Neil Walker (1B/2B, NYY) - Week 1 Waiver Wire Pickups

BALLER MOVE: Add in Deeper Leagues

OWNED IN: 16% of leagues

ANALYSIS: We’ll dig a bit deeper here to speak on Walker, who was mercifully plucked from the free-agent pool already by the Yankees. When a guy gets into the Yankees starting lineup, then you probably want to pluck them from the FA pool as well. While Walker has had some durability concerns lately, he costs almost nothing to plug in at either 1B or 2B and could turn in a 25-homer pace in the Bronx before any assortment of Greg Bird, Gleyber Torres or Miguel Andujar push him to the bench. Bonus points if you have a deep enough bench where you can play him only against righties, against whom he hit .279 with all 14 of his homers against in 351 PAs last season (.214, 0 HRs in 97 PAs vs. LHP). Ideally, the Yanks will do the platooning for you since they can also see those gaudy splits, but still, “the more you know”.