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Welcome back to the NL-only and AL-only pickups column. Each week, I'll look at five players who are under 15% rostered in Yahoo! leagues and who can be considered as options to add in deep-league formats, such as 15-teamers or AL or NL-only leagues.
I'll also include a recommendation for what to do with each player on your roster. And lastly, I'll take a look at some of my picks from the previous week to see how they're performing.
Without further ado, let's get into it.
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Yoshi Tsutsugo - 1B/3B/OF, Pirates
9% rostered
Recommended move: Add for a few weeks
Playing for his third team this season, Tsutsugo is finally getting the everyday playing time with the down-and-out Pirates that he didn't get with the Rays or the Dodgers, and he is making the most of it. His solid play has perhaps gone a bit unnoticed as since becoming a Pirate on August 16th, he is hitting .306/.394/.682 (179 wRC+), as he has been one of the hottest hitters in the game in that span. Additionally, he's added 8 home runs and 21 runs batted in, showing that he's been able to also provide some solid counting stats to go along with a strong slash line.
It is unlikely that this is Tsutsugo's true talent level, of course, but he is still playing a lot better than we've seen him previously. His barrel rate as a Pirate is a whopping 15.2%, compared to an 8.4% rate for the season as a whole. He is also doing a splendid job of keeping balls off the ground, with a groundball rate of just 28.8% in this time frame. Those two things likely play a big role in his recent surge, and as long as those keep trending that way, he should have decent success.
Perhaps getting out of win-now organizations such as the Rays or the Dodgers has taken some of the pressure off of him, as he no longer needs to worry as much about playing well to keep his share of the playing time-- something that was definitely a bigger issue on teams with more talent.
Brandon Marsh - OF, Angels
7% rostered
Recommended move: Add for a few weeks
It's been an up-and-down first season in the Majors for Marsh. He got off to a dreadful start upon being called up to the Angels in mid-July with a .167/.259/.229 (40 wRC+) slash line through his first 54 plate appearances ending on August 2nd. He has been markedly better in the time since, however. Since August 3rd, he's hitting at a much more respectable .282/.331/.409 (103 wRC+) pace, showing some good batting average upside while also chipping in three stolen bases to go along with it.
While we haven't quite seen the talent that made him a consensus top prospect coming into the year, and we may have to wait until 2022 to see it, Marsh can still be a useful fantasy option if he can continue to hit as he has since the beginning of August. While not a particularly glamorous profile or slash line, some of it could perhaps be chalked up to bad luck, as Marsh has hit the ball pretty well in this time. His 56.8% hard-hit rate is extremely impressive, and his 12.5% barrel rate looks quite good, too. With batted-ball metrics like those, good results would be expected, but it just hasn't happened yet consistently for him.
Perhaps things will start to click for him in the final couple weeks of the season, as Marsh is firmly locked into the starting centerfield gig for the Angels and the leadoff spot in their order. The Angels do have some favorable matchups coming up that Marsh could potentially take advantage of, as the team faces the Mariners twice and the Rangers once in their final three series after their current one against Houston, with not many truly intimidating pitchers on the docket.
Tommy La Stella - 1B/2B/3B, Giants
6% rostered
Recommended move: Add for this week
It hasn't been the best overall season for La Stella, as he has dealt with injuries and underperformance, with a .242/.302/.390 (88 wRC+) slash line for the year. It's been a bit of a surprise considering La Stella had been consistently solid for a few years now. The Giants have not missed a beat of course, and now it looks like La Stella may be picking things up, as he has been playing much better as of late. His slash line since September 7th is a strong .263/.349/.500 (130 wRC+), which looks a bit like the La Stella of old.
The elevated play is nice for obvious reasons, and especially with triple eligibility, but the main reason for the recommendation this week has to do with a couple of things. First, the Giants are projected to face nothing but right-handed starters for the remainder of the week, which is good news for La Stella because the Giants love to platoon, and La Stella is part of a second base platoon right now. So, while he may not be an everyday player, he at least should be an everyday player for the remainder of the week.
Second, the matchups coming up this week and the future are quite good ones. The Giants face off against a decimated Padres staff this week before heading to Colorado, so he should be expected to do reasonably well in those matchups. Additionally, after that, the Giants face the Diamondbacks and then end the season with another matchup with the Padres, so La Stella could potentially be held through the end of the season.
