Garrett Crochet is only available in 23% of CBS Fantasy leagues. In Yahoo leagues, he's available in 49% of leagues. In ESPN leagues, that number is 79.7% as of Tuesday night.
Those numbers should be zero across the board after what he just did to the Braves Tuesday.
Crochet struck out eight batters over seven innings of work, with only one earned run allowed on a solo shot by Marcell Ozuna – otherwise, he allowed just two hits and one walk on 93 pitches, and it sure looks like the former first-round pick is emerging as an ace for the White Sox. He racked up 18 swinging strikes Tuesday while showing a bit more depth in his repertoire, picking up nine whiffs with his fastball, five with his slider, and four with his cutter – he didn't have a single whiff with his cutter on Opening Day and had just 11 total.
And he did that against the Braves.
Now, it's worth noting that plenty of bad pitchers have had 16 or more strikeouts in their first two starts of a season. Heck, the most recent pitcher to do it was Sawyer Gipson-Long, and I don't think I'm being unfair when I say that nobody thinks he's an ace in waiting. Even extremely talented young hurlers like Taj Bradley and Joe Ryan did it last season, and both fell apart – Bradley fairly quickly, while Ryan held it together for a few months before ultimately ending up with a pretty unsightly ERA.
Which is to say, Crochet is far from a sure thing. There are a lot of ways things could go wrong for him from here on. His command still seems less than ideal, and if he can't sustain high-90s velocity as more pitches and innings rack up, that could definitely come back to haunt him. Crochet has also thrown just 85.1 innings combined since being drafted in 2020, so can we really expect much more than about 120 from him this season?
Those are good questions for another time. The only thing you should have time for right now is making sure you don't play in one of the 23% of CBS Fantasy leagues where Crochet is available right now. If you are, you need to do everything you can to add him. Drop A.J. Puk. Drop Ryan Pepiot. Drop Charlie Morton! Drop someone! Crochet is showing too much upside right now to let him stay on the wire. You'll figure out the rest later.
Crochet is the pitching standout of the early part of the season, but he's certainly not alone. Here's what you need to know from Tuesday's action, beginning with the top waiver-wire targets who aren't Garrett Crochet.
Tuesday's top waiver targets
Brice Turang, 2B, Brewers (25%) – Turang started his third game in a row Tuesday and continued to run absolutely wild in the most literal sense, stealing two more bases while going 2 for 3 with a walk. He still has a lot to prove after hitting just .218/.285/.300 in 448 plate appearances last season, but he's getting the opportunities and making the most of them, and looks like a must-roster player in category-based leagues for the stolen base upside.
Maikel Garcia, 3B, Royals (57%) – I keep writing about Garcia, and I'm going to keep doing it until he stops hitting or until you all get your act together and get his roster rate above 70%. The Royals leadoff hitter went 2 for 4 with a double, a triple, and a walk Tuesday, and he added another hard-hit ball, a 108-mph liner with an expected batting average of .680 that Gunnar Henderson made a heck of a play on to snag. It's early, and the sample sizes are small, but Garcia is taking all those hard-hit balls from last season and he's elevating them just like we wanted to see, and I'm buying in.
Abner Uribe, RP, Brewers (58%) – Uribe has now saved three games for the Brewers in four games, with the lone exception coming when he had already pitched consecutive days and wasn't available. He's the closer, and while there is some risk that his command issues crop up and cost him the role, he also absolutely has the talent to run away with it until Devin Williams is ready in the summer.
Michael Kopech, SP, White Sox (34%) – Kopech was thrown into the fire for his first save Tuesday, entering with a one-run lead in the eighth inning and runners on first and second for Ozzie Albies and the heart of the Braves lineup. And, to be honest, he wasn't great – he allowed a run in the ninth on a solo homer (the White Sox had extended the lead to two runs after he got out of the eighth-inning jam) and then put the go-ahead run on via walk before getting out of it. Still, he's sitting in the high-90s with his fastball out of the bullpen, and Tuesday's usage sure looked like how a closer would be used. It's a poor team context, and Kopech is no sure thing, but I'm optimistic that he's going to be a very good closer for them.
Reynaldo Lopez, RP, Braves (52%) – As expected – and as we saw in the spring – Lopez's velocity was down significantly in his return to the rotation, though that didn't hurt him much against the White Sox lineup, as he struck out five over six one-run innings. I think the upside is fairly limited with his velocity diminished, but Lopez could pitch well enough to win a bunch of games with this Braves' lineup backing him, and he's worth adding in any points leagues especially.
