We’re now officially more than one quarter of the way through the MLB season and it’s getting increasingly difficult to find standout players on the waiver wire.

So, we need to look a bit deeper to find gems. Fear not, because there are still a handful of available players that have the chance to be difference makers in both the short and long term.

MLB Power Rankings: It’s a Motor City takeover

The Tigers claim the top spot and the red-hot Twins crack the Top 10.

• D.J. Short
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• D.J. Short
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Here are three players that are under 40% rostered on Yahoo leagues that you should strongly consider adding.

If you want a larger list, Eric Samulski wrote his extended waiver wire piece on Sunday.

Jordan Beck, OF Rockies

(30% Rostered on Yahoo)

A chaotic start to Beck’s season has turned into what appears to be a sustainable breakout that’s put him on our radar in 12-team leagues.

Beck made the Rockies’ opening day roster, but was sent down on April 6th after going 3-for-23 and striking out in nearly one third of his plate appearances. While it was a terrible week of play, it was inconceivable for Colorado to give one of their better prospects such a short leash. Alas, their rampant dysfunction is well known.

Ironically, Beck was recalled from Triple-A just 13 days later after going 5-for-37 down there and showing absolutely no signs of improvement.

Of course, he immediately hit the ground running upon his return with a five-homer barrage across three games. That surge pushed him to the top of the lineup because again, the Rockies are just managing their team based on vibes, and he hasn’t looked back.

Beck has hit either first, second, or third in each of the Rockies last 22 games and has eight home runs, two stolen bases, and a .992 OPS since being recalled. If nothing else, his power is legit with 80th percentile bat speed, consistent hard contact, and a knack for both lifting and pulling the ball.

Most importantly for Beck, his strikeouts are in check at the moment. He had an untenable 35.3% strikeout rate through 55 games as a rookie last season which halted any chance he had to be productive. That’s come all the way down to 26.7% since he came back from the minors.

That shrinking strikeout rate is supported by a chase rate that’s drifting towards league average. He’s ‘improved’ there by swinging less often, so we’re still waiting on better swing decisions from him in the zone and a better contact rate in general since his swing is so long and lends itself to plenty of whiffs.

Yet, even nominal improvements in these areas have made him much more productive. Those along with loud tools and a top-of-the-order spot makes him a fun waiver wire option

Just be mindful of the Rockies’ schedule. They just began a six-game homestand that ends this coming Sunday and will give way to a nine-game road trip. Beck hasn’t shown a strong home/road splits – .871 OPS in Coors Field, .928 OPS on the road – so far though in a small sample.

Addison Barger, 3B/OF Blue Jays

(4% Rostered on Yahoo)

What’s long been an intriguing profile for Barger looks even better at the moment at the same time he has steady playing time in Toronto.

Most notably, he has some of the best raw power in the league. He’s already hit a ball 116.5 mph this season – one of just 12 players in the league to hit a ball that hard – and is near the top of practically every Statcast Leaderboard regarding power. Often times, he accidentally finds his way into conversations that include the best power hitters in the game.

Moreover, Barger has drastically improved his swing decisions so far this season compared to last. He was a bit of a mess at the plate in 2024 during his first go-around as a big leaguer chasing too many pitches out of the strike zone and not swinging at nearly enough when they were in it.

This season, he’s totally flipped the script on each and is currently far better than league average in both regards. The sample isn’t very large yet at just 80 plate appearances, but he showed high-end plate discipline through the upper minors which makes this huge adjustment believable.

So, we have plus swing decisions and plus-plus power. That’s a strong foundation for a waiver claim. Barger has also played 10 games in a row at third base, making him someone that’s well worthy of our attention.

Those 10 consecutive starts began when Andrés Giménez went on the injured list with a quad strain. While he still has no timetable to return, he’s expected to begin running again this coming weekend which won’t put him too far off from being activated.

Of course, Giménez’s return isn’t guaranteed to put Barger back on the bench. He’s a capable corner outfielder and the Blue Jays have willingly played him there both this season and last. Right now, Nathan Lukes, Jonatan Clase, and Myles Straw are getting regular reps out there. If Barger can hit enough, he’ll remain a regular.

His underlying stats are too good right now to leave on the waiver wire in deeper leagues. There’s a strong chance production will follow.

