Fantasy Baseball: The best players you can still grab off waivers, including Dylan Cease and Jazz Chisholm
If upside is your aim, check to see if these players are still available.
By
Scott White
•
1 min read
Waivers have started in your league, and you're itching to make a play. Maybe you didn't know what you were doing with your last few picks in the draft and feel like there has to be someone better out there. But who could it be?
I have 14 names for you.
The emphasis is impact. If I'm devoting a roster spot to a player this time of year, I need to believe he's a potential game-changer. You can always fall back on mediocrity later. There's never any shortage of it on the waiver wire. But upside? You need to go for the glory while the glory can still get got.
Going through rostership percentages in CBS Sports leagues, I see instances of mediocrity getting preferential treatment. For each of these players below, I've made some suggestions as to whom you might drop at that same position.
We talk Casey Mize and Dylan Cease hype and Week 1 sleepers on the Fantasy Baseball Today in 5 Podcast. You can follow us to make sure you get the latest episodes when they drop on Apple and Spotify.
Better option than Carson Kelly and Jorge Alfaro at ...
Catcher
Dom Nunez has said he can be one of the better offensive catchers in the league, and just his home venue could get him a long way there. But he does have legitimate skills, having homered 17 times in 213 at-bats in the minors two years ago while reaching base at a .362 clip. It's not clear yet how playing time will shake out between him and veteran Elias Diaz, but seeing as Nunez is the one who bats left-handed, I'll give him the leg up there.
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Better option than Jared Walsh and Ryan Mountcastle at ...
First base
C.J. Cron has been a 30-homer guy in the past, and his strikeout rate hasn't been bad for that kind of power. It sets him up to get the most out of Coors Field, which is on the opposite end of the spectrum from the venues he's called home so far and may do as much for his batting average as his power output. His spring performance shows he's healthy after last year's knee surgery, with his exit velocities standing out in particular.
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Better options than Jean Segura, Ryan McMahon, Tommy La Stella and Chris Taylor at ...
Second base
Ty France's rostership is creeping up there after a big spring, but I'm to the point where I'd be cool just slotting him in as my second baseman and seeing where it takes me. The floor seems pretty high for a player who already delivered a .305 batting average and .836 OPS in a semi-regular role last year, and it's not unthinkable he could unlock more power with more consistent playing time this year. He did, after all, hit 27 homers (to go along with a .399 batting average) in 296 at-bats during his last minor-league season.
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Though it's easy to fixate on his flaws -- the high strikeout rate, the wide range of outcomes -- the Marlins believed enough in Jazz Chisholm to trade an ascendant Zac Gallen for him two years ago. And he showed enough of the positives, namely that power/speed combo, to secure the starting second base job this spring. You shoot for the upside when the cost is so low, trusting you can backfill with a boring alternative later.
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Josh Rojas' last minor-league batting line was nearly as impressive as France's, seeing him hit .332 with 23 homers, 33 doubles, 33 steals and a 1.023 OPS in 416 at-bats across two levels, and he was a big reason why the Diamondbacks pulled the trigger on the Zack Greinke deal with the Astros two years ago. He got more serious about baseball this offseason, adjusting his diet and sleeping habits while also tweaking his stance. The Diamondbacks sent him out there almost every day this spring, and he just kept hitting, securing the second base job in the process.
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Better option than Adam Eaton, A.J. Pollock and Andrew Benintendi at ...
Outfield
Justin Upton had a decade of Fantasy prominence before his struggles the past two years, when he was slowed by a knee issue that required surgery in September 2019. A miserable start last year gave way to a strong finish, with him hitting .286 (20 for 70) with six home runs and a .967 OPS in his final 20 games, and he's kept it going this spring. At 33, he may have something left in the tank and is in a prime RBI spot with Mike Trout and Anthony Rendon batting ahead of him.
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Better options than Adam Wainwright, Taijuan Walker, Madison Bumgarner and Ryan Yarbrough at ...
Starting pitcher
Blessed with a killer fastball that he disguises and manipulates well, Freddy Peralta showed enough improvement with his secondary arsenal this spring to convince manager Craig Counsell he deserves another look in the starting role. Predictability was an issue last time around, but the stuff is clearly there, as evidenced by his 14.4 K/9 as a multi-inning reliever last year.
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Tarik Skubal himself tried to get by with mostly just a fastball in his first look as a starter last year but worked with Driveline Baseball, a data-driven player development program, to develop an effective counter to it this offseason. The result is a split-change that has earned rave reviews in camp, with his breaking ball showing progress as well. If he was good for 10.4 K/9 and a Trevor Bauer-like swinging-strike rate last year with essentially one pitch, then I like what's coming.
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Zac Gallen is rostered in 94 percent of leagues, Carlos Carrasco in 87 percent and Noah Syndergaard in 80 percent. Luis Severino might beat them all back from injury. OK, so I'd bet against it, but given that he's already throwing bullpen sessions to the delight of Yankees coaches, a May return isn't out of the question. If nothing else, he deserves a similar rostership to Syndergaard, who's also working his way back from Tommy John surgery. In leagues with IL spots, the eventual ace needs to be stashed by someone.
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Dylan Cease's final spring start, in which he struck out 11 while walking none in 5 1/3 innings, was enough to get me digging, and what I uncovered was a pretty impressive game plan from new pitching coach Ethan Katz. Katz was Lucas Giolito's high school coach and is credited for getting him on track a couple years ago. His plan for Cease is similar: shore up the lower half of his delivery, thus improving his control and generating more spin on his fastball to make it the swing-and-miss pitch it should be. It seems to be working.
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You can understand why people backed down from Framber Valdez during that middle portion of draft season when it looked like he'd need season-ending surgery on his fractured left ring finger, but we've known for a couple weeks now that the bone is healing fine without it. He'll be back to throwing soon enough, and seeing as he emerged as a must-start option last year, you'll want him stashed away when he's ready. I'd prioritize him ahead of even Severino among IL stashes.
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Other than Cease, Casey Mize is the most recent on this list to grab my attention. The upside speaks for itself, him being a former No. 1 overall pick, but after he delivered a 6.99 ERA across seven major-league starts last year, he needed to show more than he did at the start of spring training. His past two starts have seen a sharp correction, resulting in 15 strikeouts to one walk in 8 2/3 innings. Manager A.J. Hinch has said Mize's stuff is too good for nibbling, and the 23-year-old seems to have heeded the advice, going on the attack more.
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Though he was a middling prospect at best, Trevor Rogers caught the attention of the analytics world when he debuted late last year with a fastball/changeup combination that accounted for a Brandon Woodruff-like swinging-strike rate. He played the two pitches off each other so well that a big strikeout outcome seemed like it was on the table, and his spring performance may be a foretaste of it. An improved spin rate on his slider certainly hasn't hurt.
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The Giants challenged Logan Webb to improve his secondary pitches in the offseason, and out of that challenge came a world-beating changeup. It's been the talk of Giants camp, with catcher Curt Casali, formerly of the Reds, comparing it to Luis Castillo's. That's a difficult standard to meet, of course, but you see the results Webb has gotten with it. I already liked his ground-ball skills, but now he might be the complete package. I've been picking him up everywhere.
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