RADIO
Welcome back to starting pitcher waiver wire pick-ups! I'm Jon Anderson back again to give a bunch more SPs to consider adding.
This is a really, really crucial point in the season. Every year, several SPs vastly improve over the offseason. It takes a few starts to figure out who those guys are, and the teams that identify them and add them first have a really big step up on the competition. These are the most important few posts in SP waiver wire pick-ups, so let's crush this.
Let's get to it – here are your starting pitcher fantasy baseball waiver wire pickups recommendations for Week 3 of the fantasy baseball season (April 10th - April 16th).
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Waiver Wire Pickups for Shallow Leagues
Pitcher pickup recommendations for leagues of any size
Kenta Maeda, Minnesota Twins (46% Rostered)
We didn't see Maeda last night after he underwent Tommy John surgery in 2021, but he came back with a vengeance in his first start in 2023.
He racked up 23 whiffs in a start against the Marlins. It was one of the best outings for any pitcher of the 2023 season. Maeda is a must-add right now.
Tyler Mahle, Minnesota Twins (34% Rostered)
We heard a lot of rumors about Mahle overhauling his arsenal at Driveline this offseason, and the results of that showed up right away.
His four-seam fastball appears to have improved, and he looked really strong in his first outing of the year, striking out seven batters in five innings.
Say what you will about Mahle's career, but he's never been a truly bad pitcher. We have long known he has the stuff to be quite good, and maybe this is the year he finally does it. Add him!
Steven Matz, St. Louis Cardinals (10% Rostered)
We only saw 10 starts out of Matz in 2022, but during that time he posted an eye-popping 21.3% K-BB%. In my view, no starting pitcher putting up a 20%+ K-BB% should be on a waiver wire.
At the time of this writing, we've only seen Matz once – but he did the thing again in that one start, striking out 28% of the batters he faced and walking just 4%. There's injury risk involved with him, but right now he's healthy – and he's given us no reason not to roster him over these last 11 starts since the beginning of last year.
Seth Lugo, San Diego Padres (19% Rostered)
Lugo's been around since 2016, but he's never had a full season as a starting pitcher. The most games he's ever started in a season was 18 way back in 2017. The Padres added him this year to be a starter, and that's great news for his fantasy value. For his career, he has a solid 25% K% and a strong 6.6% BB%. He has the makings of a strong starting pitcher, and unlike most of the rest of the names in this article, we know that he's a proven big-leaguer.
In his first start in a Padres uniform, he threw seven strong innings giving up just one run and striking out seven without a single walk. Great stuff. Lugo is a must-add pitcher right now, even though he might not have the same ceiling as some of the other names in this post.
Mitch Keller, Pittsburgh Pirates (13% Rostered)
Keller finished the 2022 season very well, giving us six very good starts in a row at the end of the year. That success has rolled into 2023 as he's pitched well in each of his first two starts.
The first start against the Reds doesn't look great in the box score, but there were some really great signs in that start - and then it all came together in his second start when he threw seven strong innings against the Red Sox, giving up just one run with seven strikeouts.
He now sports a 31% K% and a 12% BB% this season with a 12.1% SwStr% and a great 57% GB%. Walks have never been a huge issue for him, so I think we can expect that walk rate to get back into single digits pretty quickly. If he can keep anything close to a 28% K%, it's going to be a nice season for him - and he has a much better offense behind him this year. He should be owned at a much higher rate than he currently is.
Tylor Megill, New York Mets (26% Rostered)
The injuries to Justin Verlander and Jose Quintana pushed Megill into the rotation, and he's helped ease the pain in his two starts so far giving up just two earned runs over 11 innings. He has struck out ten batters, but he has walked four. So far, it's just a 22% K% and a 9% BB%, so that's not the kind of stuff we want to see moving forward, but Megill was really impressive while healthy last year (13.8% SwStr%, 120 Stuff+) – so I think there's some real upside here.
David Peterson, New York Mets (48% Rostered)
Peterson was probably rostered in your league already, but there's a good chance that he became available after his bad start against the Brewers where he gave up five more earned runs in just four innings. For the year, he has given up six earned in nine innings while giving up 13 hits and six walks – disastrous numbers.
However, this is a guy we saw a 28% strikeout rate and a 13.5 SwStr% from last year. Even though a lot of those numbers came from the bullpen, he was mostly doing long-relief work. The stuff is very good, it's just a question of command. Not a good start to the year, but two starts in April can be forgiven – I'm watching Peterson closely moving forward, although right now I do prefer Megill.
Zach Eflin, Tampa Bay Rays (50% Rostered)
He is right there on the threshold to qualify for this post. He has made two starts for his new team now and given up four runs in 11 innings, winning both of his starts with a 12:1 K:BB ratio.
Note that those two starts have come against the Tigers and Nationals, two of the worst offenses in the league – but whatever, at least he didn't pitch poorly against them! We know who Eflin is at this point, a sinkerballer who can be really good in a bullpen role but is more of a good innings-eater type when in the rotation. The Rays haven't overhauled his pitch mix, he's still throwing the sinker as his primary weapon, and that does keep the strikeout upside down. On the other hand, that kind of pitch mix brings with it a high floor. Eflin isn't going to be a "league-winner", but he's not going to hurt your team most times out either.
Waiver Wire Pickups for Deeper Leagues
Roansy Contreras, Pittsburgh Pirates (25% Rostered)
We have long been aware of the upside that Roansy has. He was a mainstay in this post all of last season, and I am hoping that he can finally graduate to the 50%+ ownership rate this year.
We've seen him just once so far, but he looked pretty good against the Red Sox in that outing. The most notable part of his start was that he used his slider as his most-thrown pitch. This was much different than last year when he threw his four-seamer most often. The slider is great, and the fastball needs improvement - so seemingly, it's a good idea to make that switch. I think we can just monitor Roansy for now, but he's someone who could really be a breakout this season.
MacKenzie Gore, Washington Nationals (20% Rostered)
He's thrown 11.1 innings for his new team and given up just three earned runs while striking out a dozen. And one of those starts was in Coors Field!
The stuff has never really been the question for Gore, it's all about the walks. It hasn't gone great for him in that regard so far with six walks, but if we can get a walk rate below 10% from him – he could be a nice source of strikeouts and ERA for us. Keep a close eye on the lefty.
Other Waiver Wire Options
- Nick Martinez, San Diego Padres (25% Rostered)
- Trevor Rogers, Miami Marlins (27% Rostered)
- Aaron Civale, Cleveland Guardians (37% Rostered)
- Alex Wood, San Francisco Giants (10% Rostered)
- Tanner Houck, Boston Red Sox (11% Rostered)
- Anthony DeSclafani, San Francisco Giants (10% Rostered)
- Kyle Gibson, Baltimore Orioles (9% Rostered)
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