Fantasy Baseball Waiver Wire: Jacob Faria, and four deep-league adds
In a Rays system with talented young pitchers like Brent Honeywell and Blake Snell, it's been easy for Jacob Faria to get lost in the shuffle a bit. He doesn't have plus velocity or a big, wipeout breaking pitch, and righties with that kind of profile need really impressive numbers to stand out.
Jacob Faria SP / Tampa Bay OWNED: 32%
So far in the majors, Faria is definitely impressing. He struck out five batters in 6 1/3 one-run innings in his MLB debut last week, and then added eight more in another one-run, 6 1/3-inning performance Tuesday against the Blue Jays. He picked up nine swinging strikes Tuesday, giving him 25 in his first two outings, a solid 12.6 percent rate.
So far, so good. And, though he never quite profiled as a top-of-the-rotation arm in the minors, his numbers were impressive enough, with a 3.13 overall ERA in 599 innings of work. That ERA rose to 3.41 between Double-A and Triple-A over the past few years, thanks to some struggles keeping the ball in the yard, however he also upped his strikeout rate to 28.9 percent in the upper minors. He might not be an elite strikeout pitcher in the majors, but it wouldn't be much of a surprise if we saw Faria fan a batter every inning or so moving forward.
Faria probably isn't a star, but we've seen more than enough from his first two starts to make him worth adding. I would still prioritize Sean Newcomb over him among recently recalled prospect pitchers, but I had no problem dropping the mercurial Joe Ross to make room for Faria in one league. Ross is a good example of how fleeting success can be for young pitchers, but I like what we've seen from Faria enough to make the leap.