Welcome to Waiver Wire Watch, our weekly fantasy baseball waiver wire guide. We'll be doing things a little differently this season, with Eric Samulski publishing the initial waiver-wire article on Friday afternoon. Then James Schiano updates it every Sunday to make sure you get the most up-to-date information.
The premise of the article is pretty straightforward. We'll give you some recommended adds each week based on recent production or role changes. When we list a player, we'll list the category where we think he’ll be helpful or the quick reason he’s listed. We hope it helps you determine if the player fits what your team needs. Not every "trending" player will be a good addition for your specific roster.
To qualify for this list, a player needs to be UNDER 40% rostered in Yahoo! formats. We understand you may say, “These players aren’t available in my league,” and we can’t help you there. These players are available in over 60% of leagues and some in 98% of leagues, so they’re available in many places, and that can hopefully satisfy readers who play in all league types.
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Fantasy Baseball Waiver Wire Hitters
Josh Bell - 1B, MIN (38% rostered)
(STARTING JOB, COUNTING STAT UPSIDE)
Bell was on here last week and has jumped from 27% rostered to 38% rostered. He has slowed down a little bit over the last week, but he appeared in Eric's preseason article on Process+ leaders. He and Andrew Vaughn were the only two hitters on the list who scored over 100 (better than league average) in all of Decision Value, Contact Value, and Power Value. The decision part shouldn’t surprise you for Bell since he has a career 11.2% walk rate and sub-26% chase rate. Bell also has a career 10% SwStr% and has been above an 85% zone contact rate every year since 2022, so he has at least league-average contact ability, if not slightly better. All of that is pretty appealing. Plus, Minnesota has been super pull-happy as a team, and Bell is now among the top 15 hitters in baseball in Pull Air rate, which means he's likely to hit for more power than we've seen from him in the past. That's a profile that works in most league types. We also think more people need to be rostering Jake Burger - 1B, TEX (23% rostered). He was featured inEric’s article on hitters who have changed their swing this season. He has five home runs already and is playing every day in the middle of Texas' lineup. If you need power, he's a great bet.
Jeremiah Jackson - 2B/3B/OF, BAL (37% rostered)
(FULL-TIME JOB, POTENTIAL LATE BREAKOUT)
With Jackson Holliday and Jordan Westburg hurt and Coby Mayo struggling, Jackson has emerged into a full-time role in Baltimore and could hold onto it even when Holliday is back from his wrist injury. On the season, Jackson is hitting .321/.328/.571 with four home runs and 14 RBI. He has yet to steal a base this season, but he stole 11 in 85 minor league games last year and has multiple 20-stolen-base seasons in the minors, so there is double-digit speed upside here if Baltimore ever decides to run. Jackson is not going to walk, and he is going to swing and miss, but he has started swinging more often, which gives him more chances to make meaningful contact. He's also pulling the ball more this season, which has led to an early 11.6% barrel rate. This is more about an approach change than anything. Jackson isn't going to knock the cover off the ball, and he's not going to take a walk, so the Orioles have gotten his bat speed up slightly and have him being more aggressive and looking to get the ball out front more often. That has led him to maximize his contact more often. If he keeps his starting role, there is a world where he is a 15/10 guy with a .250-.260 average while hitting in the middle of a strong lineup. Given his multi-position eligibility, that's a valuable piece on your roster.
Xander Bogaerts - SS, SD (36% rostered)
(EVERY DAY JOB, COUNTING STAT UPSIDE, POWER BOOST?
Look, Bogey gets forgotten about because he's 33 and people treat him like he's boring, but he's doing some interesting things this season. He's changed his swing a bit, making it a bit steeper, which hasn't led to more fly balls, but is just allowing him to create more backspin and hit the ball a bit harder. Pair that with a more opposite field approach where he is letting the ball travel deeper, and we're seeing a few more barrels and more hard contact. He's also been far more aggressive in the zone, raising his zone swing rate by almost 8%. Considering he has always made an elite level of contact, being more aggressive has led to more meaningful contact early in the season. Could this be a 15/15 or a 15/20 season from Bogey while batting .270 again? That's boring but valuable production.
