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Jamie Steed profiles Cincinnati Reds outfielder Jesse Winker as a waiver wire pickup and add in Week 5 of the 2020 MLB season.
BALLER MOVE: Add in All Leagues
OWNED IN: 20% of leagues
ANALYSIS: Jesse Winker is one of the hottest hitters in baseball right now, sporting a .365/.484/.712 slash line. To put it into perspective, among all hitters with a minimum of 17 plate appearances Winker is 4th in AVG, T-1st in OBP and 3rd in SLG. Winker has homered five times in 20 games and has nabbed in a stolen base too. It may seem surprising therefore that he's only scored 10 runs himself and have just eight RBI at this stage. If he continues his torrid pace, those counting stats will pick up too.
The concern with Winker is his numbers against left-handed pitching. It's a very small sample size but so far this year, Winker has gone 4 for 12 against lefties with a home run. There is some caution surrounding the Reds after an apparent positive test for Covid-19 within the team but if anything, that could scare off more people from picking up Winker. Even if the Reds don't play for a week, Winker is someone you should be adding now in all leagues and worst-case scenario, you sit him on the bench until the Reds can play again and you will have yourself one of the most in-form hitters in the League.
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