This weekly waiver-wire watch column is designed to help you monitor and pick up players in the coming weeks. These are the players you’ll want to add now before becoming the hot waiver commodity in a week or two. Using underlying and advanced metrics, this “watchlist” will help you get ahead of the competition in your league and reap the rewards from your pickups later.
The players could be anyone from a prospect in an ideal situation close to the Majors, a reliever in a saves+holds league or even a starter doing well with misleading surface-level stats like ERA. They might even be hitters with quality underlying stats. Or they could be none of those types of players and entirely different. The point is that they’ll help you find success in your fantasy league while staying ahead of the curve against your league mates.
* You’ll notice three values for Shohei Ohtani: Hitter-Only, Pitcher-Only, Combined.
Fantasy Baseball Waiver Wire Players to Watch
Reynaldo Lopez looks like the ninth-inning option for the White Sox at the moment. He was summoned to protect a two-run lead in the team’s Opening Day win over the Houston Astros and came in to protect a five-run advantage in the final games of the series.
It’s a small sample size to be sure, but Lopez has allowed three hits, three walks, three earned runs and a home run in two total innings this year. He earned the save on Opening Day, but not before surrendering a home run to Yordan Alvarez. Elsewhere, he allowed two runs in his second outing on a couple of walks, a wild pitch and a pair of singles.
Lopez was excellent last year, finishing in the 84th percentile or better in xwOBA, xSLG, barrel rate, chase rate, walk rate and fastball velocity. His slider, curveball and changeup all logged whiff rates north of 30%. The right-hander recorded a rather small 2.76 ERA and an even more miniscule 1.96 FIP. What’s more, he had a productive spring, giving up just two earned runs in 9.1 innings. Still, it’s been an unideal start for the 29-year-old.
And while it remains to be seen if Lopez’s struggles will continue, Graveman is a quality option to add ahead of time as a potential future source of saves. Of course, Graveman hasn’t had the most incredibly effective start either, giving up four hits, three earned runs and a pair of walks in 2.2 innings. Still, nearly all of that damage came in the second game of the season.
Graveman has thrown two scoreless outings otherwise and has pitched the eighth inning ahead of Lopez’ ninth-inning appearances so far. That positions the former Mariner as a definite ninth-inning candidate. The 32-year-old reliever has experience closing games. He’s chipped in with 16 combined saves in the past two seasons.
With Michael Brantley beginning the season on the 10-day injured list, Julks has stepped into a somewhat regular role. It’s a small sample size to be sure, but he started three of the American League West club’s first four games.
In more small sample size news, Julks has just two hits and a run scored compared to six strikeouts in 12 plate appearances. That being said, the he has a history of producing, especially where fantasy-relevant counting stats are concerned.
Julks hit .270 with a .351 on-base percentage in 590 plate appearances for Houston’s Triple-A affiliate last season, striking out just 21.7% of the time. He also added a 9.5% walk rate and – most crucially – collected 31 home runs and 22 stolen bases. It marked the second consecutive year that Julks reached double-digit home runs and stolen bases in the minors.
Julks is certainly someone to keep an eye on for as long as Brantley is on the injured list. With both Brantley and Jose Altuve on the injured list, Houston’s lineup depth drops off considerably after Jeremy Pena, Alex Bregman, Kyle Tucker, Jose Abreu and Alvarez. If Julks continues to play regularly and starts to produce a bit, it could put him in prime position to accumulate counting stats like RBI and runs scored batting behind that group of hitters on a regular basis.
Dynasty Addition/Trade Target Of The Week
Baty is the rare Dynasty trade target who can help fantasy managers significantly this season as well as moving forward. The third baseman looks just about ready for a regular role with the Mets. Or rather, there’s little left for him to prove in the minors.
Baty hit .315 with a .410 on-base percentage, 19 home runs and two stolen bases in 420 plate appearances split between Double-A and Triple-A last season, although all but six came at Double-A. He also made his Major League debut in an 11-game cameo for the Mets.
Fast forward to this year and he hit .325 with a .460 on-base percentage, a home run, a double and two stolen bases in 50 plate appearances this spring. He’s carried that positive momentum and production over following Spring Training as well, collecting five hits, including two home runs and a double, and a stolen base in 15 Triple-A plate appearances so far.
With Carlos Correa eventually landing back in Minnesota this past offseason, Baty’s only competition for starts at third base at this point would appear to be Eduardo Escobar. Escobar hasn’t been all that productive lately. The veteran hit .118 with a .205 on-base percentage in 39 Spring Training plate appearances earlier this year. He has just one hit and an 80.7 MPH average exit velocity in 16 plate appearances so far in the regular season as of the beginning of play on Monday.
Of course, this time of year, almost everything is a small sample size – especially with both players. Still, Baty, speculatively speaking, could be a candidate to be in the Majors sooner rather than later if he continues to produce at this rate. With a promotion would come a regular role in a decidedly fantasy-friendly lineup.
The Mets have a strong collection of players who get on base at a high rate in Brandon Nimmo, Starling Marte, Mark Canha, Dan Vogelbach and Jeff McNeil. This is to say nothing of Marte’s stolen base ability or the presence of run producers like Francisco Lindor and Pete Alonso. In short, Baty should see plenty of RBI opportunities, which certainly isn’t a bad thing with his power potential.
One of the game’s top position player prospects, Baty checked in at 23rd on FanGraphs’ rankings of the top-100 prospects in the league ahead of the likes of Curtis Mead, Triston Casas, Josh Jung and Ezequiel Tovar.
Per the article, FanGraphs gave Baty the following present and future tools on the 20-80 scale:
Hit: 45/50
Raw power: 70/70
Game Power: 50/60
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