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It's almost September, but there's still time to improve your fantasy baseball squad. This time of year, it's easy to get caught up in fantasy football excitement, but don't forget about baseball as we aim to finish the quest we started back in March by winning a fantasy championship.
This time of year the waiver wire is less fluid, so we've got a mix of retread names and fresh faces. But it's always important to take a broad view at the waiver wire and identify who is hot, and more importantly, who can stay hot through the end of the season.
As a reminder, we'll be looking at pickups for shallow leagues (30-49% rostered) and deeper formats (10-29%), as well as highlighting players in the single digits who deserve a spot on your watch list at the very least. These are your second base and shortstop fantasy baseball waiver wire pickups for Week 21 – August 29th through September 4th.
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Waiver Wire Pickups for Shallow Leagues
Bryson Stott, 2B/SS, Philadelphia Phillies (22% rostered)
Stott is lower rostered than most Shallow League pickups, but that's mostly due to two factors. First, as mentioned above, this time of year the waiver wire is less active than early in the season, and second, Stott's miserable April/May are still dragging down his season-long stats.
That being said, Stott is on a tear in the second half as he's batting .302 since the All-Star Break. He's only got two homers in that span, but eight doubles have his slugging percentage at a healthy .457. In fact, Stott ranks seventh among all qualified second basemen in wOBA and OPS in the second half. Toss out the season-long numbers; Stott is crushing the ball and finally living up to his status as a top prospect. He's nearing must-add territory in all fantasy leagues.
Luis Rengifo, 2B/SS/3B/OF, Los Angeles Angels (37% rostered)
Rengifo just keeps quietly rolling for the Angels since they sold off a lot of players at the trade deadline. Since the calendar flipped to August - which syncs up with Rengifo's promotion in the batting order - the 25-year-old is slugging .447 and has 22 runs-plus-RBI in 22 games played.
The underlying metrics for Rengifo don't quite match his production, but at this point in the season, we care less about long-term stability and more about who's producing right now. Rengifo is an elite contact hitter batting behind Shohei Ohtani and Mike Trout. He should continue to drive in runs and be a fantasy asset for the remainder of the season.
Waiver Wire Pickups for Deeper Leagues
Ha-Seong Kim, 2B/SS/3B, San Diego Padres (17% rostered)
Like Stott above, Kim is on a tear in the second half after a sluggish start to the year. Since the break, Kim is batting .301 with a .437 slugging percentage with 28 runs-plus-RBI in just 32 games. Now that Fernando Tatis Jr. (suspension) is set to miss the remainder of the season. Kim is all-but-assured everyday at-bats in a good Padres lineup.
Most importantly for Kim is that his success seems to be sustainable. He cut his K-rate six percent from last season and upped his walk rate by two percent. Better plate discipline has led to more barrels, a better barrel rate, and improved expected stats, as measured by Statcast.
Christian Arroyo, 2B/SS/3B/OF, Boston Red Sox (23% rostered)
Arroyo has to feel like the guy with a bucket tossing water off of a sinking boat right now as he's one of the only Red Sox hitting as the team laments in last place. The versatile Arroyo has multiple hits in four of his last eight games and is batting a sturdy .286 on the season.
Arroyo has certainly hit his way into the deep-league conversation in fantasy, but he could face a playing time crunch as the Red Sox activated Trevor Story from the injured list on Saturday, which meant Arroyo was on the bench. Despite not starting, Arroyo is a versatile player who Boston needs to find at-bats for as long as he keeps hitting this well.
Waiver Wire Watch List
Michael Massey, 2B, Kansas City Royals (2% rostered)
Last week, we were a bit hasty promoting Massey in the Shallow League adds section, but this is still a top prospect oozing with upside. Between Double-A and Triple-A this season, the 24-year-old batted .312 with 16 homers, 13 steals, and a healthy .909 OPS.
He should get everyday playing time at second base for the Royals and should be better down the stretch than he's been so far.
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