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-relevant batting order notes from every MLB team.
Fantasy Baseball Waiver Wire Hitters
Miguel Vargas - 1B/3B, CWS (32% rostered)
(POWER SURGE, BREAKOUT POTENTIAL)
Miguel Vargas appeared in a few of Eric's columns in the preseason and then also in an article he posted last week onhitters who could be primed for hot streaks. Vargas is only hitting .193/.333/.434 this season, but he has home runs in three straight games and four home runs since April 16th. He's posting a 46% hard-hit rate and nearly 12% barrel rate while having just a 5.6% swinging strike rate (SwStr%). He doesn't chase outside of the zone and has improved his bat speed by over two mph this season. His groundball rate is up a bit from last year, but the quality of contact is good, and the swing decisions are elite. Considering he hit .267/.354/.436 in 45 games in the second half last year, he is maybe just starting to heat up a bit.
Mickey Moniak - OF, COL (29% rostered)
(REGULAR PLAYING TIME, POWER UPSIDE)
We've had Moniak on here a few times, and he 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. This season, he's hitting .286/.313/.651 with six home runs. He's pulling and lifting the ball more than he did last year and making far more contact in the zone. We don't know why he isn't rostered more. Another former top 100 prospect who's enjoying some success this season is Everson Pereira - OF, CWS (2% rostered), who is slashing .295/.373/.591 with three home runs, a 48.4% hard-hit rate, and a 16% barrel rate. All of that is exciting. However, he also has a 20% SwStr% and just a 65% contact rate overall. He will make enough contact in the zone to drive the ball into the gaps and over the fence, so he would have some extra value in OPS formats, but this batting average is going to come down hard. If you wanted to put in a small bid and ride the hot streak, we get it.
Ildemaro Vargas - 1B/2B, ARI (24% rostered)
(HOT STREAK, EVERYDAY JOB)
This is just a hot streak. We can all admit that. But it's also a hot streak we probably should stop ignoring. Vargas is a 34-year-old who has never posted a wRC+ over 94 in his career. Now, he has a .364/.382/.697 slash line with five home runs. That's already one home run off his career high. He also has a career-high 39% hard-hit rate and 8.1% barrel rate, which probably has less to do with his exit velocities changing and more to do with his groundball rate decreasing by nearly 16% and his line drive rate increasing by 21%. Oh, and he's contacting the ball way more out in front of the plate. So even if this is unlikely to stick, it's connected to a clear change in approach, so why not ride it out until it fizzles?
Dalton Rushing - C, LAD (25% rostered)
(HOT STREAK, POWER UPSIDE)
Another catcher we know people have been rushing to add, and we get it. Rushing is hitting .419 with seven home runs in 10 games. However, we have some real playing time concerns. He can't DH because they have an MVP there, and he can't play 1B because they have a Hall of Famer there, so Rushing is going to be the back-up catcher and maybe start a game at 1B/DH during the week when Shohei Ohtani pitches if they don't want him to hit. Rushing could be productive in that role, but he could also play just three times a week. Another option would be Gary Sanchez - C, MIL (6% 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 lineup and would be an elite two-catcher league option who can even be considered in one-catcher formats.
Josh Jung - 3B, TEX (23% rostered)
(HOT STREAK, POWER UPSIDE)
Over the last two weeks (13 games), Josh Jung is 4th in baseball in wRC+ and is slashing .383/.455/.745 with three home runs and 10 RBI. Over that stretch, he is also 4th in OPS and has a 57% hard-hit rate. He wildly only has one barrel and is pulling the ball just 24% of the time, so he's just spraying line drives from gap-to-gap and then sometimes turning on a pitch enough to leave the yard. If he maintains that approach, it should be a good one for batting average and contact, but not keep him around 15 home runs. I'll still take that for a former highly-regarded prospect who's hitting in the middle of a decent lineup.
Ryan Jeffers - C, MIN (17% rostered)
(PLAYING TIME INCREASE, POWER UPSIDE)
Jeffers was our favorite catcher waiver add of last week, so we're recommending him again, and we'd rather have him than Rushing. He appeared in Eric’s article last 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. Of catchers who have at least 70 plate appearances this season, Jeffers ranks 4th in wRC+, 4th in barrel rate, 5th in OPS, 5th in average exit velocity, and 7th in average. He's just a really solid all-around player.
