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As the weather heats up around the country, we are finally starting to see more offense during baseball games. For as much talk as there's been about MLB changing the baseball, sometimes all a hitter needs is some good, old-fashioned hot weather to help the ball carry over the fence.
If your fantasy baseball team got off to a slow start offensively, you're not alone. As we barrel towards the summer months, the offense should be easier to find. The below names can be found on the waiver wire in most leagues and should be able to assist from the middle infield positions.
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 7 - May 23rd through May 29th.
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Waiver Wire Pickups for Shallow Leagues
Gavin Lux, 2B/SS/OF, Los Angeles Dodgers (50% rostered)
Fantasy managers have been hearing about Lux for years, but it seems he's finally getting enough at-bats to be a useful option in fantasy. Lux is a former top prospect who has had trouble cracking the everyday lineup in Los Angeles, but the skills have always been there and he continues to improve in this, his age-24 season. Lux's strikeout rate and walk rate have improved in each of his four MLB seasons and this year, he's rocking a pristine 0.62 BB/K. Throw in 94th percentile sprint speed and you've got an on-base machine setting the table for the lethal top of the Dodgers' batting order.
Wilmer Flores, 1B/2B/3B, San Francisco Giants (35% rostered)
I'm not entirely sure how the Giants continually get the best out of otherwise middling hitters, but Flores seems to be another success story for San Fransisco. The former Met is far from a must-roster player, but he's got triple-eligibility and usually bats second, third, or fourth for a good Giants lineup. He'll see the occasional day off, so he's more recommended in daily-lineup leagues, but Flores is batting a healthy .266 with a microscopic strikeout rate which has his RBI (22) and run (19) totals higher than you'd expect for Flores.
Waiver Wire Pickups for Deeper Leagues
Luis Arraez, 1B/2B/3B/OF, Minnesota Twins (26% rostered)
This deep into the article and a theme has emerged. That is players with eligibility at several positions. Arraez carries quadruple eligibility on Yahoo! and that is plenty to give him value in deeper leagues. Arraez is mostly empty batting average, but he is hitting .313 early in the season and his minuscule 8.8% career K-rate suggests he should keep hitting for a solid average. Plus, who knows, as the weather in Minnesota warms up, maybe he'll pop a few homers as well.
Santiago Espinal, 2B/3B, Toronto Blue Jays (27% rostered)
The Toronto offense hasn't been as thunderous as many predicted before the season, but in May, it's been aided by an unlikely source. Espinal is slashing .339/.387/.446 this month and ranks among the top-10 second basemen in on-base percentage, slugging percentage, and wOBA. He's striking out less than 20-percent of the time and provides cheap exposure to the Blue Jays lineup.
Waiver Wire Watch List
Royce Lewis, SS, Minnesota Twins (15% rostered)
The Twins did us dirty on this one. Last week, Lewis was the cover boy on this article as he was quickly producing at the Major League level after being called up due to a Carlos Correa finger injury. It was a small sample, but the former first overall pick was batting .308 with a .564 slugging percentage with five runs and five RBI in just 11 games. So what did the Twins do when Correa returned? They optioned Lewis back to Triple-A. Fear not, Lewis will be back with a vengeance, and likely more positional eligibility as Minnesota wants him to get reps in left field and second base.
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