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We're approaching the MLB trade deadline, which marks the unofficial start of the stretch run in most leagues. By now you should have a clear sense of any weaknesses that need to be addressed on your roster. At this point in the year, we care less about the names and more about the numbers, and that's where deft use of the waiver wire comes in.
Most of the players who will be written up in this feature won't be the next breakout star. Some may only be useful for a brief period. A few might not provide any value at all. It's the nature of the beast; if these players were slam dunks, they wouldn't be widely available for free. We're looking for plausible upside with naught but opportunity cost. By considering a wide swath of factors including but not limited to evidence of a change in approach, favorable upcoming schedules, and plain ol' potential, the goal is simply to find as much marginal value as possible.
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 waiver wire pickups for Week 18 - July 26 through August 1.
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Pickups for Shallow Leagues
Jed Lowrie, 2B, Oakland Athletics (33% rostered)
Lowrie's results have finally started to resemble his excellent underlying metrics, as in the month of July he has slashed .317/.343/.556 with four home runs and 18 R+BI in 17 games. The veteran's Statcast profile features career bests for him across the board, but his overall numbers are still thoroughly whelming. That's kept his rostered rate lower than it ought to be, even with a double-digit percentage jump since last week.
Kolten Wong, 2B, Milwaukee Brewers (31% rostered)
Wong led off Saturday's win over the White Sox with his eighth home run of the season, a day after notching his seventh stolen base. He's produced those totals in just 59 games thanks to multiple stints on the injured list, along with a .294/.354/.480 line and 59 R+BI. If he can remain upright, he'll be a sneaky valuable fantasy asset the rest of the way - one you can add for free in 7 of 10 leagues.
Pickups for Deeper Leagues
Paul DeJong, SS, St. Louis Cardinals (29% rostered)
Wong's former double-play partner has had a much leaner year at the plate, as he's only recently pulled his batting average above the Mendoza line. Despite those struggles, he still has 13 homers on the season, with five of them coming in the last month - during which he's hit .288. His track record suggests he can continue to be productive moving forward.
Cesar Hernandez, 2B, Cleveland (22% rostered)
I've said it before, but it remains a trip to see Hernandez providing all his fantasy value via the long ball and none of it on the base paths. The 31-year-old's homer on Wednesday gave him a career-high 16 bombs with more than a third of the season still left to be played. Thanks to his role as the leadoff hitter in Cleveland, his run production (57 runs, 43 RBI) is also solid, which helps ease the blow of a .224 batting average and again, no steals.
Miguel Rojas, SS, Miami Marlins (13% rostered)
Speaking of leadoff hitters, Rojas merits some attention in 15-teamers at the very least. After going 2-for-4 with two runs scored and a stolen base, the veteran ranks inside the top 100 overall players in 5x5 over the past two weeks. He's hit .378 in that time with three steals.
The Watch List
Wilmer Difo, 3B/SS/OF, Pittsburgh Pirates (5% rostered)
Remember when we talked about chasing numbers instead of names? Yeah, prime example here. Difo's track record isn't inspiring, but in the past 14 days he's 10-for-25 with two homers and 11 R+BI as a part-timer and he qualifies at three positions.
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