Austin Hays (OF, BAL) - Week 25 Waiver Wire Pickups

BALLER MOVE: Add in All Leagues

ROSTERED IN: 29% of leagues

ANALYSIS: Baltimore Orioles outfielder Austin Hays carried a 17-game hitting streak into this past weekend. Unfortunately, it came to an end in the second game of the team's doubleheader against the Toronto Blue Jays on Saturday. But regardless, in the past three weeks, we've seen Hays have great degrees of success at the plate and it's time for his rostered percentage to reflect his recent hot stretch.

Through his first 11 games of September, Hays is slashing .298/.327/.660 with four home runs, three doubles, 11 RBI and seven runs. He's been rotating through the most attractive positions in the Orioles' batting order lately as he's hit third and fourth in his two most recent games and he also led off Game 1 of Saturday's doubleheader, a game in which he blasted two home runs.

Hays is a notoriously streaky and injury-prone player and many of his peripheral stats suggest that he hasn't made any monumental leaps as a hitter this year. While his 9.3% barrel rate this year is a career-high mark (up from 4% last year), his .242 xBA this year is right where it was last year (.243). His xSLG (.423) and hard-hit rate (40.2%) are up from last year, but they are both lower than where they were in 2019 (.468 and 41.8%, respectively).

The 26-year-old Hays is a hot hand play at this point, but there's a solid chance he rides his hot streak through the end of the regular season. He should be added in all leagues even if it's just a self-defense play to ensure your opponents can't use him against you.

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