on most days, and it has paid off over the last 15 days. He is hitting .292 with nine runs and eight RBI in that spot while chipping in a homer and a steal. After a horrible start to the season when Ramirez was hitting over 65% of his batted balls on the ground, he has turned that around. Ramirez has also been one of the best hitters in the Major Leagues this year with men on base. He is slashing .355/.364/.484 in those situations and has been a solid run producer all season. Even when Taylor Walls and Josh Lowe come back from the injured list, Ramirez should have a place in this lineup if he keeps hitting this way.
Javier Assad, SP, Chicago Cubs (41% rostered) – When scraping the bottom of the pitcher barrel, someone who can throw strikes and keep men off base is like finding a diamond in a coal mine. Javier Assad has been that guy over the last half-month. He has pitched 10.1 innings while accumulating a 3.38 ERA and a 1.03 WHIP. He has 13 strikeouts in that span and has a win in one of those two starts. This comes off a sneaky strong end-of-season run in 2023 when Assad was asked to move into a starter’s role and put up a 3.02 ERA with 42 strikeouts compared to 18 walks. Assad relies on a fastball, slider, cutter arsenal and is having good success thanks to an increase in first-pitch strike percentage from 57% last year to 62.5% this season.
Kirby Yates, RP, Texas Rangers (45% rostered) – The roster percentage has gone way up for Kirby Yates this week and will explode this weekend, just like James McArthur. After Jose LeClerc was removed from the closer role, Yates has responded with two saves and a win just this week and he will be universally rostered by the time Monday rolls around. Despite being 37 years old, Yates is still striking out more than 10 batters per inning and this year only walking two men per nine. He induces 40% ground balls and hasn’t allowed a home run all year. For a team keen on making it back to the postseason, Yates may have a long leash with those numbers this year.
