Austin Nola (1B/2B, SEA) - Week 22 Waiver Wire Pickups

BALLER MOVE: Add in 14+ Team Leagues

OWNED IN: 9% of Yahoo! leagues

ANALYSIS: A latecomer to the majors, 29-year-old Austin Nola was finally called up by the Mariners after spending seven years in the Marlins' minor league system. He moved to Seattle this past offseason, debuted in mid-June, and has barely missed a game since.

Nola started hitting at the bottom of the lineup but he's been hitting at the third or fifth spots as of late. For the season, his slash line reads .308/.366/.541 in 48 games. He's produced a 142 wRC+ and 1.3 WAR so far. With a few more games under his belt, he would have been among the best rookies this year in counting stats. Nola is, in fact, the 13th-best rookie by WAR while having less than half the PA (151) of Victor Robles (1.9 WAR in 488 PA) or Christian Walker (1.6 in 478), just to name a few.

In his first two months in the league, Nola has not shown glaring weaknesses against lefties nor righties. He's hitting better away from home (.483 wOBA vs .275) as he plays in a slightly pitcher-friendly park. Nola also has a 0.85 GB/FB ratio that puts him in the 83rd percentile league-wide and is only hitting balls with soft contact 19.8 percent of the time.

Nola is established at the first or second base in defense and plays daily. He's only owned in 9% of leagues and although he's exceding what Statcast says should be his expected numbers, he has been fairly consistent. The same as Seattle has stroke gold by calling him up, Nola could become a great free addition for you in 14-team and deeper or AL-only leagues entering the playoff hunt.