Top fantasy baseball outfield waiver pickups for Week 10

We’ve reached the two-month mark of the 2023 MLB season, as hard as that is to believe, and “it’s still early!” is becoming a less and less convincing crutch for fantasy managers wondering whether to stick with a draft pick or start scouring the waiver wire. This is especially true at the outfield spots, where injuries and underachievement (looking at you, Juan Soto) have wreaked havoc. That’s why we’re here to help, with four targets likely available in your league showing signs that they’re in for a big year.

Fantasy baseball waiver wire: Week 10 outfield targets

Mickey Moniak, OF, Los Angeles Angels

Roster percentage: 8.4%

The No. 1 overall pick of the 2016 MLB Draft, Moniak had already been labeled a definitive bust after posting a measly .486 OPS across parts of three MLB seasons. But the outfielder crushed the ball with the Angels’ Triple-A affiliate to start the year, then got the call up to the Majors and hasn’t shown any signs of slowing down.

Moniak’s numbers right now look like a video game: a 1.373 OPS and .935 slugging percentage with seven extra-base hits in his first 10 games. He still strikes out a lot and hardly ever walks, but you can just look at Christopher Morel’s sizzling start to see how a player can overcome a lack of contact by doing lots of damage whenever he does make contact. Moniak hits just about everything in the air and has a strong average exit velocity of 91 mph; he’ll obviously regress a bit, but the underlying skills appear good enough to give him the Angels’ left field job for good and make him a very interesting power/speed combination for fantasy teams.

Michael Conforto, OF, San Francisco Giants

Roster percentage: 11.1%

Remember him? Conforto struggled in 2021 and then missed all of last year due to injury, but he’s reemerged with the Giants and started showing the skills that made him a crucial part of the New York Mets’ young core back in the day. He’s hitting .273/.360/.571 with seven homers in the month of May, and he’s even holding his own against left-handed pitching, key for ensuring that he stays in the lineup everyday. Before injuries took their toll, Conforto was a consistent 25-30 homer, 5-8 steal guy, and at just 30 years old, he should still have plenty left in the tank as long as he’s healthy.

Jose Siri, OF, Tampa Bay Rays

Roster percentage: 3.1%

Siri’s breakout was cut short by a hamstring injury in April, but the outfielder is now back healthy and crushing the ball once again. Siri’s physical tools have always been obvious — he’s currently in the 92nd percentile in max exit velocity and the 98th percentile in both sprint speed and arm strength — but massive swing and miss issues always prevented those tools from showing up in games consistently. Now, though, he’s sliced his strikeout rate by five percent, chasing fewer pitches out of the zone than ever before in his career. That patience has shown up in the stat sheet, with a .273/.360/.571 line and seven homers in the month of May, and if he doesn’t revert back to his free-swinging ways, he could be a league-winner down the stretch.

Bryan de la Cruz, OF, Miami Marlins

Roster percentage: 9.4%

Jesus Sanchez and Avisail Garcia’s injuries have opened up everyday playing time for de la Cruz, and the young outfielder is taking full advantage, with a .333/.388/.513 slash line this month. It may seem like it’s come out of nowhere, but this is actually the continuation of a breakout that began down the stretch of last season, when de la Cruz closed on a tear with a 1.137 OPS in September. His 36.7% line drive rate is among the highest in baseball, and Statcast is largely buying what the outfielder has done recently — he could be a contributor in all five categories from here on out, with five homers and three steals on the season.