Waiver Wire Week 10: Bryce Eldridge Is Hitting .292 Over His Last 8 Games
Bryce Eldridge is hitting .292 over his last 8 games. He is sitting on roughly 90% of wires. That is the add.
Tuesday’s article was for the trade market. This one is for the wire. Every name below is well under 35% rostered going into the Mon 6/1 to Sun 6/7 window, so nobody has to give up anything to grab them.
Must-Add Hitters
Bryce Eldridge, 1B/DH, San Francisco
I called Eldridge a 15-team-only stash back on the Week 7 Waiver when he had 27 PA and looked overmatched. Three weeks later the story has changed and my D grade has not aged well. He is at .188/.278/.313 in 54 PA, but the last eight games tell a different story: 7-for-24 (.292), 3 walks, and a .417 slug. The kid figured out major-league pitching in real time.
The bat profile is the part you want. xBA is .272 against the .188 actual, xSLG is .438 against .313, and the contact has been hard from the start (93.1 mph average exit velo, 57.6% hard-hit, 113.4 mph max). The .242 BABIP through the early sample was the brake; the breakout starting last week is what comes next. Top Giants prospect, 21 years old, getting everyday DH at-bats.
Action: add in every 12-team league. Drop a streamer or a benched hitter. This is the cheapest swing at a top-30 1B for the second half you are going to find.
Edmundo Sosa, 2B/SS/3B, Philadelphia
Multi-position infielder with three eligibility tags. Hitting .207/.247/.310 with 2 HR in 31 games, which looks like a backup line until you check what is under it.
The Statcast is screaming. xBA is .303 against the .207 actual, a 96-point gap that is the biggest in the league among hitters with 30-plus games. xSLG is .471 against .310, another 161-point miss. He has been smoked by sequencing: a .242 BABIP and a 1-for-15 stretch over his last six games (the lone hit a homer on May 20). The last 15 days are the variance, not the skill. Steamer ROS is .250 with 6 HR and 25 RBI, and the multi-position tag makes him a usable plug whenever a starter on your bench takes a day off.
Action: add in 14-team and deeper, or in any league where you are short a middle-infield bench bat. The next two weeks of regression are the buy window.
Two-Start Streamer
David Sandlin, SP, Chicago White Sox (6% rostered)
A fresh callup with one MLB start to his name. Sandlin was recalled from Charlotte on 5/26 and threw 6 IP / 1 ER / 4 K vs Minnesota in his MLB debut the next day. Rotation slot points to 6/1 or 6/2 at Minnesota (Target Field) and a follow-up 6/6 or 6/7 at Philadelphia (Citizens Bank).
This one is the upside play. The debut Statcast was clean: xBA against .141, xSLG against .302. The catch is two road starts in two reasonably offensive parks, against the Twins (mid-tier) and the Phillies (top-five offense). You are buying the strikeout upside and accepting that the second start could be the one where he gets exposed.
Action: stream in 15-team and deeper. In 12-team formats, only roster him if you can stomach the Philly matchup, or drop him after the Minnesota start and take the QS-adjacent points.
Deep League Stashes
Andrés Chaparro, 1B, Washington (10 G this season, 6 since recall): .150/.320/.200 in 25 PA, but xBA is .263, xSLG is .466, xwOBA is .389. The 5 walks across those 25 PA (a 20% walk rate) say the approach is real. Steamer ROS is .236/8 HR/29 RBI, and Washington has been giving him everyday at-bats. 14-team-plus stash. Savant
Gage Workman, 3B, Detroit (15 G): .162/.162/.405 with 2 HR. The raw power is the loudest in this whole article: 94.2 mph average exit velo (97th percentile), 23.8% barrel rate, xSLG .520. The catch is 0 walks and 16 strikeouts in 37 PA, which is the swing-and-miss part of the swing-or-mash trade. 15-team only, hold for the power upside while ignoring the average. Savant
Closing
This is how I run the wire on a Saturday morning: pull the Savant gaps, drop anyone hurt or at AAA, then check the rotation slots for the streamer side. Oddsmyth is what I keep open while I do it, and the free 9am email surfaces the call-ups and the IL activations before they show up on the Yahoo trending list.
See you tomorrow for the Sunday Report Card. Week 9 has a couple of grades that already need updating.