2016 Fantasy Baseball: Outfield Waiver Wire Adds
Max Kepler: Kepler ranks near the top of points-league outfield leaderboards over the past month as he’s hit eight homers and seven doubles as well as two steals. His 31 RBI over the past month rank second among all hitters and are seven more than any other outfielder in that time. Kepler was ranked the 30th-best prospect coming into the season by Baseball America. He’s done all his damage since coming back up to the Majors June 1, as his performance since then equates to 36 homers and 40 doubles for a full season. He’s only hitting .238, but his 10 percent walk rate is similar to his minor-league rates. It’ll be hard for Kepler to keep this up, but he’s definitely worth an add in most leagues.
Tyler Naquin: A fellow rookie, Naquin is performing just as well as Kepler is, but there’s more reason to doubt his future performance will keep up with his past performance. Over the last 30 days he has five home runs, four doubles, three triples and three steals. That’s pretty good production. But he’s striking out 29 percent of the time, which is what we should expect after his minor-league strikeout rates hovered in the mid-20s. His Isolated power so far is .277, which is over 100 points higher than any Iso he posted in the minors. He also has a BABIP of .418. His average is unlikely to stay above .300 for long, but possibly he can keep putting up some decent power numbers. He’s worth a pickup in 14-team leagues or deeper.
Brad Miller: Miller played 35 games in the outfield last year, so he should qualify in most leagues despite playing only shortstop in 2016. Miller has nine home runs in the past month, which leads all shortstops and is tied for second among outfielders. He’s not doing much else, and I can’t find any trends that say he’s changed anything to prove this power spike isn’t a fluke. But he has shown some power before, and his 14 home runs in 81 games would equal 28 in a full season. So that’s something most of us could use from a shortstop/outfielder. His all-or-nothing approach lends him to being most useful in a roto league or leagues that don’t penalize strikeouts or a low-OBP guy.
Rajai Davis: Davis is owned in a majority of leagues, but what he’s offering should make him owned in more than what he is right now. Davis’s 24 steals rank second among outfielders; he’s only been caught three times. Only Mike Trout, Mookie Betts and Josh Harrison have a better success rate among outfielders. When he hits his next home run he’ll join Melvin Upton, Jr., as the only two outfielders with at least 10 homers and 20 steals. He began a power spike about a quarter of the way into the 2015 season, and he’s been above his career Isolated power mark ever since then. Since then it looks like he’s made an effort to start pulling the ball more, with a dip at the end of last season. But he’s been pulling the ball almost more than ever this season, which has led to the second-best Isolated power of his career and a career-best home run rate. His power-speed combo means he should be rostered in at least 75 percent of leagues.