RADIO
Joey Votto is a fantasy baseball waiver wire pickup for Week 18 of the 2021 MLB season. Consider adding the 1B if he's free agent in your leagues.
BALLER MOVE: Add in leagues of 12+ teams
ROSTERED IN: 32% of leagues
ANALYSIS: It's surprising to see Votto is still available in 68% of Yahoo! leagues considering how he's performed recently. He fractured his thumb back in early May and missed over a month but has been locked in since coming off the IL back on June 8. He's slashing .286/.395/.496 with seven home runs, 25 RBI, and a stolen base in 133 at-bats since his activation. He's taken his game to another level over the last 20 games, in particular, rocking a stellar .314/.435/.586 batting line to go along with five doubles, four home runs, and 10 RBI over 85 plate appearances.
He's sporting career bests in hard-hit rate (48.3%) and barrel rate (13.2%) while still getting on base at a steady clip with a 12% walk rate. His .382 xwOBA and .523 xSLG rank in the 91st and 90th percentiles, respectively. He's walking less than his historical rate (16.8%) but that's led to a better quality of contact, which should be a benefit next week as the Reds are slated to face six right-handed starters in seven games next week. Cincinnati visits the Cubs for a four-game set before heading to Queens to take on the Mets for another three. Votto is slashing .284/.386/.523 with eight doubles, 10 home runs, and 27 RBI against right-handed pitching this season.
He's performed well in his career against three of the probable starters he's facing. Kyle Hendricks (1.271 OPS, 3 HR in 33 at-bats), Zach Davies (.928 OPS, 1 HR in 31 AB's), and Carlos Carrasco (1.341 OPS, 1 HR in 14 AB's) are all plus matchups for Votto. In addition to that, he's also homered off of Adbert Alzolay earlier this season and has taken Alec Mills deep before as well. The 37-year-old is set up to smash and if you can't get him in your lineup for the entire week as a streamer then you should consider him in DFS, particularly when facing Hendricks, Davies, and Carrasco.
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