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Jon's fantasy baseball waiver wire pickups for starting pitchers and Week 9 of the 2023 MLB season. Consider adding and streaming these free-agent pitchers.
It's a new week and we're back to try to accomplish the tough task of finding SP help on the waiver wire. The league ERA sits up above 4.30 right now, almost half a run higher than a year ago. We need to change some of our expectations from pitching because of that and set the bar a bit lower.
This remains a good time of the season to fill out your fantasy rotation as these rookies are being called up and MLB teams are trying different things. There are a couple of new exciting names on the list this week, and while the going has been tough – it's not too late to really upgrade our rotations on the waiver wire.
Let's get to it – here are your starting pitcher fantasy baseball waiver wire pickups recommendations for Week 9 of the fantasy baseball season (May 22 - May 28).
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Waiver Wire Pickups for Shallow Leagues
Pitcher pickup recommendations for leagues of any size
Louie Varland, Minnesota Twins (30% Rostered)
Varland is going to be the new guy I'm banging the drum for every week here until he gets over 50% rostered. Check out what he's done so far this year:
Varland Game Logs
| Date | Pitches | Whiffs | SO | BB |
| 5/14 | 97 | 16 | 7 | 1 |
| 5/9 | 95 | 14 | 6 | 2 |
| 5/3 | 87 | 15 | 6 | 2 |
| 4/14 | 83 | 12 | 8 | 1 |
Double-digit whiffs every time out and a nice 27:6 K:BB ratio. His pitch mix is sweet with a four-seamer, a cutter, a changeup, and a slider all serving different purposes and performing well. He also passes the eye test when you watch him.
My man needs to be rostered in more leagues! Go get him!
Logan Allen, Cleveland Guardians (35% Rostered)
He hasn't been overwhelmingly good this year with a 24.4% K% and a 6.7% BB% - those are solid marks but short of spectacular. Despite that, Allen has delivered five strong starts for Cleveland, not giving up more than three earned runs yet and giving up fewer than three in four of his five starts.
He has 29 strikeouts to eight walks and has given up just two homers, so things are going well. There might be some bumps along the road for the young lefty, but so far he's proven that he's up to the task, and he can be started in most fantasy leagues.
Reid Detmers, Los Angeles Angels (40% Rostered)
I don't want to ever react very much to one start. Detmers has been up and down and mostly frustrating for his short MLB career, but seeing what he did on Friday night does have been bumping him up a bit.
He struck out 12 Twins in 5.2 innings while giving up two hits and three earned runs. That brought his season K% up to 29.8% – a fantastic number. He earned a 23% SwStr% and a 53.3% strike% in that start, just dominating.
He used his slider a bit more in that start and it was an awesome pitch for him with a ridiculous 38% SwStr% on the 45 pitches.
I'm not going to say this is him turning the corner, but it was nice to be reminded of his upside. Here's hoping he can finally find some consistency and become the very strong starting pitcher we know he can be.
Brayan Bello, Boston Red Sox (16% Rostered)
Bello got a vote of confidence this week as the Red Sox sent Nick Pivetta to a bullpen role. That gives him the chance to stick in a rotation that currently looks like this:
- Chris Sale
- Corey Kluber
- James Paxton
- Garrett Whitlock
- Brayan Bello
Kutter Crawford has been pitching well in the minors, and the Red Sox are clearly going to be more committed to the first four on the list than Bello, so there's no absolute job security here.
However, Bello has the skills to pitch his way into that job security. He recently posted a season-high seven strikeouts against the Mariners in a winning effort. He walked five in that start, but overall the walk rate hasn't been a big issue for him this year at 9.2%. That's good with a rising 24% K%, and the best part about Bello is his huge ground ball rate.
Highest GB% (4 GS minimum)
| Pitcher | GB% |
| Max Fried | 64% |
| Alex Cobb | 63% |
| Brayan Bello | 62% |
| Framber Valdez | 62% |
| Logan Webb | 61% |
His SwStr% is also very nice at 14.1%, so the sky is the limit with this kid. I think we could see him get the K% up above 25% with a BB% under 10% and a GB% above 60%. That would turn into a lot of success, so you might not be able to get your hands on him for very long.
