There's a funny thing about Fantasy players and the way we react to prospects. When they're tearing up the minors, we spend hours, days, and weeks bellyaching about how we can't wait for them to get the call to the majors. And if they don't make an immediate, day-one impact, all that excitement dissipates almost immediately.
I bring this up to note that you probably heard a lot less about Jacob Wilson making his return from the IL Tuesday than you did when he initially got called up. That'll often happen with prospects who flame out in their first taste of the majors, but that isn't exactly what happened with Wilson. Not at all, in fact. Wilson got a hit in his first and, before Tuesday, only major-league plate appearance before suffering a hamstring injury while running the bases. That injury kept him out for more than a month, and he returned to the majors with a lot less hype around him.
But in this instance, Wilson never stopped hitting. He's still unproven at the MLB level, but during his seven-game minor-league rehab assignment, he went 9 for 23 with three doubles and just two walks in 26 plate appearances, almost exactly what he was doing when we all got excited about his call up.
At the time, I was personally a bit skeptical about Wilson's chances of being an impact player for Fantasy, as I wrote about in the FBT Newsletter at the time. The short version is that profiles built around making a lot of mediocre contact don't tend to be great for Fantasy unless they come with some speed or play in very good lineups – even when Luis Arraez is contending for batting titles, he tends to be a pretty fringe Fantasy starter. But if you could get a free Luis Arraez on the waiver wire, you'd be pretty excited about that, wouldn't you? And, there's always the chance that the 22-year-old Wilson might have a path to even more value than that, even if it's not the most likely outcome.
Which is all to say, yeah, I think Wilson is still worth getting excited about. And if you're in one of the 72% of CBS Fantasy leagues where he is still available, you should certainly at least consider adding him right now.
Wednesday's waiver targets
Jack Leiter, SP, Rangers (28%) – Skepticism is warranted, but let's not worry about that for a second. Let's just allow ourselves an opportunity to get excited about Leiter's second stint in the majors, because he's been very exciting down in Triple-A lately. As Nick Pollack of PitcherList.com noted Tuesday, Letier's fastball has been playing up lately, and he averaged 98.6 mph with it in his most recent start, with elite non-velocity characteristics to go along with it. Consistency has been an issue for Leiter, but he has a 2.57 ERA with 63 strikeouts in 42 innings over his past nine starts and absolutely has difference-making upside in the majors if he is on. Here is where we note that he gave up 17 earned runs in 9.1 innings over his three MLB starts during his last try, so we certainly know how things can go wrong. But it's fun to dream, isn't it?
Yoan Moncada, 3B, White Sox (9%) – Moncada will resume his rehab assignment Wednesday at Triple-A, as he tries to salvage something from what has been a totally lost season. He hasn't played since April due to an adductor strain and then suffered a setback during a subsequent rehab assignment in July. Moncada hasn't been a difference-maker in Fantasy for a while, and he'll be returning to one of the most hopeless offenses of the century in Chicago, but I still think there could be a useful Fantasy option here if he's healthy.
Jose Tena, SS, Nationals (4%) – Tena wasn't a name that garnered much hype when he was in the minors, and he was mostly an afterthought when the Nationals acquired him for Lane Thomas at the trade deadline. But maybe that says more about the people doing the overlooking than it does about Tena, who has hit .298/.356/.509 with 23 homers and 15 steals in 120 career games at Triple-A and has been quite good in his time in the majors, too. After homering as part of a two-hit game Tuesday, he is now hitting .314/.340/.451 in the majors, with a very manageable 20.4% strikeout rate and pretty solid underlying stats – including a .344 xwOBA, a well-above-average mark. Can he keep it up? I have my doubts, but if you're looking for 3B or SS help in a deeper league, Tena is worth a look.
Manuel Rodriguez, RP, Rays (3%) – The first save with Pete Fairbanks on the IL went to Edwin Uceta, and that led Fantasy players rushing in his direction. We should have known better; this is the Rays, after all. Rodriguez recorded his second save in a row Tuesday, and in between, worked the ninth inning in consecutive games. That's not to say they won't pivot again, either back to Uceta or to someone else. But if I'm looking for saves in Tampa, Rodriguez is the first place I'm looking. Especially with Uceta working the sixth inning in consecutive appearances.