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
Caleb Durbin (2B, 3B – BOS)
Caleb Dubin had multiple hits in three consecutive games entering play on Monday. As such, it’s possible that some fantasy managers, particularly those in deeper leagues, may have already added the Red Sox infielder via waivers.
Still, if he’s available in your league, now’s the time to add him. Even more multi-hit games and improved overall fantasy production seem likely to follow.
Overall this season, the infielder is batting just .215 with a .269 on-base percentage (OBP), five home runs and seven stolen bases in 240 plate appearances as of the start of play on Monday.
Durbin is walking just 5.4% of the time and is unlikely to hit for significant power if his current numbers (including a .146 ISO and a .283 xwOBA) continue more or less as is. Significantly better batting average production could very well be on the horizon.
First and foremost, Durbin is striking out just 14.2% of the time to go along with a .231 batting average on balls in play (BABIP). Among qualified hitters, only 25 batters have a lower strikeout rate than the former Brewer. Among qualified hitters, only Manny Machado, Dansby Swanson, Salvador Perez, Cedric Mullins and Steven Kwan have a lower BABIP.
Durbin’s recent run of form — two home runs and eight total hits in his last 14 plate appearances in four games — might be just the beginning of his batting average bouncing back if his batted ball numbers are any indication.
Erick Fedde (SP, RP – CWS)
With a 4.46 ERA and a 5.60 FIP in 15 appearances and 70.2 innings this season, Chicago White Sox starter Erick Fedde might not be a long-term fantasy option in most leagues. However, as a short-term streaming option for just his next few starts, the veteran brings some solid fantasy potential.
Despite the season-long numbers, Fedde actually owns a 2.11 ERA and a 3.86 FIP in his last 21.1 innings of work, surrendering just 0.84 home runs per nine frames with strikeout and walk rates of 18.7% and 7.7%, respectively.
Assuming the White Sox’s rotation continues as is without any interruptions or changes, Fedde’s next three projected starts will come on Wednesday at home against Cleveland, then a road start in Baltimore, followed by another start against Cleveland, but this time on the road.
The veteran will face a Cleveland team that has scored the third-fewest runs in the league as of the start of the week. It’s also a Cleveland team without arguably the club’s two best hitters — third baseman Jose Ramirez and outfielder Chase DeLauter.
In Ramirez’s case, his last game before landing on the injured list (IL) was on June 13th. From June 14th through the start of play on Monday, Cleveland was batting just .182 with a .259 OBP, a 70 wRC+ and a 32.4% strikeout rate.
Even if you don’t start Fedde against the Orioles between those two division starts, he’s very much worth adding now ahead of time for the two projected outings against the Guardians. Baltimore, for what it’s worth, is in the top 10 in runs scored this month, but more middle of the pack in wRC+ in June, with a collective 109 number that ranks behind 14 other teams.
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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.