When you play in a dynasty league, you should always be looking for some late season adds who will either help you during your playoff run or add depth to your team if you are already building next season.
But who is out there at this point of the season who fits that description? Well, there are plenty of those types of players sitting on the waiver wire, and I’m here to once again shine the light on a player who has thus far been overlooked.
Chase Silseth is a right-handed pitcher for the Los Angeles Angels who did poorly in a brief stint with the club last season and started the year slowly when he joined the Angels this season. But since that slow start, he has been one of the best starting pitchers in the American League since July 1.
A MEANDERING PATH
Silseth did not enter pro ball as a top-ranked prospect. He probably hardly registered as a prospect! Silseth played his high school ball in Farmington, New Mexico, and wasn’t drafted. So he packed his bags and went to pitch for the University of Tennessee.
As a freshman he did a decent job on the mound, going 1-1 with a 4.35 ERA and 1.016 WHIP, appearing in 18 games and making two starts. But Silseth then transferred to the College of Southern Nevada in 2020 – only to have the season whipped out thanks to Covid, and then transferred to Arizona for the 2021 season. With the Wildcats he was 8-1 on the mound, but he had a 5.55 ERA and 1.449 WHIP but did have a 9.7 K/9 rate.
Despite his overall numbers, the Angels were intrigued by Silseth and selected him in the 11th round of the 2021 draft and even paid him an above-slot bonus of $485,00. The decision to draft Silseth appears to have been a good one for the Angels. Only one year later the hurler was seeing action in the majors.
CAREER STATS
YEAR |
LEVEL |
W-L |
G/GS |
IP |
ERA |
WHIP |
H/9 |
BB/9 |
K/9 |
| 2019-21 | NCAA | 11-3 | 36/20 | 118.0 | 5.34 | 1.373 | 9.7 | 2.7 | 9.8 |
| 2021 | RK | AA | 0-2 | 3/2 | 5.1 | 10.13 | 1.500 | 11.8 | 1.7 | 11.8 |
| 2022 | AA | 7-0 | 15/15 | 83.0 | 2.28 | 0.952 | 5.6 | 2.9 | 11.9 |
| 2022 | Angels | 1-3 | 7/7 | 28.2 | 6.59 | 1.570 | 10.4 | 3.8 | 7.5 |
| 2023 | AAA | 4-1 | 9/9 | 42.0 | 2.79 | 1.024 | 6.2 | 3.0 | 9.4 |
| 2023 | Angels | 4-1 | 13/5 | 41.1 | 3.27 | 1.210 | 7.0 | 3.9 | 10.0 |
While in college, Silseth was a mixed bag when it came to success on the mound. He struck out batters to the tune of 9.7 per nine innings and limited his walks to 2.7/9 innings. But he was also very hittable. In his career, he allowed 9.7 hits per nine innings, and during his season at Arizona, he gave up 112 hits in 97.1 innings of work.
That mix of low walks but a lot of hits allowed did not work well for him during his first taste of professional baseball. In one game at Rookie ball and two at Double-A Rocket City, Silseth had a 10.13 ERA and 1.500 WHIP, allowing seven hits in 5.1 innings. But he allowed only one walk and did strike out seven.
EARNING A PROMOTION
In 2022, Silseth came out and dominated the competition at Double-A. In his first five starts, he went 2-0 with a 1.73 ERA with 37 strikeouts in 26 innings. He didn’t allow more than two runs in any of those five starts. On May 5, in his fifth start, he struck out a career-high 10 batters in six innings of work. Eight days later, Silseth was making a start for the Angels against Oakland.
Before the promotion, Silseth ranked third in the Southern League in strikeouts (37), third in WHIP (0.85) and fourth in ERA while holding hitters to a .169 batting average. When Silseth toed the rubber for the Angels, he became the player from the 2021 draft to reach the major leagues.
NICE START, UGLY FINISH
In his debut against Oakland, Silseth earned the win, allowing only one hit and two walks in six shutout innings while striking out four as Los Angeles won 2-0. His next two starts were not as good as he allowed a combined five earned runs in 8.2 innings with four walks and six strikeouts. Still, Silseth finished the month of May with a 3.07 ERA and 1.296 WHIP.
Silseth made a series of spot starts in June and July, and those four starts are ones to forget for Silseth. In June he posted a 10.50 ERA and 1.667 WHIP, allowing nine hits in six innings, though he did have seven strikeouts and only one walk. July wasn’t any better as he had a 10.13 ERA and 2.00 WHIP. Not only was he allowing a lot of hits (11) but his walks jumped up as well, issuing five walks in 8.0 innings. Silseth didn’t pitch for the Angels the rest of the season.
REBOUND SEASON
Silseth began the 2023 season at Triple-A Salt Lake while also seeing spot duty with the Angels. He made two relief appearances in April and posted a 0.00 ERA in three hitless innings with three walks and two strikeouts. In May he pitched in six games, one of which was a start but had a 6.59 ERA and 1.683 WHIP. In June he was limited to one appearance, posting a 4.50 ERA and 2.000 WHIP in two innings of work.
But the season turned around for Silseth in July, and in four starts since July 19, he has been outstanding.
LAST FOUR STARTS
DATE |
OPP |
RESULT |
IP |
H |
R |
ER |
BB |
SO |
| Aug. 13 | at HOU | W 2-1 | 5 | 4 | 0 | 0 | 2 | 5 |
| Aug. 16 | SEA | L 2-3 (10) | 7 | 4 | 2 | 2 | 1 | 12 |
| July 31 | at ATL | W 4-1 | 5 | 3 | 1 | 1 | 0 | 4 |
| July 19 | NYY | W 7-3 | 5.2 | 4 | 1 | 1 | 2 | 10 |
In a combined 22.2 innings of work, he has allowed only 11 hits and four walks while striking out 31. And those four starts have not come against teams like Oakland or Kansas City. Instead, they were against the Yankees when they were still playing well as well as Atlanta, Seattle, and Houston. Against the Braves and Astros on the road, he allowed only one run on seven hits in 10 innings with only two walks and nine strikeouts.
Silseth’s strength is his ability to throw a variety of pitches to keep hitters off balance. This season he has thrown his 4-seam fastball 33.8% of the time, followed by his slider at 24.1%, split finger at 15.6%, sinker at 13.4%, and cutter at 11.1%. He even tosses in a curveball every once in a while. His throws his four-seamer sits at 95 mph and his sinker at 94.4 mph, while his slider comes in at 82 mph and split averages 87 mph.
Add that all together and batters have a hard time sitting on location and speed against Silseth. Hitters have more success against Silseth’s hard stuff, batting .263 and slugging .553 against his four-seamer and hitting .318 with a .455 slugging percentage against the sinker. But they struggle with his breaking pitches, hitting only .154 against the slider and .162 against the split, with slugging percentages of .333 and .378.
Right now Silseth is available in 56% of Yahoo leagues, 85% of ESPN leagues, and 41% of Fantrax leagues. Perhaps people aren’t buying into his last four starts. Perhaps they only see his overall numbers this season and not diving in to see how he has performed the last two months. If so, that is their loss.
Silseth is a buy-low option who can bring back great results for you. So if he is available, go out and add him.
