FANTASY BASEBALL WAIVER WIRE PICKUPS
Héctor Rodríguez (OF Reds): Rostered in 13 percent of Yahoo leagues
The Reds care nothing for your service time games. After trading Nathaniel Lowe, they wasted no time in promoting Rodríguez to the majors on Tuesday. They could have held off for 10 days and kept Rodríguez’s rookie eligibility intact for 2027, but in trying to remain competitive, they wanted him to replace Lowe right away. He might prove to be an upgrade after hitting .274/.347/.533 with 27 homers in 104 games for Triple-A Louisville.
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Rodríguez was signed by the Mets out of the Dominican Republic in 2021 and then gifted to the Reds in a trade deadline deal for Tyler Naquin in 2022. He’s scarcely stopped hitting since, but he’s been dinged as a prospect because of his lack of plate discipline and whether he truly possessed the power to make up for it. He’s done his best to answer both questions by upping his walk rate from five percent in 2024 to seven percent last year and nine percent this season while continuing to improve his homer totals. 27 in Triple-A at age 22 is remarkable. 453 of the 455 pitchers he’s faced this year were older than he was.
Rodriguez is almost certainly going to need to be platooned in the majors. The left-handed hitter was batting .220/.275/.371 in same-side matchups this year, compared to .302/.368/.649 against righties. But that might not stop him from being useful in mixed leagues right away. It helps that he’s in a terrific ballpark for offense. He also might steal the occasional base, though he has curtailed his running this year; he was 6-for-8 for Louisville after going 15-for-22 last season. He’s worth a try.
Dylan Smith (RP Giants): Rostered in one percent of Yahoo leagues
Aside from Luke Weaver in Pittsburgh, Monday’s trade deadline didn’t create many new closers. However, one situation that’s now wide open in San Francisco’s, and Smith, who had been recently slotted into the eighth inning in between the traded Caleb Kilian and Erik Miller, seems poised for a go at the ninth.
Smith, 26, made his major league debut with the Tigers last year and allowed just two runs over 13 innings in his seven relief appearances. In spite of that, he was one of the team’s earliest cuts this spring and then found himself off the 40-man roster to create a spot for Kevin McGonigle prior to Opening Day. The Giants acquired him and sent him to Triple-A to start the year. He made one appearance in May before being sent back down. He returned in June, earned a save by pitching a perfect 10th inning in his third big-league appearance and has remained very good since; he’s sporting a 2.75 ERA and a 23/9 K/BB ratio in 19 2/3 innings. Two of his nine walks were intentional. He’s limited hitters to a .100 average and slugging percentage on the slider he throws a bit more than one-third of the time.
Smith probably isn’t a long-term closer, but with his fastball having added two mph in two years, putting it at 95.7 mph on average, he seems poised to stick around as a quality reliever. If there’s anyone else to worry about in San Francisco’s pen, it’s probably Keaton Winn. However, manager Tony Vitello has shown time and time again that he likes Winn earlier in games. That’s how he used him Monday, when Winn replaced Logan Webb to start the seventh inning and was lifted after getting two outs. The Giants probably won’t go with a sole closer right away and they might not win enough games to give any member of their bullpen all that much value. Still, Smith seems like a better pickup than other fringe guys right now.
Tyler O’Neill (OF Orioles): Rostered in one percent of Yahoo leagues
I was certainly disheartened to see O’Neill excluded from the Orioles’ lineup again Tuesday. Especially now with Taylor Ward gone, it’s hard to understand the team is not playing him fairly regularly, unless maybe he’s just not interested in doing so? O’Neill is hitting .289/.333/.667 with five homers in 48 plate appearances since July 1. He’s certainly producing like he’s healthy. Maybe he won’t actually be healthy for very long, but why not take advantage?
O’Neill has, of course, been a massive disappointment since signing a three-year, $49.5 million contract prior to last season. Statcast, though, thought last year’s ugly results in limited action (209 plate appearances) were almost entirely bad luck; he hit .199 and slugged .323, but he did so with a .243 xBA and a .523 xSLG, and he had the lowest strikeout rate of his career. O’Neill has put up weak numbers again this year — he’s sporting a .209/.294/.368 line in 204 plate appearances — and Statcast didn’t think bad luck was involved in his early struggles this time around. However, he obviously has picked it up. His hard-hit rate was 50 percent in June and 53 percent in July. He’s also pulling the ball in the air at a career-best rate. His strikeout rate is back up to 28 percent, but that’s still better than his career mark of 30 percent. Heck, he came in at 34 percent with Boston in 2024 before the Orioles were so excited to sign him.
So, I’m sticking with O’Neill here in the hopes that the Orioles begin to use him regularly. They have the DH spot open. They have left field open. Maybe he’ll even play well enough for the Orioles to dump much of his contract in November, since that’s probably the primary goal here.
Waiver Wire Quick Hits
– The Royals’ Noah Cameron posted the highest average fastball velocity of his career (94.0 mph) while shutting out the Tigers for seven innings two starts ago and then the second highest (93.8 mph) in eight scoreless innings against the Twins last week. He’s still available in 72 percent of Yahoo leagues and really shouldn’t be.
– The Nationals initially decided not to try Andrés Chaparro as a regular after sending Luis García Jr. to the Yankees, instead calling up Abimelec Ortiz to play first base. However, James Wood‘s oblique strain has reopened the door, freeing up the DH spot in D.C. Chaparro has mostly started against lefties, but he’s gone 4-for-12 with a couple of homers against righties. He’s showing more bat speed than ever before, and he has an incredible .438 xwOBA (and a 1.064 OPS) in his last 50 plate appearances. He’d seem to deserve a real shot while Wood is out.
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