Fantasy Baseball Waiver Wire Adds: Week 26
With the final week of the MLB regular season finally here, there are only a select few still playing fantasy baseball. It's championship week, but that doesn't mean you can't still find some useful reinforcements on the waiver wire.
The four players below are all owned in less than 50% of ESPN leagues and could give your squad a shot in the arm with just a few days to go.
Mike Leake - Seattle Mariners (SP)
Apparently Mike Leake just needed to get out of St. Louis.
After doing it again on Sunday, he's recorded five straight quality starts since joining the Seattle Mariners. What's been even more impressive is that the strikeouts have returned.
Through 32 innings with his new squad, Leake has logged a 2.53 ERA, 21.1% strikeout rate, 9.0% swinging-strike rate, and bumped up that soft-contact rate allowed to 19.6%. In his five starts prior to the trade, he recorded only a 13.5% strikeout rate as a member of the St. Louis Cardinals.
Leake should get one more turn in the rotation. If his recent performance is any indicator, it's likely to be a good one.
Jed Lowrie - Oakland Athletics (2B)
ESPN Percentage Owned: 41.1%
The Oakland Athletics are back to bashing right-handed pitching, and Jed Lowrie has been a big part of that.
They currently rank seventh in team wOBA against righties (.330), but Lowrie has been on fire in the closing stanza of 2017. The veteran infielder owns a 173 wRC+, 28.3% hard-hit rate and 46.7% fly-ball rate this month.
The A's finish the season at home, and while that wouldn't normally be a positive recommendation, Lowrie's OPS in front of the home crowd (.833) is actually better there than on the road (.747).
Luiz Gohara - Atlanta Braves (SP)
ESPN Percentage Owned: 7.9%
The Atlanta Braves may not have postseason baseball on tap, but that doesn't mean Luiz Gohara won't continue trying to solidify a rotation spot for 2018.
The flame-throwing lefty has alternated good starts with bad starts over his first four turns, but he looked great against the Philadelphia Phillies Sunday, whiffing a career-high nine hitters while allowing just one earned run over seven innings.
In 23 1/3 frames, Gohara has recorded a 3.80 SIERA, 25.8% strikeout rate, and he has tamed his command issues by permitting only a 6.2% walk rate.
Teoscar Hernandez - Toronto Blue Jays (OF)
ESPN Percentage Owned: 2.4%
If your offense needs a bit of a kickstart, Teoscar Hernandez may be just your guy.
Dude has been straight raking lately, ripping off a homer in each game of the Toronto Blue Jays series with the New York Yankees. He's hit 5 home runs with 12 RBI and 12 run scored through 68 plate appearances this season, leading to a .357 wOBA, a 26.2% hard-hit rate, and a 42.9% fly-ball rate.
Hernandez has manned the leadoff spot in his last four games played, which only helps his value over the next few days.
