The latest Rotoworld Fantasy Baseball Waiver Wire column breaks down Mets top pitching prospect Christian Scott returning to the big leagues, unheralded Angels hurler Davis Daniel excelling in a long-awaited opportunity and Twins slugger Jose Miranda finally starting to put it all together at the highest level.
This feels like cheating a little bit since Scott put together a sparkling five-start stretch for the Mets in May, where he compiled a solid 3.90 ERA, 1.08 WHIP and 25/6 K/BB ratio across 27 2/3 innings of work, after clearly establishing himself as one of the top pitching prospects in baseball back at Triple-A Syracuse to open the year. The talented 25-year-old righty was shipped back to the minors a couple weeks ago to manage his workload, and will make his highly-anticipated return to the big leagues on Wednesday against the division-rival Nationals, who rank 24th overall in team OPS this season through 84 games. Mets manager Carlos Mendoza didn’t commit to Scott making any additional starts beyond Wednesday’s outing, however, it’s worth noting that fifth starter Tylor Megill was optioned back to Triple-A Syracuse after struggling in his eight-start audition at the highest level. We’re willing to roll the dice here that Scott winds up getting an extended runway at the highest level moving forward, especially with New York’s recent surge that has them back in the NL Wild Card playoff race.
Daniel authored an impressive performance last Thursday in his first career start, recording eight strikeouts over eight scoreless frames against the Tigers, in his season debut. The unheralded 27-year-old righty, who made three relief appearances last year in a quick cup of coffee with the Angels, is getting a long-awaited opportunity for Los Angeles’s injury-depleted starting rotation after compiling a respectable 5.33 ERA, 1.50 WHIP and 82/25 K/BB ratio across 76 innings (14 starts) this year for Triple-A Salt Lake in the hitter-friendly Pacific Coast League. His numbers don’t exactly leap off the page from a run-prevention standpoint, yet as his minor-league track record and subsequent season debut reveal, he’s going to miss plenty of bats moving forward. He generated an impressive 13 swinging strikes — including nine combined on his changeup, slider and curveball trio — last Thursday against Detroit’s struggling lineup, and was able to consistently throw strikes as evidenced by a near-elite 35 percent CSW. If those trends continue, he’s primed to emerge as a viable option for fantasy managers, especially in deeper formats. He’s a strong streaming option, even in shallow mixed leagues, when he squares off against the rebuilding Athletics on Wednesday, who rank 25th overall in team OPS this season through 86 games.
It feels appropriate to slap a post-hype breakout label on Miranda since he was a complete afterthought for fantasy purposes entering the 2024 campaign after struggling last year to a .566 OPS in 40 games for Minnesota. The 26-year-old corner infielder carried a risky for fantasy purposes contact-oriented offensive profile to the majors, and he definitely underwhelmed the last few years in several extended chances with the Twins. Yet, it appears that he’s finally turned the metaphorical corner this year, with significant upticks in both average exit velocity (89.7 mph) and barrel percentage (7.9 percent) without sacrificing any contact in the process. Simply put, he’s making more frequent hard contact over the last few months, which has lef to a .297/.340/.486 triple-slash line with eight homers and 37 RBI over 241 plate appearances. He’s even chipped in a pair of stolen bases, just for good measure. He’s starting to resemble once again the top prospect that tore through the upper minors and looked like a potential impact fantasy contributor during his rookie season back in 2022. His .960 OPS over the last 30 days ranks 21st in baseball during that span and he’s at the point that he should be rostered in all fantasy formats as a power plus counting stats four-category fantasy contributor.
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