Top fantasy baseball middle infield waiver pickups for Week 11

We’ve officially passed 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 middle infield spots, where injuries have felled top picks like Jazz Chisholm, Oneil Cruz and more. 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 11 middle infield targets

Elly de la Cruz, SS, Cincinnati Reds

Roster percentage: 10.5%

Fair warning, this is probably your last chance to jump in here. It says something when a guy has a double-digits roster percentage without even making his MLB debut yet, but it’s. not hard to figure out why. One of the top prospects in baseball, De la Cruz has continued his assault on Triple-A pitching, slashing an absurd .293/.390/.626 with 11 homers and 11 steals across 35 games. Momentum is building for a surprisingly competitive Reds team to finally call him up, and when they do he’ll immediately become a must-add in every fantasy league. Power/speed combinations like his don’t come around very often.

Brandon Drury, 1B/2B/3B, Los Angeles Angels

Roster percentage: 28.8%

Drury started his 2023 season ice cold, but he’s come alive recently, slashing an absurd .325/.413/.725 with three homers over the last two weeks. All the things that made him an appealing late-round pick in the spring still apply: He’s still triple-eligible across the diamond, and he still has the raw power that let him swat 28 homers between the Reds and Padres last year. Hitting directly behind Mike Trout and Shohei Ohtani is a great place to be, and Drury can be very helpful in the HR and RBI categories.

Willi Castro, 2B/3B/SS/OF, Minnesota Twins

Roster percentage: 4.6%

Castro’s been a life-saver for a Twins offense that’s struggled with injuries and ineffectiveness this year, playing all over the diamond while posting four homers, 10 steals and a .788 OPS across 119 plate appearances. The utility man has never really shown these kinds of skills at the plate before, but Statcast is a believer, as his average exit velocity, hard-hit rate, fly ball rate and line drive rate are all way up. The speed, at the very least, is elite, and his 94th-percentile max exit velocity shows the sort of damage he can do when he makes contact. You could do a lot worse if you’re searching for steals.

Rougned Odor, 2B/OF, San Diego Padres

Roster percentage: 1.1%

I know, I know, I groaned at the thought of this too. But the fact remains that Odor is playing a lot with Manny Machado out (and even when Machado was still in the lineup, really, as the Padres have searched for answers offensively) and he’s been hot recently, with a .255/.333/.549 line, four homers and two steals over his last 57 plate appearances. It’s a good offense to be a part of for counting stats, and for what it’s worth, the veteran’s strikeout rate is way down and his walk rate is way up. Maybe this won’t last, but it’s worth riding as long as it does.