We are officially in the fantasy baseball championship push.
Whether you’re trying to hold onto a top spot, pushing the leader, desperately trying to play catch up, or positioning yourself for playoff matchups, reinforcements and upside are vital this time of year.
Most waiver wires have been picked over though and it’s difficult to find impact players readily available in most leagues at this point in the season.
Fear not, because there are still a handful of available players that have the chance to be difference makers that help push us towards glory.
Roman Anthony surges, and Sal Stewart and Payton Tolle crack the top 200 in their rankings debuts.
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 extendedwaiver wire piece on Sunday.
Kyle Bradish, SP Orioles
(38% Rostered on Yahoo)
Out for more than a calendar year as he recovered from Tommy John surgery, Bradish has been better than expected upon returning. Through two starts, he’s struck out 15 batters and walked two in 10 innings and only allowed four earned runs (3.60 ERA).
Most of that production came in his first start off the injured list when he struck out 10 Red Sox over six innings and allowed two runs via two solo homers.
His slider and curveball were sharp and combined for 11 total swings-and-misses while his fastball and sinker each sat around 95 mph, exactly where they were pre-surgery. It was a very encouraging return.
He struggled a bit more with the Padres on Monday, where he only completed four innings and allowed six total base runners.
Yet, he was dealing with an erratic strike zone from home plate umpire Gabe Morales and didn’t allow much hard contact at all. If a 35-pitch second inning that spun off the rails went a bit different, we could’ve been looking at back-to-back excellent starts.
Apart from these great results and prominence of his breaking stuff, there’s been an interesting change to Bradish’s fastball shape over these two starts.
Over the last few seasons, he pushed his four-seam fastball mostly out of his repertoire to make room for more sinkers. That is, until these last two starts.
It makes sense why he would’ve: opposing hitters slugged over .500 against that fastball since he debuted in 2022 and it had an unspectacular movement profile without any ride and lots of cut to his glove-side.
Now, for the first time in his career, he’s getting some legitimate vertical action on that pitch. It's added over two inches of induced vertical break (IVB) over these two starts compared to before his surgery and is better than league average there for the first time in his career.
I still don’t know if that pitch can get whiffs, but simply not getting crushed could be a big deal as Bradish still has two elite breaking balls and a solid sinker that he can command beautifully. Just check out this sequence to Jarren Duran last week where he worked his slider, that new cut-ride fastball, and a gorgeous front-hip sinker for a strikeout.
There was fair skepticism surrounding how effective Bradish could be after a nearly 15-month layoff and 6.06 ERA at Triple-A while he was rehabbing. He’s silenced that doubt though and looks like he could go on a tear over this final month of the season.
Payton Tolle, SP Red Sox
(31% Rostered on Yahoo)
Tolle joined Jonah Tong (48% rostered on Yahoo) last Friday as 22-year-olds to make their major league debuts.
Tong was drafted out of high school, spent the last few years developing in the Mets’ critically acclaimed pitching lab, and struck out nearly 40% of all the hitters he faced coming up through the minors. He had a quick rise to the majors, but it made sense given his fantastic stuff and results.
The speed of Tolle’s ascent was even more shocking.
Drafted in the second round of the 2024 draft out of TCU, he was a breakout star that season after transferring in from Wichita State. He didn’t pitch professionally after the draft and began this season at High-A.
Then, was promoted to Double-A Greenville towards the end of June and only made nine appearances in the upper minors before reaching the bigs. He threw just 91 2/3 total innings in the minor leagues.
Through every level, he had a 3.04 ERA and struck out 133 batters with just 23 walks. That came out to a 36.5% strikeout rate and 6.3% walk rate, respectively.
Incredible results aside, a pitcher like Tolle needed to showcase MLB-caliber stuff to rise through a system that quickly and be expected to contribute to a playoff team. He has that stuff and then some.
His fastball sits at 96 mph from the left side with slightly above average ride from his three-quarters arm slot and 7.5 feet of extension. He relied on it for 60% of his total pitches in his debut and by all intents and purposes, it’s already one of the best fastballs by any lefty starter in the league. Check out how explosive it is.
Past that exceptional heater, he has a slew of secondaries that he mixed.
His cutter was the most thrown among them at 24% against an all right-handed Pirates lineup. It forced two swings-and-misses and sat at 90 mph with good bite. His changeup forced two whiffs, and that was only against three total swings. Lastly, his slider only forced one and it could’ve been the ugliest swing he got all night.
The command of those secondaries is certainly iffy and he’ll need to locate them better to get more chases. Plus, Fenway Park is a brutal place to pitch.
Still, that fastball is so good that you have to pick Tolle up now and figure out the rest later.
Sal Stewart, 2B/3B Reds
(9% Rostered on Yahoo)
Promoted without the same fanfare as Tolle or Tong, Stewart comes to the Reds as one of the most well-rounded hitting prospects from the upper minors this season.
Through 118 games at Double-A and Triple-A, he hit 20 homers and 34 doubles with a .309/.383/.524 slash line. That came with 17 stolen bases, a 15.6% strikeout rate, and 9.3% walk rate. Like I said, this is a rather complete skill set.
We had statcast data for Stewart during the 38 games he played at Triple-A and can see that he hit the ball incredibly hard there. Huge thanks to Prospect Savant for their amazing site and this sensational visual.
Those hard-hit numbers are gaudy and his 113.7 mph max exit velocity tells us that there’s enough raw power here to expect something like a 30 homer hitter. Also, he can pull the ball, lift the ball, and run a high contact rate given how often he swings.
At the end of the day, this is a hitter that can do serious damage in a park like Great American Ballpark with any level of consistent playing time.
Stewart’s problem has always been on the other side of the ball though as scouts have been critical of his defense. He spent nearly all of his time at the upper minors playing third base with some time at second base sprinkled in. Yet, he made his major league debut at first as Spencer Steer was out tending to a nagging leg injury.
The injury hasn’t been serious enough to put Steer on the IL though and it’s telling that Stewart was promoted as the rosters expanded on September 1st, rather than to replace an incumbent infielder.
Ke’Bryan Hayes has hit well since coming over from the Pirates and may be the best third base defender in the league. That spot is his for the time being.
Matt McLain has had a disappointing season at the plate and has lost some playing time over the last month to Santiago Espinal. Both are plus defenders, but neither can hit. McLain more so is stuck in a terrible season while Espinal has a career .666 OPS. Stewart would be an immediate upgrade over either at the plate.
Stewart can – and probably should – find at least a part-time role over the next few weeks between second and first given McLain and Steer’s struggles. His profile as a hitter makes him worth a flier in deeper leagues on the decent chance that he gets that shot.
Matthew Pouliot
