This is ‘The Watchlist.’ This column is designed to help you monitor and pick up fantasy baseball players in the coming weeks and months. Whether they’re waiver wire or trade targets, these are the players you’ll want to add now before becoming the hot waiver commodity or trade target.
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Using underlying and advanced metrics, ‘The Watchlist’ will help you get ahead of the competition in your league and reap the rewards later from your pickups.
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 a different kind of player entirely. The point is they’ll help you find success in your fantasy league while staying ahead of the curve against your league mates.
Brooks Lee (2B, 3B, SS – MIN)
Already starting to hit near the middle of the Minnesota Twins lineup, Brooks Lee’s role and prominence in the American League Central club’s batting order could only continue to grow in the coming weeks, giving him promising counting stat upside down the stretch.
So far, Lee is hitting .278 with a .311 on-base percentage, seven home runs, a stolen base and an even 100 wRC+ in 241 plate appearances for the Twins.
The 241 plate appearances already represent a new career high in the Majors for Lee, who logged 185 last season and has yet to receive an extended opportunity at the game’s highest level.
Well, until now.
Minnesota has struggled at times this season — they were 38-42 as of the end of the day on Wednesday, with a 23.7% chance of making the playoffs, per FanGraphs.
If they trade veterans on short-term contracts, it’d only open up more opportunities for Lee to hit alongside the likes of Byron Buxton (149 wRC+, .280 ISO), Carlos Correa (95 wRC+, .276 xBA), Kody Clemens (123 wRC+, .279 ISO) and Matt Wallner (100 wRC+, .229 ISO).
Harrison Bader, Ty France and Ryan Jeffers all stand out as speculative trade candidates if the Twins do end up trading away veterans next month. Though again, that’s all entirely speculative on my part.
With fantasy eligibility at second base, third base and shortstop, Lee brings plenty of versatility to the table fantasy-wise as well as the potential opportunity for plenty of run-scoring and RBI chances as well should the Twins trade away some veterans and continue to give him an extended look in the middle of their lineup.
Of course, it should be noted, the best-case scenario here for Lee’s fantasy ceiling is that he continues to hit in the top half of Minnesota’s lineup while the Twins turn things around enough to not trade away veterans and field a more productive lineup in general.
Either way, Lee is an under-the-radar infielder worth adding ahead of time in leagues with more than 12 teams.
Rafael Montero (RP – ATL)
Montero was mentioned in this column earlier this season as someone to keep an eye on as a potential late-inning option for Atlanta following his trade to the National League East club from the Houston Astros.
At the time, Atlanta’s bullpen was struggling, and Montero, who was missing plenty of bats earlier in the season, looked like a potential setup option.
Fast forward a few months, and Montero has enjoyed a solid season out of the bullpen, posting a 4.00 ERA and a 3.04 FIP in 27 appearances spanning 27 innings. He’s logged a 27.2% strikeout rate, induced grounders at a 47.8% rate.
While he’s struggled with walks at times, the right-hander ranks in the 88th percentile or better in both chase rate (32.4%, 88th percentile) and whiff rate (32.1%, 89th percentile).
The veteran has yet to register a save, but he’s fourth on the team in holds and is someone to watch moving forward as an ancillary saves option if Atlanta’s bullpen continues to struggle.
Entering play on Wednesday, only seven clubs had a lower fWAR from their bullpen than Atlanta, a team that has also seen regular closer Raisel Iglesias struggle mightily with a 5.65 ERA and a 4.89 FIP in 28.2 innings.
Dylan Lee and Pierce Johnson are also around as potential ninth-inning options. However, Iglesias’ struggles could not only open up more high-leverage work and holds chances for Montero, but if Lee or Johnson are needed earlier in the game, the former Astros reliever could also see some save chances for the National League East franchise.
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Ben Rosener is a fantasy baseball writer whose work has appeared on the digital pages of FantasyPros, Pitcher List and Bleacher Report. He also writes about fantasy baseball for his own Substack page, Ben Rosener’s Fantasy Baseball Help Substack. He only refers to himself in the third person for bios.
