All right, friends and neighbors. Help me out with this one.
A 28-year-old who not so long ago was thought to be one of just a handful of players capable of a 50-homer outcome snaps out of a season-long slump with a three-homer game. Meanwhile, another 28-year-old heretofore regarded as no more than a streamer type throws a no-hitter in a season when no-hitters have become a near-weekly occurrence.
Who's your headliner for Waiver Wire?
With apologies to Spencer Turnbull and the entire Turnbull clan, the diminishing historical significance of his one-outing feat pales in comparison to what a Miguel Sano turnaround could mean for an environment so lacking in impact bats -- you know, the sort of environment where no-hitters are a weekly occurrence.
That's not to say Sano is an automatic pickup or worry-free all of a sudden. He remains the epitome of a high-variance hitter -- one of the worst at making contact but one of the best at inflicting damage when he does. The latter hasn't been true for him this year, which is why he's batting just .171, but seeing as his infield-fly-ball rate is verging on 30 percent, it's fair to say he hasn't been squaring up the ball so far.
If Tuesday's performance was the start of him doing that, then he could help you make up ground in the home run category in short order. I've mentioned that he's capable of a 50-homer outcome. Just pace out his 2019 numbers -- 34 homers in 105 games -- and he's there. He's also more than once been in the 99th percentile for average exit velocity and hard-hit rate.
But of course, there's also the possibility he recedes back into utter uselessness. Such is the dilemma of the high-variance hitter. Him being essentially free in the half of CBS Sports leagues where he's available makes now a good time to gamble if you do have that sort of ground to make up in a Rotisserie league. To get the full benefit, though, you have to be willing to ride him through thick and thin ... unless, of course, it becomes immediately clear that this three-homer game was just a one-off.
So what of Turnbull? His start Tuesday was legitimately impressive. He struck out nine, walking two, and his 19 swinging strikes represented a career high. He had 16 swinging strikes in his previous start, allowing one earned run in 6 1/3 innings with seven strikeouts, and with two strong starts back-to-back, his season-long numbers are suddenly looking pretty good:
But again, he's no up-and-comer at age 28. He entered Tuesday's start with a career 4.49 ERA and 1.38 WHIP, averaging less than a strikeout per inning, and just two starts ago, his ERA for 2021 was 4.74. Of his 19 swinging strikes Tuesday, 12 came on the fastball, which has never shown to be much of a swing-and-miss pitch. Even with those impressive efforts back-to-back, his season-long swinging-strike rate is a modest 11.4 percent. It's also worth pointing out that the Mariners team he no-hit Tuesday was already no-hit once previously.
Maybe Turnbull has figured something out these past two turns that will see him soar to previously unimaginable heights, but I doubt it. As many surging starting pitchers as we've seen early this season, I'm struggling to move him into even my top 80 at the position.
I'll grant he's a more palatable pickup than both Tucker Davidson and Kris Bubic, who I'll be highlighting below, and with only 17 percent rostership, he's certainly worthy of mention in a waiver wire context. But in all honesty, my rest-of-season outlook for Turnbull isn't so rosy.
Here's who else stood out Tuesday ...