Yandy Diaz (1B/3B, TB) - Week 17 Waiver Wire Pickups

BALLER MOVE: Add in All Leagues

OWNED IN: 35% of Yahoo! leagues

ANALYSIS: 

Diaz is becoming more and more popular and should find himself over 50% owned very soon. This Rays team has continued to hit and he’s slotted into the cleanup hole on a consistent basis. His wOBA is up over .362 since the start of June and he’s hit 16 XBH over that period. He is a platoon specialist, cranking lefties with a .416 wOBA. With that said, he’s not bad against righties (.328 wOBA), so the Rays have no issue plugging him into the middle of the order as a threat to not put a lefty in. Diaz sees a lot of lefties out of the pen as he’s typically surrounded by them in the order and opposing teams are looking to match L v L. He’s hit 14 home runs on the season with half coming against each handedness.

If you’re looking for a negative to highlight, you’ll have to find it yourself. Diaz only strikes out 17% of the time and he’s improved mightily against righties over the last couple months. He’s missed some time due to injury, but has been extremely consistent and productive when on the field this season. Assuming the Rays keep hitting and Diaz continues coming to the plate with runners on base, he should have no issue repeating the first half and hopefully stay healthy while doing so. Diaz is going to be one of the weeks most popular targets and he’s not a bat I would like to give to someone else. There’s a ton of upside if facing a couple of lefties and not much downside at all.