Digging Deeper - Waiver Wire Options for Week 22

August 25, 2021

Matt Wallach outlines his favorite week 22 waiver wire pickups and adds for deep leagues, and AL-only or NL-only fantasy baseball leagues for the 2021 MLB season.

Welcome back to the NL-only and AL-only pickups column. Each week, I'll look at five players who are under 15% rostered in Yahoo! leagues and who can be considered as options to add in deep-league formats, such as 15-teamers or AL or NL-only leagues.

I'll also include a recommendation for what to do with each player on your roster. And lastly, I'll take a look at some of my picks from the previous week to see how they're performing.

Without further ado, let's get into it.

Alex Dickerson - OF, Giants

8% rostered
Recommended move: Add for this week

Playing platoon ball and streaming hitters from the Giants can work out quite well. Several of their hitters such as LaMonte Wade Jr., Steven Duggar, and Darin Ruf have been recommended earlier on in the season to try and take advantage of the team's favorable matchups.

That's the case here with this week's Dickerson recommendation. The Giants are set to face three righties for the remainder of the week, which means that Dickerson, a left-handed hitter, should be in the lineup for those matchups. Dickerson has been a solid hitter this season with a 103 wRC+, but he hasn't quite lived up to his standout season last year in which he had a 150 wRC+ mark, but there is perhaps a reason to be more excited about him now, considering he has hit for a 170 wRC+ in the month of August, so he's definitely been heating up as of late after he got off to a slower start this year.

Dickerson does have encouraging Statcast metrics with a 10.4% barrel rate that is right in line with last season, and a 39% hard-hit rate that's only down slightly from last year. As would be expected with his hot August, those metrics have been better this month, with an 11.8% barrel rate and a 41.2% hard-hit rate to go along with a higher 91.2 miles-per-hour average exit velocity mark. With Dickerson playing well right now, and with more favorable matchups for the Giants this week, he should be a good outfield option to stream. Keep him in mind too for when the Giants face a similar string of right-handed starters in the future.

Tommy La Stella - 1B/2B/3B, Giants

5% rostered
Recommended move: Add for this week

What was said about Dickerson above could easily be said about La Stella, too. As the second Giant player to be recommended this week, he's similarly in a straight-up platoon at second base for the team right now, and with the Giants getting a docket of righty starters this week, La Stella should be in there and be reasonably expected to do well.

La Stella missed most of the year with a hamstring strain and then a thumb fracture during his rehab. He only made his return on August 4 and after perhaps taking some time to get fully ramped back up to Major League pitching, he has been playing extremely well with a .345/.367/.517 (140 wRC+) line since August 11th. Like Dickerson, La Stella got off to a slow start before the injury, hitting just for an 80 wRC+, but the track record would suggest that he would bounce back. After all, he came into the year off of two consecutive seasons with a wRC+ of at least 120, and it seems like he's now finally starting to play like it, and at just the right time, coming down the final stretch of the season.

After being largely irrelevant from a fantasy perspective for most of the year, La Stella has the opportunity to be a difference-maker for the final month or so of the season. With triple-eligibility too, he should have just a bit more fantasy value than most deep-leaguers, as he can be plugged and played in three of the four infield spots.

Corey Dickerson - OF, Blue Jays

4% rostered
Recommended move: Add for a few weeks 

Dickerson had been recommended earlier in the season as a potential option for his steady, but perhaps boring offensive contributions. He wasn't doing much of that though earlier in the year when he was still with the Marlins as he had just a .263/.324/.380 slash line, and then he got injured in mid-June and was out until earlier in the month, and now playing for Blue Jays.

Dickerson wasn't supposed to have a major role with the Blue Jays, but with George Springer's latest injury (knee), Dickerson has been thrown into the lineup on a consistent basis, and he's been playing well, living up more to his track record with a slash line right around league average and showing more power with a .204 isolated power mark, and two of his four home runs of the season coming since August 15. The book on Dickerson is pretty much set at this point. He won't overwhelm in any one particular category for fantasy purposes, but he should play well enough to warrant sticking in lineups, which at this point in the season, is far from a guarantee from a deep-league perspective.

It should be kept in mind that Dickerson is firmly in a platoon role with the Blue Jays, and for good reason. He has a career 121 wRC+ against right-handed pitching compared to just an 88 mark against lefties. The Jays will face two righties (albeit tough ones in Lucas Giolito and Carlos Rodon) in their series against the White Sox this week, and the only project to face one righty in their series against the Tigers after that, so he may not be the best option for this week. They do face the Orioles after that though and should face two righties in that series, so perhaps target him for that series instead and keep him on the bench for the rest of the week. At the least, Dickerson is a competent enough outfielder who can probably accumulate some good stats when he's starting while playing in a good lineup.

