Jacob Stallings (C, PIT) - Week 7 Waiver Wire Pickups

BALLER MOVE: Add in Two-Catcher Leagues

OWNED IN: 3% of leagues

ANALYSIS: On a very stitched-together 2020 Pittsburgh Pirates squad, even Jacob Stallings name doesn't tend to stick out, and it certainly didn't jump off the page before the season started when compared to fellow Buccos backstops John Ryan Murphy and Luke Maile. While Maile hit the 60-day IL without a single AB and Murphy has struggled mightily, the 30-year-old Stallings has been an extremely pleasant surprise with four XBH (three doubles and a HR) and a slash of .323/.397/.415 over 65 AB (not to mention a 1.1 WAR off of a 0.6 oWAR and 0.6 dWAR).

The former UNC Tar Heel has effectively counterbalanced his 25.3% strikeout rate with a freeloading walk rate of 10.7%, and while his 0.092 ISO doesn't inspire any delusions of HR Derby titles, Stallings has seen a 4.1% increase in his hard hit rate, with subsequent improvements in his hard contact rate (47.9%) and soft contact rate (8.3%) that, when viewed in conjunction with his 21.7% line drive rate, makes his seemingly foolhardy .444 BABIP seem relatively sustainable.

Stallings is playing leaps and bounds above where he was in an admirable campaign with Pittsburgh in 2019, but he is also coming off an excellent (albeit brief) 2019 run with Triple-A Indianapolis where he clubbed 11 XBH (nine doubles, two dingers) with a .275/.361/.569 slash over 51 AB. It's hard to judge the value of a high BA and OBP in this 2020 Pirates batting order, but with a position as fickle as catcher, sometimes it's rewarding to go with a solid and steady contributor instead of blindly guessing whether the usual crop of mid-level power-hitters will be able to keep the pace up past the end of the week. With his dialed-in showing at the plate thus far and 11 stolen bases in 20 attempts over his professional career, Jacob Stallings is giving off some serious Francisco Cervelli vibes, and in deeper formats, you can always do a lot worse than that.