Brewers Jesus Aguilar just keeps on hitting: Waiver Add?

By Brad Kelly | May 24, 2018

DENVER, CO - MAY 13: Jesus Aguilar #24 of the Milwaukee Brewers hits a 3 RBI home run in the sixth inning against the Colorado Rockies at Coors Field on May 13, 2018 in Denver, Colorado. (Photo by Matthew Stockman/Getty Images) /

Jesus Aguilar is on a tear at the plate for the Brewers. Now that he has stepped in at first base once again for Milwaukee, can fantasy owners finally buy-in and make him a waiver wire add?

The Brewers are one of the hottest teams in baseball, and a catalyst of their surge is Jesus Aguilar. Aguilar is red hot at the plate and is working on a solid followup to his 2017 breakout. Should fantasy owners buy into his success, or leave him on the waiver wire?

Aguilar is a late bloomer, not getting full-time at-bats till last season at the age of 27 for the Brew Crew. Aguilar mashed the first half of 2017 and even though he cooled off, he ended last season with a .265/16 HR/52 RBI/.837 OPS line over 133 games. Heading into 2018, his path to playing time was clouded with Eric Thames, Ryan Braun and the free agent additions that the Brewers brought in.

While he did not see regular at-bats till Thames and Braun went down, Aguilar has taken off since given his chance yet again. Owners cannot find a hotter hitter in the league right now, and he currently holds a .324/7 HR/23 RBI/.959 OPS line over 42 games.

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Digging into his batted ball profile, the encouraging rates have carried over from last season. He is posting 28% LD, 44% FB, 49% Med, 41% Hard, and 77% Contact rates. Each of those numbers are great, and his contact rate is up 7% from last season. He still whiffs a lot, 22% K rate, but his BB rate is up to 9% in 2018.

On the surface, it would seem that he destined to go back to a platoon scenario when Thames returns, yet Aguilar is showing no big split weakness this season. He is batting over .300 against both, and 11 of his HR in 2017 were against righties, so the power plays.

No one will doubt that Thames was swinging it well before he was injured, yet Aguilar is going off of two years of results to remain in the lineup. Manager Craig Counsell made it clear that even with Braun back that Aguilar was going to remain in the lineup, a hopeful beacon of what is to come even when the Brewers have all their pieces again.

The Brewers’ lineup is stacked, they play in a great hitters ballpark, and Aguilar has shown that he can hang. The power is legit and fantasy owners should be all over investing in him and the counting stat potential.

Next: Fantasy Baseball; One Dimensional Waiver Wire Adds?

Aguilar is owned in less than 55% of leagues across all formats, meaning there a ton of leagues where he is still floating on the waiver wire. Snag him now and ride the hot streak. While the AVG will come down, the HR/RBI/OPS are well worth an add.

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