With the All-Star break in the rearview mirror, it’s time to start positioning ourselves for the championship push. Whether you’re trying to hold onto a top spot, pushing the leader, desperately trying to play catchup, or positioning yourself for the playoffs, reinforcements and upside are vital this time of year.
Most waiver wires have been picked over though and it’s difficult to find impact players readily available in most leagues at this point in the season.
Fear not, because there are still a handful of available players that have the chance to be difference makers that help push us towards glory.
The Blue Jays move into the top spot after taking three out of four from the Tigers.
D.J. Short
Here are three players that are under 40% rostered on Yahoo leagues that you should strongly consider adding.
If you want a larger list, Eric Samulski wrote his extended waiver wire piece on Sunday.
Noelvi Marte, 3B Reds
(25% Rostered on Yahoo)
Marte is this exact type of lightning in a bottle player that’s being overlooked. It makes sense why he would be though, coming off a disastrous sophomore season where he missed the first 80 games due to a PED suspension and then struck out over 30% of the time after he returned. It was ugly.
He didn’t make the team out of camp and spent his first week of his year down in Triple-A. After being promoted, he hit three homers and stole four bases in 19 games and it felt like a breakout was happening. Then, he strained his oblique amidst that hot streak and spent two months on the injured list.
Now, he’s been back for nearly a month and while the production has been pedestrian – three homers, two stolen bases, and a .759 OPS – he’s doing a lot of things well.
His raw power is fantastic with a 116.7 max exit velocity – top 98th percentile in the league – and high-end bat speed. It’s translated to game power with three homers already hit at least 420 feet.
Also, his swing decisions have been solid. He’s in the 69th percentile of SEAGER, a metric built by Baseball Prospectus’Robert Orr to assess swing decisions. It takes into account how often a player swings at pitches out of the zone, something Marte struggles with, but also how often they go after pitches in the zone they can do damage on. Marte is great at the latter.
With that, he’s blessed to play in Great American Ballpark, one of the best hitter’s parks in the league.
He’s also started 19 of 20 games since coming off the injured list and 17 in a row. Most of those starts have come at third base and the Reds’ have begun floating the idea of giving him some time in the outfield.
An everyday job with a great home park, good swing decisionsn and great raw power make Marte a fine bet to go on a serious hot streak over these next two months.
Colson Montgomery, SS/3B White Sox
(16% Rostered on Yahoo)
Montgomery has gotten off to an incredible start in his major league career. Through just 20 games, he’s already hit four homers and driven in 16 runs. All four of those home runs have come in his last six starts and his power is very real.
Of all hitters who have taken at least 50 swings this season, Montgomery’s bat speed ranks 17th. That’s right around sluggers like Vladimir Guerrero Jr. and Yordan Alvarez.
Also, Montgomery’s max exit velocity of 112.2 mph is in the 78th percentile of all big leaguers. He set that max exit velocity in a game against the Rays last Wednesday where he hit three batted balls at least 107 mph, a rare feat in a single game.
He hits the ball hard, he pulls it, and he lifts it. There is no question or concern about his raw power potential. Yet, there may be some concern as to how consistently he’ll be able to access that raw power in the short term.
Considered a consensus top-15 prospect heading into the 2024 season, Montgomery lost a lot of his shine due to dramatic swing-and-miss issues in the upper minors.
He had a 34% strikeout rate at Triple-A this season before being promoted and while that number has sunk to a more palatable 25% through his first 20 career games, his 18% swinging strike rate is in Joey Gallo territory and tells us regression is likely coming.
To make matters worse, he has a 54% whiff rate against breaking balls despite being thrown them less often than league average. Of the same ilk, his chase rate is well below league average while he’s seeing more pitches in the zone than most hitters.
These numbers are a bit skewed though because of how aggressive he’s been so far. In terms of first-pitch swing rate and overall swing rate he’s been one of the most aggressive hitters in the league lately and seems to know he’s at his best when hunting fastballs. Right now, it’s working. We’ll see if the league adjusts back within the next few weeks.
Regardless, he’s added some needed pop and flash to a White Sox lineup that desperately seeks both of those things. Also, he’s graded out as a plus defender at both shortstop and third base over these last few weeks.
At worst, he will have plenty of chances to work through any growing pains that may arise through the rest of the season and will likely hit plenty of home runs along the way as a dual-eligible player.
Ronny Mauricio, 2B/3B Mets
(6% Rostered on Yahoo)
This is my second time featuring Mauricio in this column so far this season. Mostly, because I’m a sucker for flashy tools, but this is the time of year to bet on those tools and hope we can catch lightning in a bottle.
I highlighted him last after a monster series against the Rockies where he had five hits, a 450 foot home run, and two stolen bases. It was those same tools that caught my eye and the potential to seize playing time in a Mets’ infield that was for the taking.
In 28 games after that series, Mauricio slashed .209/.277/.349 with three homers and just one stolen base. His approach was frenetic with a high chase rate, low contact rate, and he spent a few weeks more as a part-time than full-time player.
The tides may be turning again though. He’s hit dramatic, late-inning, game-tying home runs off high profile relievers – Randy Rodríguez and Robert Suárez – in consecutive games. That homer of Rodríguez also came in the midst of the first four-hit game of Mauricio’s career where he fell just one base short of a cycle.
Again, we’ve already seen some significant peaks and valleys in his production. It’s still translated to something like a 25-homer, 12-steal pace over a full season with a .250 batting average and 119 wRC+. If he can smooth out those cold streaks, there’s a quiet stud here waiting in the wings.
Ironically, Mauricio playing closer to his peak more consistently may come at the expense of some playing time. While being a free-swinging switch-hitter, he’s much more in control as a lefty than righty.
Handedness
| PA
| Chase Rate
| Whiff Rate
| xwOBA
|
As L
| 96
| 34.4%
| 30.1%
| .358
|
As R
| 30
| 50.0%
| 32.8%
| .215
|
The Mets have faced a rash of left-handed starters recently and Mauricio has only started against two of the last eight, ignoring a couple bullpen games started by left-handed relievers. On the flip side, he’s started against nine of the last 10 righties they’ve seen.
The last variable here is Mark Vientos’ status. His name has swirled in trade rumors all week as the Mets seem willing to use him as a chip to clear their glut of young infielders while adding talent to their major league team. If he moves, there isn’t another player to take those reps against lefty pitchers.
Complications aside, Mauricio has unbelievable potential and is on the strong-side of a platoon in a great offense with the possibility for more – albeit less valuable playing time – through the rest of the season.
