Mid-Week Dynasty Baseball Pickups - 4/23/26

Welcome back to another week of Dynasty Baseball Pickups! Unfortunately, the Mid-Week Curse has struck again: James Ellwanger, who was featured in last week's article and last weekend's podcast, has just been placed on the 60-day IL in the minors due to a right elbow sprain. He's getting shut down for 4-6 weeks, then getting built back up, as the MRI didn't show much of a difference, but this could also be the precursor to a major injury, such as Tommy John.

On the bright side, Joshua Kuroda-Grauer is continuing to rake (he has 3 HR since I wrote him up last week, including a two-homer game, giving him 5 on the year), and Jesus Pinto finally got an extra-base hit (a double) and set a new max EV of 109.8, though he's still underperforming his expected stats.

I hope the curse doesn't strike again, as I'm recommending a pitcher about to make his MLB debut this week, along with another player who has promise as a two-way player. Without further ado, let's get into this week's recommendations!

Dynasty Baseball Pickups - Prospects LiveRaj Mehta and Kyle SonntagProspects LiveKyle Sonntag

Mid-Week Pickups

Eduardo Rivera - 23/SP/BOS/MLB

Photo Credit: mlb.com

Height/Weight: 6’7”/237 lbs Throws: Left Fantrax Roster%: 5% PLive-: 90 PLive Prospect Ranking (Feb. 2026): Unranked 2025 stats (A+/AA): 20 G, 87.0 IP, 2.48 ERA, 1.16 WHIP, 3.22 FIP, 29.7% K%/12.6% BB% 2026 stats (AA): 2 G, 10.0 IP, 0.90 ERA, 0.90 WHIP, 1.56 FIP, 41.0% K%/7.7% BB%

Why to pick up: When**** I chose to write about Rivera, he was 2% rostered. Then it was announced that he was being promoted from Double-A to Triple-A, which quickly turned into a promotion straight to MLB, and his Fantrax roster rate has since more than doubled. While I think the move is aggressive (especially for a Red Sox team that has guys like Payton Tolle and Jake Bennett at Triple-A and already on the 40-man), Rivera has earned at least some sort of consideration based on his performance so far. In ten innings across two starts at Double-A, he’s allowed just one run on six hits and three walks, and has struck out a whopping 16 batters. That resulted in a strikeout rate of 41.0%.

Taylor wrote up Eduardo Rivera last year; back then, his fastball sat in the 92-94 range and topped out at 95. This year, the stuff seems to have ticked up, as when Rivera pitched in the World Baseball Classic, his fastball averaged 95.2 mph and topped out at 98.1 mph. It also averaged 18 inches of induced vertical break, but some of that is manufactured by his high vertical release point. He also featured a changeup (which was sometimes mislabeled as a sinker) that averaged 89.0 mph, along with a gyro slider that averaged 87.1 mph. Per tjStuff+, the fastball and slider are both above-average offerings, while the changeup is slightly below average, in part because it doesn’t get as much separation from the fastball as you’d like despite the high velocity. Here’s his pitching summary from the WBC and Spring Training, courtesy of TJStats, which includes all of his pitch data and tjStuff+ grades:

Why to think twice: As you can see from the pitching summary above, Rivera relies heavily on the fastball, throwing it at a 76% rate. While it is a good fastball, that high a usage rate means hitters can sit on it and see it enough to get their timing down. A similar thing happened to Red Sox prospect Payton Tolle last year — he dominated in the minor leagues with a fastball that graded out better than Rivera’s, but posted a 6.06 ERA in the majors as hitters were able to damage the fastball when they got it, and when they didn’t they laid off on the secondaries and drew walks as Tolle wasn’t able to throw them as competitively. Rivera at least has a feel for his changeup, but developing more pitches and throwing them for strikes will be key for him to become the best version of himself.

Final thoughts: Initially, I had Rivera as a pickup for leagues with 250+ prospects rostered and a moderate FAAB bid, but with him getting called up, I’m bumping the recommendation to leagues with 200+ prospects and the bid to aggressive. He may not be worth that amount in FAAB, but with the buzz around his call-up, along with his elite results, there’ll be lots of suitors, so you’ll have to be aggressive if you want him. The call-up muddies the waters in terms of his value (as there’s a chance he’s used out of the bullpen), but I believe his future is in the rotation.

Where to pick up: Leagues with 200+ prospects rostered FAAB Bid: Aggressive (10-15%)

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