Willie Calhoun (OF, TEX) - Week 5 Waiver Wire Pickups

May 11, 2021

Texas Rangers outfielder Willie Calhoun is a fantasy baseball waiver wire pickup and add heading into Week 7 of the MLB season.

BALLER MOVE: Add in 12-Team Leagues

ROSTERED IN: 21% of leagues

ANALYSIS: The fantasy community seemed to have completely written off Texas Rangers outfielder Willie Calhoun after an abysmal 2020 season where he slashed .190/.231/.260 with just one home run, 13 RBI and three runs over 29 games. That appears to have been a big mistake.

Calhoun is off to a phenomenal start to the 2021 season. Through 20 games this year, Calhoun is slashing .324/.390/.473 with three home runs, nine RBI and 10 runs. All of his underlying stats look almost identical to 2019, when he tallied 21 home runs and 48 RBI over just 83 games.

Calhoun was projected as a potentially elite power bat coming into the Majors. He hit 31 home runs and posted a .927 OPS at Triple-A in 2017. Yet what's really been impressive and unforeseen so far this year has been his plate discipline. He's striking out just 12.2% of the time so far this year, a mark that ranks him in the top 5% of the league. Meanwhile, his 8.5% walk rate is a career-best clip. He walked just 6.8% of the time in 2019 and only 4.6% of the time last year.

While the batting average is certainly likely to go down, Calhoun does have a .302 xBA that suggests it might not go down as much (or as fast) as you'd think. Calhoun is worth adding to rosters in all leagues of 12 teams or deeper. He may only have designated hitter eligibility in some formats, but he's been getting regular play in left field lately and should gain outfield eligibility everywhere soon.

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