Marco Gonzales (SP, SEA) - Week 5 Waiver Wire Pickups

BALLER MOVE: Add in 12+ Team Leagues

OWNED IN: 9% of leagues

ANALYSIS: Seattle Mariners starting pitcher Marco Gonzales is showing off some impressive command and limiting opposing bats with a 21.3 percent K-BB rate that’s currently nestled in between Luis Severino and Clayton Kershaw in 20th place on the leaderboard. That’s good company!

However, and there is usually a however with guys owned in less than 10% of leagues, when batters do manage to make contact off of Gonzales it is loud. The 41.2 percent hard-hit rate and 29.8 percent line-drive rate are feeding that problematic .390 BABIP. Another issue is Gonzales’ modest 8.9 percent swinging-strike rate, which doesn’t give with a 25.4 percent K rate. The general rule of thumb is doubling SwStr for Ks, so we could see some regression there as well. The thing is, you still end up with a great pitcher even if he doesn’t fully realize his current 2.74 xFIP/3.09 SIERA.

Gonzales is scheduled to face the Angels on May 5 in Seattle and should be a decent streaming option.