Fantasy Baseball Waiver Wire Week 9
Less than nine weeks into the 2024 Fantasy Baseball season, the injury bug and underperformance trends are rampant. Do you have any of Gerrit Cole, Shane Bieber, Royce Lewis, Spencer Strider, Lane Thomas, Sean Murphy, 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 examine five options under 50% rostered on Yahoo Fantasy for 12- and 14-team leagues worthy of waiver bids or claims. As the ninth week of the season gets underway, we are getting a larger sample of data from which to conclude. With more than four months left in the fantasy baseball season, let’s figure out who to target to help our fantasy rosters.
Baseball Resources
Waiver Options For 12-Team Leagues
David Fry, C/1B/OF, Cleveland Guardians (39% rostered) – We love when catcher-eligible players play in the field in other positions, which allows us to “cheat” and get a few more games and plate appearances than regular catchers. Fry has been splitting time between first base, outfield, catcher, and DH lately and is the seventh-best hitter in fantasy over the last seven days. His last two weeks look like this: .423 average, nine runs, eight RBI, three homers, and three steals. Fry is an old player to just be in his second season (28 years old), but all that seasoning in the minors allowed him to have a good approach this year. He has just a 20% strikeout rate and an uncanny 17% walk rate, which would be the third-highest in baseball if he had qualified. Fry’s hitting is supported by a very-good 41% hard-hit rate this year.
Nolan Gorman, 2B/3B, St. Louis Cardinals (50% rostered) – Like some other players on this list, Nolan Gorman is going to sit in many of the games when the St. Louis Cardinals play a left-handed pitcher, but his hitting in games where he does play, Gorman might be worth putting in weekly rosters even if he does miss one or two contests. Gorman is hitting .323 with four home runs and a steal in the last 15 days and gives that juicy eligibility at both corner infield and middle infield spots. Gorman strikes out too much (35%), but his walk rate has increased in five straight seasons (including Minor Leagues) and he has an outstanding 16.3% barrel rate in 2024. His expected numbers in both batting average and slugging percentage are much higher than his actual overall stats this season, so this recent surge could just be a course correction that sticks for many weeks.
Luis Matos, OF, San Francisco Giants (53% rostered) – San Francisco Giants’ rookie Luis Matos has wasted no time showing the mega-promise he had as a prospect. He is slashing .325/341/.550 including a crazy18 RBI in just 10 games played heading into Thursday afternoon. He has one of the best abilities to make contact (especially good contact) while at the plate. Matos only strikes out 2.4% of the time since he was called up, and that number is not a typo. He has a crazy-high 46% hard-hit rate and is now leading off games for the Giants. If you need more convincing, Matos actually got a hit off of Paul Skenes on Thursday, so Matos must be superhuman or something.
Alek Manoah, SP, Toronto Blue Jays (51% rostered) – Are two strong starts enough to erase the memories of Alek Manoah’s awful 2023 from our brains? Maybe so. After a good-not-great first start of his year when Manoah gave up three earned runs in six innings, he has been dominant for the next two games. In that stretch, he has pitched 14 innings, struck out 13 batters, and has not allowed a single earned run. The success can primarily be due to his velocity this year. After all his pitches ticked down last season, they are back up over one mile per hour in 2024. That may not sound like a lot, but for a player who averages just around 94 on his four-seam fastball, that extra speed helps.
Adam Ottavino, RP, New York Mets (13% rostered) – With Edwin Diaz getting removed from the closer role to move into more of a “fluid” spot in the bullpen, veteran Adam Ottavino is likely the first chair now for the Mets’ save opportunities. He won’t be just 13% rostered by the end of this weekend, especially if New York can actually win a game and get Ottavino the save. His numbers are still the same elite stuff we’ve seen from him for over a decade. Ottavino’s strikeout rate is over 12 per nine innings, He is allowing less than one home run per nine and is inducing 51% ground balls, That’s a recipe for success for a closer if the Mets can ever get him an opportunity.
Waiver Options for 14-Team Leagues
Dylan Moore, 2B/SS/OF, Seattle Mariners (25% rostered) – Dylan Moore has gone from only starting in four of the Seattle Mariners’ first 12 games to starting every single game except one since April 30th and being the eighth-most valuable hitter in fantasy over the last week. In his last 40 at-bats, Moore is hitting .359 with four home runs, a steal, and 12 RBI. Moore is splitting time between second base, shortstop, and the outfield, and has frequently found himself in one of the top two lineup slots over the last two weeks. He has a career-low strikeout rate this year and the best hard-hit rate and average exit velocity of his career this season. His contact rate is up by 14 percentage points over last year and he dropped his swinging strike rate by almost half.
Jake Bauers, 1B/OF, Milwaukee Brewers (8% rostered) – Jake Bauers’ batting average has cooled down a little bit since he was around .364 a week ago, but he is still hitting. 300 with three bombs and three steals over the last two weeks to have a place as a top-40 hitter in fantasy rotisserie formats during that timeframe. Bauers is still not starting when the Brewers face a left-handed pitcher, but he typically will pinch-hit in those games and otherwise finds himself fifth or sixth in the lineup. Bauers is really a journeyman at this point in his career, playing for five teams in five seasons, but he is finally delivering on some early Minor League promise with a career-high in on-base percentage and slugging percentage. It’s largely driven by a 48% hard-hit rate that’s 12 points above his career average and he has elevated his launch angle from 13 degrees last year to 25.6 degrees so far in 2024. Add in 48% fly balls and this looks like some power that might be here to stay.
Jake Meyers, OF, Houston Astros (12% rostered) – When teammate Chas McCormick was out with injury, Jake Meyers flourished with a full-time role and gave us a .354 average with three home runs and a couple of steals over the last 30 days. Now that McCormick is back and healthy, there is a little bit of a logjam in Houston, but Meyers has still started both games since McCormick came back and has even moved up to seventh in the batting order. Meyers can attribute his success this year to a better eye at the plate, resulting in a career-low strikeout rate and his best numbers across the board in barrel rate, exit velocity, hard-hit rate, and launch angle. Meyers’s .302 average and .528 slugging percentage this season are backed up by a .306 expected average and a .522 expected slugging percentage, according to Statcast.
Ryan Weathers, SP, Miami Marlins (11% rostered) – Ryan Weathers has seen parts of three other MLB seasons before this year, but never has he put together a campaign like the one so far in 2024. Struggling through his years in San Diego, a move to Miami seems to have reinvigorated Weathers, as he now sports a 3.49 ERA (5.25 for his career) and a 49% groundball rate (43.7% career). He now has four straight starts with three earned runs or fewer allowed and has only given up more than that number once in 10 starts this season. Contributing to his success this year is the new pitch mix Weathers brings into 2024. He shaved 15% of usage off of his fastball, added a sinker he throws almost 12% of the time, and has increased his change-up and slider usage. That’s allowed both his swinging strike and called strike rates to go up since 2023.
Jalen Beeks, SP/RP, Colorado Rockies (15% rostered) – Colorado Rockies pitchers typically make me want to run as far away as I can from them, but Beeks has been reliable since Justin Lawrence gave up the closer role and the Rockies have actually been winning their fair share of games lately. In the last month, Beeks has only allowed a 2.03 ERA, struck out 10 batters in 13 innings, and has four saves. His WHIP is way too high at 1.43 during that time, but it’s because Beeks’ walk rate this year (4.84/nine innings) is way higher than his career average (3.69/nine). If he can get that under control, there is no reason Beeks can’t get 15 more saves the rest of the season. He isn’t allowing home runs (0.81 home runs per nine innings) which is the ideal thing to work on when half of your games are in Coors Field.