Lewin Diaz - 1B, Marlins
2% rostered
Recommended move: Add for a few weeks
Diaz is yet another player that has a poor overall slash line-- .205/.244/.487 (91 wRC+)-- but has also been heating up lately to close out the season. Simply put, he's been one of the game's better power hitters in recent weeks, with a .316/.350/.658 (163 wRC+) triple slash since September 10th. That's a whopping .342 isolated power mark as he has been crushing the ball with three home runs and a home per fly ball rate of 27.3%-- one of the better rates in the game in that same span.
His Statcast metrics during this power surge are quite good, with a 91.2 miles-per-hour average exit velocity mark to go along with a 44.4% hard-hit rate and an 11.1% barrel rate, all three of which are better than his full-season marks. Playing time won't be a concern for Diaz as the season nears the finish line, as Diaz has been the team's primary first baseman pretty much since being called back up to the Majors on August 31st, and the Marlins are not likely to mess with something that has been working, and especially not to sit a young player that they want to see develop in a losing season. All in all, while his full-season line won't jump out, his hot play as of late makes him a nice, sneaky power option for fantasy purposes for the rest of the year.
Luis Rengifo - 2B/3B/SS/OF - Angels
1% rostered
Recommended move: Add for a few weeks
Rengifo is another hitter who has yet to quite put it all together at the Major League level. He has a career .216/.294/.328 slash line since making his debut back in 2019, and this season, his overall slash line is even worse than that. That really doesn't scream "player to add during the fantasy playoffs", but there is perhaps some reason for hope here.
He's not a player that is a desperate must-add or anything, but the quadruple eligibility that he has would definitely come in handy in deep leagues as teams perhaps start to rest players or filter other hitters in during the last week or so of the season. That is all well and good, but it also helps in Rengifo's case because he has been hitting much better since the start of September when he got called back up to the Angels. During that time, he has done a little bit of everything, hitting at a strong .277/.314/.468 clip, which translates to a 110 wRC+.
He's shown a good little blend of power and batting average, as he has hit three home runs and driven in seven in just 52 plate appearances. It's not exactly the most sustainable-looking profile, as his Statcast metrics don't necessarily jump out, but it is good to see him doing well and perhaps he can make it last just a little longer to make this a worthwhile pickup for fantasy purposes. His eligibilities already make it interesting, and he is also hitting firmly in the middle of the Angels' lineup, so it is possible for him to accumulate a decent amount of counting stats to close out the year.
Reviewing Last Week's Picks
At the end of each week's post, I'll review what happened with last week's picks and offer a suggestion for them in the future.
Harrison Bader (OF, STL)
Last week: 8% rostered. This week: 7% rostered.
The Cardinals continue their surge to a Wild Card berth, and Bader is doing his part. He continues to hit, with a .286/.333/.536 line in the last week. He's not stealing many bases, but as long as he's hitting, he should be rostered. This is a clear hold.
Current recommendation: Hold.
Jesus Sanchez (OF, MIA)
Last week: 7% rostered. This week: 19% rostered.
Another hot Marlins hitter, Sanchez just continues to rake. He hit at a .304/.370/.739 pace last week, while adding in another three home runs for good measure. He should remain a strong power option for the rest of the year.
Current recommendation: Hold.
DJ Peters (OF, Rangers)
Last week: 4% rostered. This week: 4% rostered.
Peters' earlier home run surge was definitely appreciated by those managers who rostered him, but it appears he has cooled off considerably. Fluctuating results are definitely a bigger risk with a player with his profile, as he hit just .190/.227/.238 last week, and continuing his strikeout-heavy ways with 36.4% strikeout rate. It's not a stable enough profile to try and bank on during the crucial point of the season, so this would appear to be a safe drop.
Current recommendation: Drop.
Ramon Urias (2B/3B/SS, Orioles)
Last week: 2% rostered. This week: 2% rostered.
Urias has been a quietly consistent performer for most of the season. He was a mixed bag last week, providing a decent .286 batting average, but not much else. Interestingly, he hasn't started for the Orioles since September 17th, as he has been dealing with various leg injuries this month. The team looks to be giving the majority of the playing time to Richie Martin and leaving Urias on the bench. He's a decent little player, but players who aren't playing have little use in fantasy, especially right now.
Current recommendation: Drop.
Luis Garcia (2B/SS, Nationals)
Last week: 1% rostered. This week: 1% rostered.
Garcia was playing better coming into last week, which led to the recommendation. He was just okay last week, as similar to Urias, he hit for a high .316 batting average while not providing much else. It likely didn't hurt fantasy managers much, and the dual eligibility is still nice. It's a tough call whether to continue to roster him or not. It definitely depends on who else is still available on the wire, but as bench option in deep leagues, he could be a fine plug-and-play option who should provide a good batting average for the rest of the year.
Current recommendation: Hold.
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