Mitch Garver (C, MIN) - Week 5 Waiver Wire Pickups

Brady Grove profiles Minnesota Twins backstop Mitch Garver as a potential waiver wire acquisition of value for fantasy baseball leagues in Week 5 of the 2019 MLB campaign.

BALLER MOVE: Add in Two-Catcher Leagues

OWNED IN: 33% of leagues

ANALYSIS: Coming into the 2019 season, many expected veteran backstop Jason Castro to take a majority share of the starts and AB for the Twins at catcher, but so far it has been 28-year old New Mexico alumni Mitch Garver who has seized the helm. In 2018, Garver hit for seven homers and a .268/.335/.414 slash in 302 AB.

This year, Garver has looked like a completely different version of himself through the first 11 games (37 AB), and has already smacked five dingers with a surreal slash of .405/.436/.919. The underlying metrics also seem to suggest that his performance is legitimate, and he isn't just the benefactor of good fortune.

Garver still strikes out a lot (23.1%) and his soft contact rate has gone up every year in the majors from 16.3% to 25%. However, he has been crushing the ball this year to the tune of a 46.4% hard contact rate and 91.6 MPH average exit velocity that manifested into a .514 ISO. He has also been able to fully utilize his powerful approach en route to XBH through a 0.83 GB/FB ratio and 21.4% line drive rate.

Though the sample size remains limited, Mitch Garver is doing all of the right things with the bat and has rightfully earned the lion's share of work at catcher for Minnesota. If these trends continue and he continues to improve, he will be worthy of acquisition in more than just two-catcher leagues.