Waiver Wire Week 16, Riding The Summer Waives

John Gerbino
Jul 1, 2024
5 min read

Time for our first waiver wire piece using Gerbil Scores! If you didn't see my middle infield tier list, here's what Gerbil Score uses:

Hitters aren't nearly as deep this week, but I think Jake Meyers being widely available again at a 70 Gerbil Score is exciting, along with the introduction of Jhonkensy, who displays ridiculous power. I'm working on a pitching formula!

Hitters

Jake Meyers, HOU, OF, 70

Meyers had an incredibly hot stretch in May, but cooled considerably for the first few weeks of June. Heading into July, Meyers is back on the war path, slashing .289 with a .930 OPS over the last 15 days. He currently boasts a .751 OPS against RHP and .801 OPS against LHP, and although we wish these were swapped, the OPS against RHP gets the job done. With Meyer's elite 88th percentile sprint-speed and above average sweet-spot, hard-hit, and barrel percentiles, we may be looking at someone who can add some incredible value going forward. As long as he finds ways to get on base, there are guys in that HOU lineup we can count on to get the job done and drive this man home.

Brendan Rodgers, 2B. 42. Brendan Rodgers has just continued to show up on the blog, entirely because of his ability to string together high batting averages week after week. He started the season extremely poorly. In fact, we can, look back at his statcast from May 15th, from when I first included him, to see just how far he's come, so that will be listed right under the current statcast. A 42 gerbil score may seem low, but it still continues to trend upward as his xBA and hard-hit percentage do the same.

Jhonkensy Noel*, CLE, OF, 1B, 3B. 69 Oh boy.....well this is awkward. Somehow, it seems like we may have gotten Heliot 2.0 here. Obviously the sample size is infinitely tiny right now with a measly 14 PAs, but we can already tell the power and bat speed are both extremely real, as if his power AAA (18 HRs) wasn't enough to tell us the story. This guy has already hit a 115 MHP HR at the MLB level and he only as 14 PAs. That kind of power off this kind of swing simply can't be faked and makes Noel a must-own if he manages to find consistent playing time. And his splits in the minors? A 1.013 OPS against RHP and a .706 OPS against LHP. Yep, he has reverse splits! For me, this takes him to another level. I added him and banished Nick Gonzales to waivers, as I just had no place for him and chose to keep Horwitz due to his ability to hit righties and the fact that he doesn't play for the Pirates. Man, that Pirates lineup is rough.

Brett Wisely, SF, 2b, SS, OF, 48

It's fun to see Brett Wisely back on the blog, even if his peripherals are more blue this time around. His barrel rate remains on the high end, and he doesn't whiff often, giving him upside every time he swings the bat. It would be nice if he could find the sweet-spot a bit more, but he's doing enough at three position eligibility to make him worth considering in deeper leagues. The Giants lineup with LaMonte, Heliot, Bailey, and Soler is suddenly a fairly lucrative budget-friendly stack, and Wisely has been eating because of it. Basement dwellers desperate for some production may want to look towards the Giants, as strange as that sounds. Wisely is the ugly duckling of the bunch, but...he's still a duckling.

Eloy Jimenez, CHI, OF, 52 It's weird to see that Eloy is only 27. It feels like he's 35 and constantly injured, but nope - he's in his prime and constantly injured! His bad hammy is almost certainly contributing to that 8th percentile sprint speed, and he'll probably limp around the bases all year. But we have to ackknowledge his power and bat speed are still elite. I wouldn't roster this guy, especially on the White Sox, but I'd be remiss to neglect his power and a respectable 52 Gerbil Score.

Still Worth Adding: Patrick Bailey, 68

LaMonte Wade Jr., 80 (great score!) Daniel Schneemann, 68 Spencer Horwitz, 76,

Nick Gonzales, 61

Still watching: Austin Martin, 48 Trey Cabbage, 56

Gelof Pitchers

Hayden Birdsong If you watched Birdsong's first outing, you probably came away fairly impressed. At least I was, and I'm still rostering him. If you only looked at the boxscore and disregarded him, you may be making a mistake. He displayed a 4-seam fastball that touched 97 consistently with excellent horizontal movement (3.0 inches more than the average) and some really nice offspeed stuff. His fastball location was off in his first ever MLB start so it got touched up a bit for a .264 xBA, but let's look at the changeup real quick - a .167 xBA despite the .600 BA outcome and a nice 29% whiff rate. But how about the slider and curveball combining for a .035 xBA and both featuring 33.3% whiff rates on a combined 23 % pitch usage? Disgusting. There's a lot of potential here with a fantastic pitch mix and some good velocity + extension. I'll hold for now, at the very least it will be exciting.

Kyle Tyler Tyler was impressive in his second MLB start, even if he didn't go very deep - only 4.2 innings. But a 1.93 ERA and 1.29 WHIP perfromance against PHI is not only acceptable, but encouraging. Looking below, we see Tyler is absolutely elite at inducing ground balls, sitting around the 99th percentile. His xBA is a remakable .212. Tyler is shaping up to be a guy that can be fantastic for ERA and WHIP, but possibly hurt you when it comes to K/BB. What will decide whether Tyler is a fantasy add going forward will be his ability to stretch out and go deeper into games. If he can prove capable of garnering quality starts, then I'd be thrilled to roster him.

Spencer Bivens

I was watching a Giants game for my boy Heliot a few weeks ago, when I noticed something interesting. The random pitcher the Giants threw out there that day was throwing 96 MPH sinkers that had remarkable movement and I had no idea who he was. This was my reaction:

My enthusiasm was met with some nastiness - some guy even told me I was acting like a know- it-all, just because I was excited about some random pitcher I was watching on the TV. It was pretty weird. But after K'ing Shohei two times (and making him look kind of silly), a few more people are taking notice of Bivens. And looking at his statcast, where he features a remarkable combo of GB and K percentiles, we see the potential for a guy who once again, just needs to prove he can go deeper into games. And if you're not into statcast, Bivens has ridiculous Fangraph projections.