Braden Shewmake (2B/SS, ATL) - Fantasy Baseball Waiver Wire Pickups for Week 7

BALLER MOVE: Add in All Leagues

ROSTERED IN: 1% of Leagues

ANALYSIS: With infielder Ehire Adrianza landing on the 10-day injured list, the Braves promoted top-prospect Braden Shewmake.

Former Triple-A teammate and current shortstop Vaughn Grissom has not been a delight at the plate of late. Over the past 13 games, he is 10-for-43 with a .494 OPS. Defensively, he's already made four errors on the season, four of them committed in the past 11 games.

With Atlanta calling up Shewmake, there's a strong chance that the Braves shortstop plans will be re-evaluated if he can make an impact at the big-league level. He was slashing .243/.282/.456 with a 79 wRC+ at Triple-A Gwinett before his promotion on Friday. He is regarded as a plus defender, but his bat will be the biggest question mark in his time in the big leagues.

His raw power (five homers) has come into play early on in the season through 24 games and is just two shy of shattering his seven homers in 2022. He owns a .456 SLG at Gwinnett, which isn't exactly the norm for Shewmake who has a career-high of just 12 homers.

In terms of the underlying metrics, there hasn't been anything eyepopping to classify Shewmake as an advanced hitter. He owns a .318 wOBA, .256 BABIP, .214 ISO, with a 19.1% strikeout rate, and 5.5% walk rate. Although the 25-year-old hasn't been particularly coveted for his abilities at the plate, it will need to come into play if he plans of competing with Grissom at shortstop.

Shewmake is certainly one of the more polished defenders in the Braves system, and as previously mentioned, his bat raises concerns. He is still an honorable waiver add for fantasy managers considering that his fielding prowess could potentially oust Grissom from his job. He is available in almost every league and will make his debut as the ninth hitter against the Orioles on Friday.

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