Slade Cecconi, SP Guardians

(1% Rostered on Yahoo)

The Guardians made a somewhat strange move to acquire Cecconi this offseason as well as a Competitive Balance Round B draft pick from the Diamondbacks in exchange for Josh Naylor. They were fresh off a division championship and ALCS appearance with Naylor as a key contributor.

Yet, their starting pitching depth wore thin as the season went on and they’re not the type of organization to spend big money on pitching in free agency.

So, they took the opportunity to dump Naylor and his one remaining year of team control to take a shot on the 26-year-old Cecconi and his 6.06 ERA across 104 major league innings.

Cecconi had always exhibited solid command and a true four-pitch mix with Arizona, just without much swing-and-miss to his game. He was set to compete for their opening day rotation before allowing 10 ER in five spring innings and then wound up on the injured list with an oblique strain.

He worked his way through a trio of rehab starts over the past few weeks and had a strong season debut last weekend against the Reds where he struck out eight without walking a batter through five-plus innings and allowed three runs. All three of those runs came against the final six batters he faced.

Those strikeouts were encouraging as well as some subtle changes he made to his repertoire. Cecconi showed a new cutter that was a tick harder than his slider with tighter movement that he threw regularly against right-handed batters. Also, he drastically reduced his fastball usage against lefties in exchange for more changeups and curveballs. That fastball averaged just above 95 mph too, up from 94 mph last season.

In all, Cecconi forced 15 swings-and-misses including five each with his fastball and slider. He showed enough to believe in as a potential streamer moving forward.

The only catch is his upcoming schedule: he’s set to face the Tigers this week followed by the Dodgers, Yankees, and Astros over the next few weeks. Those are not matchups we’d be running to stream him in.

So, Cecconi is worthy of a speculative add at the moment because the changes he’s made makes him seem like someone who will wind up trustworthy, it just may take a few weeks before that trust is built.

SAN FRANCISCO — Kris Bubic’s no-hit bid for the Kansas City Royals ended with an official scoring change.

The left-hander hardly let that bother him.

Bubic made a run at a historic homecoming before settling for seven shutout innings of two-hit ball in a 3-1 victory over the San Francisco Giants.

“I knew it was happening, but I wasn’t nervous about it,” Bubic said. “I wasn’t really thinking about it. In my head I was just thinking, hey, keep attacking guys. Keep getting ahead of guys.”

Bubic initially got through six innings without allowing a hit — only to have an error charged to Royals second baseman Michael Massey changed to a single before the start of the seventh.

With two outs in the sixth, Wilmer Flores hit a grounder toward second base. Massey moved to his left and was in position to make the play but slipped to the ground at the edge of the grass as the ball rolled past him into the outfield.

The play initially was ruled an error by official scorer Michael Duca, and Bubic then struck out Jung Hoo Lee to end the inning.

But moments later, after reviewing video, Duca changed his call to a base hit for Flores.

Casey Schmitt’s clean double down the left-field line with one out in the seventh was the only other hit off Bubic (5-2). He struck out five, walked three and lowered his ERA to 1.47.

That’s the second-lowest mark for a Royals pitcher through his first 10 starts of a season. Zack Greinke was at 0.84 in 2009, when he won the AL Cy Young Award.

Vinnie Pasquantino, who hit a two-run homer off reliever Tyler Rogers (2-2) to break a scoreless tie in the eighth, raved about Bubic.

“Hitters getting to first base, talking about how frustrating it is facing him,” Pasquantino said. “That’s what you’re looking for. He was ridiculous again tonight.”

In his past four starts, Bubic has permitted one run over 25 1/3 innings.

This outing came in the ballpark where Bubic grew up rooting for the Giants. He went to Archbishop Mitty High School in San Jose and then to college at Stanford.

“I’ve probably sat in every area in this ballpark,” he said.

The 27-year-old Bubic estimated he had 30-40 family members and friends in attendance.

“You always want to do well in front of them. It makes life a little easier for everybody,” Bubic joked.

He referenced the fact that he had made two previous starts at Oracle Park, including when he pitched six scoreless innings in a 3-1 loss on April 9, 2023. Bubic said that experience kept away the jitters.

“I treated this like any other game,” he explained. “It’s cool to be able to pitch in front of friends and family and I’m glad they got to see a win.”