Colt Keith - 1B/2B/3B, DET (29% rostered)
(STRONG-SIDE PLATOON, BATTING AVERAGE UPSIDE)
Keith is another player Eric covered in his article last week on hitters who have changed their stance or approach. The 24-year-old has had the second-biggest jump in bat speed, up 2.8 mph from 70.7 mph to 73.5 mph. Keith has also made some changes to his batting stance, closing his stance off by eight degrees. He has also improved his Ideal Angle Attack Rate significantly, which might be why Keith has seen his line drive rate improve by almost 3%, and his hard-hit rate is up from 43.7% to 56.5%. He sits versus lefties and can also be removed mid-game when a lefty comes in, which is a bummer, but this is a former top prospect who is playing nearly every day and hitting the ball well. That's worth buying into.
Mickey Moniak - OF, COL (22% rostered)
(REGULAR PLAYING TIME, POWER UPSIDE)
Moniak was a hitter Eric covered in a few offseason articles. Last year, he posted his best season yet, and not just in surface-level stats. His bat speed increased, his barrel rate jumped to nearly 14%, his hard-hit rate was a career-high 45%, and he made more contact than he ever had before. He has plenty of power and hits in arguably the best offensive environment in the game. Maybe he’s more of a .250-.260 hitter, given his league average overall contact, but he’s going to make that contact count. That's especially true this year since he's swinging more often than he ever has before, which gives him more chances to make impactful contact. The Rockies have four games at home next week, and will face five righties overall, so that's good news for Moniak and Troy Johnston - OF, COL (4% rostered) and T.J. Rumfield - 1B, COL (13% rostered).
Ryan Jeffers - C, MIN (18% rostered)
(PLAYING TIME INCREASE, POWER UPSIDE)
Jeffers may be our favorite catcher waiver add of the week. He appeared in Eric’s article this week on hitters to buybecause he has a 50% hard-hit rate with better-than-league-average contact rates and swinging strike rates. That's a combination we love. Jeffers has been a bit underrated in recent years, but he is no longer splitting time as much as he has in the past, and he’s crushing the ball right now. Another catcher we like is Gary Sanchez - C, MIL (4% rostered), who should be the near every day designated hitter in Milwaukee with Christian Yelich out, so that’s going to give him about a month of playing time. He has great power potential in that linep and would be an elite two-catcher league option who can even be considered in one-catcher formats. Another option would be Dillon Dingler - C, DET (33% rostered).
Garett Mitchell - OF, MIL (14% rostered)
(STARTING JOB, POWER/SPEED UPSIDE)
We're just going to keep Mitchell on here until more people add him. He's a former first-round pick and an intriguing prospect who has never played more than 69 games in a big league season due to injuries. He's healthy now and has gone 11-for-41 (.268) with three doubles, 13 RBI, and three steals to start the season. Mitchell has an 9.5% career barrel rate and the 11th-fastest bat speed in the big leagues, so he's not swinging a wet noodle. He also has the speed to swipe 20+ bases if he gets a full season of playing time. We doubt he'll get a full season of playing time, but he's healthy now, so it could be worth taking a gamble and riding the production as long as he's on the field. However, Mitchell will sit against left-handed pitching, so that needs to be part of your calculus. It's early, but he's top 25 in baseball in both barrels per batted ball event and exit velocity on fly balls and line drives, so I think there is some real power growth about to happen here.
Jose Fernandez - SS, ARI (14% rostered)
(PLAYING TIME OPPORTUNITY, POWER UPSIDE
People were so ready to move on from Fernandez after he didn't match the production of his two-homer debut, but we have to have more patience than that. An injury to Carlos Santana has opened more at-bats for Fernandez, and he is now an everyday player in Arizona. He hasn't hit a home run since his debut, but the tools you were enamored with - his elite bat speed and sprint speed - still exist. The 22-year-old was not a top prospect in Arizona's system, but he made big strides in Double-A last year to cut his strikeout rate. He chases too much out of the zone, and there is no long track record of minor league success, so there may be some bumps along the way. However, he has plus raw tools and a clear job, so this is worth a gamble in most formats.
Spencer Steer - 1B/OF, CIN (13% rostered)
(REGULAR PLAYING TIME, POTENTIAL BOUNCEBACK)
Spencer Steer got off to a slow start to the season, like most Reds hitters, but over the last two weeks, he's gone 11-for-43 (.256) with three home runs and four RBI. His bat speed is back up around 2024 levels, and he's made a slight swing change to steepen his bat path and the angle of his barrel at contact. So far, that's helped produce a 17% barrel rate and an 8% increase in fly ball rate. He's also chasing far more outside of the zone and making contact on a lot of those pitches, which is not ideal because it's hard to do damage on pitches outside of the zone. The narrative for adding Steer is that he's a multi-position player with an everyday role in a great hitter's park who seems to be making a swing change geared towards more power production. Maybe it works.