Waiver Wire Pickups for Deeper Leagues
Pitcher pickup recommendations for deeper leagues
James Paxton, Boston Red Sox (31% Rostered)
It feels weird to be writing this, but Paxton is back and pitching well! He deserves some recognition in fantasy leagues. Here's the pitch mix breakdown for the year:
The 11.9% SwStr% is low, but it's right around the league average. It is good to see his fastball velocity up above 96, but the cutter hasn't been very good for him.
I think there will be some rougher starts ahead, and I'm not overly encouraged when looking at the pitch mix, but in reality, he's just getting re-ramped up, so there could be improvement ahead.
Don't expect much, but Paxton is back in the conversation for now.
JP Sears, Oakland Athletics (3% Rostered)
He has pitched his way into this piece, most recently going six strong innings against the Astros while putting up a 7:1 K:BB ratio and a 1.00 WHIP.
It had been a great month of May even prior to that gem against the tough lineup, he was fourth in the league among qualified SPs in SwStr5 at 17.0%:
The most important thing of all is that he has now pushed his K-BB% above 20% for the season, and there's just no reason to leave pitchers that boast a K-BB% like that on waivers in this environment. There will not be many wins to be had for Sears on the Athletics, but he appears to be more than just a mediocre pitcher on a run of hot starts.
Michael Wacha, San Diego Padres (46% Rostered)
There's something to be said for the old boring veteran. They have proven to be able to stay in the rotation and deliver good starts often enough to help the team. That is Michael Wacha in a nutshell.
He currently sits a 4.06 ERA and a 1.17 WHIP to go with his 22.2% K% and 7.0% BB%. None of those numbers are very good, but none of them are bad either. The league ERA right now sits at 4.32, so he's beating that mark pretty easily. Last week he had a ridiculous 11-strikeout performance against the Royals. I mean it's the Royals, 11 strikeouts!? And he only walked one in that start – it was one of the best fantasy starts of the season.
Michael Wacha 2023 Game Logs
He'll probably not replicate that again this year, but again – there's something to be said for having a guy like this on your fantasy rotation, especially if/when that Padres offense really gets rolling in the summer.
Jack Flaherty, St. Louis Cardinals (35% Rostered)
It feels dirty to do this, but Flaherty has done enough to get himself some fantasy consideration back. In his last outing, he racked up 17 whiffs and struck out ten Brewers through seven innings. It was a fantastic start. His strike rate also hit a season-high at 54%.
Will we see those results consistently come from Flaherty in the near future? I doubt it. He will probably have another four-walk, six-earned-run start coming up soon and we'll be kicking ourselves for this. But it's still true that he has outings with 7, 9, and 10 strikeouts in his last five goes at it. You are getting some amazing starts in between the rough ones.
Tylor Megill, New York Mets (23% Rostered)
He has not done a fantastic job in the Mets rotation this year with a 3.88 ERA and a rough 1.42 WHIP. The K-BB% is also down low at 6.0% with his 17% K% and 11% BB% – but things are looking better in the last two starts.
He has a 15% SwStr% in these last two outings and has just looked like a better pitcher. I'm still not very convinced, and he's probably the lowest-priority pitcher I'm writing about here, but it's worth noting that he may have made some tweaks recently with his slider. There is also the challenge of him even staying in the rotation as he is now clearly the next man on the chopping block with Scherzer and Verlander back.
Other Waiver Wire Options
- Matthew Liberatore, St. Louis Cardinals (questions about his role)
- Johan Oviedo, Pittsburgh Pirates
- Roansy Contreras, Pittsburgh Pirates
- Ranger Suarez, Philadelphia Phillies
- Braxton Garrett, Miami Marlins
- Michael Lorenzen, Detroit Tigers
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