It’s been too damn long. This article is publishing on July 17th and is the very first Fantasy Baseball Waiver Wire report I’ve penned for the 2020 season. That’s not right, but it’s the world we live in during a pandemic. We’re now pushing a full 10 months since my last waiver wire report last September so it feels good to have this small shred of fantasy normalcy back in my schedule. The MLB regular season opens in under a week and many fantasy leagues have their first round of waiver wire and FAAB run this weekend. The time is now to make the necessary tweaks to your roster before opening day so hitting the waiver wire over the next week is crucial. With the 2020 season only being a 60-game spring, you need your squads to be in tip-top condition from day one.
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Fantasy Baseball Waiver Wire – Hitters
Kyle Lewis (OF – SEA)
The career of Kyle Lewis has been a roller coaster since he was selected as the 11th overall pick in the 2016 draft, headlined by a gruesome knee injury back in 2016 that cut his debut professional season short. Since then, Lewis has slowly been working his way back to form with plenty of hiccups, speed bumps, and inconsistent play along the way. You can quibble about his swing and miss tendencies or inconsistent contact throughout his minor league career, but one area that remains robust is his plus or better raw power, even if it hasn’t yet translated into gaudy home run totals.
That power was put on full display during his brief stint with the Mariners at the end of last season. For all players with 25+ batted ball events (BBE) in 2019, Lewis had the highest barrels/PA% (13.3%), 4th highest barrels/BBE % (23.3%), and 10th highest exit velocity on fly balls and line drives (98.3 mph). And take this for what it’s worth, but he’s been flat out mashing since camps reopened a couple of weeks ago. With a starting role and likely a favorable lineup spot, Lewis needs to be owned in more leagues for his power potential alone. The batting average shouldn’t kill you either and Lewis has shown he can work a walk at a solid clip. Go get this guy.
Sam Hilliard (OF – COL)
Oh great, Eric is going to rant and rave about Sam Hilliard again. You’re damn straight I am! And I’ll keep doing so until I see him rostered in the appropriate amount of leagues. While I have seen his name sneak into the later rounds of some drafts I’ve been in, Hilliard remains on the waiver wire over 2/3 of redraft leagues. With his upside, that’s both egregious and erroneous. When you combine Hilliard’s numbers in Triple-A and the Majors last season, he combined for a whopping 42 home runs, 24 steals, 114 RBI, and 122 runs while batting .263. Sure, you can attest some of his gaudy Triple-A numbers to him being in the Pacific Coast League, but it’s not like this production came out of nowhere.
Hilliard is a 30/15 fantasy asset waiting to happen with plus power and above-average speed. His strikeout woes will likely keep his average in check, but there are enough contact skills here to remain in the .260-.270 range with a sold OBP as well. Add in Coors Field and I have literally zero clue why you’re not already running to your league’s waiver wire.
Franchy Cordero (OF – KC)
Stop reading this and go grab Franchy Cordero immediately. Or at least put an aggressive FAAB bid in for him if you can’t add him right now. Late Thursday night, the San Diego Padres traded the talented Cordero to the Kansas City Royals in exchange for reliever Tim Hill. Going from a crowded San Diego outfield to a wide-open one in Kansas City is a major boon to Cordero’s fantasy value this season. We’ve long been aware of the copious amount of talent Cordero possesses, but he’s never received an extended chance to showcase that talent at the Major League level.
Franchy Cordero tried to hit this one into oblivion. 489 feet later, he pretty much did. pic.twitter.com/WGthlTgBgU
— MLB (@MLB) April 21, 2018
In small spurts, however, Cordero has given us a little tease. In his biggest cup of coffee back in 2018, Cordero recorded a 51.7% hard-hit rate with an average 92.6 mph exit velocity across 154 plate appearances. Although, that unfortunately came with a 35.7% strikeout rate as well. Big swing and miss issues have always plagued him and will likely keep his batting average in check, but the 6’3 Cordero has massive power potential and can run a bit too (89th percentile sprint speed in 2019). His upside and newfound playing time give him a shining opportunity to make a substantial fantasy impact this season.
Subsequently, this trade also helps Wil Myers‘ quest for everyday at-bats in San Diego. If he’s still available in your fantasy league, it can’t hurt to look his way. Ditto for Trent Grisham.
Nick Solak (2/3/OF – TEX)
The fact that Nick Solak is available in well over half of fantasy leagues makes me want to vomit. Do me a favor and look at his stats below. Try and find one season where he struggled.
You can’t do it, can you? Don’t worry, it’s hard to find something that doesn’t exist. While he’s never been considered an elite prospect or one that possesses any standout tools, Nick Solak is above-average across the board offensively and has produced at a high level every year of his professional career. For starters, Solak is capable of hitting for a high batting average north of .280 with the potential for 20-plus home runs and 10-15 steals. In addition, he’s shown an advance plate approach with a career 11.1% walk rate in the minors, giving him a nice boost in OBP formats. Solak likely won’t play in one set spot every day, but will likely play nearly every day either at second base, third base, or in the outfield, especially if Willie Calhoun misses extended time with his Grade 1 hip flexor strain.
