Melky Cabrera (OF, CLE) - Week 21 Waiver Wire Pickups

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OWNED IN: 2% of leagues

ANALYSIS: Cleveland Indians outfielder Melky Cabrera is a rare example of the ballplayer that is better in fantasy than he is in real life. He is a terrible defensive outfielder and, despite attractive looking peripheral numbers, he has actually been a below replacement level hitter at the dish four of the last six seasons. However, of course, almost no fantasy league in the world counts WAR or other, more subjective advanced metrics.

Over the last week, put up a pair of homers and a .364/.391/.636. Sure, those two dingers represent two-thirds of his power production in 149 at-bats, but this is a guy who has overperformed subpar ISO numbers to slug double digit home runs each of the last four seasons. Cabrera also still does all the same things he has been doing most of his career, which is banging out singles in bunches, not striking out, and collecting enough counting stats to make him a reasonable play. Certainly his .259 average does not look super appealing for a guy like that, but he also has a BABIP currently more than 20 points below his worst season-long performance in that area since 2013. With a little positive regression, Cabrera’s line likely looks more like .280/.320/.410, a perfectly reasonable line for a fill-in bat that will cost you next to nothing.