A Giants fan living in San Diego, been playing fantasy baseball since 2005 and dynasty since 2021. Started the Dynasty Baseball Pickups podcast in June 2023 and joined Prospects Live in March of 2024.
Hi all, a little fun fact: June 12th is my wedding anniversary! Today, I'll be celebrating 14 years with my amazing wife. It's flown by, and I couldn't ask for a better partner in life. It's also Father's Day this weekend, and I hope everyone has a great one! I'm looking forward to seeing my father and the rest of my family this weekend. My dad instilled a love of the game and die-hard Giants fandom (torture though it is) in me from a young age, and I wouldn't be writing or podcasting about the sport without his influence. Speaking of podcasting, expect this week's out on Sunday afternoon due to scheduling conflicts between Kyle and myself. All that aside...let's get right into this week's recommendations!
Note: all stats current through Tuesday 6/10/25 and all minor league Statcast figures are sourced from TJ Stats.
I've written quite a bit about Wiggins over the past year. I initially highlighted him in my July 18th, 2024, pickups article as a target in leagues of 400+ prospects rostered. At the time, Wiggins was shoving at Single-A after a brutal start to the season at Complex (coming off of TJ), and here is what I had to say:
Wiggins is a fascinating arm who has seemingly taken a big step forward with his control this year. His early-season performance shows the risk, as does his recent injury history, but I’m buying into the Single-A performance based on the stuff. He needs a promotion to High-A before I can go too far, though.
Ironically, he was promoted and made his High-A debut two days after publishing that article. The control evaporated at the new level, and his walk rate more than doubled from 6.3% at Single-A to 13.9% at High-A. His ERA went up over two full runs, and his WHIP went from 0.81 to 1.42.
This offseason, I was tasked with writing his scouting report fantasy blurb. In it, I once again expressed interest in the upside while stating he needed to see improved control:
Wiggins has some exciting stuff but will need to throw more strikes to make it as a starter. He gained some dynasty buzz after posting a 6.3% walk rate in Single-A, but that quickly fell apart upon promotions to High-A and Double-A, leading to a season long 14.2% walk rate. It’s fair to give him a bit of a pass his first season back from Tommy John surgery, and the Cubs’ potentially improved pitching development does provide some hope, but he’ll need to show improvements next year to be anything more than a flier in 500+ prospect leagues. Be sure to add him to your watchlist though just in case.
Wiggins once again struggled with control early on, posting a 15.9% walk rate through his first five appearances, culminating in his first career relief appearance on May 1st, where he walked three in as many innings. Then something happened. Maybe he realized how close he was to being converted to a reliever, or maybe it was something completely different. Whatever it was, his season turned around at that point, beginning with his next start on May 8th, where he threw seven one-run innings without a single walk (his first start with less than two walks). The Cubs must have believed something had been unlocked because they immediately promoted him to Double-A, where he's made five starts, three of which have featured less than two walks. Overall, Wiggins has just a 5.8% walk rate since his rock-bottom relief appearance, along with a 2.01 ERA (1.91 FIP), 0.89 WHIP, and 30.6% strikeout rate. During the year, his strike-throwing improved significantly. After throwing just 58% of his pitches last season for strikes, that rate has jumped up to 63% this season.
As I mentioned in my two excerpts above, Wiggins has the stuff to succeed as a high-strikeout starter if he can throw enough strikes for it to matter. Here's what Rhys had to say about the arsenal in his offseason scouting report:
We are talking about a physically imposing pitcher on the mound who releases the ball from a high three-quarters arm slot. There is less extension than you think for someone with as long of legs as he has, and that could be added to his delivery at some point. The fastball is a plus heater with good shape and life. It is the rising tide that lifts all boats with his arsenal. The slider is a hard gyro slider with good shape that plays well off the over 20 inches of IVB that Wiggins collects off his fastball. It has a nasty late bite, and when he develops more feel for it, there is a chance it is a second-plus offering for the former Arkansas Razorback. The changeup plays well because he does a good job of killing any loft on the offering, allowing the tumble-and-fade to come through. The curveball he currently deploys is nothing more than a get-me-over curveball that he can utilize early in counts to steal a strike.
After topping out at 97 last year, Wiggins has reportedly reached triple digits this year, and between the stuff and the recent performance, there is a lot to like here.
Why To Think Twice
As discussed above, we've been down this road before with Wiggins. He looks a lot like the guy we saw last year at Single-A, who sandwiched a rough start at the Complex and a rough finish at High-A. This season, his start at Single-A looks much better than it was (1.86 ERA to 3.87 FIP before his seven-inning gem), thanks mainly to a .209 BABIP. I want to give him the benefit of the doubt, but we've seen him have stretches of good control before losing it later in the year.
