Late-Season Waiver Wire Outfield Options

I put some pretty tight restrictions on myself for this column, as I narrowed it down to players who are both a) owned in <25% of Yahoo leagues and b) were not included in Paul Sporer’s “Nine Unheralded Players for the Stretch Run” column from last week. As it turns out, I managed to come up with three solid recommendations, so let’s get right to it.

Eddie Rosario (Yahoo 20%, ESPN 15.6%, CBS 25%, Ottoneu 32.9%)

It’s not just fantasy players who are ignoring Rosario’s white-hot streak, it’s analysts too. When I looked at CBS to find his ownership rate, I noticed that all three of their experts left Rosario out of their top 100 outfielders when they revised their rankings last week, which is an incredible oversight. Over the last month, the 25-year-old is the No. 25 OF in standard leagues, a performance that now has him inside the top 50 OF on the season.

For the season, Rosario is now hitting .296/.337/.503 with 16 bombs, 99 R+RBI and five steals. The most promising adjustment he’s made makes me optimistic that he can keep it up, as he’s dramatically improved his plate discipline compared to his first two seasons. As you can see, he’s nearly doubled his walk rate while also decreasing his strikeouts by about 25%:

• 2015: 3.2% BB, 24.9% K
• 2016: 3.4% BB, 25.7% K
• 2017: 6.0% BB, 18.8% K

Additionally, while Rosario hits lefties well enough (.284/.295/.422, .137 ISO) for the Twins to keep him in the lineup against most southpaws, if you reduce his lineup exposure to righties only, you can feast off some juicy numbers (.297/.346/.532, .236 ISO).

Despite taking massive strides to improve his approach, or the fact that he has a .200+ ISO, or even the idea that he’s basically been a top-25 fantasy OF for about two full months now, Rosario still gets zero love from fantasy players and analysts. It’s bizarre, really. Pick this guy up.

Rajai Davis (Yahoo 20%, ESPN 11.0%, CBS 16%, Ottoneu 25.3%)

Trust me, I completely understand that there’s nothing less sexy than 36-year-old Rajai Davis and his .237/.295/.359 slash. However, in this era of depressed stolen-base numbers, Rajai’s 25 swipes are good enough for sixth in all of baseball. He does absolutely nothing else to help your team, but even the one-trickiest of ponies should be owned with SB totals like that.

Furthermore, his steals become far more impressive when you look at his splits, because he had just 10 steals through the end of June but has 15 since then. In fact, seeing as he’s not an everyday player anymore, those 15 steals since July 1 came in just 20 games and 93 PA, which means that 16.1% of his plate appearances lead to a stolen base.

He doesn’t play enough to kill you in any other categories, and he’s on such a tear on the basepaths that he can definitely make a serious impact in your SB totals. You probably won’t play him more than 2-3 times a week, but he’s averaging 0.75 steals per start over the last six weeks.

Shin-Soo Choo (Yahoo 23%, ESPN 28.7%, CBS 59%, Ottoneu 94.5%)

I wrote a bit about Choo in June, and while his ownership rates have crept up a bit since then, they’re still not where they should be. In OBP leagues he’s comfortably in the top 25 outfielders on the season, and he’s still a top 50 option in standard leagues. As the Rangers everyday leadoff hitter, Choo’s .371 OBP gives him plenty of chances to score runs (68 so far), and he chips away steadily in other categories (14 HR, 10 SB, 51 RBI) while only making a small negative impact with his .255 AVG.

He’s a must-start player in OBP formats, and a fringey starter (or excellent bench OF) in standard leagues, yet he’s owned in fewer Yahoo/ESPN leagues than the likes of Jacoby Ellsbury and Carlos Beltran.