Balancing all five pitching categories for your Fantasy Baseball team can be a chore, and at this point in the season, surely you've found things aren't quite as balanced as you had hoped. Earlier in the week, I looked for category helper targets for the hitting side of things, but it's even harder to do on the pitching side, because the pool of potential helpers is much smaller, and the tradeoffs are even more obvious.
For example, if you're struggling in ERA and strikeouts, you're going to have a heck of a time finding players who can help in both who won't cost an arm and several legs in trade. You can target some relievers to get your ERA (and WHIP) in better shape, but you're going to be sacrificing strikeouts and wins to do so; alternatively, stacking your lineup with two-start pitchers from the waiver wire every week could help you make up for counting stat losses, but might wreck your ratios, not to mention the lack of saves such an approach is likely to lead to.
It's a delicate balance to strike, made all the more difficult by how unpredictable saves and wins can be. But as we head into the stretch run of the season, that's our goal here. Here are three pitchers to try to target in trades or on the waiver wire for each of the five traditional Roto categories:
Pitching category helpers
Wins
Jack Flaherty, SP, Tigers – We're operating under the assumption that the Tigers are going to trade Flaherty to a contender between now and the deadline, with the Orioles recently emerging as an unexpected suitor. Flaherty was a disaster with Baltimore after a trade there last season, but he's taken a big step forward this season, and going to Baltimore to be backed up by an elite offense in a great home park would be a best-case scenario for his chances to rack up wins down the stretch.
Justin Verlander, SP, Astros – This one is a bit more of a long shot because Verlander has to get healthy first – he's been out since mid-June with a neck injury and has only recently begun throwing off a bullpen mound. But if he can get back, Verlander would be returning to an Astros team that has been one of the best in the league over the past couple of months. Verlander isn't an ace anymore, but he should be able to pitch deep enough into games to have a chance to win a handful of games for a good team.
Spencer Schwellenbach, SP, Braves – I'm just a believer in Schwellenbach having a nice second half. He has an ugly 4.62 ERA, but his 3.73 xERA suggests better days are ahead, and the Braves remain competitive if not nearly the elite team we thought they were. This one is a bet on Schwellenbach taking a big step forward over the next couple of months, and I have one suggestion that might help: Throw the splitter more! It has a massive 48% whiff rate but he only throws it 14% of the time, almost exclusively to lefties. Make that pitch a focal point and see what happens.
ERA
Matt Strahm, RP, Phillies – Non-closing relievers are some of my favorite category helpers to target, and Strahm is one of the best in the league. He combines elite strikeout rates and control with the ability to pitch multiple innings when needed, which is how he got to 108 strikeouts last season. He's been even better in a more traditional one-inning role this season and should be an elite source of ratios the rest of the way.
Clayton Kershaw, SP, Dodgers – I've been a bit skeptical about Kershaw's chances of coming back from shoulder surgery as a 36-year-old to make a big impact for Fantasy, but it's hard to ask for much more than he gave us in his first start back Thursday. He gave up a couple of runs over four innings of work, but if you look beyond that, he looked more or less like the same guy he was before the injury, sitting at 90.6 mph with his fastball (0.1 mph down from last season) and generating eight whiffs with his slider. Even deep into his career, amid tons of recurring injuries, Kershaw has remained an elite run preventer, sporting a 2.37 ERA between 2022 and 2023. He's not the guy he once was, but Kershaw still looks like a good bet to keep runs off the board.
Jeffrey Springs, SP, Rays – Springs is on his way back from Tommy John surgery, and the hope here is that he picks up where he left off before the injury. In 2022, he posted a 2.46 ERA over 135.1 innings, and then he hit the ground running last season, allowing just one run over his first 16 innings before suffering the injury. He hasn't been quite as sharp on his rehab assignment, with a 4.32 ERA, but he has still generated 27 strikeouts to three walks in 25 innings at Triple-A, so I remain pretty optimistic. He might be back as early as next week after upping his pitch count to 82 in his most recent rehab outing, and there's demonstrable upside here if he can recapture the pre-injury skills.
Strikeouts
Robbie Ray, SP, Giants – With one start, Ray leaped to the top of the must-add pitcher list, because the swing-and-miss stuff looked fully intact in his return from Tommy John surgery Wednesday. His fastball velocity was actually way up, and though he struggled with command early on, he eventually found his feel for the breaking balls and racked up big whiff numbers with all three of his pitches. Ray won the Cy Young in 2021 and was still a must-start pitcher in 2022 despite totally losing the feel for his curveball. That pitch looked like it was back in his debut, and that could mean Ray is once again a force to be reckoned with.
