There’s no greater fantasy baseball rite of passage than dropping a reeling player who immediately succeeds.

From newbies to life-long experts, this cruel misfortune has beset everyone. Just recently, I cut Tyler Skaggs in a league where I’m hurting in ERA (partially because of him) and wanted Angels teammate Andrew Heaney — a top-priority add whose 47% consensus ownership rate is too high for this article. Skaggs had surrendered 20 runs in his last three starts and exceeded five strikeouts in just one of his first seven outings.

You know where this is going. He had his sharpest outing to date last Friday, stockpiling seven punchouts over 5.2 scoreless innings against the Rangers. While his 4.40 ERA still requires attention, he now brandishes a 3.98 FIP and a strikeout per frame this season. Per Brooks Baseball, he generated 32 swinging strikes in his past two turns after previously topping out at 10 in a start.

Every active manager is going to make mistakes along the way. Those who don’t are likely being too passive with their rosters, missing out on league-altering gems in fear of losing a decent contributor along the way. In my defense, Heaney also looked darn good in his season debut, accruing eight strikeouts in five frames with two hits (both solo home runs).

Also, to be completely honest, this introduction was a veiled excuse to discuss Heaney and Skaggs, who narrowly misses the 35% cutoff mark at 37. If anyone from my league is reading, you might want to give Skaggs a shot before I can take a pass at reclaiming him this weekend. Let’s hope they’re not reading.

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Priority Pickups – <35% Owned

Clint Frazier (OF – NYY): 31% Owned
This should be the last call on Fraizer, who deposited his 10th homer on Memorial Day. That elevated his slash line to .284/.324/.552 with a 125 wRC+. He’s batting sixth in a Yankees lineup ranked inside the top 10 of wRC+ and runs scored without Giancarlo Stanton and Aaron Judge. Neither masher’s return is right around the corner, but Kendrys Morales and/or Brett Gardner should now lose a full-time role before Frazier. Health is the only thing stopping the 24-year-old from parlaying Yankee Stadium into a 25-homer campaign.

Nick Pivetta (SP – PHI): 31% Owned
Some will never forgive Pivetta for setting their staff ratios ablaze early in the season. The Phillies are not among those still holding a grudge, as they’re promoting the righty for Tuesday’s start. After getting shelled for 18 runs in 18.1 big league innings, the popular breakout pick posted a 3.41 ERA and 50 strikeouts in six Triple-A starts. Although certainly a risky gamble, Pivetta earned considerable hype by brandishing a 27.1 K% and 3.51 SIERA last season. Maybe he finds the form that launched a thousand breakout predictions.

Sonny Gray (SP – CIN): 29% Owned
Gray is still floating around far too many waiver wires despite boasting a 3.54 ERA, 2.98 FIP, and 64 strikeouts in 56 innings. Even those not sold on the refurbished strikeout rate and wary of Great American Ball Park can use him as a late-rotation depth piece who has excelled (2.89 ERA, .256 wOBA) on the road.

Griffin Canning (SP – LAA): 21% Owned
A prized prospect prior to his call-up, Canning has notched a 3.42 ERA and 1.06 WHIP in five starts. He has compiled 29 strikeouts in 26.1 frames and ranks second among AL starters behind Blake Snell in both swinging-strike (16.4%) and opposing contact (63.9%) rate. As of Monday, his .254 wxOBA ranks 15th among all pitchers with at least 100 batters faced. That all adds up to a hurler who should be accounted for in even the shallowest of mixed leagues.

Lourdes Gurriel (2B/SS – TOR): 19% Owned
Gurriel toiled his way to Triple-A by batting .175 with no home runs in 13 games with Toronto to start 2019. Following his recall, the 25-year-old went yard in three straight contests. He posited plenty of promise last season by batting .290/.324/.478 after the All-Star break, and this surge should at least solidify short-term playing time. The raw plate approach will lead to more peaks and valleys, but Gurriel is a hot hand particularly worth riding in deeper leagues.

Scott Kingery (3B/SS – PHI): 18% Owned
Kingery had the world in his hands before suffering a hamstring injury last month. Following a dismal debut season, the 25-year-old had tallied four doubles and two home runs among his 10 hits in a seven-game window. Since returning on May 19, he has gone 7-for-24 with three doubles, four runs scored, and a steal. Most important of all, the Swiff Army knife has started six of seven games for the Phillies.

He won’t maintain his .357/.400/.589 slash line with two walks and 70.9% contact rate, but Kingery looks like a profitable post-hype lottery ticket with plenty of gap power and speed.

