With most fantasy baseball leagues in the books, there are perhaps just a handful of you still playing. This is a tough week because those MLB teams in the hunt are likely resting some of their regular starters, although not for the whole week obviously. And for those teams already eliminated from playoff contention, it doesn’t make much sense to continue to play your studs and risk injury ahead of the 2024 MLB season. Mike Trout hasn’t seen much action over the last two-and-a-half months, but he was transferred to the 60-day IL over the weekend, thus ending his 2023 campaign. But with the final week of the regular season upon us, let’s dive into the fantasy baseball waiver wire to find some players worth grabbing for the final week!

As mentioned in the last couple articles, I’m mostly just going to highlight pitchers to stream in the coming days. Ivar Anderson highlighted several streamers to target at the bottom of his Two-Start Pitchers article so I highly suggest you look at that one if you have time. This will be the final waiver wire article of the season, but I’ll be in the Discord channels from 9:00am-1:00pm ET on Saturday and Sunday if you have any questions regarding a streamer or plug-and-play hitter.

 

Fantasy Baseball Waiver Wire Pickups

Michael King, SP/RP, New York Yankees

I’ll be brief because I’ve written him up plenty of times over the last few weeks. But King is my top waiver wire grab this early in the week, and heading into the weekend. He gets two road starts this week against the Toronto Blue Jays and the Kansas City Royals. He boasts a 1.27 ERA over his last six starts while averaging 13.34 K/9 and he hasn’t surrendered a home run since moving to the rotation full time. If you’re still playing into the final week of the season, he’s a huge boost to your squad.

Reese Olson, SP, Detroit Tigers

For what it’s worth, Sawyer Gipson-Long is 100% worth grabbing as a streamer for Thursday’s matchup against the Kansas City Royals. I won’t write him up in depth but his 20 strikeouts in 15 Major League innings stand out and he’s fine as a streamer if you’re comfortable knowing he likely only works five innings. But I do prefer Reese Olson more. In four starts in September, Olson has three wins, four quality starts, a 1.40 ERA, and a 0.66 WHIP. He has surrendered a home run in each of his last three starts but he limits the damage because he doesn’t allow too many runners to reach base. He gets a pair of home starts this week against the Kansas City Royals and Cleveland Guardians.

Cristopher Sanchez, SP, Philadelphia Phillies

I was higher on Sanchez a week ago when he had two starts but following his dominant performance over the New York Mets on Sunday I’m more than happy to deploy him this weekend against the Mets once again. Sanchez got a win and a quality start on Sunday striking out 10 hitters and allowing just two earned runs over seven innings. It was his second game in his last three starts with 10 strikeouts. The Phillies have a pretty comfortable lead on a playoff spot, but I’m still okay locking him in for the matchup against the Mets this weekend.

Cal Quantrill, SP, Cleveland Guardians

I recommended Quantrill as a streamer on Saturday and he only lasted four innings against the Baltimore Orioles, but he only surrendered one earned run. The five hits and four walks were rather unsightly for leagues using WHIP as a category, but he had four strikeouts as well. He now has a 1.95 ERA in the month of September with three quality starts. The Cleveland Guardians only have five games this week, so I’m not encouraged to stream any of their hitters, but Quantrill closes the season out on Saturday against the Detroit Tigers.

Kenta Maeda, SP, Minnesota Twins

Maeda is obviously a risky play since his final start of the regular season will come against the Colorado Rockies in Coors Field. So yeah… Not ideal in the least. I also don’t like that Maeda has just one quality start in his last seven appearances. It’s not that he’s even been bad. Aside from the start against Cleveland over a month ago, he’s been okay. But I like that in his last two starts (12 innings of work) he has 18 strikeouts against the Chicago White Sox and Cincinnati Reds. He’s been a much better pitcher on the road (3.03 ERA) than at home (6.05 ERA). The matchup has its risks, but his last two starts show that he’s trending well.

Joey Lucchesi, SP, New York Mets

I’m going to borrow this one from Ivar’s Two-Start Pitchers and Streaming Pitcher article published Sunday morning. But since returning from injury, Lucchesi hasn’t looked awful. He’s had two starts this month and was just one out away from logging back-to-back quality starts. He looked solid against the Miami Marlins last Tuesday. He gets two starts this week against the same Miami Marlins and then he closes out the scoring period against the Philadelphia Phillies. I wouldn’t be surprised if the Phillies threw out a lineup on Sunday that was mostly bench players to give their studs some rest ahead of the MLB postseason.

Willi Castro, 2B/3B/SS/OF, Minnesota Twins

Another Minnesota Twin I like is Willi Castro who was outstanding last week even if he didn’t play much over the weekend. Castro has position flexibility and some great matchups this week. The Twins were off on Monday but they wrap up the season with three home games against the Oakland Athletics and as mentioned above, they close the season out in Coors Field against the Colorado Rockies. Since Labor Day, Castro is slashing .306/.353/.613 with nine extra-base hits, 15 runs scored, and three stolen bases. He’s a bit of a swiss army knife that can do it all for our fantasy baseball lineups.

Evan Carter, OF, Texas Rangers

Carter is one of the few hitters I’m fine adding heading into the weekend. The Rangers kick the week off against a pair of southpaws so I wouldn’t be too surprised to see him rest early in the week before taking advantage of some better matchups later in the scoring period. Entering Monday, he’s absolutely raked in the month of September since being called up with a .318/.426/.705 slash line and he has three home runs since last Wednesday.

J.P. Crawford, SS, Seattle Mariners

Crawford gets some tough matchups this week, but all in all they get seven games at home rolling into the postseason. Crawford has been raking of late with hits in 12 of his last 13 games entering Monday’s action. He’s scored 91 runs on the year and has some pop in his bat with 17 home runs as well. It’s a big week for the Mariners as they have a crucial series against the Houston Astros that will play a massive role in determining which team gets the final Wild Card spot in the American League.

 

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