Sam Antonacci - 2B/3B, CWS (11% rostered)
(PROSPECT PEDIGREE, OBP LEAGUE RISER)
The White Sox actually called up Antonacci to make his major league debut, and he has gone 1-for-7 in his first two starts. He's been a prospect riser over the past year and made a name for himself with Team Italy in the World Baseball Classic. In the minors, he exhibited an extremely patient approach with one of the lowest swing rates in the minors in a small sample at Triple-A. He has a plus hit tool that allows him to make contact on the few pitches he does decide to swing at, but he has never been a huge power hitter. There have been some signs of modest growth there, but you're not getting power out of him, and the counting stats should be modest on a pretty mediocre team. He's likely to run a high on-base percentage and is a fun deep league option given what we hope to be regular playing time with multi-position eligibility and massive stolen base upside.
Moises Ballesteros - C, CHC (8% rostered)
(PLAYING TIME OPPORTUNITY, POWER UPSIDE)
Now, this is a bit tricky because Ballesteros is only catcher-eligible in formats like Yahoo with lower games played thresholds. That being said, he is the Cubs’ DH against all right-handed pitchers, and his quality of contact is off the charts, with a 60% hard-hit rate and 17% barrel rate in the early going. We had thought there might be a chance that Matt Shaw pushed Ballesteros to the bench, but that doesn’t seem likely now. If you have a UTIL spot that you can use for just a good, pure hitter, and especially if you're in a daily moves league where you can shift Ballesteros to the bench against lefties, he's worth a look.
Dominic Smith - 1B, ATL (7% rostered)
(REGULAR PLAYING TIME, HOT STREAK)
Will this stick for Dom Smith? We have no idea, but he's hitting .381/.400/.643 with three home runs and 15 RBI in 15 games, so we can't ignore this. He flattened his swing and made his bat head a little less steep at the point of contact, which has led to a drop in his launch angle this season. However, there's an argument that it has also allowed him to create more backspin because his barrel rate has nearly doubled, his average exit velocity is up almost four mph, and his hard-hit rate is up 5%. He is also playing in a hitter-friendly park where he doesn't need to pull the ball to get it out of the park. He will sit versus lefties, and this hot streak may end at any point, but there is nobody pushing him out of this job, so you should run with it while the hot streak is going.
Edouard Julien - 1B/2B, COL (4% rostered)
(OBP LEAGUE BOOST, BATTING AVERAGE UPSIDE)
Julien appeared in Eric’s offseason column on post-hype hitters, where Eric wrote: "If the Rockies did it for Mickey Moniak, can they do it for Eduoard Julien? For his career, Julien has a nearly 32% strikeout rate but just a 10% swinging strike rate? How does that happen? Well, he also has a 20% called strike rate. His nearly 25% early called strike rate is well above the league average of 21%, and he has gotten himself into two-strike counts nearly 32% of the time in his career; that’s 15th-percentile in baseball. Can a move to a more hitter-friendly environment help him unlock an approach change? Julien has a 12% barrel rate and 42% hard-hit rate during his career, so we know he can make quality contact. He doesn’t pull the ball often and is below league average in Pull Air%, so it would be unlikely that he ever becomes a major home run threat, but his batted ball profile should enable him to post a strong batting average in Coors Field." So far, Julien is actually swinging LESS OFTEN and taking the same amount of called strikes. However, he is pulling the ball 11% more often. Far too much of that is on the ground, but he could be a batting average option as the leadoff hitter in Colorado when they're at home. Another option in deeper formats would be Nick Yorke - 2B/3B, PIT (1% rostered), who has emerged into an everyday role in Pittsburgh and has a 50% hard-hit rate with a 97% zone contact rate and 6% swinging strike rate. If you're going to make that level of contact and also post hard-hit rates around 50%, that will put you on the deep-league radar.
Carlos Cortes - OF, ATH (1% rostered)
(PLAYING TIME OPPORTUNITY, MODEST POWER/SPEED COMBO)
Cortes is an interesting name to appear on here because he has stepped into Brent Rooker’s spot in the Athletics’ lineup. We don’t have a huge MLB sample size for Cortes, but he was good in Triple-A last year, and his quality of contact has been great this season. He also seems to have a really good sense of the strike zone and makes a ton of contact in the zone. If you pair that with his great home park, it’s hard not to get a little excited about this for deeper formats.
