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Travis d'Arnaud is a fantasy baseball waiver wire pickup for Week 26 of the 2021 MLB season. Consider adding the C if he's a free agent in your leagues.
BALLER MOVE: Add in leagues of 10+ teams
ROSTERED IN: 45% of leagues
ANALYSIS: Atlanta is one of three teams to play eight games next week so d'Arnaud checks the volume box for us. He's scuffled a bit lately, so his numbers don't look that impressive, but he's somewhat salvaged what would have been a lost year after he tore a ligament in his thumb back in early May. He slashed an ugly .220/.253/.341 with two home runs and 11 RBI over his first 23 games of the year before injuring his thumb. He was activated from the IL back on August 11 and has posted an improved .235/.326/.457 batting line with four home runs and 11 RBI over an identical sample size, 23 games. Overall, he's posted a .227/.291/.399 batting line with six homers and 22 RBI over 163 at-bats. His stats are a far cry from the numbers he put up during his breakout 2020 season but we should be able to squeeze a little production out of him next week.
Atlanta's week starts off with a tasty four-game set against the Diamondbacks on the road. It gets a little tougher after that with another four-game series vs. the Padres at Petco Park. They're slated to face seven right-handed starters and one southpaw in Madison Bumgarner. Even though d'Arnaud has generally struggled against righties this season (.635 OPS), he'll be facing some lackluster pitching that should get him off the schneide. The Diamondbacks' pitching staff ranks second to last in batting average allowed (.267), wOBA (.343), and xwOBAcon (.393). They rank in the bottom five in xBA (.251), xwOBA (.331), and xSLG (.441) as well. Luke Weaver, Merrill Kelly, Bumgarner, and Humberto Castellanos are all plus matchups for d'Arnaud, who has been better than he's performed per his expected stats (.248 xBA, .312 xwOBA, and .398 xSLG). He'll also face Yu Darvish and Joe Musgrove, which won't be easy, but Jake Arrieta should help balance out the difficulty of the matchups in San Diego.
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