Fantasy Baseball Waiver Wire Adds: Week 8
With the 2022 baseball season getting revved up, nailing the waiver wire and the players available are critical to beating out your league-mates in season-long formats.
Each week we will take a look at players who are rostered in fewer than 50% of Yahoo leagues and can help out your season-long squads. Remember, if you aren’t scouring the waiver wire, you are falling behind.
Nolan Gorman 3B/2B, St. Louis Cardinals
Roster Percentage: 56%
I am making a slight exception to my 50% rule to highlight a great player like Nolan Gorman of the St. Louis Cardinals, who needs to be rostered immediately in all formats.
The power hitting second baseman has simply been too hot to ignore a call up for the Cardinal organization. In 147 plate appearances, the youngster slugged his way to 15 home runs, and he has tossed in three stolen bases with that slugging power. A .368 isolated power (ISO) shows he's pretty legit.
If there's one knock against Gorman, he does certainly have some swing and miss in his powerful. While he hasn't necessarily been a big strikeout guy in the past, he has struck out at a 34.0% clip in Triple-A this year. If he can stay up in the bigs, this could be a permanent stay without a return trip to Memphis any time soon.
Clay Holmes, RP, New York Yankees
Roster Percentage: 49%
Closers have been so insanely volatile to try and roster in fantasy baseball in the past few years, and while the season is still pretty nubile in nature, it looks 2022 will be no exception to this rule.
Enter Clay Holmes, who has been lights out as part of the vaunted New York Yankees bullpen. They rank second as a unit in team ERA (2.66), and their league-best 0.51 HR/9 mark is largely due to Holmes. The right-hander sports a 0.44 ERA, 0.74 WHIP, and 19 strikeouts in 20 1/3 innings.
Oh, and Aroldis Chapman? The reason is a bit unclear, but he hasn't pitched since Tuesday, with Holmes recording a four out save on Saturday. It could be just a short-term blip, but Holmes and his four wins and three saves need to be rostered.
M.J. Melendez C, Kansas City Royals
Roster Percentage: 35%
With Salvador Perez of the Kansas City Royals headed to the Injured List due to a thumb issue, it's left a gaping hole in the catching situation for the team. That means it's time for uber prospect MJ Melendez to shine, and the young backstop certainly has a profile we need to be interested in.
Melendez's coming out party was last season where he smashed a combined 41 home runs in Double A and Triple A scoring 95 runs and driving in 103. He's already slugged a few homers this year in 2022, and interestingly, he isn't afraid to be aggressive on the base paths -- he has swiped three or more bases in every major league season.
If you need help at catcher, peep Melendez.
Nick Pivetta, SP, Boston Red Sox
Roster Percentage: 18%
With veteran southpaw Chris Sale suffering yet another setback in his return from the 6-day IL, the Boston Red Sox are desperate for pitching to compete in the unbelievably difficult and competitive AL East. But if Nick Pivetta keeps pitching like this, they may be ok to weather this absence.
Fantasy owners, all of whom have likely owned Pivetta at one time or another had to be gleeful with the gem the veteran right-hander fired against the Houston Astros. Pitching a complete game, Pivetta allowed only one run on two hits, striking out eight Astro hitters.
While it could feel like a fool's errand to add a pitcher simply off this one performance, that's actually not the reason for the recommended add -- he's quietly been brilliant all year. Spanning 42 2/3 innings pitched in 2022, the righty's 3.75 FIP is strongly supported by a 1.06 HR/9 mark and a 27.6% CSW rate. In his last three starts, he's allowed only two earned runs over 22 innings, and he lines up nicely for a two start week in Week 8.
