I just want to take a moment to appreciate Elly De La Cruz's greatness, because he had one of those games Monday that just highlights what an absolute outlier of a player he is.
De La Cruz had a whopping four batted balls of at least 108 mph Monday against the Marlins, something only Giancarlo Stanton and Ketel Marte have down this season. And it wasn't just loud outs, for De La Cruz, who went 4 for 5 with two homers and two doubles while adding three runs and three RBI. Just about the only thing missing from the line for De La Cruz was a stolen base, though seeing as he has 25 more than any other player in baseball this season, it's okay to take a night off there.
Remember back in late May, when De La Cruz was stuck in a terrible slump and was looking like he might succumb to the same inconsistency that made him less of a dominant Fantasy option than we hoped he would be as a rookie? Well, he's now hitting .278/.350/.557 since the start of June, with a 30-homer, 77-steal pace. What makes that even more impressive is he's cut his strikeout rate down to 27.8% in that span, a completely manageable mark for a player who does everything else as well as De La Cruz does.
There will be more slumps coming, I'm sure. De La Cruz's skill set figures to make him a relatively high-variance player even when he is the fully actualized version of himself. But we're also seeing him figure it out on the fly, in a way that makes all the debates about him early on in the season look rather foolish. He's one of the best players in Fantasy and deserves to be drafted in the top six in every categories league next season. And probably for the next five after that, too.
And now, here's everything else you need to know about from Monday's action around MLB:.
Tuesday's waiver targets
Justin Martinez, RP, Diamondbacks (4%) – This one's a bit speculative, but what the heck, it's a pretty boring day for waiver-wire targets otherwise, so let's get into it. It sure seemed like the Diamondbacks wanted Ryan Thompson to be their Paul Sewald replacement in the ninth inning, but after needing to be bailed out Sunday in a save opportunity, he blew the save Monday, so I have to think that might be the end of that experiment. And, at least for Monday, it was Martinez's time to step in, as he got the save in the 10th inning after the Diamondbacks re-took the lead from the Guardians. Martinez has closer stuff, and if he can keep the walks manageable, there's significant upside here in the back end of the bullpen. Let's see if they give the 22-year-old a shot to take the job.
David Festa, SP, Twins (20%) – Festa is an interesting pitcher. He's big, at 6-foot-6, and generates a lot of extension on his release, but his fastball really doesn't play up as a whiff pitch despite that. He generated just one swing-and-miss with his four-seamer Monday and has a whiff rate below 19% with it for the season. However, the changeup and slider really played up against the Cubs, generating eight and five whiffs, respectively, which was more than enough against a Cubs lineup that likes to swing-and-miss already. Festa is an interesting prospect, with a 3.84 ERA but also 104 strikeouts in 72.2 innings in Triple-A, and Monday was really the first time we've seen that kind of strikeout upside from him in the majors. He's got a tougher matchup against the Guardians this weekend, and I would be really impressed if he could do something like this against that lineup. If you're in a deeper league, he's an okay speculative add, but it'd be nice to see him pitch a little deeper into games before we buy in.
Andrew Heaney, SP, Rangers (34%) – Heaney bounced back from a couple of poor showings with a solid outing against a tough matchup against the Astros Monday, with the lone run allowed coming off a solo homer by Alex Bregman. In fact, it was the only hit he allowed. However, it was hardly a dominant showing from Heaney, who struck out four over his six innings of work with nine swinging strikes. Heaney changed his slider back to the harder, tighter offering it was with the Dodgers during his best-ever season, and since then, he has a 3.35 ERA with about a strikeout per inning. He's not a dominant pitcher, but Heaney has his uses.
Jeff McNeil, 2B, Mets (71%) – McNeil homered again Monday with three more hard-hit balls and he now has five homers since the All-Star break. He had just five before then, and his expected wOBA over his past 100 PA is still just .321, so I'm not really buying McNeil as much more than a hot hand option while this lasts, but for what it's worth, he did hit .289/.322/.566 in the month of July, so this isn't just a one-week thing here.
James Paxton, SP, Red Sox (67%) – This was Paxton's first quality start since mid-June, and he did it while generating just seven swings and misses, instead relying on weak contact for solid results. He did lead with his curveball in this one, throwing it 46% of the time, which probably isn't a bad idea, given how bad his four-seamer has been; he threw that one just 20% of the time, opting to prioritize the sinker ahead of it as well. Even with that, I don't see much reason to think Paxton is much more than a deep-league streamer at this point.