Bubic underwent Tommy John surgery in 2023 and was strictly a reliever in 27 appearances last season.

He made one start with a longer no-hit bid: On Aug. 21, 2021, Bubic threw six hitless innings against the Chicago Cubs at Wrigley Field.

After a weather delay, he allowed a walk and then a home run to Patrick Wisdom. Bubic gave up just that one hit over 6 1/3 innings in the Royals’ 4-2 win.

MILWAUKEE — Milwaukee Brewers catcher William Contreras is learning how to keep hitting the ball hard while dealing with a fractured left middle finger.

Contreras has been playing through this injury for much of the season, which has impacted the hitting production of one of the game’s top catchers. But he’s turned a corner lately.

The two-time All-Star went 4 for 4 with a pair of doubles and hit a tiebreaking two-out RBI single in the eighth inning of the Milwaukee Brewers’ 5-4 victory over the Baltimore Orioles. He has gone 9 for 16 at the plate over his last five games.

“It’s been the William Contreras who finished in the top five of the MVP voting last year,” Brewers manager Pat Murphy said.

Contreras ranked fifth in the MVP balloting after leading Milwaukee to a second straight NL Central title last year. Contreras understands how much he means to this team, which helps explain why he has continued to play just about every day even while facing this injury.

“I’ve worked too hard to miss a day,” Contreras said. “I don’t want to take two or three months off.”

Teammates appreciate Contreras’ ability to play through pain. Contreras has missed just three of Milwaukee’s first 48 games this season after playing 155 games last year. Even when he isn’t catching, Contreras typically remains in the lineup as a designated hitter.

“It really shows his passion to one, play the game, and also about how important he thinks winning is and how badly he wants to win and be a part of it,” pitcher Quinn Priester said. “It’s really easy to play with and trust a guy like that.”

The Brewers reconfigured Contreras’ catching mitt to help him avoid feeling so much pain with every foul tip he gets while working behind the plate. Contreras has continued doing an outstanding job behind the plate, as Statcast ranks him among the NL’s best catchers at throwing out potential base stealers.

His injury had a bigger effect on his hitting.

Contreras homered April 13 in a 5-2 loss at Arizona but didn’t get another extra-base hit until May 11, when he went deep again in a 4-2 victory at Tampa Bay. That represented quite a drop for someone who had won the Silver Slugger as the NL’s top hitting catcher each of the last two seasons.

He has looked more like his usual self at the plate.

Contreras’ surge started when he went 3 of 4 with a double and scored four runs in a 9-5 victory at Cleveland. That began a five-game stretch in which his batting average has improved from .224 to .258, his on-base percentage has soared from .333 to .370 and his slugging percentage has improved from .322 to .371.

While metrics show Contreras hasn’t hit the ball as hard this year as in previous seasons, he’s clearly making progress in that regard. All four of his most recent hits had an exit velocity exceeding 100 mph.

“It’s hard to hit a ball hard with that finger because there’s pain sometimes,” Contreras said. “But I don’t have to think too much about my finger because I’m going to keep playing the rest of the season.”

BOSTON — New York Mets manager Carlos Mendoza said he’ll talk to Juan Soto about hustling out of the batter’s box after the slugger watched his would-be home run bounce off the Green Monster for a single against the Boston Red Sox.

Leading off the sixth inning on a chilly night at Fenway Park with a 15 mph wind blowing in from left field, Soto hit a 102 mph line drive to left and stood watching as it sailed toward the Green Monster. The ball hit about two-thirds of the way up the 37-foot wall, and Soto was only able to manage a single.

“He thought he had it,” Mendoza told reporters after his team’s 3-1 loss. “But with the wind and all that, and in this ballpark — anywhere, but in particular in this one, with that wall right there — you’ve got to get out of the box. So, yeah, we’ll discuss that.”

Soto stole second on the first pitch to the next batter, but the $765 million star ended up stranded on third. He denied lollygagging on the basepaths.

“I think I’ve been hustling pretty hard,” he said. “If you see it today, you can tell.”

It’s not uncommon for balls hit off the Green Monster to result in singles: In the first inning, Pete Alonso was thrown out trying for second base on a ball off the left-field wall. But Soto had also failed to run hard out of the box on a groundout at Yankee Stadium.

“We’ll talk to him about it,” Mendoza said.