Jimmy Paredes (3B, BAL) - Waiver Wire Pickups

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ANALYSIS: Every season, a nondescript utility man (think Josh Harrison for a recent example) turns some batted ball magic into a full-time gig and immense fantasy value for savvy owners who bought in early. Jimmy Paredes seems like just the latest comet streaking across the sky, except it’s hard to fake being this good for this long. After a scorching start in April, Paredes is riding a 10-game hitting streak, including three consecutive multi-hit games out of the gate in May. He’s now up to .368/.386/.675 with five home runs this season.

His offensive surge has been fueled by a .421 batting average on balls in play (BABIP) this season. Nobody maintains a .421 BABIP, so Paredes may cool off in the coming months, but right now he’s certainly earned additional at-bats in Baltimore going forward. Playing time translates into fantasy production, and it’s the most difficult to predict for guys like Paredes coming into a season. Now that he’s getting the at-bats and showing that he can do something with them, there’s no reason to think he won’t be valuable the rest of the year.