Starts: May 28th vs. Texas Rangers, June 2nd vs. Tampa Bay Rays
ESPN percentage owned: 6.6%
Seattle Mariners lefty Marco Gonzales has unlocked his breaking ball, turning a pitch that was a liability last season into a game-changer in 2018 by coaxing a 41.0% reach rate and a 71.9% ground-ball rate with it. The result is a 3.22 FIP that suggests his 4.05 ERA is a touch unlucky.
Look for that ERA to shrink during Gonzales' soft two-start slate this week, with Texas and Tampa Bay both ranking league-average or worse against lefties in most group power metrics while sporting among the top-four highest team strikeout rates in the MLB. It's surprising to see this emerging Seattle southpaw available in the majority of ESPN leagues, but that figures to change heading into Week 9.