Yusei Kikuchi, SP, Blue Jays – It's been a rough stretch for Kikuchi, who has an ERA over 6.00 since the start of June. That's not great, and it might be tough to stomach that if he can't turn things around. But he's still doing an excellent job racking up strikeouts, with 64 in 50 innings in that stretch. I do expect Kikuchi to get back on track – it's possible trade rumors are causing a distraction that would be lifted one way or the other by next week – but even if he doesn't, the strikeouts should be there. If you can stomach the ratio risk, there's upside here for sure.
Max Meyer, SP, Marlins – We're still waiting for the Marlins to call Meyer back up, but the fact that he's gotten up to 86 pitches in two of his past three starts should be a sign that he's getting close. I'm not sure the full arsenal is developed enough for Meyer to be a true difference-maker, but there's no question he has strikeout upside: He had seven in six innings in his last start before being sent back down, and he's averaging 10.7 per nine innings in Triple-A so far. There's a chance Meyer catches fire and is just a must-start pitcher as soon as he gets recalled because there is that kind of talent here. Even if he doesn't, he should be helpful in this one category.
Saves
Lucas Erceg, RP, Athletics – The timing on this one is rather fortuitous, unfortunately, because Erceg looks like he should be the A's closer for at least a few weeks after we learned that Mason Miller was placed on the IL Thursday with a fractured pinky in his non-throwing hand. Erceg is a converted position player who has only been pitching full-time since 2021, but he's emerged as the A's setup man ahead of Miller and should slide right into the ninth-inning role. Erceg's fastball has been a legit weapon in the high-90s, and his slider might be even better, with a healthy 34% whiff rate and an elite .161 xwOBA against. He's not as good as Miller, especially as he has seen his strikeout rate collapse over the past couple of months (down to 19.4% since June 1 when he came off the IL), but at the very least, he shouldn't have much competition for the closer job until Miller is back.
Devin Williams, RP, Brewers – Williams is working his way back from preseason back surgery, and it sure looks like he's been no worse for the wear, with six strikeouts over three shutout innings on his rehab assignment. He could be back from the IL next week, and while Trevor Megill has been excellent in his stead, I don't think it's going to take Williams long to regain his closer job. We're talking about one of the best relievers in baseball over the past half-decade, a guy with a 1.75 ERA since 2020. As long as he's right after the injury (his velocity was actually up in his Triple-A debut), I don't see much reason Williams shouldn't be an elite closer the rest of the way.
Anthony Bender, RP, Marlins – With A.J. Puk already out of the way and Tanner Scott sure to follow, the Marlins are going to have a new closer in the next week. I think both Bender and Andrew Nardi are candidates for the job, but I'll give Bender the edge if we're speculating, simply because Nardi is a lefty and the Marlins are about to trade their two best lefty relievers. That's not a guarantee they'll keep Nardi out of the ninth, but I don't think there's much of a gap between the two of them in talent, so I'll give Bender an edge here.
WHIP
Bryce Miller, SP, Mariners – The lack of a dependable, non-fastball to lean on has seemingly capped Miller's ceiling as a Fantasy option; he'll give you a decent but unspectacular ERA and below-average strikeouts, but doesn't seem to have a ton of upside in either regard. But he is a standout in WHIP, ranking ninth among 50 pitchers with at least 240 innings over the past two seasons; he is 26th in ERA and 32nd in strikeout rate, by comparison. Miller is, for the most part, just a fine option to have around, but if you specifically need help with WHIP, he should be a priority target in trade talks.
Cade Smith, RP, Guardians – The Guardians haven't had as much luck developing starting pitching over the past couple of seasons, but they've turned that firehose on the bullpen and now have a whole slew of unhittable relief aces, and Smith is just the latest. The rookie has a massive 37% strikeout rate and often pitches an inning-plus, giving him that Strahm-esque volume that can help as an ERA specialist. It's a small sample size at the MLB level, but he also posted huge strikeout numbers in the minors, so it might not be a fluke. If you aren't looking for saves, Smith looks like he'll help everywhere else.
Bailey Ober, SP, Twins – Ober is similar to Miller in some ways. I think he's a better overall pitcher, and certainly a better bet for strikeouts, but WHIP is the place where he's truly a standout, sporting a mark below 1.1 in each of his past three seasons despite an unsightly 4.04 ERA this season. I like Ober as more of a general buy-low candidate given that inflated ERA, but he certainly counts as a WHIP specialist if you need one.
