Fantasy Baseball: 5 waiver wire replacements for Frankie Montas

2. Lance Lynn, Texas Rangers

Over his last eight starts, heading into Saturday night’s scheduled outing against the Chicago White Sox, Lynn has a 2.92 ERA with 66 strikeouts (at least eight strikeout seven times) and just eight walks with 48 hits allowed over 52.1 innings. Over that span, his ERA has dropped from 5.75 to 4.16 while his WHIP has fallen from 1.58 to its current 1.29.

Signing with the Minnesota Twins late in the spring of 2018 threw Lynn off last year, and his numbers showed it (5.10 ERA with a 5.5 BB/9 over 20 starts for the Twins). But he seemed to have found something late in the season with the New York Yankees, most notably some swing-and-miss stuff (10.1 K/9 over 11 appearances-nine starts), and he has carried that right into this year with the Rangers.

Lynn was once a useful fantasy pitcher, making at least 29 starts (30 or more starts four times) and pitching more than 175 innings (more than 200 twice) with a sub-3.80 ERA in five straight seasons he pitched with the St. Louis Cardinals from 2012-2017. The first part of last year looks like a black mark and little else, as Lynn fell victim to the slow MLB free agent market.

Lynn straddles the line of eligibility for a list like this, and pitching in a hitter-friendly home park might get a little sketchy as the weather really heats up in Texas. But he’s literally been one of the best pitchers in baseball lately, especially in terms of strikeouts, and his availability is worth checking on in all fantasy leagues.

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