Final Thoughts
Fool me once; shame on me. Fool me twice, pick him up in all my leagues? That's not how the saying goes, but it's certainly what I did with Wiggins. He's getting a fair amount of buzz right now (as seen with his quickly rising roster rate), but I was able to grab a whopping seven shares in the last few days. He will be a huge riser in our rankings this week, will almost certainly be a top 200 prospect, and may even crack some top 100s. Greg Hoogkamp is leading the PLive hype train on him, and you should jump aboard before it's too late.
Where to pick up: Leagues with 100+ prospects rostered.
FAAB bid: Moderate (5-10%)
Yohendrick Pinango - 23/OF/TOR/AAA
Height/weight: 5’11”/170 lbs Bats: L Fantrax Rostership: 4%
PLIVE+ (Career): 116 PLIVE+ (2025): 147
2024 stats (A+/AA): 474 PA .239/.331/.389, 10 HR, 11 SB, 11.4% BB, 18.8% K 2025 stats (AA/AAA): 228 PA .283/.395/.518, 11 HR, 5 SB, 14.5% BB, 21.1% K
Why To Pick Up
It must have been rough for Blue Jays fans like Kyle and Greg to watch Nate Pearson go from a top pitching prospect to a high-risk relief arm, but maybe they got something positive out of it with Pinango, who was the return when they traded Pearson to the Cubs. Shout out to Nate Rasmussen and Tom Gates, who have been highlighting Pinango all year long on the Double-A portion of the Daily Sheet. I've written him up myself, covering him in my 5/2/24 pickups article. In that article, I referenced the fact that Pinango has always had great contact and good raw power but was finally starting to get into that power at High-A:
The skills are there for him to be an excellent fantasy player if the power gains are real, and that has me picking up a couple of speculative shares in deeper leagues. Still, he needs to keep up the power gains and get a promotion before I get too excited.
At the time, Pinango was posting a .259 ISO at High-A with a 191 wRC+ through the season's first month. He would get that promotion about a week later, debuting there on May 14th. Pinango couldn't keep the power gains, and he struggled pre- and post-trade in his first look at Double-A.
Fast forward to this year, and Pinango again put up great numbers in his first month with a .200 ISO and 176 wRC+ through his first month at Double-A. Sound familiar? Well, he would go on to keep things up in May with a .244 ISO and 163 wRC+, earning a promotion to Triple-A on June 1st. Unlike last season, Pinango's power and performance didn't fall off with a promotion. Since his promotion, he's slashing .200/.333/.500 with three home runs, a 16.7% walk rate, and a matching 16.7% strikeout rate. Don't let the batting average scare you off, as he's been very unlucky with a .143 BABIP.
The Statcast data backs up the performance in the early going as both the quality of contact metrics and the contact metrics are off the charts:
The pull rate, in particular, is noteworthy as it's the main thing separating his current performance from what he's done in the past. Coming into the year, he had never posted a pull rate over 40%. This year, he's been significantly over that at Double-A and Triple-A. He's always made fantastic contact with 80% or higher overall rates at every stop. If he has finally unlocked the game power, there could be a good player here. He needs to be protected on the 40-man this offseason, so the Blue Jays may want to give him a look in the bigs this year to see what they have, particularly with their current collection of mediocre outfield bats (not counting Barger, as you all know he's a stud).
Why To Think Twice
It's a tiny sample at Triple-A, and he's mostly been feasting on fastballs. He's also not a great defender and can't play center field, so he will have to hit for power to stick. He's been extremely passive at both levels, swinging at a career-low rate of 38.0%. However, as I write this, I realize that he's only shown this level of passivity one other time in his career, which was his successful High-A stretch (38.7%) from last season, which had me buying in before. Those are the only points in his career where it's been under 47%, so this may be a feature, not a bug.
Final Thoughts
When I last wrote about Pinango, I wasn't really sure if I was buying it. To be honest, I wasn't sure when I started this writeup either. After digging in, however, I'm getting more excited about my shares, so you should probably go out and get some of your own.
Where to pick up: Leagues with 250+ prospects
FAAB bid: Minimal (0-5%)
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A Giants fan living in San Diego, been playing fantasy baseball since 2005 and dynasty since 2021. Started the Dynasty Baseball Pickups podcast in June 2023 and joined Prospects Live in March of 2024.
Director of Dynasty Content - Canadian born and raised, moved to Arkansas with my wife and two sons Ezra and Ari. Followed and played baseball my whole life; played dynasty for 25+ years.
Sophomore undergraduate student at Indiana University studying Sports Marketing & Management. Staff writer for Prospects Live covering MiLB prospects, MLB Draft, and Fantasy Baseball
As Director of Pro Scouting, I lead a talented group of evaluators as we break down future stars. You can find me at random California League games throughout the season!
As Director of Pro Scouting, I lead a talented group of evaluators as we break down future stars. You can find me at random California League games throughout the season!