George Valera - OF, CLE (0% rostered)
(PROSPECT PEDIGREE, COMING OFF THE IL)
The 25-year-old former top prospect was supposed to be a regular starter in the outfield for Cleveland before he got hurt in spring training. He started three straight games against right-handed pitching since coming off the IL, so it seems like he has returned right into the starting lineup. Last year, he hit .318/.388/.550 in 44 minor league games with seven home runs. He hasn't provided much stolen base value in the minors, so this could be just a batting average and modest counting stat play for deeper formats. Leody Taveras - OF, BAL (0% rostered) has also been starting against right-handed pitching and has gone 12-for-32 (.375) on the season with five runs scored and eight RBI. We've seen him provide stolen base value in the past, so perhaps that can emerge as well. Right now, this is just AL-only and daily move 15-team leagues.
Fantasy Baseball Waiver Wire Pitchers
Noah Schultz - SP, CWS (39% rostered)
The White Sox called up Schultz to make his major league debut on Tuesday against the Rays. It was a mixed debut that showcased high velo and a nice cutter to righties, but also some command issues and inconsistent breaking balls. Pair that with his limited minor league innings totals and the White Sox saying they have a clear pitch count plan for him, and it's hard to get overly excited for this season. Eric recorded a video with more detailed thoughts on his performance and fantasy upside.
Steven Matz - SP, TB (39% rostered)
The Rays are leaning into Matz’s changeup more. He’s using it 31% of the time this year and almost exclusively to righties. The pitch has slightly less drop this season, but a bit more arm-side run at a slower velocity, which has helped. He’s also doing a much better job of commanding it low and away to righties, which has led to a huge jump in SwStr%. However, it should be noted that most of those swinging strikes have come early in the count, and the changeup has not led to many strikeouts against righties. He has also turned his slider into more of a whiff pitch, cutting about 5 mph but adding over six inches of drop and seven inches of horizontal run. It’s more of a sweeper now than a traditional slider, and that’s OK for us. The SwStr% against lefties is at 25%, but he threw just nine TOTAL sliders to lefties last year, and he’s now using it 18.2% of the time to them. That’s gonna add more strikeout upside. Matz should probably be held in 12-team formats, even if you need to bench him against the toughest offenses.
Jakob Junis - RP, TEX (33% rostered)
Junis was a huge waiver wire pick-up last week, but as Eric mentioned in the video he recorded about him that week, Junis is a command pitcher who leads with his slider and doesn't miss many bats. That's not a profile we expect to lead to a consistent closer, but he is part of the committee right now if you want to take a chance. Cole Winn - RP, TEX (3% rostered) might be our preferred option in Texas in the longer-term. Winn posted a 1.51 ERA in 41.2 innings last season for Texas. The issue for Winn is that he doesn't have elite stuff or strikeout rates, which could hurt his chances of earning a late-inning gig. However, if you're in really deep formats, he could be worth a gamble.
Reid Detmers - SP, LAA (31% rostered)
Detmers carved up the Yankees this week with 17 whiffs and nine strikeouts in seven innings of work. A big part of that is that he "found" his changeup grip. He has been using the changeup again earlier in the season, but it was functioning more as a splitter. Before this start, he claimed he found a grip that worked better for him, and the pitch was great with an 87.5% strike rate and six whiffs. If Detmers can continue to have success with that changeup, it's going to be huge for him this season. But that remains an if.
Spencer Arrighetti - SP, HOU (28% rostered)
Hunter Brown is likely to be out for at least a month, and very likely more, and Cristian Javier and Tatsuya Imai are also dealing with injuries, so Arrighetti is getting a shot in the rotation. He makes us a little nervous because he ended last season with an elbow injury and started this year delayed because of injury as well. However, you're not using a draft pick on him now, so you can put a modest waiver bid on him and see if he can remain healthy long enough to be useful for your team. His curveball was great in his first start against the Rockies, but that pitch has always been a bit inconsistent for him. When it's on, he's electric. When it's off, he doesn't have enough.
Landen Roupp - SP, SF (28% rostered)
Last week we had Roupp here and said that we hadn't given up on Roupp yet. Then he went out and threw six shutout innings in Cincinnati with six strikeouts and just one hit allowed. There weren't a ton of whiffs here, but he got plenty of strikes on his curveball, which he has gotten more drop on this season and leaned into using more against lefties. The command still wasn't pristine here, and we have some concerns about his ability to consistently hit spots, but his pitch mix is deep, and he sequences well, and that's going to help him in most formats.
