In case you missed them, this month’s player rankings were posted Wednesday. Here are this week’s pickups.
Sean Manaea - SP Mets - Rostered in 27 percent of Yahoo leagues
To be clear, this is a recommendation for next week and beyond. I probably wouldn’t want Manaea active for Saturday’s matchup against Ranger Suárez and the Phillies in London. Beyond that, though, the schedule looks like pretty smooth sailing in the coming weeks. That’s part of why I rather dig Mets starters at the moment and why I’d be holding on to Christian Scott in mixed leagues. The rest of June is OK and then things turn great in July, when the Mets spend three weeks facing the Nationals, Pirates, Rockies (in New York) and Marlins.
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As for Manaea himself, he’s not working deep into games, which is why he’s earned just three wins, but he’s also allowed more than two runs only three times in 11 starts. The velocity spike he enjoyed last season hasn’t carried all of the way over, but this is still about as hard as he’s even thrown as a starter, and that fact that he’s giving up more flyballs than ever hasn’t hurt him in a year in which balls just don’t seem to be traveling as far as usual. It’s unlikely that he’ll suddenly start to dominate, but he’s a solid enough play while facing this kind of competition.
Luis García Jr. - 2B Nationals - Rostered in 22 percent of Yahoo leagues
The batting line says García is still slumping -- his OPS has dropped from .891 on May 5 to .705 now -- but the batted-ball stats are starting to come around again, and García has been kept in the third and fourth spots in the Nationals lineup against righties. In his last seven games, he’s delivered 11 hard-hit balls, only two of which have been grounders.
Some surprising success on the basepaths -- he’s 8-for-8 stealing bases -- made García a popular early pickup this season, but he’s been understandably dropped in most leagues since. His current .266/.307/.399 line is an almost perfect match for where he finished last year (.266/.304/.384). Still, Statcast thinks he’s been unlucky, really for the first time in his career. With 13 barrels and a 43% hard-hit rate that easily outpaces his career mark of 34%, Statcast has him with a .452 xSLG. It helps a bunch that García’s groundball rate, which has always been a problem, is much closer to the league average at 45% this year. His career mark coming into the season was 54%.
García will likely need to keep doing some running in order to justify a spot in mixed leagues. It doesn’t help that he sits against most lefties, though maybe the Nationals will give him another try as a full-timer once they admit they’re out of the race. In spite of the skid, he seems like an improved player, and he just turned 24 a few weeks ago. He’s someone with a chance to get more valuable as the season goes along.
Cade Povich - SP Orioles - Rostered in 17 percent of Yahoo leagues
The debut obviously wasn’t what anyone was hoping for, but Povich actually allowed just two hard-hit balls while giving up six runs in 5 1/3 innings Thursday against the Blue Jays. The problem was that he walked four, with two of those coming right before Vladimir Guerrero Jr.’s 356-foot homer to right.
Povich went 5-1 with a 3.18 ERA and a 75/21 K/BB ratio in 56 2/3 innings for Triple-A Norfolk before getting the call Thursday. He did have some real problems with walks last year, so there’s the chance they’ll continue to hold him back as a major leaguer. Still, there’s plenty to like about his arsenal. He gets ample movement on his 90-94 mph fastball, and he battles righties well with his cutter, curveball and changeup. In an excellent situation for pitchers in Baltimore, he’s probably a legitimate mixed-league starter if he gets to stick.
Alas, that might not happen just yet. Povich’s debut Thursday was the product of the Orioles wanting to give Kyle Bradish an extra day, and they’re probably not ready to go to a six-man rotation on a full-time basis. As a result, Povich might be sent back to Triple-A for a spell. If not, he’d be well worth rostering.