Cristian Javier looking like a draft-day steal

Cristian Javier helped no-hit the Yankees over the weekend and has quietly provided a ton of value to managers who selected him late in their drafts.

Video Transcript

– Cristian Javier and two Astros relievers combined for a no hitter on Saturday, June 25 against the Yankees. And the Yankees entered that game in the Bronx boasting the best offense in baseball in terms of both runs scored and team-wide OPS. Javier covered the first seven innings, and racked up 13 strikeouts, while issuing just one walk.

Hector Neris then handled a scoreless eighth, pitching around two walks. And Ryan Pressly closed it out with a 1 to 3 bottom of the ninth. It was the first time the Yankees had been no hit in 19 years, and the 13 K’s from Javier were a career high. He lowered his season ERA to 2.73, and upped his overall strikeout total to 81 through 62 and 2/3 innings. That’s a K for nine of 11.6, which is fourth best among all pitchers with at least 60 innings this year, behind only Dylan Cease, Shane McClanahan, and Shohei Ohtani.

Because of his sometimes unreliable command in a not so certain place in the Houston rotation, Javier went as the 227th pick in the average Yahoo draft this spring. The 85th starting pitcher off the board. A draft a steal, to say the least. He has been part of history here in the first half of the 2022 campaign. And the 25-year-old right-hander can be a key cog in championship runs for fantasy managers, down the stretch in the second half.

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