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As the baseball season barrels along, we're finally starting to see more offense league-wide which has made finding useful waiver wire options easier. Gone is the cold weather of April baseball that kills potential home runs, and as the temperature continues to rise, we should see more and more balls fly out of MLB ballparks.
As a result, we'll be focusing more on recent production as a player's results in the month of May will likely be more predictive of what he will produce moving forward into the summer months. Throw out the slow starts, offense is back en vogue in baseball and it's time to find some waiver-wire options that could help at second base and shortstop.
As a reminder, we'll be looking at pickups for shallow leagues (30-49% rostered) and deeper formats (10-29%), as well as highlighting players in the single-digits who deserve a spot on your watch list at the very least. These are your second base and shortstop fantasy baseball waiver wire pickups for Week 9 – June 6th through June 12th.
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Waiver Wire Pickups for Shallow Leagues
Gio Urshela, SS/3B, Minnesota Twins (46% rostered)
Urshela was in the "Deeper Leagues" section last week and those that added the Twins 3B were immediately rewarded as he launched a three-run bomb on Monday. Urshela has hit for a decent batting average going back to April, but he really picked up the power production in May as he launched four of his five homers in that span. In May, Urshela raised his slugging percentage 105 points and his isolated power jumped from .049 in April to a sturdy .178 in May. He's no longer empty batting average, Urshela seems comfortable in the Twins lineup and he should keep producing for fantasy as the weather continues to warm up in Minnesota.
Kyle Farmer, SS/3B, Cincinnati Reds (38% rostered)
Speaking of warming up, Farmer is swinging one of the hottest sticks in baseball right now as the Cincy shortstop has four homers and 11 RBI in his last seven games. Farmer is striking out at a career-best 15% rate this season and anyone who makes contact that frequently has fantasy appeal playing in Cincinnati, which is regarded as one of the best hitter's ballparks in the game. He'll get plenty of playing time for the lowly Reds and is one of the better hot-hand plays in fantasy baseball at the moment.
Waiver Wire Pickups for Deeper Leagues
Santiago Espinal, 2B/3B, Toronto Blue Jays (22% rostered)
Don't look now, but Espinal has ascended to the top of the Toronto batting order, and anyone hitting in front of guys like Bo Bichette and Vladimir Guerrero Jr. should have the attention of fantasy managers. Espinal has batted first or second in his last eight starts and has been on base a ton thanks to a sturdy 8.2 percent walk rate. He won't hit for much power, but those seeking help in runs scored or batting average should look north of the border to a Blue Jays lineup that should be better than it has been to this point in the season.
Luis Guillorme, 2B/SS/3B, New York Mets (16% rostered)
The Mets have gotten off to a fantastic start this season and one of the biggest reasons is contributions from role players like Guillorme. The versatile infielder is off to by far the best start of his career as he's slashing .356/.448/.444 with a healthy 164 wRC+. Some of his production can be attributed to an unsustainable .408 BABIP, but he does have more walks than strikeouts this season and he should continue to get on base and score plenty of runs in a good Mets lineup.
Waiver Wire Watch List
Jose Iglesias, 2B/SS, Colorado Rockies (8% rostered)
Iglesias is riding a 13-game hit streak and his position as the starting shortstop for the Rockies makes him at least worth monitoring in fantasy. He is far from a must-add - he's yet to homer this year, so he's mostly empty batting average. However, the veteran is in one of the best stretches of his career and if he keeps producing in six road games in Week 9, then he may be worth adding for Week 10 when the Rockies return to Coors Field.
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