Fantasy Baseball Waiver Wire: Lance McCullers shows flashes of vintage form, and more

Given everything he's been through, the fact that Lance McCullers made it back to the majors at all was a pretty big win. But when he was tagged for seven earned runs with just six strikeouts in 8 innings across his first three starts of the season, it was pretty easy to write McCullers off as a lost cause.

Maybe that was a mistake.

In his fourth start last week against the Mariners, he only made it through 4.1 innings of work, but he did so with eight strikeouts, the first positive sign we got from him. And he was even better Wednesday against the Athletics, as he put together his first quality start since October of 2022. And his 12 strikeouts were his most since July of 2018. It's been a long time since we've seen McCullers look this good.

McCullers' fastball still looks like a pale imitation of its former form, sitting at just 91.5 mph and generating few whiffs. But his slider and curveball were incredibly sharp in this start, as he generated four whiffs with the slider and a whopping 10 with the curveball. Add in some weak contact on the changeup, and he really had all of the secondaries working in this one.

Does that mean McCullers is suddenly back to being a must-roster pitcher? Certainly not. This was his first time completing even five innings, and his first time reaching 100 pitches on the season. And the fastballs still seem like they're going to be a problem, even if he only throws them around 30% of the time combined. McCullers is going to go as far as his secondaries can take him, and given his lengthy injury track record, that might not be especially long.

But he's a two-start pitcher next week, with matchups against the Pirates and Guardians on the way, and while I would have been totally uninterested a week ago, now I do have to at least consider McCullers as a potential streamer. And if he does anything like this again, well, he might be even more than a streamer. 

Here's who else we're looking to add from Wednesday's action:  

Thursday's top waiver-wire options

Camilo Doval, RP, Giants (55%) – The Giants made it official Wednesday, with manager Bob Melvin telling reporters Camilo Doval will be the team's closer moving forward. Ryan Walker will move to a setup role after struggling to the tune of a 4.95 ERA and 1.30 WHIP on the season. Doval has a 1.16 ERA and 0.73 WHIP, a significant improvement on the performance that cost him his job last season. It has come with just a 23.3% strikeout rate (nearly six points worse than his career average), but Doval is still generating swinging strikes at a pretty strong rate, and his stuff still looks pretty good, so I'm not too worried about the strikeouts not being there. The fact that he lost his job last season does suggest Doval probably doesn't have a ton of job security, but he's been an elite closer in the past and could still be one. I'm ranking him as a top-15 reliever now that he's back in the role, which makes him pretty much must-roster in all but shallow points leagues. 

Agustin Ramirez, C, Marlins (58%) – Since his debut on April 21, Ramirez is the No. 5 catcher in Roto leagues. In points leagues, which should be Ramirez's worst format, he's No. 2, behind only Cal Raleigh. Why isn't this guy anywhere close to being universally rostered? I understand there are plenty of catchers we expect big things from who are struggling like William Contreras and Adley Rutschman, and I'm not saying Ramirez is better than them just because he has been for the past five weeks or so. But he was a top prospect who hit 30 homers and stole 30 bases in 176 career games between Double-A and Triple-A, and he has started 29 of 33 games since his promotion to the majors. What's to be skeptical about at this point? 

Gavin Sheets, 1B, Padres (51%) – Sheets continues to be a big part of the Padres lineup, and while his track record suggests he's going to slow down at some point, I think he's a fine addition as a hot-hand play if you have a 1B or OF spot to play with He's up to 11 homers on the season, with five of them coming in his past seven games after he went 2 for 3 with a homer and three RBI Wednesday.

Robert Hassell, OF, Nationals (14%) – When Hassell got promoted from Triple-A, I said he needed to give us a reason to be interested in adding him, and he did so for the first time Wednesday, going 3 for 5 with his first MLB homer. Overall, he hasn't been particularly impressive – he's hitting .227 with a 32% strikeout rate – so he doesn't need to be added in all leagues. But as a flier in deeper category-based leagues? Sure, he's worth a look. 

Noah Cameron, SP, Royals (41%) – That's now four starts of at least 6.1 innings and one or fewer runs allowed after he up exactly that line Wednesday against the Reds. And if you've got a roster spot, you should probably just go ahead and add him at this point. But I'm gonna be honest: I remain mostly unmoved by his success. Cameron was a pretty good strikeout pitcher in the minors, but he's shown no sign of that so far in the majors, with his strikeout rate down to 16.3% after he struck out just two Wednesday. His 98.9% strand rate is totally unsustainable, as is his .153 BABIP, and I think at some point this is all gonna fall apart on him. Add in that Cole Ragans and Seth Lugo are going to be back from the IL at some point this week, which means Cameron could be sent back to Triple-A soon, and I just don't think there's much to be excited about here. But some people like playing the hot hand until they get burned.