Oswald Peraza - 1B/2B/3B/SS, LAA (16% rostered)
(PROSPECT PEDIGREE, BATTING AVERAGE UPSIDE)
Peraza is a former top 100 prospect who is finally geting a chance to play every day on a new team. He's responded by hitting .294/.360/.529 with four home runs and three steals in 23 games. He also has just eight RBIs despite all of that, and that gives you a sense of the counting stats concerns in this Angels' lineup. He has a solid 39% hard-hit rate and seems to have slowed his swing down to make more consistent contact, which isn't a bad idea. You could be looking at a guy who finishes with a .260 batting average, 10 home runs, and 15 steals. That's not such a bad thing.
Brayan Rocchio - 2B/SS, CLE (15% rostered)
(PLAYING TIME OPPORTUNITY, SWING CHANGE?)
Rocchio is an interesting case because he was never a top prospect, but he was always a well-regarded prospect. He hasn't had much success in his MLB career to date, but he's just 25 years old so maybe he's starting to figure things out. There are no major changes that he's unlocking here; everything from exit velocities to batted ball direction to contact rates is pretty similar to what he's done before. What we do see is that his swing path appeared to be flatter this year, as is his barrel at the point of contact, and he's making contact with an angle more towards his pull side. There's been no meaningful change to his fly ball or groundball rate, but he's swinging and missing less, so maybe that has something to do with it. Over the last two weeks, he's hitting .317/.378/.512 with two home runs, nine RBI, and one steal. Might not hurt to see where this goes. In deeper formats, you could look to his teammate Daniel Scheemann - 2B/3B/SS/OF, CLE (16% rostered), who is another multi-position Guardians player to be on a hot streak. Over the last two weeks, he's slashing .433/.553/.700 with two home runs and nine RBI. He's played in two fewer games than Rocchio over that stretch, so he won't have as much time playing, and he swings and misses more, which will lead to more batting average fluctuation. However, he also hits the ball harder and looks to pull way more often. This feels like just a hot streak to ride out.
Moises Ballesteros - C, CHC (15% rostered)
(PLAYING TIME OPPORTUNITY, POWER UPSIDE)
As we mentioned last week, 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 57% hard-hit rate and 14.3% barrel rate in the early going. 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 (13% rostered)
(REGULAR PLAYING TIME, HOT STREAK)
As we said last week, we have no idea if this will stick for Dom Smith, but he's hitting .362/.387/.603 with four home runs and 17 RBI in 19 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 more than doubled, and his average exit velocity is up two mph. 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 nobody is pushing him out of this job, so you should run with it while the hot streak is going.
Nolan Arenado - 3B, ARI (12% rostered)
(REGULAR PLAYING TIME, POWER SURGE)
I know, I know, Arenado is old and "washed." But the 35-year-old is playing every day in Arizona and slashing .262/.284/.429 with four home runs and 14 RBI in 23 games. His hard-hit rate and exit velocity are plummeting, but he's taken a more opposite field approach and steppened his barrel at the point of contact, which might be allowing him to drive the gaps a bit more. He's also being far more patient, with a 5% drop in swing rate, so he may just be going up there with a very specific plan. This is more of a deep league play, but getting every day at-bats from a player who is just solid can be really valuable.
Casey Schmitt - 1B/2B/3B, SF (7% rostered)
(REGULAR PLAYING TIME, HOT STREAK COMING)
Schmitt was in some of Eric's off-season columns because he put up some intriguing numbers in a small sample size last year. The decision to option Bryce Eldridge to Triple-A meant that Schmitt would get a chance to be the 1B/DH complement to Rafael Devers to start the year. Schmitt has taken advantage of that, hitting .282/.325/.465 with two home runs, eight RBI, and one steal. Things look good under the hood too. He has a 52% hard-hit rate, 13% barrel rate, and is looking to pull the ball a little more than he did last year. His park isn't going to be great for power, but he hit 12 home runs in 348 plate appearances last year, so 15 home runs should be very doable if he continues to play regularly, and he seems every bit a .260 hitter at this level. With that and multi-position eligibility, he has some value.
