Rolling In The Deep: Desperately Luken For Help

Happy May, my friends, and I hope that the first month-plus of the baseball season has treated you well. If you had Eugenio Suarez and Brandon Nimmo in your active lineup this past week, you’re probably sitting pretty near the top of your hitting standings. If you were counting on the Jake Burgers, Matt Shaws, and Max Muncys of the world coming in to the season to provide some pop, however, you may be feeling buried beyond repair. There may not be much out there on the waiver wire, but in any league with a free agent pool, hopefully, there’s someone. Even if it’s a shot in the dark or lottery ticket-like reach, we all need deep-league bodies to fill out our rosters. This week we’re going ultra deep, with guys owned in just 6% of CBS leagues or less. We’ll concentrate on players who have been hot of late — looking specifically at their last five games as I’m writing this on Thursday —  because you’ve gotta start somewhere, right? So, let’s all take a deep breath, remember how early it still is, and get to looking at some names that may be of interest to those of us in NL-only, AL-only, and other deep leagues.

NL

Luken Baker. Baker is 1% owned, he’s already 28, and we’ll see how long he’s up with the Cardinals. Even if he stays with the club for a while, he’s probably on the bad side of an outfield platoon… but I’m putting him on my NL-only watch list if nothing else. He’s on this list not because he’s hit well in the majors of late, but because of his impressive minor league power numbers over the last couple of seasons. Baker is hitting sixth for the Cards on Thursday, so he’s in the current mix, at least. Also, he can’t do much worse than guys like Alec Burleson, who hits from the other side of the plate but has been a massive disappointment to me — and, I assume, the Cardinals — with his zero homers so far this year.  Baker also can’t do much worse than some of the guys I’ve been playing in an attempt to plug holes at the end of my deepest lineups.

Eli White. The Braves recently added Eddie Rosario, and White’s playing time could diminish quickly, of course, once Ronald Acuna returns. But he deserves a shout out here after hitting .375 over his last five games, with a homer, 4 RBI, and a steal. He also entered Thursday with a 7-game hitting streak. Yes, he’s a 30-year old back up outfielder who may not have another run this productive any time soon, but he could make a nice deep-league fill in while he’s getting the chance to play.

Johan Rojas. Rojas may not play every day, but most ultra deep league guys don’t, and Rojas has been productive for the Phillies when in the lineup. He’s hitting .278 with (exactly like White) a homer, 4 RBI, and a steal over his last five. That’s much better than nothing to fill out a deep-league fantasy outfield. If you get him at the right time, he may reward you with a handful of stolen bases; he did have 25 in 120 games last year, after all.

Tyler Wade. A 0% owned, true ultra deep league player, the 30-year old Wade has had a nice mini run of playing time for the Padres. He has now appeared in 15 games this year, qualifies at 3B and OF in most leagues, and has also played two games at second in 2025. In his last five games, he’s not exactly racking up the counting stats, but he is hitting .294 with a .368 OBP. If he can keep it up, he may stick as a utility man even as some of the injured Padres get healthy, and even if he doesn’t, should at least be the next man up when future injuries strike.

AL

Miguel Vargas. Vargas is hitting .455 over his last five with a .520 OBP, which, of course, is not just hot but scorching. The fact that this brings his overall average up to just .219 tells you how things were going early for him. That’s why he’s just 6% owned, I suppose, but perhaps he’s worth a check-in in a deeper league where he’s available. He came into the season qualifying at both third and outfield in most leagues, and has also appeared in one game at first this year. In case you aren’t paying much attention to the White Sox, and you very well may not be, he’s played in every game but one for them this season. (Vargas hit a 3-run homer Thursday after I wrote this… get him while you can! ; )

Luis Urias. Urias has been playing a fair amount for the A’s and qualifies at second and third, which has been enough to shoot his ownership from 1 to 4% of late. I will admit I forgot Urias was even on the A’s, so I was interested to see that, among other things, he now has 4 home runs on the year. He’s only hitting .222 over his last five, but he has an OBP of .391 in that same time frame, plus he has hit 2 homers over those five games. That suggests to me he’s seeing the ball pretty well and hitting it pretty hard, so you could do worse in the deepest leagues.

Zach Dezenzo. Dezenzo hasn’t done much of anything so far this season (10 for 40 overall, without a homer or a steal)… so I’m not terribly optimistic, but if you’re desperate, at least you’re buying low. The Astros lineup is a little bit of a mess right now, with Brendan Rodgers scuffling, forcing at least an occasional pause in the Jose Altuve-to-the-outfield experiment. As a result, Dezenzo is getting more work in the outfield, and while I’d think the Astros would want to find a way to upgrade this situation in a more permanent manner, Dezenzo may be worth monitoring as we see if he can take advantage of this opportunity to show he belongs with the major league squad.

Gustavo Campero. We’ll close with another 0% owned player; Campero may just be outfield depth for the Angels at this point, but this particular depth piece is up with the big club for the moment, after an excellent start to his minor league season. He’s all of 1 for 3 as I write this, but he already has a stolen base, so I’m keeping an eye on him for deep AL-only as we see what his current cup of coffee produces.

That’s it for this week; thanks for reading and happy waiver wire searching and lineup setting to all!