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 they become the next hot waiver commodity or trade target.
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Fantasy Baseball Waiver Wire & Trade Targets
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 waiver wire 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 despite 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.
Michael Lorenzen (SP, RP – COL)
Michael Lorenzen has admittedly struggled at times this year, most notably lately for the Colorado Rockies, making him more of a deeper league addition.
The veteran starter has pitched to a 7.21 ERA and a 5.15 FIP in 53.2 innings of work for the National League West franchise. The surface-level numbers alone probably have him flying under the radar in fantasy leagues. The fact that he pitches for the Rockies probably does as well.
But Lorenzen has found success in the right matchups. He’s thrown at least five innings and surrendered two earned runs or fewer in four starts this season.
Really, Lorenzen’s elevated ERA and FIP are largely due to a handful of poor outings, including his last two starts.
Facing an Arizona Diamondbacks lineup that entered play this week ranked ninth in the league in runs scored, Lorenzen allowed a combined 17 hits, 12 runs, 11 earned runs, four walks and three home runs in 10.2 total innings over his last two appearances. He struck out 10.
Still, in leagues with 14+ teams, Lorenzen’s worth a look as a streaming option ahead of the Rockies’ next two series starting later this week.
Colorado faces the Dodgers in Los Angeles beginning on Monday, then gets three games at home against the San Francisco Giants and three on the road against the Los Angeles Angels.
Entering play on Monday, the Giants sported a collective 93 wRC+ and a .295 on-base percentage (OBP) as a team with the league’s second-fewest runs scored. Only six teams had a lower wRC+. Just two had a lower OBP.
The Angels have at least been a bit better when it comes to runs. They’ve outscored the Giants by 22 runs so far. But the American League West club also entered Monday with the league’s second-worst run differential at -62.
Admittedly, the Rockies are last at -63, but Lorenzen is the only Colorado starter currently slated to face both the Giants and Angels in the next few weeks.
The Rockies’ own struggles to score runs make Lorenzen more of a deep league streaming option. However, if you’re in a league with 14+ teams and are looking for short-term pitching reinforcements, you’ll want to add him now before your league mates do, particularly ahead of the San Fransico start.
Hunter Gaddis (RP – CLE)
Hunter Gaddis was mentioned in this column more than a month ago as someone to add ahead of time after he was activated from the injured list (IL).
A key member of Cleveland’s bullpen the last few years, the right-hander was a must-add in leagues that incorporate holds as part of the scoring system. And while he’s not quite a must-add in those leagues now, given some recent struggles, he is an intriguing reliever to add for fantasy managers in search of potential future save options.
Because while Gaddis has pitched to a 4.73 ERA and a 4.58 FIP in 16 appearances and 13.1 innings thus far, he’s continued to occupy a significant role in the Guardians’ bullpen.
The right-hander still ranks tied for fourth in high-leverage appearances (six) among Cleveland relievers, is third in holds with six and has just one of three saves not belonging to Cade Smith so far.
Perhaps most crucially for fantasy managers considering adding Gaddis is that Cleveland just placed fellow reliever Erik Sabrowski on the 15-day IL. Sabrowski ranks second behind Smith in high-leverage relief appearances with 12 and paces the Guardians’ bullpen with 17 holds.
Fellow Guardians reliever Colin Holderman and Matt Festa have been effective at times as well. But given Gaddis’ role since he returned from the IL (outside of Smith and Sabrowski, only left-hander Tim Herrin has more high-leverage appearances since Gaddis made his season debut on April), the veteran looks like the top option for ancillary saves in Cleveland. He’s also the best option for potential future saves if Smith is injured or ineffective.
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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 weekly fantasy baseball columns and provides weekly dynasty (top 700) and redraft (top 500) rankings updates for his own Substack page, Ben Rosener’s Fantasy Baseball Help Substack. He only refers to himself in the third person for bios.
