The waiver wire is a fluid collection of players. Some players are hot adds before they become hot drops. In today’s pickup article, we have two names that were hot adds earlier in the season and have since been dropped. The other name is only recently started to play well and his role might be expanding and now might be the time to get him on your roster.

Spencer Turnbull – SP – PHI – 19% Yahoo, 39% Fantrax

Taijuan Walker’s spot in the rotation seems to be hanging by a thread. Not only is he not pitching very well, we learned as of the writing of this article that he is dealing with a ‘hot spot’ (blister) on his finger and the Phils are being mum on whether or not he will make his next start and a trip to the injured list seems to be in the cards. If Walker is unable to go, Turnbull will make his return the rotation on June 26, vs. the Tigers. So even if it is just for one start, Turnbull is going to be an excellent streaming option for that and needs to be added ahead of that start.

Walker’s performance, however, has called into question his role in the rotation in general. He has a 5.60 ERA with a FIP of 5.77. HIs xFIP is 4.80 and the SIERA is 4.69. His fastball velocity is also down to just 91.6 MPH, after being in the 93-94 range over the last couple of years. His groundball rate down to 36.0%, which is down from the 44-46 range it has been the last couple of years. He is also allowing a high fly-ball to home run ratio this year at 16.4%. He is also allowing excellent quality of contact numbers with an avgEV, hard-hit rate, and barrel rate that all rank in the 10th percentile or worse. Hitters also have an xSLG in the bottom 1% of the league and an xwOBA against him is in the bottom 2% of the league.

If he were to miss, Turnbull will get a shot at the rotation, and he may not let go of it. Turnbull has an ERA of 2.63 with a FIP of 3.57 and an xFIP of 3.59 and a SIERA of 3.41. He also has an excellent strikeout rate at 26.4%. Turnbull is allowing pretty solid weak contact with an avgEV and barrel rate ranking in the 71st and 64th percentile, respectively. He may not maintain such a strikeout rate with whiff and chase rates just around league average, but they are not so low that he is a total non-factor in strikeouts. The xSLG against him is .386 (league average is .406) and the xwOBA is .312 (.316 league average).

Pitching for a Phillies squad that is 23 games over .500 also gives him an excellent win chance every time he takes the hill. In his six starts before being moved to the ‘pen, he was 5-1 with a 1.67 ERA and a 3.24 FIP.

League size recommendation: 12-team leagues

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