Hyeseong Kim - 2B/SS/LAD, LAD (6% rostered)
(BATTING AVERAGE UPSIDE, STOLEN BASE UPSIDE
We're a bit surprised Kim isn't rostered in more leagues. He's started four of the last five games for the Dodgers and appears like he will be the regular shortstop against right-handed pitching until Mookie Betts is back, which might be a few more weeks. Kim isn't hitting the ball overly hard, so there won't be much power here, and he's taken way more of an opposite-field approach, but he's also making far more contact in the zone and chasing outside of the zone way less than we saw last year. He seems to be focused on just driving line drives gap-to-gap and then looking to steal bases when he gets on. We're OK with that, and we'd probably rather have him in the short-term than Sam Antonacci - 2B/3B/OF, CWS (6% rostered). The White Sox called up Antonacci, and he has gone 5-for-27 in his first eight games while consistently sitting against left-handed pitching. 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 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. He's still making lots of contact in the big leagues, but pitchers are not throwing him strikes, and they're getting him to swing outside of the zone, which is leading to fewer hits than if he were a bit more patient. Considering he was so patient in the minors, he should figure it out when he stops pressing, but he is definitely pressing right now.
Ronny Mauricio - 2B/3B, NYM (4% rostered)
(PLAYING TIME OPPORTUNITY, POWER UPSIDE)
It looks like Mauricio is going to be the shortstop while Francisco Lindor is sidelined. This is a former top prospect who was hitting .293/.349/.638 with six home runs in Triple-A. There is plenty of power in his bat, and he has intriguing raw tools. Maybe this is the year that he can put it all together? I think it's at least a month before we see Lindor again.
Leody Taveras - OF, BAL (4% rostered)
(REGULAR PLAYING TIME, COUNTING STATS UPSIDE)
If you're in deeper formats than Taveras and Nathan Church - OF, STL (1% rostered) are two outfielders you can consider adding. Over the last two weeks, Taveras is 16th among qualified outfielders in wRC+, and is hitting .310/.383/.500 with two home runs, 11 RBI, and one steal. He's been around long enough that we know he can be a solid fantasy producer in all categories when he's playing and playing well. It may not last, but that's fine. In his last 10 games, Church is hitting .348/.429/.522 with one home run and three steals. The rookie is going to have some ups and downs, but he was a good hitter in the minors last season with tremendous contact ability and good swing decisions. I'm not sure how high the upside is, but that's what keeps him as a deeper league option.
Fantasy Baseball Waiver Wire Pitchers
Justin Wrobleski- SP, LAD (37% rostered)
Wrobleski appears to be in the Dodgers' rotation right now and was a guy Eric was high on this spring. He's not missing any bats right now with just a 6.2% SwStr% and 10% strikeout rate in three starts, but that shouldn't last. He's unlikely to be a HUGE strikeout asset, but he keeps his four-seamer upstairs and his breaking balls down, and that should help in many formats. He's also likely to work deep into games and pick up wins. It's not the upside of the next guy we're going to take about, but it's safe and solid.
Payton Tolle - SP, BOS (36% rostered)
With Sonny Gray (hamstring) on the IL, Payton Tolle was called up to face the Yankees on Thursday, and he struck out 11 batters while allowing one run on three hits in six innings. The 18 whiffs he racked up were second on the night, trailing only Jacob deGrom. He showed off a new sinker that he threw mostly to lefties, but was able to pound the strike zone with, which set up the four-seamer up high and the cutter away. He leaned on his curve more this year against righties, and while the command was a bit all over the place, he did keep it low, which is great, and it missed plenty of bats. Tolle is still evolving when it comes to his breaking balls, but he has three fastball variations that he likes and one of the better four-seam fastballs in the minors. The Red Sox just can't send him back down if he looks like this. We'd add him over basically only other waiver wire starting pitchers and even over guys like Noah Schultz from last week.
Bryan Baker - RP, TB (30% rostered)
No, Bryan Baker is not perfect, but he is the clear ninth-inning guy in Tampa Bay and has three saves in his last five appearances, despite allowing some runs. He has some of the best Stuff+ grades in the Rays' bullpen, thanks to a strong slider and changeup, and has more runway now since Edwin Uceta - RP, TB (19% rostered) suffered a setback with his shoulder on his rehab assignment in Triple-A. Garrett Cleavinger may come back to take some save chances away when lefties are up, but the rest seems to be Baker's job.
Louis Varland, RP, TOR (29% rostered)
Blue Jays manager John Schneider said he would talk to Jeff Hoffman about his role and how they can fix whatever is going wrong. It seems pretty clear that Toronto wants Hoffman to close, but it also seems clear that they know he needs to fix some things. That could lead to some lower-leverage innings in the short-term, which would mean that Varland would step into the closer's role. We don't know how long this will last, but Varland has been tremendous this season, so it's worth a gamble. Just don't drop Hoffman.
