Fantasy Baseball Waiver Wire Week 5
MLB Fantasy
Waiver Options For 12-Team Leagues
Ji Hwan Bae, 2B/OF, Pittsburgh Pirates (24% rostered) – The roster percentage for most of the Pirates’ offensive players is starting to creep up, but fantasy managers are still largely not buying into the early offensive success Pittsburgh has enjoyed. One of the early surprises has been the speed and batting ability of Ji Hwan Bae, who is second in the majors with 10 steals to go along with a .254/.312/.366 and two home runs. He is a drain in OBP leagues with a meager 6% walk rate, but the .254 batting average won’t will you at all, and the steals (despite not playing every single day) look like they could be league-winning. With three more steals on Thursday, the Pirates look like they are going to be aggressive on the bases all season.
Brent Rooker, OF, Oakland Athletics (39% rostered) – Somehow, the Athletics are scoring a decent amount of runs, and a prospect was able to crack into the big leagues before being traded. But that’s because Rooker is a player who came to Oakland from the Royals after developing a Quad-A reputation. This year, he is quickly dismantling that label with a .315/.433/.685 line with a .297 BABIP, which is perfectly in line with the league average. He also chipped in a homerun against Shohei Ohtani on Thursday. The 28-year-old is unlikely to maintain this elite level of production. Still, he has been a waiver wire find recently in higher stakes leagues, and it won’t take long before most fantasy leagues start figuring out what kind of power and on-base ability he can bring to lineups.
Jack Suwinski, OF, Pittsburgh Pirates (28% rostered) – Much like Bae, Suwkinsy has been a reliable fantasy producer, but is under-rostered considering how much of a fantasy buffet the Pirates have been this season. the 24-year-old Suwinski is one of a seemingly endless list of Pirates who are speed-average-power assets this year and he has five homers and three steals to go along with his .278 average through 18 games. Suwinski usually finds his way to the bench against a lefty, but in leagues with daily lineup moves, he is gold in that format. The 18.8% walk rate also makes him an excellent target in OBP leagues.
Yusei Kikuchi, SP, Toronto Blue Jays (47% rostered) – After giving up seven earned runs in his first nine innings this year, there were some questions as to whether or not he would remain a fixture in the Blue Jays’ rotation. But it turns out he was just a product of unlucky BABIP and he has quickly settled in over his next three turns in the rotation. He has allowed just two earned runs over 17.2 innings and has struck out 20 batters in that span (with two starts coming against the Rays and Yankees). With the high-powered Jays’ offense behind him, Kikuchi will always be a good candidate for a win anytime he toes the rubber.
Kyle Finnegan, RP, Washington Nationals (35% rostered) – The five saves through four weeks sure look good on a team that is not projected to win many games. But the 7.56 ERA (and 14.5 xERA) should give us a tremendous amount of pause before we click “Claim” on the Nationals’ closer. The walks are up, and the strikeouts are down but saves and saves in tremendously competitive leagues, and the Nationals seem to be sticking with Finnegan, mostly because of a lack of better options. It’s not all bad news, however. All seven of Finnegan’s earned runs came in his first three appearances this year and he has now gone six straight games without allowing an earned run. The save chances may be few, but he will be the guy getting them.
Waiver Options for 15-Team Leagues
Jarren Duran, OF, Boston Red Sox (23% rostered) – Since Duran got the call from AAA on April 17th, he has started nine of ten games and is the 11th most valuable fantasy hitter over the last seven days. A grand slam and a couple of steals certainly help your cause, but Duran may finally be up to stay this time. The 26-year-old has nothing left to prove in the minors and a .400/.425/.629 through nine games is certainly helping his case to stay up. Another main driver of the decision to bring Duran up is defense. The Red Sox had seen enough of Kike Hernandez in center field, so Duran should patrol that position the rest of the year.
Yan Gomes, C, Chicago Cubs (11% rostered) – The Chicago Cubs may have brought in Tucker Barnhart to provide some pop with the bat this offseason, but it’s Yan Gomes who is stealing the show along with most of the catcher playing time for the Cubbies. Once thought of to be a the top catcher prospect in the game, Gomes has largely languished as a backup, but the power has shown up this year. He is hitting .305/.311/.576 with five bombs and 12 RBI this season. His BABIP is a relatively low .277 so he hasn’t been lucky in that department, he is just barreling the ball more than he ever has (9.6%).
Corey Julks, OF, Houston Astros (2% rostered) – With Yordan Alvarez uncertain with a neck injury these days and Michael Brantley still out on a rehab assignment, there should be plenty of run for rookie Corey Julks in the coming days. He has made the most with his 69 plate appearances, slashing .299/.304/.448 with a couple of home runs and a steal. He had very strong walk rates and strikeout rates throughout the minors, and while they are taking some time to develop in the majors, they should appear over time. He has absolutely crazy power (31 bombs in AAA last season), so the hope is he plays long enough with these Houston outfielders out that he can rack up a few homers to add to his ledger. But he has now played five of the last six games, so the playing time is there right now.
Joey Lucchesi, SP, New York Mets (36% rostered) – Lucchesi’s first two starts against the Giants and Nationals have been a mixed bag, but he showed quite a bit of swing-and-miss ability in his first start and now sits on a 2.19 ERA. With so many injuries in the Mets’ rotation, Lucchesi will certainly be sticking around for a while and he has the pedigree to make 30 starts this year. He already has two seasons of 26+ starts on his resume and with a low walk rate and home run rate to start the year, he is just what the Mets need in the pitchers’ haven that is Citi Field.
Yennier Cano, RP, Baltimore Orioles (10% rostered) – You might have seen Felix Bautista struggle last night against the Detroit Tigers before finally securing the save. He walked another three batters and his walks now sit at 4.97 per nine innings on the season. If ever there was to be a changing of the guard for a team that now has playoff aspirations, Cano would be the next logical man up. He has a strong 10.38 strikeouts per nine, has not allowed a walk this year, gets a 66% groundball rate, and hasn’t given up a single run. Cano is already a Pitching Ninja darling with his wicked sliders and seems like an ace closer in the making should the opportunity ever present itself.
