1B and 3B Waiver Wire Pickups for Week 13

June 24, 2019

Kyle Bishop's fantasy baseball first base and third base waiver wire pickups for Week 13. Consider adding and streaming these free agent corner infield options.

This week marks the halfway point of the 2019 baseball season. Hopefully this column has been a help to you so far, and continues to be down the stretch.

The middle portion of the year is arguably the toughest stretch in which to seek reinforcements via the waiver wire. With most teams still going for the gold, competition for impact additions is often fierce. We're here to identify some targets that might fit the bill.

As a reminder, our focus is on players who are below 50% owned in Yahoo leagues, and standard 5x5 scoring. Your mileage may vary, in terms of availability or league settings. Using that cutoff point for ownership rate, however, these are your corner infield waiver wire targets and adds for Week 13 of the 2019 fantasy baseball season.

Pickups for Shallow Leagues

Miguel Cabrera (1B, DET) — 42% Owned

It's clear at this point that Cabrera's days of being a cornerstone of your fantasy team are gone. That doesn't mean he can't still help you. The 36-year-old may only have four home runs and a .389 slugging percentage on the season, but there are some encouraging trends. For one, he's hit .340/.358/.520 in June, with two of those four homers. After hitting a ton of ground balls in the first two months, Miggy is doing a better job of elevating the ball lately. Atypically lousy plate discipline numbers suggest he might be selling out a bit for power, but with a .295 average on the year, it sure seems like he can still make enough contact for that to be a viable approach.

Garrett Cooper (1B/OF, MIA) — 26% Owned

Cooper was a bit limited by a triceps injury last week, and his ownership rate didn't budge as a result. However, he's been one of the best hitters in the game over the past several weeks - that's overall, not simply at his positions. A three-hit performance on Sunday included a home run, which gave him seven on the year and brought his overall line to a cool .324/.395/.518 in 157 plate appearances.

Pickups for Deeper Leagues

Danny Santana (1B/2B/OF, TEX) — 25% Owned

To be perfectly honest, I remain quite skeptical of Santana, who has never been a viable MLB player except for a BABIP-fueled season way back in 2014. But at the same time, dude homered again on Sunday (his fourth in his last six games) and now his season line sits at .309/.347/.536 with eight homers and nine steals in 197 PA. Santana is playing close to every day, slotting high in a productive lineup, and qualifies at three positions. The bottom is bound to fall out eventually, but for now? Enjoy the ride.

Bobby Bradley (1B, CLE) — 23% Owned

One of Cleveland's top prospects, Bradley made his MLB debut on Sunday, going 1-for-3 with an RBI double and coming around to score himself. He also drew a walk. The 23-year-old figures to play close to every day as Cleveland looks to stay afloat despite a litany of injuries to their vaunted rotation and the Monstars having stolen Jose Ramirez's ability to hit a baseball. Bradley had contact issues in the minors but still posted a .997 OPS with 24 homers in less than half a season at Triple-A.

Niko Goodrum (1B/2B/3B/SS/OF, DET) — 21% Owned

Goodrum is more or less on track to duplicate his rookie season in 2019, which is unexciting though nonetheless useful in some formats. A player who can put up 80 R, 15 HR, and 15 SB while filling any position except catcher? There are much worse ways to use a roster spot in deep or AL-only leagues.

Colin Moran (2B/3B, PIT) — 12% Owned

Moran just keeps hitting, and fantasy owners keep ignoring him. He did add second base eligibility on Yahoo last week, which might move the needle a bit more, but for now, he remains significantly under-owned and overlooked. That may be due to pedestrian full-season numbers (.271/.322/.462, 10 HR) but Moran's been a top-100 hitter over the last 30 days, batting .290 with six homers and 35 R+BI.

For Your Radar

Todd Frazier (3B, NYM) — 4% Owned

Nobody really cared about Frazier as a fantasy asset entering this year. He'd seen his counting stats decline across the board in each of the prior three seasons, during which his highest batting average was .226. He also came into the year with an uncertain outlook as far as playing time, after the Mets added Jed Lowrie and Robinson Cano over the winter. Lowrie has yet to play a game this year thanks to injury, which has allowed Frazier the opportunity to perhaps resurrect his career. He's hitting .267/.357/.473 with eight homers and 51 R+BI in 54 games.

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