Mick Abel - SP, MIN (21% rostered)
We mentioned last week that you can't completely abandon pitchers you believed in after just two starts. Yes, if you see a high-upside waiver-wire arm, feel free to make a move, but we shouldn't have been cutting Abel just because of one relief appearance and one start in a blizzard. He now has back-to-back starts without allowing a run and has struck out 16 in those 13 innings. His fastball has been sitting 95 mph and located really well at the top of the zone. Against the Red Sox, his changeup carved up lefties. I wish he were more consistent with his breaking balls, but he has a true six-pitch mix and can keep hitters off-balance. This is a buy in all formats.
Bryan Baker - RP, TB (20% rostered)
I'm not quite sure why Baker's roster rate hasn't gotten higher after he stepped into the closer's role in Tampa Bay. It hasn't been without some hiccups, but he has some of the best Stuff+ grades in the Rays' bullpen, thanks to a strong slider and changeup, and is clearly the primary guy in the Rays' bullpen right now. You can feel free to stash Edwin Uceta - RP, TB (19% rostered), who has looked good in his rehab assignment so far, but we would be rolling with Baker until we see a clear changing of the guard. He should have been added the way Junis was.
Bryan King - RP, HOU (9% rostered)
Josh Hader is still "at least" a month away, so somebody has to close games in Houston. Bryan Abreu has gotten the "vote of confidence," but he has also looked really bad this season. King is a left-handed pitcher, but he's been counted on to close games a few times this year, and could do it again. You could also turn to Enyel De Los Santos - RP, HOU (6% rostered), as the right-handed option, since he has two saves this season as well, and the Astros will likely mix-and-match until (if) Hader is back.
Carmen Mlodzinski - SP, PIT (6% rostered)
The Pirates have been using Mlodzinski behind a follower, and it has really been working. It gives him an easier shot at a win and also allows him to avoid a team's best hitters one extra time. We're OK taking a gamble here in deeper formats, but there is some concern that he only has a 23% strikeout rate and 8.5% swinging strike rate on the season. He is also really reliant on his splitter, which was great against the Nationals last time out but is less of a weapon against righties. This feels like a streaming play.
Brandon Sproat - SP, MIL (6% rostered
A lot of people abandoned Sproat after his rough start to the season, but he looked good against the Blue Jays on Thursday, with a 71% strike rate, 16% swinging strike rate, and 32% CSW. He led with the cutter, throwing it 11% more often than he has so far this season, using it over 30% to both righties and lefties. He got tons of called strikes on it against righties and tried to jam it inside to lefties. However, the other big change was that he basically scrapped his sinker against lefties, throwing just one. Instead, he used his four-seamer 33% of the time to lefties, and it posted a 20% SwStr% and 50% CSW with a 100% strike rate. If he can get ahead with the four-seam to lefties and then use his curve, that's going to help. He was then cutter/sweeper/sinker to righties, and that also worked with the cutter away and sinker inside, and then using the sweeper for whiffs. This is an approach that can work, but it might be a bit narrow of a pitch mix if anything is "off" on a given day. However, with Detroit, Arizona, and St. Louis coming up, I can gamble in deeper formats.
Jack Kochanowicz - SP, LAA (4% rostered)
Kochanowicz has raised his arm angle from 30° to 37°. The four-seamer has very little change in its shape and is now actually steeper because of the higher slot, and the sinker has a bit less drop than it did last year. A bigger change for Kochanowicz has been that his changeup usage is up to 27% overall from 14% last year. His usage against lefties, specifically, has gone from 20% to 33.6%, and the swinging strike rate has improved to 22%. That could be because the pitch has over two inches more arm-side run and over two inches more drop while still being thrown over 90 mph. That’s an interesting pairing with his sinker, which is now not sinking as much at the higher arm angle. That might be part of the reason why Kochanowicz is throwing the changeup over 22% of the time to righties after using it under 6% of the time to them last year. Kochanowicz also tweaked his slider, adding four inches of drop and sweep while keeping the same velocity. Against righties specifically, he’s now using it 6% more in two-strike counts and has a solid 25% PutAway Rate, which measures how often a two-strike pitch results in a strikeout. The command of that pitch is not great, and he’s throwing it up in the zone far too often, but it’s a new shape, so you have to assume he will get more comfortable with it. These changes put Kochanowicz firmly on the streaming radar when I would not have trusted him in any matchup last year.
Matthew Pouliot
