It was a mostly quiet night of baseball, which offers a good chance to catch up on some of the most under-owned players in Fantasy Baseball. It's not always about who did what last night. Sometimes you have to zoom out to see what we've missed as of late. The first thing that comes to mind is Travis d'Arnaud's role in Tampa Bay.
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Waiver Wire
First things first. Travis d'Arnaud is a catcher who is rostered in less than half of leagues and has an OPS over .840 since joining the Rays on May 11. Over the past 21 days, he's been the best catcher in Fantasy. Maybe more importantly, the Rays have used him as a first baseman four times in that stretch to keep his bat in the lineup. They've also batted him in the top third of the lineup in about half of those games. It's fine to add d'Arnaud just because he's a catcher, but the Rays are treating him like more than that right now and Fantasy owners should, too.
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There may not be a more under-owned player in Fantasy than Yarbrough. I suppose that's because the Rays use of openers with him, but that's actually helped propel him to 24 wins since the start of last season. His 3.93 ERA is eerily similar to 2018, but the peripherals are better. He's also gone at least six innings in three of his past five outings and six of his past nine. Yarbrough is an elite control pitcher in a good park on a good team. In today's offensive environment he should be near universally owned.
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Unlike Yarbrough, Urquidy hasn't really proven anything yet. But he has flashed immense upside, and with Rogelio Armenteros being sent down on Monday it appears Urquidy has the best chance to stick in the rotation. In 94.2 professional innings this season, he's whiffed 126 batters and walked just 17. You can't leave that kind of upside on the waiver wire.
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You didn't think I was going to write about under-owned players and leave Cooper off did you? He's still hitting better than .300. He still has an OPS north of .880. He's still a top 40 hitter since he became a regular on May 15. And somehow he's still rostered in less than 60% of leagues. I'll keep writing about him until at least one of those things changes.
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With Shawn Kelley headed to the IL (biceps) it looks like Jose Leclerc will get a chance to earn saves again for the Rangers. This could just be a short-term fix, but seeing as it was Leclerc's job in the first place (and we don't know the severity of Kelley's injury) it may be even more. LeClerc hasn't allowed a run or walked a batter in his past five outings.
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