Fantasy Baseball Waiver Wire Week 5

We are less than five 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, Zack Gelof, 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 fifth 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.

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Waiver Options For 12-Team Leagues

Mark Canha, 1B/OF, Detroit Tigers (25% rostered) – Sometimes, the old, boring guys who you haven’t thought about drafting in five years end up being the best waiver wire picks once the season gets going. Such is the case with Mark Canha on the Detroit Tigers. He provides multi-position eligibility and has three homers plus a .298 average over the last two weeks, getting regular playing time. With the lack of impact hitters on the Tigers, Canha has hit first, second, or third in his last 13 games played, and he only sat twice in the last 16 days. Canha’s BABIP (.276) is under his career average (.290), so there is some room for improvement. The 13% walk rate proves his plate discipline is just as solid at age 35 this year.

Wilyer Abreu, OF, Boston Red Sox (35% rostered) – If I asked you to name the three most valuable hitters in rotisserie baseball over the last week, how many names would you go through before you got to Wilyer Abreu? Abreu has been the third-best hitter over the last week, and it’s actually been more than two weeks now that he is on a massive hot streak during that span. Abreu is hitting .415 with two homers, nine RBI, and four stolen bases while batting in the top four for the Red Sox in each of the last eight games. After a strong .316/.388/.474 debut in 2023 in his 85 plate appearances, he has been even better this year, hitting .322/.412/.542. The max exit velocity for Abreu (110 mph) is improving each season and he has an intriguing power-speed combo for fantasy.

Travis D’Arnaud, C, Atlanta Braves (54% rostered) – Is there a hotter hitter on the planet than Atlanta Braves’ catcher Travis D’Arnaud? He has five home runs, 11 RBI, and a crazy .615 batting average over the last week, as he is in the middle of a massive power binge right now. It will slow down, of course, but D’Arnaud is battling in the middle third of perhaps the best lineup in baseball and Sean Murphy is still not close to returning from the injury he suffered in the first few days of the season. D’Arnaud has dropped his strikeout rate under 20% for the first time since 2017 and his walk rate is currently a career-high 9.1%. It’s no surprise that his barrel rate and hard hit rate have spiked this year, but his exit velocity is was up (93.4 mph) so right now it looks legit.

MacKenzie Gore, SP, Washington Nationals (54% rostered) – A phenom prospect player who came over to Washington in the first Juan Soto trade (C.J. Abrams the other), Gore had been a mild disappointment since his 2021 debut. He has back-to-back seasons in 2021 and 2022 with an ERA around 4.50, strikeouts per nine under 10, and more than four batters walked per nine innings. But this season, it is all starting to come together, including holding the Dodgers to just one run in seven innings on Thursday. Gore has perplexed opponents with a 3.12 ERA, 10.7 strikeouts per nine, and is only walking 2.7 batters per nine. The interesting thing is, that Gore is doing all of this with a very high .400 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.

Joel Payamps, RP, Milwaukee Brewers (44% rostered) – The Abner Uribe experiment as closer seems to be over for now, and Joel Payamps – probably the Brewers’ best reliever – has been moved into the last inning role for now. Over the last two weeks, Payamps has three saves for the Brewers with a pristine 0.00 ERA and a 0.38 WHIP. Payamps was a big strikeout pitcher last year, which served him well in the ninth inning. He is only at 8.38 K/9 this year, but he hasn’t allowed a home run this year and is allowing very little hard contact. His 3.72 ERA is more digestible when you look at his 2.50 xERA. He also isn’t walking any batters, with just 0.93 walks per nine innings to opposing hitters, which has limited the damage against him this year.

Waiver Options for 14-Team Leagues

Harrison Bader, OF, New York Mets (7% rostered) – Harrison Bader is starting to hit and run wild with a full-time opportunity with the New York Mets. He has a .297 average and four steals in his last 37 at bats and that has coincided with him playing center field for New York in nine of their last 10 games. Bader hasn’t played more than 103 games since 2019, but should fly past that this year if he can stay healthy and keep up his .278/.307/.347 slash line through his first 20 games. Bader’s hard hit percentage is at 40% for the first time in his career, and his xBA (.280) means there are no flukes in his offense so far.

Johan Rojas, OF, Philadelphia Phillies (8% rostered) – Staying in the NL East, Johan Rojas has emerged as a player you need in deep fantasy leagues if you’re desperate for steals and batting average. Rojas has stolen six bases over the last two weeks while playing 11 of the last 12 games in center field for the Phillies. The most exciting thing about Rojas is that he is just 23 years old but already has more than five years of professional baseball under his belt. He is striking out less than 15% of the time (an amazing number for such a young player), and his contact rate is up to 80% (75% in 2023).

Connor Wong, C, Boston Red Sox (9% rostered) – While Connor Wong hasn’t quite performed at the level of Travis D’Arnaud over the last two weeks, he hasn’t been too far off. Wong is hitting .371 with four home runs and seven RBI in that span and has been, along with Wilyer Abreu, one of the catalysts in a resurgent Boston Red Sox offense. Wong does have some signs that this level of power is unsustainable in the long run. He has a .417 BABIP at the moment to go along with a very high 26% HR/FB rate, but he is also striking out less than his last two Major League seasons and has purposefully increased his launch angle from 15% last year to 22% in 2024. If you are in desperate need of a catcher or play in a two-catcher league, Wong is an ideal candidate to fill that spot.

JP Sears, SP, Oakland Athletics (8% rostered) – If the Oakland Athletics had a competent offense, there is a case to be made they could be an average team considering the state of their pitching. JP Sears is one of several pitchers who are dominating opponents this year, and Sears has racked up a 0.82 ERA, a 0.82 WHIP, and nine strikeouts in his last 11 innings pitched. He only has one win this season, because of the offense, and that’s the trade-off for Sears if you want access to his strong ratios. Strangely, Sears is doing this while only striking out five batters per nine innings, but he is keeping the ball in the yard and keeping the walks low to counteract that.

Garrett Cleavinger, RP, Chicago White Sox (4% rostered) – The Chicago White Sox might have, I don’t know, 20 save opportunities this season? Maybe? They are so bad right now, but someone has to close games for them, and that someone right now is Garrett Cleavinger. In the past two weeks, Cleavinger has two saves, two wins, and nine strikeouts in 5.2 innings pitched, while not allowing a single run in that span. He has been a stable force in an otherwise abysmal White Sox pitching staff. Cleavinger is now in his fifth straight year of strikeouts over 11.8 strikeouts per nine, but he has to get his walks under control to stick in the role (7.5 BB/9 in 2024).

Fantasy Baseball Waiver Wire Week 5