Ottoneu Free Agents to Fill Out Innings Pitched

As we push towards the stretch run, almost every league I am in has a contender desperately pleading for innings on their trade block. Between injuries and underperformance and weird drop-offs in production after the crackdown on sticky stuff, there just does not seem to be enough pitching to go around.

Last week I covered free-agent position players to help you fill your games played; today we look at pitchers rostered in less than 50% of leagues who can help you fill out your innings pitched. Reader beware: If you need starting pitching, the choices are not good.

Starters
Tyler Anderson – 36.34% Rostered; $1 Median Salary – In three starts since he was traded to Seattle, Anderson has gone 15.2 IP with 75.43 points, good for 4.81 P/IP. That is a big improvement on his 3.91 P/IP in Pittsburgh or his 3.76 in San Francisco last year, but the trend pre-dates the trade. Add in his last five starts with Pittsburgh and he has put up 4.73 P/IP over his last eight starts. That’ll do nicely. In that stretch, his walk rate and HR/FB rate are both half of what they were in his first 13 starts of the year. HR/FB rate can fluctuate, but that improvement in walk rate is a really good sign that he is, in fact, pitching better. Given some of the other choices, he’s not a bad bet.

Carlos Hernández – 21.51% Rostered; $1 Median Salary – The 24-year-old made a move from the Royals bullpen to the rotation after the All-Star break, so his season-long line (4.7 P/IP) is skewed by his results in the pen. However, in his five starts, he has gone 24.1 IP scoring 122.86 points for 5.05 P/IP. He had a nasty blow-up against the Tigers (2.2 IP and -5.77 points) in his second start, but since then he has been even better (5.88 P/IP). And those three starts were vs. the White Sox, at the White Sox, and vs. the Yankees. So no gimmes. Hernandez has no track record to speak of, so there is some real risk here, but – like Anderson – he’s a solid bet given the alternatives.

Joe Ross – 48.55% Rostered; $1 Median Salary – Ross has been on and off the mound this year, and throughout his career, so there is real risk you grab him just to have him miss some time. But the Nats are not competing and presumably want to see what they have in him, so his job should be safe as long as his arm is safe. And he has been solid when on the hill. His 3.96 P/IP isn’t league-winning, but you could do a lot worse for a guy available in more than half of leagues. And he has produced 4.96 P/IP over his last ten starts, including starts of 51.4 and 64.2 points. Compared to the two above, I don’t think Ross has the same upside as Hernandez and I don’t think he has as safe a floor as Anderson.

Steven Brault – 7.85% Rostered; $1 Median Salary – While Ross might be available in your league, and Anderson or Hernandez are likely available, Brault is almost assuredly out there. His roster percentage has dropped over the last 30 days in part because a decent share of team’s rostering him grabbed him when he was on the 60-day IL and then decided he was the cut when activated. Multiple Ottoneu Prestige League teams did this. But Brault was very good last year (4.94 P/IP over 10 starts and 11 appearances) and looked good in his first start back this year (22 points over 4 innings). He followed that up with a stinker (11 points over 5 innings), so it’s hard to know exactly what to expect from him moving forward. There is reason to think his innings will be limited, but I suspect that comes more in the form of 4-6 inning outings rather than shutting him down, so hopefully you can count on him to run out there every five days and put up some positive points.

Luis Gil (if recalled) – 47.38% Rostered; $3 Median Salary – Gil looked great in his two starts for the Yankees, but was sent back to Triple-A after the second. The thing is, he did not look good in Triple-A. It was only 30.1 IP, but what do you make of a guy who dominated Double-A in 30.2 IP, struggled in Triple-A, and then had 11 good MLB innings? He’s not a top prospect, and he isn’t making starts right now, and he comes with a lot of risk. But the pitching market is brutal, so if he finds himself back in the rotation, he’s worth a shot.

Relievers

Michael Lorenzen – 28.2% Rostered; $2 Median Salary – Maybe fantasy managers can be forgiven for forgetting about Lorenzen. He’s never been more than a decent Ottoneu relief option, then he was set to be in the rotation this year, then he got hurt and missed most of the season, then he came back and immediately got hurt again. But he has now made six appearances in 13 days and given the mess that is the Reds bullpen, Lorenzen should get high leverage innings (as demonstrated by four holds and a save in those six appearances). Since coming back from the second injury, he has thrown 6.2 innings and put up 68.13 points for a staggering 10.22 P/IP. He probably can’t keep up that pace, but there is plenty of room for him to regress and still help your pen.

Joe Barlow – 33.43% Rostered; $3 Median Salary – Barlow is another guy with a limited 2021 track record – just 12.2 IP over 14 appearances – but excellent results (9.03 P/IP). He has put up impressive strikeout numbers in the minors and has been able to keep HR down this year. If he can continue those trends, he’ll put up solid numbers, regardless of his role. He has only three holds this year, and it’s hard to know if he will get more as he establishes himself or if the Rangers simply won’t have enough leads to protect.

Aaron Loup – 45.06% Rostered; $1 Median Salary – Loup is a semi-high-volume guy, as he has made a lot of appearances (44) but thrown only 37.2 IP. As long as he keeps up his 8.03 P/IP, you’ll take less than an inning per appearance. And he isn’t yet showing signs of slowing.

Génesis Cabrera – 42.15% Rostered; $1 Median Salary – While his 6.97 P/IP looks less enticing than the others on this list, Cabrera is the kind of volume play that can help fill out your innings. His 53 appearances are 8th among RP in MLB and his 52 innings are 20th. It’s hard to find a guy you can slot in that regularly on the wire this late in the season, especially one whose innings are not going to actively hurt your team. As an added bonus, since the All-Star break, he’s been lights out – his last 10.1 innings he has put up 103.27 points.

Brad Boxberger – 19.77% Rostered; $1 Median Salary – He’s sorta like a more readily available Genesis Cabrera. His 51 appearances and 48 innings aren’t quite to the Genesis-standard, but that’s still pretty solid volume. The 6.97 P/IP exactly matches Cabrera, and his last 8.1 innings have produced 88.07 points. Part of that boost in value is four holds over those 8.1 innings and his chances for holds may be going down. Josh Hader is back, pushing everyone in that pen down a spot. Plus Justin Topa made his season-debut and while he’ll have to work his way into leverage innings, he might eat into Boxberger’s time. If you need volume, I would go Cabrera over Boxberger, but both are interesting.