Chris Flexen (SP, SEA) - Week 19 Waiver Wire Pickups

Chris Flexen is a fantasy baseball waiver wire pickup for Week 19 of the 2021 MLB season. Consider adding the SP if he's free agent in your leagues.

BALLER MOVE: Add in leagues of 10+ teams

ROSTERED IN: 47% of leagues

ANALYSIS: After several years of struggling with the Mets, Flexen finally seems to be figuring things out this year with the Mariners after spending 2020 in the KBO. Over 19 starts this year, he has gone 9-5 with a 3.81 ERA and 1.252 WHIP over 108 2/3 innings of work, although he's provided minimal strikeout value as he owns a 15.5 percent strikeout rate. He'll be on the road for both starts this week, which could spell trouble as he has pitched worse on the road (5.92 ERA, 1.605 WHIP) than at home (2.67 ERA, 1.061 WHIP) this season.

He'll start things off with a difficult matchup against a hot Rays team that is slashing .256/.323/.474 and averaging 5.8 runs per game over their last 10 games. Flexen won't get any benefit from the Rays' lefty-righty splits, but he could get a slight boost as the Rays are hitting worse this season in Tampa Bay (.230/.321/.391) than on the road (.235/.311/.415). While Flexen isn't getting many strikeouts this year, he should still manage to pick up a few against the Rays, who have the second-highest strikeout rate in the majors at 26.2 percent.

Flexen will wrap up his two-game road trip in New York against the Yankees, who have slashed .235/.335/.401 and averaged 4.2 runs per game over their last 10 games. This looks on paper to be a solid matchup for Flexen, as not only are the Yankees hitting worse against right-handers (.225/.315/.394) than against lefties this season (.256/.341/.432), but they are also hitting slightly worse at home (.228/.325/.394) than on the road (.241/.321/.393). Plus, the Yankees own the eighth-highest strikeout rate in the majors at 24.6 percent.

He may not put up huge numbers this week, but he should still put up solid performances against a pair of AL East opponents. This will likely be his best week of the season when it comes to strikeouts, and while there is a fair amount of risk in starting him, he has a good shot at providing solid value in most formats.

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