Spencer Arrighetti - SP, HOU (28% rostered)
We know that Arrighetti has a rotaiton spot with Hunter Brown likely to be out for at least a month, and very likely more, and Cristian Javier and Tatsuya Imai both are also dealing with injuries. He looked good in his first start because his curveball was crushing, but then he got just one whiff on his curve in his second start with a 46% strike rate. That inconsistency has always made him a risk to ratios and also have the nerves from him ending last season with an elbow injury and starting this year delayed because of injury as well. When that curve is on, he's electric. When it's off, he doesn't have enough, so don't treat him as a MUST hold player.
Joel Kuhnel - RP, ATH (26% rostered)
I mean, Kuhnel has four saves this season to go along with a 2.35 ERA in 7 2/3 innings, so that's the reason you'd add him. However, he also has just a 10% strikeout rate, so there is likely no way this can last as a closer who simply can't miss bats. You can make a small add now to grab some saves while you can, but the arm we like longer-term is Jack Perkins - RP, ATH (1% rostered). He's also already gotten some two-inning saves since being recalled from Triple-A, and he has the chance to turn into a Mason Miller - lite; a starter with good stuff who could likely turn into a much better closer than starter. If you have the space, we'd stash him.
Brad Keller - RP, PHI (18% rostered)
It's hard to get saves when your team isn't winning any games, but we think the Phillies are going to get out of this rut, and we had clear word from Todd Zolecki of MLB.com that Keller will get the bulk of the save chances while Jhoan Duran is out with an oblique injury. The word "bulk" may hold weight here as Orion Kerkering (2% rostered) and José Alvarado (3% rostered) could logically get in the mix for saves as well. Alvarado has the most ninth-inning experience of the trio and misses the most bats. He could be a sneaky add, but we have to go with this firm of an indication that Keller is about to become the de facto closer in Philadelphia.
Enyel De Los Santos - RP, HOU (13% rostered)
Josh Hader is probably at least three weeks away from returning, and there's also a real chance that his shoulder injury remains a problem all season. It seems like De Los Santos will get the majority of save chances when right-handed hitters are up, and that makes him interesting. We don't think he's a particularly elite reliever or somebody who is going to "win you your league," but maybe you snag a few saves, and he doesn't torpedo your ratios. It's worth a gamble.
Chase Dollander - SP, COL (13% rostered)
We've been looking for the guy who can "defeat Coors Field," and maybe we found him. Dollander was an incredibly high draft pick, and we know he's talented, but now we're seeing that come to fruition. He's throwing a little harder this season and with better command of his fastball. He also turned his slider into a harder, gyro slider, which is probably better for Coors Field. We know he will always come with risk because Coors Field is a brutal place to pitch in, but the talent is real, the approach is good, and they are using an opener for him, so he avoids the best hitters in a lineup one extra time and also has a better chance at getting a win. It might be time to take a chance.
Jack Kochanowicz - SP, LAA (7% 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.
Connor Prielipp - SP, MIN (5% rostered)
Prielipp was called up on Wednesday to take Mick Abel's spot in the rotation, and he looked pretty good against the Mets. Prielipp has a 96 mph four-seam fastball with poor extension but good vertical movement that he kept up in the zone really well. He also did a good job of burying his slider low in the zone to both righties and lefties. He loves that pitch, and it makes sense; it's really good. In this outing, his change and curve command weren’t there, but the curve is a new pitch, and it was his MLB debut, so maybe there were some nerves. We like the approach, and the pitch mix SHOULD be enough, so we'd definitely be adding him.
Ben Brown - RP CHC (4% rostered)
Closer chaos continues with Caleb Thielbar now likely joining Daniel Palencia on the IL for the Cubs. Brown had been working in multiple innings, but the Cubs may have no choice but to see what he can do at the end of games. He has looked really good as a reliever, and there's a good chance that he takes this job and becomes a really solid closer.
Peter Lambert - SP, HOU (3% rostered)
Lambert is interesting. In his two starts, he has shown a 95 mph four-seam fastball with good vertical movement that he keeps up in the zone. He has also shown the ability to keep the changeup low/away from lefties, while the cutter looks like a decent pitch. He’s struck out eight in both of his starts, which matches his career total of eight-strikeout games from his four seasons with the Rockies. It's unclear if this production will stick, but we like the four-seam, cutter, change combination, and the breaking balls are just fine. He's now on the streaming radar.
Gus Varland - RP, WAS (3% rostered)
We like Varland better than Beeter in the Nationals' bullpen. He's 96 mph with the fastball and has an 11/3 K/BB ratio in 9 1/3 innings this season. We think he's a good bet to emerge as the closer in Washington, for whatever that's worth.
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