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Fantasy Baseball Middle Reliever Targets: Week 18

Fantasy Baseball Middle Reliever Targets: Week 18

Relievers dominated MLB’s non-waiver deadline, but not in a helpful way for holds-leagues managers. Nobody will drop Brad Hand, Jeurys Familia, Keone Kela, Joakim Soria, Robert Osuna, or Zach Britton in any of those formats simply because they’re no longer absorbing saves. And now half of baseball’s best relievers play for the Yankees, Astros, or Brewers, stiffening the competition in those overstuffed groupings while draining the bottom-feeders of any substance.

New blood typically emerges from those last-place squads in August. For now, however, the Mets, Royals, White Sox, and Orioles field disastrous bullpens with few tempting options. This week’s column will nevertheless examine a few relievers affected by deadline activity, and in one case someone helped by his contending club mostly staying the course. With fewer standout options left to cover, these names also go deeper than necessary for many gamers.

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Jesse Chavez (CHC): 1 Percent Owned
This summer’s biggest bullpen acquisition so far is … Jesse Chavez? Stop laughing. Acquired from the Rangers on July 20, the 34-year-old righty has since recorded nine scoreless frames for the Cubs. He has tallied at least one strikeout (10 total) in all six outings while yielding only one walk. His cumulative ERA is down to 3.03.

A bullpen move didn’t take last year, when he relinquished a 5.84 ERA as a reliever. Yet this season he has notched his highest swinging-strike rate (10.8 %) since 2012 and lowest contact rate (77.2 %) since 2011.

Is he their new relief ace? No. Even with Brandon Morrow sidelined, the Cubs still possess Carl Edwards Jr., Pedro Strop, Steve Cishek, Justin Wilson, and the recently acquired Brandon Kintzler. This is more of a hot streak to enjoy rather than a foreboding breakout, but the change of scenery has done wonders for Chavez.

Cory Gearrin (TEX): 0 Percent Owned
Along with moving Chavez, Texas traded Keone Kela to Pittsburgh and Jake Diekman — Kela’s possible ninth-inning replacement — to Arizona. That should make Jose Leclerc the clear closer for the final two months unless he forgets how to throw strikes again. There may not be many leads left for him to protect anyway.

Based on their holds leaders, Alex Claudio (11) and Chris Martin (10) will handle the team’s setup opportunities. Neither is particularly good, especially from a fantasy lens given their limited strikeout upside. Garnering a 4.05 ERA and 4.94 FIP, Cory Gearrin isn’t great either. But at least he has struck out a batter per frame with an 11.8 percent swinging-strike rate and 15.9 infield-fly percentage.

The 32-year-old posted a 2.92 ERA and .125 opposing batting average in July, and he produced two holds over the past week. He resembles the middle-reliever version of Shane Greene, so save him for deeper formats unless he keeps dominating later in games.

J.T. Chargois (LAD): 0 Percent Owned
I nearly endorsed J.T. Chargois last week alongside Scott Alexander and Caleb Ferguson, but three Dodgers pitchers seemed like overkill. After examining another red-hot reliever, it makes sense that the NL champions limited their deadline bullpen bolstering to John Axford.

His overall line (3.51 ERA, 1.32 WHIP) is pedestrian to say the least, but a 31.8 strikeout percentage and 59.3 ground-ball rate both pop off the page. Returning from a brutal May (6.2 IP, 7 ER, 11 H, 7 BB) that led to a demotion, he has yielded no walks and three hits over 7.2 July innings. Opponents are hitting .143 with a 19.2 swinging-strike percentage against his slider.

The Dodgers endorsed Alexander, Ferguson, and Chargois as legit late-inning options by steering clear of a hectic bullpen market. All of them can become significant holds-league contributors by preserving that stretch over the final two months.

Robert Stock (SD): 0 Percent Owned
San Diego’s bullpen is far from barren despite shipping Brad Hand and Adam Cimber to Cleveland. Kirby Yates is a potential top-10 closer down the stretch, and new setup man Craig Stammen sports a 2.58 ERA, 23.1 K-BB %, and 1.90 FIP. A six-percent ownership rate means he should be claimed in holds formats by now.

There’s another interesting name whose stock is rising. Get it? Because his name is Robert Stock. Not keen on his 1.54 WHIP? Chances are that .472 BABIP will drop a bit, especially since he also brandishes a 48.6 ground-ball percentage and 25.0 hard-hit rate. He has only issued one walk (but two hit batters) over 11.2 innings while collecting 15 strikeouts and a 12.2 swinging-strike rate.

His fastball reaches the upper-90s, but his true moneymaker is a slider that has generated a 46.4 contact percentage. Where did this guy come from? Fair to ask about a 28-year-old rookie heaving 99-mph gas. Drafted in the second round as a catcher nine years ago, the Padres marked his fourth stop before even making the majors. They should at least use the season’s final two months to see if they have uncovered another bullpen gem, so keep an eye on his progress and usage.

Jaime Schultz (TB): 0 Percent Owned
Jaime Schultz needs to work on the whole “throwing strikes” thing. After issuing 22 walks in 28.2 Triple-A innings, the 27-year-old newcomer has allowed seven walks in 12.1 major league frames.

Still reading? He has also stockpiled 19 strikeouts since getting promoted from Triple-A, where he collected 47 punchouts. The righty, who fires his fastball with a 95.3-mph average velocity, has limited opponents to a 59.7 contact percentage with a 16.7 percent swinging-strike rate.

Often working two or three frames at a time, Schultz hasn’t recorded a hold since May 29’s debut. Let’s not try to guess Tampa Bay’s bullpen’s hierarchy. It’s ruled only by chaos, so the rookie might have a better chance of opening than closing games. This is merely a super-deep strikeout play to monitor, as he’d be awfully interesting with a not-terrible walk rate.

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Andrew Gould is a featured writer at FantasyPros. For more from Andrew, check out his archive and follow him @andrewgould4.

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