I love Monday pickups during a fantasy baseball season. Maybe you’re tinkering just a little bit with a contender, or making a major move that helps you attack categorical needs. Maybe it’s just a fresh coat of paint where some was needed. Small fixes, big fixes. New things. It’s good for the soul.
Here are some free agents to consider as we finish up June. As always, your mileage will vary, and you know your league size and scope better than an outsider ever could.
For years we thought the Blue Jays would be a destination offense. It hasn’t worked out that way. Vladimir Guerrero Jr. managers are a little frustrated, and don’t mention Bo Bichette to anyone right now — it’s just going to start an argument. George Springer is still toiling under the Mendoza Line.
But here comes Horwitz, making some noise. He’s not a legacy pick or a pedigree play — he was a 24th-round pick five years ago, the first of his family to make it. But his 13 games in Toronto are almost too good to be true: .366/.480/.561, two home runs, more walks than strikeouts (forever a signal of a plus hitter). Look for him in the No. 1 or No. 2 slot in the order more often than not, and I suspect Horwitz will finally get full-time duty after last week’s performance. Toronto can’t look away from someone this hot.
When did this trend start of the double-initial players going without periods? It’s a writer’s and editor’s nightmare. I double-check DJ Moore and D.J. Chark about 10 times a month.
The Oakland lineup is a different kind of nightmare — it’s 28th in runs per game. But don’t hold it against Bleday, who’s up to 11 home runs and carries a .253/.336/.467 slash (34% above league average, per OPS+). The truth is the top half of this lineup isn’t bad — Brent Rooker might get the All-Star nod if Bleday doesn’t, and Tyler Soderstrom has been good, too. If Zack Gelof wakes up in the second half, maybe the Oakland lineup can go somewhere. Anywhere has to be better than here.
Bleday’s breakout is backed up by his pedigree — he was the fourth pick in the 2019 draft, a Vanderbilt product. If you have the freedom to handle him on a day-to-day basis, note his splits are much better at home and against right-handed pitching.
Pham continues to bounce around the league like a paper cup in a windstorm; the White Sox are his eighth team overall, and his sixth this decade. If you’re ever stuck for an Immaculate Grid answer, Pham isn’t a bad Hail Mary call.
And for deeper fantasy leagues, he’s still pumping out some value. Pham holds a .268/.337/.390 slash, which comes out to an OPS+ 7% over league average. The White Sox lineup isn’t a fountain of joy, but at least Pham is at the top of the order. He’s stolen four bases and hit four homers in a quarter of a season, and his run-scored pace would top 90 in a full campaign. Pham isn’t done being roto-useful in his age-36 season.
Crawford gave us a nifty breakout season last year, leading the AL in walks and scoring 94 times. A .266/.380/.438 slash fits nicely at the top of the Seattle lineup, a 132 OPS+. He even received some down-ballot MVP votes.
The follow-up hasn’t been much fun. Crawford’s been a below-average offensive player this year and he missed time with an oblique injury. But the trend is pointing upward. Although Crawford’s average hasn’t been much the last month (.202), it’s tied to four columns of production: 17 runs, four homers, 13 RBI, two steals. The Mariners park him in the leadoff spot and leave him alone. You might need to make up the average elsewhere, but Crawford’s doing too many good things to be ignored.
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It’s too early to say what Schwellenbach is to the Braves this year, and I realize a 4.98 ERA over four starts has managers a little uneasy. But the WHIP is a tidy 1.20, and the rule of thumb is that when ERA and WHIP don’t tell the same story, trust the WHIP. Schwellenbach has been better of late, throwing a quality start against Baltimore and then holding the Tigers down over six innings (win, one run, seven strikeouts). A turn this week against the mediocre Cardinals (22nd in runs per game) is approved for streaming purposes, and maybe this will turn into a temp-to-perm situation.
No waiver column is complete without some save chasing, and Chapman and Garrett percolate to the top of the list with recent news. Chapman’s value rises with David Bednar (side) moving to the injured list; the Bucs gave Chapman the ninth inning for Saturday’s win. Garrett’s value is more nebulous and perhaps more temporary; the idea is that closer Edwin Diaz is probably headed for a 10-game suspension after Sunday night’s sticky-stuff ejection. Garrett’s fantasy juice was more fun in the early spring, but the Mets still trust him in high-leverage spots, and like Chapman, the K/9 rate leaps off the page.
