Well, this is it! We’ve made it. For many of you this is the final weekend of the fantasy baseball season. But for some, you may play into next week to take down that fantasy baseball championship. I’ll have you covered with one more Waiver Wire article that’ll come out Tuesday morning. It’ll mostly feature some streaming pitching options to get you through the week but maybe I’ll touch on a hitter or two. At this point in the year, with so few teams in contention in your league(s), you kind of have to just trust the players that got you this far. And despite it being so late in the year, it wouldn’t be the 2023 fantasy baseball season without one last major prospect being called up. In the last day or two it was announced Junior Caminero would be promoted to the Tampa Bay Rays roster which caught everyone off guard. But let’s dig into this weekend’s top fantasy baseball waiver wire adds for the penultimate article of the 2023 season.

 

Fantasy Baseball Waiver Wire Pickups – Hitters

Junior Caminero, 3B, Tampa Bay Rays

In a very surprising move, the Tampa Bay Rays have called up top prospect Junior Caminero. At the time of his promotion, MLB.com had him ranked as the sixth-best prospect in all of baseball and they didn’t believe he’d make it to the show until next season. He hasn’t even played a single game at Triple-A. So far this year between High-A and Double-A he has a .324 batting average, 31 home runs, 94 RBI, and a .976 OPS combined at both levels. Obviously, this isn’t a slam dunk. It’s surprising he even got the call this season after just turning 20 back in July. He’ll make his debut this weekend but be mindful that it’s the final week of the season and you don’t need to get too cute with your championship lineup if you’re playing into next week.

Ryan O’Hearn, 1B/DH, Baltimore Orioles

O’Hearn has had an outstanding season with Baltimore as the team is locked in to continue their Cinderella run. O’Hearn only has 14 home runs and 60 RBI on the season, but he does have a .310 batting average and a respectable .855 OPS on the year. In the month of September, he’s hitting .358 with 14 runs scored and 15 RBI. He’s recorded a hit in seven straight games and he has six multi-hit games this month. If you need help improving your batting average this weekend, O’Hearn could be your guy.

Ronny Mauricio, 2B, New York Mets

I’ll be brief here. The .261 batting average doesn’t move the needle very much, nor does his .659 OPS. However, he does have six stolen bases in 18 games. He’s gone a bit cold at the dish of late as he’s. 2-for-19 since Tuesday but you still have to like the stolen base upside heading into the weekend and he’s been hitting in a better part of the lineup this week.

Elehuris Montero, 1B/3B, Colorado Rockies

I’m perfectly fine streaming any Rockies hitter you may have faith in. I’ve seen Kris Bryant and Charlie Blackmon’s names pop up in some waiver wire articles and I don’t hate going to there if they’re available. But Montero truly takes advantage of hitting in Coors Field. Conveniently enough, the Rockies close out next week’s scoring period with seven games at home. Montero hits .311 at home compared to .173 on the road and nearly two-thirds of his runs scored have come at Coors Field. If he’s getting on base, the top of the order can drive him in. 

Fantasy Baseball Waiver Wire Pickups – Pitchers

As a reminder, please refer to the Mid-Week Waiver Wire article for additional pitchers to consider if you need an option this weekend. It mentions Cal Quantrill and Cristopher Sanchez as streaming options this weekend, but I’ll add two more names to consider below as well.

Michael King, SP, New York Yankees

He doesn’t have a start this weekend, which is a bummer. But he’s definitely worth adding off waivers if you play into next week. Over his last six starts since moving to the rotation full-time, King has a 1.72 ERA across 28.1 innings with 42 strikeouts in that span. More specifically, in his last three starts (16.2 innings) he has 30 strikeouts. That’s just under two strikeouts per inning. That may be unsustainable, but he’s been an absolute gem off the waiver wire lately. He gets two starts next week on the road against the Toronto Blue Jays and the Kansas City Royals.

Sawyer Gipson-Long, SP, Detroit Tigers

Gipson-Long was featured in this article earlier in the week. He looked great Friday night against the Athletics. He worked five innings but did yield three walks and only recorded four strikeouts. He left the game in line for the win, but the bullpen blew it for him. Obviously, he’s only worth adding for next week with the matchup against the Kansas City Royals. If you don’t play into next week you can drop him for a streamer either today or tomorrow.

Javier Assad, SP, Chicago Cubs

Assad closes the scoring period with a start against the Colorado Rockies on Sunday. He faced them two starts ago in Coors Field and you can probably imagine that it didn’t go too well. He gave up four earned runs and was pulled in the fourth inning. He’s been flashing more strikeout upside of late. In three of his last five starts he has at least seven strikeouts. And in his last eight starts, his only true poor performance was the aforementioned appearance in Coors Field. I’m fine streaming him in his shot at redemption on Sunday.

JP Sears, SP, Oakland Athletics

Spears isn’t very good. But the streaming options this weekend are tough to navigate because we have plenty of big-name pitchers taking the mound. Sears will get the start for Oakland on Sunday against Eduardo Rodriguez. Oakland isn’t afraid to let Sears pitch deep into games despite his 1.76 HR/9 rate. But he can get strikeouts and potentially a quality start as well. So far this month he’s allowed seven earned runs in 22.2 innings of work and that’s a sub-3.00 ERA this month, and he’s only allowed one home run which came in his last start. He’s still prone to walks but if you’re desperate it’s a good matchup and he hasn’t been terrible this month.

Whoever Gets Sunday Night’s Start For The San Francisco Giants

This is purely a strategy play if you’re in the championship and you’re in a close matchup. The Giants play the Los Angeles Dodgers Sunday night. We don’t know who the confirmed starter is yet for San Francisco. You’ll need to monitor the news and check Twitter for updates as to who will get the start in this matchup. It could very well be an opener. But you’ll want an ace in the hole in case you need to throw an arm out there. Lance Lynn will take the mound for the Dodgers. If he’s available, you can grab him too and just have these two arms at your disposal. And as a worst-case scenario, you at least keep your opponent from playing either pitcher as well.