Fantasy Baseball Week 15 Drops: Isiah Kiner-Falefa, Jake Meyers, Joey Ortiz and More

We covered some of the better MLB waiver wire targets earlier this week, and now it’s time to discuss some of the most dropped players.

I found four hitters and one relief pitcher on the waiver trends most dropped tab (which can be found on any MLB page on FantasySP). The other drops are starting pitchers who are being discarded after serving as streaming options.

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Isiah Kiner-Falefa Fantasy Outlook

Kiner-Falefa is one of two hitters in this article who is dealing with an injury. Kiner-Falefa was placed on the 10-day injured list with a left knee sprain earlier this week.

Kiner-Falefa is not expected back until some time in August, so him being dropped from several fantasy leagues makes a lot of sense.

In 82 games this season, Kiner-Falefa has a .292 average and .338 on-base percentage. He has eight doubles, seven home runs and two triples among his 75 total hits. Kiner-Falefa also has 33 RBIs, 32 runs scored, three stolen bases, 13 walks and 37 strikeouts.

His absence will hurt the Blue Jays and is a bummer for Kiner-Falefa, who was having a career season. 

Kiner-Falefa had been one of my favorite waiver wire options of late. His own percentage had jumped from under 20 to 55 just a couple days ago. He’s down to 44% now, and that number will continue to dwindle as fantasy owners learn the extent of his injury.

There’s a chance he returns late in the season, but he’s not worth stashing in standard leagues. You could throw him on an IL spot if your league uses them, but don’t do it if you need that roster spot. He’ll be a waiver wire option if he can indeed return to the MLB field later in the season, but right now it really doesn’t make much sense to roster him.

David Hamilton Fantasy Outlook

Hamilton is a shortstop/second baseman for the Red Sox and has cooled off after some hot stretches of play.

In 56 games overall, Hamilton has a .268 average and .318 OBP. He’s got nine doubles, five home runs and a triple among his 44 total knocks. Hamilton also has 15 RBIs, 28 runs scored, 21 stolen bases, 11 walks and 43 strikeouts on the season.

Since June 14 (which was right after a hot stretch at the plate), Hamilton has just six hits across 12 games (nine starts) for a .177 average. He has one double and homer among his hits, along with four RBIs, six runs scored, two walks, six strikeouts and seven stolen bases in that span.

His own percentage was over 60 for a couple weeks, but is trending downward and at 47% right now. 

I still like Hamilton in deeper formats, especially because he can steal some bases, but you probably still need to be benching him right now. If he continues to struggle at the plate, then he can be dropped altogether.

Hamilton should not be owned in standard leagues anymore. He’s worth keeping an eye on in case he gets hot again, but there’s got to be better fantasy options available to you.

Hunter Harvey Fantasy Outlook

Harvey isn’t the closer for the Nationals, but he was owned in a decent amount of fantasy leagues up until recently. He’s fallen on hard times on the hill, and it’s led fantasy owners to dropping him.

Overall this season, Harvey is 2-4 with a 4.35 earned run average in 39 games and 41 1/3 innings pitched. He has 45 strikeouts along the way.

Harvey had a sub-3.00 ERA in back-to-back seasons and was enjoying a similar season this year before a couple tough outings.

It started on June 22, when Harvey allowed a run in an inning of work. On June 24, he was charged with a blown save after allowing four runs (three earned) in just 2/3 of an inning.

Harvey appeared to get back on track with a scoreless inning on June 29, but then allowed five runs (four earned) on three hits in 2/3 of an inning on July 1. He took the loss in that outing and then blew a save on July 2 after allowing another run in an inning.

For the fantasy leagues out there that reward non-closer relievers, Harvey had been one of the better options until this recent stretch. With a history of success, and just a couple bad outings this season, I expect Harvey to bounce back. If you want to hold on to him in your fantasy league, bench him until he can produce a couple positive outings in a row.

Washington isn’t a very good team anyways, so if I rostered Harvey, I’d try to find another high-leverage reliever on a good team instead. 

Harvey could get back into a groove at some point this season, but right now, he’s very, very hard to trust.

Jake Meyers Fantasy Outlook

Meyers is enjoying one of his better seasons in the big leagues, but is being dropped for some reason right now. Let’s see if we can figure it out together.

In 76 total games, Meyers has a .251 average and .317 on-base percentage. He has 11 doubles, eight home runs and two triples among his 57 total hits. Meyers also has 33 RBIs, 27 runs scored, seven stolen bases, 17 walks and 60 strikeouts for the season.

Looking at his game logs for the season, he’s a pretty streaky hitter. From June 25-30, Meyers had seven hits across 19 at-bats, but has gone hitless (with four strikeouts) over the past two contests.

Owned in 16% of leagues now, Meyers is only a deep league option. He’s playing most days for Houston and has decent numbers overall and of late, so I’m really not sure the reasoning behind fantasy owners dropping him.

I’m not advocating for fantasy owners to add Meyers, but because of his playing time, he’s a decent deep league option. He can occupy a bench spot most days and then be a starting option when your top outfielders are resting or banged up and out of the lineup. 

Joey Ortiz Fantasy Outlook

Ortiz has missed several games over the past few days with a neck injury. He pinch ran on June 29 and then started on July 1, but was out of the lineup again on July 2.

In 74 games so far this season, Ortiz has a .269 average and .373 OBP. He has 13 doubles, seven home runs and two triples among his 58 total hits, along with 28 RBIs, 32 runs scored, five stolen bases, 35 walks and 43 strikeouts.

He was a hot waiver wire name for a couple weeks and had been sitting around or better than 60% for a decent amount of time. Now he’s owned in 46% of leagues.

It’s hard to roster a player like Ortiz in a standard league when they are banged up. Ortiz was a decent fantasy bench option in standard leagues up until the nagging injury, but with him out of the lineup several times, fantasy owners are deciding to look elsewhere for help.

That’s probably the right move in a standard league, but I’d also keep a close eye on Ortiz if he becomes available. Once he gets past the injury, he could serve as a standard league bench option again.

Ortiz shouldn’t be dropped in deeper leagues or dynasties, even if he isn’t playing. He’s a starting option in those leagues and is worth holding a roster spot for, even if he were to hit the injured list.