Yoenis Cespedes (OF – NYM)
With a grand total of 119 games played in the last three years and zero last season, Yoenis Cespedes might seem like an odd inclusion here. But he’s really not. With a shortened 60-game season and the universal DH in the National League, the stars have aligned for Cespedes to have his most impactful season in recent memory. Everyone is reported as being in the best shape of their lives in camp, but hearing rave reviews about how Cespedes looks carries a bit more weight.
We know the guy can mash baseballs when healthy. It’s just the staying healthy part that he’s had a problem with. If you take his combined numbers from the last three seasons (that he’s played) and extrapolate them out over a 150-game pace, you’d have 34 homers, 94 RBI, and 82 runs with a .281 average. Not too shabby for a guy you can basically acquire for pennies right now, huh? With how low his current price tag is, Cespedes presents zero risk with the potential for a sweet reward. If he gets hurt again or stinks up the joint, you cut him and move on. Easy peasy.
Fantasy Baseball Waiver Wire – Pitchers
Corbin Burnes (SP/RP – MIL)
If looking at a player’s statcast is your jam, you’re going to love Corbin Burnes’.
That’s about as night and day as you can get my friends. While Burnes got hit hard, which resulted in unpleasant surface stats, there’s a lot to like about his pure stuff. Well, at least his two bread and butter offerings. While his fastball ranked in the 89th percentile for velocity (95.2 mph) and 99th percentile for spin rate (2656 rpm), the pitch got clobbered last season as Burbes wasn’t commanding the pitch as well as he has in the past. Better fastball command is going to be huge for Burnes moving forward as the pitch in general is a plus offering based on velocity and movement. And I haven’t even gotten to his sexy slider yet. Do me a favor and look at the two circled numbers below, please and thank you.
That slider is one of the best in baseball, hands down. Burnes’ slider and fastball accounted for 83.5% of his pitches thrown in 2019, which isn’t surprising as 28 of his 32 appearances came out of the bullpen. If he can snag a rotation gig out of camp, expect to see that number drop a tad while incorporating more curveballs and changeups. Roster resource currently has Burnes projected as the #5 starter for Milwaukee and he’s done nothing to show he doesn’t deserve that spot so far this summer, firing four shutout innings with seven strikeouts in an intersquad game on Wednesday. If Burnes does get that #5 spot, he’ll make for a highly intriguing waiver wire pickup to start this shortened 2020 fantasy season.
Ross Stripling & Dustin May (SP/RP – LAD)
With David Price opting out of the 2020 season, the vast majority of those innings will likely be sucked up by Ross Stripling and Dustin May. Both of them should be owned in the majority of fantasy leagues for that reason but still find themselves chilling on the waiver wire in plenty of leagues. To make things easier as I grouped them together here, I’ll give bullet-points on why each needs to be rostered universally right now in standard mixed leagues.
Ross Stripling
- 3.22 ERA in 212.2 IP over the last two years combined. That was in 36 starts and 29 relief appearances.
- Can miss bats while limited the free passes. Has been over a strikeout per inning and at 2.0 BB/9 or less in each of the last two seasons.
- Appears to be getting the first crack at David Price’s vacant rotation spot.
Dustin May
- One of the top pitching prospects in all of baseball.
- Three above-average to plus pitches in his 2-seam fastball, cutter, and curveball.
- 96th and 98th percentile in fastball and curveball spin respectively
- Plus command and control
- Even if he doesn’t start regularly, May could pitch multiple innings, multiple times a week.
If either May or Stripling are floating on your league’s waiver wire, change that quickly.
Ryan Helsley (RP – STL)
With the Cardinals’ most exiting reliever, Giovanny Gallegos, still not in camp due to “travel issues” and Jordan Hicks opting out of the 2020 season, Ryan Helsley just became a lot more interesting for 2020 fantasy leagues. There have been rumblings that Helsley would be in the saves mix with Gallegos and that’s looking more and more likely with each passing day. Last season, Helsley worked mostly with an upper-90’s fastball and upper-80’s cutter mix that he threw a combined 88.5% of the time. While the fastball was middling in terms of success, Helsley’s cutter got the job done and then some with a .163 BAA and .234 wOBA. If you’re looking for some cheap saves or a boost in holds, give Helsley a look.
Deep League Target: Jose Peraza (2B – BOS)
Remember when Jose Peraza hit .288 with 14 homers, 23 steals, and 85 runs scored? You should as it was only two seasons ago in 2018 when it happened. One bad season and Peraza has been mostly forgotten. Such a shame. Recently, Ron Roenicke named Peraza as the starting second baseman for the Red Sox and it wouldn’t shock me to see his name near the top of the lineup card against southpaws either. If you need some speed or a middle infielder, Peraza is a great target in deeper leagues.
Media Credit: Baseball-Reference, Baseball Savant, MLB, George Walker/Icon Sportswire
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The lack of axis spin on Corbin Burnes’ fastball made it straight as an arrow last year. Even at 95 mph, major league hitters will hit it if there’s no movement especially with him throwing it down in the zone the way he did.
Both flaws were worked on this offseason as he’s been punching guys out with high heat recently. Ill second your highlight on him with a “Go big or go home” prediction and say he’s better than Opening Day starter Brandon Woodruff this season. Yep!