Bradley Zimmer - OF, Cleveland

3% rostered
Recommended move: Add for this week 

Yet another platoon option being recommended this week, Cleveland only looks to face one left-handed starter this week, so Zimmer figures to be in the lineup pretty much for the remainder of the week, as he looks to be firmly locked into a right field platoon right now.

Since August 8, Zimmer has been hitting a lot better, with a .234/.315/.468 slash line, which translates to a 110 wRC+. He's been showing a lot more power with three home runs and a .234 ISO in that same span. That's three of his five home runs coming in this hot stretch, with the ISO also being double his .112 whole-season mark. Additionally, he's been running a bit this season, as he has quietly accumulated ten stolen bases for the season, with another three of them coming during this same span since August 8th.

The big downside for Zimmer is that he strikes out well over 30% of the time, which will limit just how much upside he has. Even during this hot streak, he's still striking out 33.3% of the time, which is a good explanation for the low batting average in this time frame. It is definitely a flawed profile, but one that can still be useful, especially in matchups where Cleveland is expected to face a right-handed starter. He's hitting the ball a lot better this year, too. His 9.3% barrel rate is a new career-high, while his hard-hit rate has rebounded to his previous career norms of around 38%. It's going to be ugly at times with a profile like this, but Zimmer may actually be one of the better power-speed options remaining on the wire in deeper formats.

Bryan De La Cruz - OF, Marlins

1% rostered
Recommended move: Add for a few weeks 

De La Cruz was acquired by the Marlins at the deadline in exchange for reliever Yimi Garcia, and was immediately activated by the team and has been in their starting lineup pretty much ever since. He has done well overall with a 110 wRC+, but after a slower start to his Major League career, he has played much better since August 3rd with a .361/.385/.508 triple slash, and good enough for a 144 wRC+.

He hasn't contributed much in terms of power, with just a .148 ISO in that span, but what he's provided in terms of batting average likely makes up for it. The caveat comes from him having an elevated .400+ BABIP, which definitely will not sustain itself. We'll have to see just how much regresses when it inevitably comes, but De La Cruz did hit well in Triple-A this season, with a .324/.362/.518 line for the Astros' affiliate. That did come in the hitter-friendly West division though, so that also should probably be expected to come down some. If he could hit somewhere in the .280 range for the rest of the year, that would probably make him worthy of a pickup.

All in all, De La Cruz is at least a warm body with everyday playing time for those in need of a deep outfield option. He could be worth a speculative add to see if he can make this improbable run last for a bit longer.

Reviewing Last Week's Picks

At the end of each week's post, I'll review what happened with last week's picks and offer a suggestion for them in the future.

Rowdy Tellez (1B, Brewers) 

Last week: 11% rostered. This week: 9% rostered. 

After getting off to a scorching start as a Brewer, Tellez completely imploded last week, as he had just two hits and a -36 wRC+ mark. That's obviously unplayable. You can likely safely drop him and not worry about anyone picking him up after a bad performance like that. Keep him in mind in case he heats up again.

Current recommendation: Drop. 

Connor Joe (1B/OF, COL) 

Last week: 8% rostered. This week: 16% rostered. 

With a full slate of games at Colorado last week, Joe was expected to do well, which he did with a .300/.444/.450 line last week. He didn't hit for much power, but this line definitely didn't hurt. The Rockies are on the road for a while now, however, as they don't return home until September 2. Joe is playing too well though for him to be dropped. We'll have to see how he plays on the road, but Joe is looking like a solid hitter regardless.

Current recommendation: Hold. 

Chas McCormick (OF, HOU) 

Last week: 2% rostered. This week: 2% rostered. 

McCormick dealt with a hand injury last week which limited him to just four starts, but he continued to play well with a .357/.444/.500 line. Similar to Joe, the power wasn't there last week, but he's simply playing too well to keep him out of the lineup. It'll be interesting to see how the playing time situation sorts itself out with Jake Meyers emerging in centerfield and when Kyle Tucker returns from the COVID IL, but McCormick should at least have solid playing time locked in for another week, and the injury doesn't appear to be overly serious.

Current recommendation: Hold.  

Jorge Mateo (2B/OF, BAL) 

Last week: 2% rostered. This week: 3% rostered. 

The Orioles keep losing, but Mateo hasn't been the reason. He had another superb week last week with a .389/.421/.444, although it didn't come with any stolen bases. It did come with a .583 BABIP though, so this level of play probably won't be lasting much longer. It is still good to see him playing often and well, and he's playing too well to drop. This is an easy hold.

Current recommendation: Hold. 

Seth Brown 

Last week: 1% rostered. This week: 1% rostered. 

Brown did not play well last week, hitting just for a 22 wRC+, and appears to have lost his share of the playing time. He was even sent to Triple-A last week, but it was a brief stay, as he was recalled just a day later after Stephen Piscotty's wrist injury. He'll probably receive sporadic playing for the A's for the remainder of the season, but likely not enough to make a true fantasy impact.

Current recommendation: Drop. 

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