Jeff Samardzija (SP – SF): 12% Owned
There are a lot of troubling warning signs underneath Samardzija’s glistening 3.27 ERA and 1.17 WHIP. He wields a .226 BABIP despite an 80.0% contact rate, and an underwhelming 10.6 K-BB% results in a 5.11 FIP and 5.08 SIERA. But what do we say to the regression gods? Not today. Shark is scheduled to face the Marlins at Miami on Tuesday before opposing the Orioles this weekend. Those two starts against MLB’s biggest laughingstocks make him a viable streamer.

Raimel Tapia (OF – COL): 10% Owned
At least Tapia narrowly graduated from the Deep League Targets section, but he should be rostered in far more leagues. He had already started Colorado’s last five games before the club placed Charlie Blackmon on the injured list Monday. With his star teammate sidelined, the 25-year-old has led off the first four games of a 10-game homestand. The Rockies’ leadoff hitter is available in most leagues with six more home games this week. What are you waiting for?

Kyle Tucker (OF – HOU): 10% Owned
To the chagrin of fantasy managers everywhere, the Astros promoted Derek Fisher to replace the injured George Springer, stranding Tucker and Yordan Alvarez at Triple-A for a bit longer. This may be a short-term move. As explained by The Athletic’s Jake Kaplan, the Astros can save an extra year of service time by keeping Tucker in the minors until June 2. It’d thus hardly be a surprise if they coincidentally decide he’s ready for a promotion next week.

Despite a slow start to the season, Tucker now wields a .395 wOBA with 16 home runs and eight steals in 45 games. He faltered in his first big league audition (.141/.236/.203 in 72 PAs) last year, but the 22-year-old is still a prized prospect with five-category potential. Think Christian Yelich before the Milwaukee outfielder turned into Barry Bonds. Although Alvarez (37% owned in Yahoo) has already surpassed this column’s cutoff point, there’s plenty of time to stash the forgotten Tucker before his arrival.

Deep League Targets – <10% Owned

Renato Nunez (3B – BAL): 9% Owned
After catching fire in late April, Nunez went yard once and struck out 25 times in 20 games from April 24 to May 19. Many who grabbed the Baltimore basher moved on to the latest flavor of the week, only to watch him get hotter than before. The 25-year-old has gone 11-for-31 with six home runs in his last eight games. He won’t offer much of an average or OBP, but Nunez can sock 30 dingers with an assortment of RBIs as the Orioles’ cleanup hitter.

Oscar Mercado (OF – CLE): 9% Owned
Because he missed two games with a hip injury shortly after his promotion, Mercado’s rostered rate stagnated. It appears many quickly forgot why he drew buzz as part of the recent Prospectapalooza. He’s batting .313/.417/.516 with nine runs in 10 games and swiped two bases Monday. Most of that scoring production has come at the bottom half of Cleveland’s lineup, but he climbed to second — between Francisco Lindor and Carlos Santana — in his last two starts. He’s a viable add in all 15-team leagues or larger and a solid option in 12-teamers with five outfield slots.

Eric Lauer (SP – SD): 7% Owned
Take out an eight-run shellacking in Coors Field, and Lauer has a 2.54 ERA in his last five starts. While it’s usually disingenuous to ignore a starter’s worst day, nobody in a 20-team NL-only league should have played the lefty at Colorado. He hasn’t relinquished a walk in consecutive turns and now wields a solid 3.97 FIP after tossing seven innings of one-run, seven-strikeout ball against Arizona. The 23-year-old has built some trust as a deeper streamer at home, where he brandishes a 2.67 ERA.

Hanser Alberto (2B/3B – BAL): 2% Owned
This probably won’t last. Alberto hadn’t mustered a single home run in 192 career MLB plate appearances before plastering three this season. As of Monday, he ranked in the bottom five percent of Statcast’s exit velocity and hard-hit rate. He’s also batting .302 with three steals and has recently ascended to Baltimore’s leadoff spot, so see where this ride takes you in deep formats.

Jake Diekman (RP – KC): 1% Owned
The Royals have cumulatively registered five saves scattered among four relievers. None of them have come from Diekman, who is emerging as their best bullpen arm. The 32-year-old southpaw has solidified a 2.86 ERA, 0.86 WHIP, and 33 strikeouts in 22 innings. His contact (65.9%) and swinging-strike (15.8%) rates are right on par with those of Kirby Yates, so perhaps he emerges as a late-season closer. Diekman is at least an intriguing add in holds or save-plus-holds leagues.

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