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 this helps you determine whether the player fits your team’s needs. Not every “trending” player will be a good addition to 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
Caleb Durbin – 2B/3B, BOS (34% rostered)
(HOT STRETCH, STOLEN BASE UPSIDE)
The narrative around Durbin at the beginning of the season was so toxic that we’re not sure people realize how good he’s bad. When he started off the year poorly and Kyle Harrison, the pitcher he was traded for, dominated in Milwaukee, there was this pervasive idea that Durbin was a bust. However, it appears that he just needed to find his footing. In 32 games since June 1st, Durbin is hitting .288/.344/.568 with eight home runs, 21 runs scored, 17 RBI, and six steals. That’s a 146 wRC+ and is exactly what people envisioned from the second-year hitter when moving into a park like Fenway. Perhaps it took Durbin a bit longer to adjust his approach. His pull rate is 51% during this stretch, but was just around 43% in Milwaukee last year. The Green Monster has come calling. Nick Gonzalez – 2B/3B/SS, PIT (37% rostered) is another option for batting average. Since June 1st, Nick Gonzales is hitting .320 in 34 games with three home runs, 23 runs scored, and 15 RBI. In that span, he is tied for the 6th-highest groundball rate in baseball at 59% (league average is 41%). On the season, he also has the 3rd-most groundball base hits in baseball with 45 (Otto Lopez has 60), and Gonzales has increased his groundball rate from last year to this year the 6th-most of any hitter in baseball. It’s an approach that is clearly working for him and will work for fantasy managers if you need batting average.
Dylan Crews – OF, WAS (34% rostered)
(STARTING JOB, POWER POTENTIAL)
Last week, we mentioned that we were buying into Crews because we were betting on the quality of contact winning out over the poor June stats. Crews has then continued to hit, and even made Eric’s recent article on hitters who should see a second-half power surge, but his roster rate hasn’t moved. In his last 20 games, Crews is hitting .274/.346/.397 with two home runs, 14 runs scored, and three steals. That has come with a 45% hard-hit rate, and a Pull Air% that should lead to more home runs. Yes, he is still chasing more than we’d like to see, and there remain some contact issues in his game, but we saw Jordan Walker take three separate seasons to finally have his approach click, so these are the types of gambles we should be making when the results are at least solid.
Bryan Rocchio – 2B/SS – CLE (29% rostered)
(STARTING JOB, AVERAGE/SPEED UPSIDE)
Rocchio went through a cold stretch in June that saw him get dropped in a lot of places, but he’s back to producing again. Over his last 20 games, he’s hitting .293/.329/.440 with two home runs, 10 RBI, and three steals. He has seven home runs and a career-high 15 steals on the season and continues to make more contact than he has before. He’s just 25 years old, so there is reason to believe he will continue to make strides. In deeper formats, Joshua Kuroda-Grauer – SS, ATH (3% rostered) seems to be playing every day even with Tyler Soderstrom back off the IL and could play more if Zeck Gelof’s knee injury causes him to miss time. The 23-year-old is an elite contact hitter with a 96% zone contact in Triple-A and a 98% mark so far in his MLB career. He will chase outside of the zone, but almost always at pitches he can hit. That’s been a bit harder for him in the big leagues, but this is not a guy who hits the ball overly hard, so you don’t need to worry about his power production. He hit .352 in 42 games at Triple-A and is 15-for-34 to begin his MLB career. He also stole 27 bases last year in the minors and had 15 in 75 minor league games this year, so perhaps he can be a batting average and steals asset.
Nasim Nunez – 2B/SS, WAS (27% rostered)
(STOLEN BASE UPSIDE, HOT STREAK)
There may not be a better speed pick-up on the wire in many leagues right now. Since June 1st, Nunez is 3rd in baseball with 11 steals. However, instead of that being empty speed, he’s also hitting .356/.420/.456 with 15 runs and 12 RBI in 30 games. Yes, this is mainly a speed play, but if he can even keep a .270 average, that’s going to be incredibly valuable to your fantasy teams.
AJ Ewing – 2B/OF, NYM (27% rostered)
(POWER SURGE, BATTING AVERAGE UPSIDE)
Perhaps we forgot about Ewing, but the rookie is hitting .298/.368/.512 in his last 35 games with six home runs, 18 RBI, and five steals. He has three home runs in his last five games and has started to lift the ball a touch more, which has led to far more barrels. On the season, he has a 36.4% fly ball rate with the Mets, but in his last 15 games (where he has a 14.7% barrel rate), that fly ball rate has increased to 41.2%. His launch angle hasn’t gone out of whack, but he’s just finding more pitches that he can elevate and drive out of the park. It’s a nice adjustment to see from a rookie.
Kyle Karros – 3B, COL (21% rostered)
(STARTING JOB, HOT STREAK)
We covered Karros a couple of weeks ago during “Rockies Week,” but he probably deserves more love. Since June 1st, he’s hitting .333/.433/.618 with five home runs, 24 runs scored, and 16 RBI. That has come with an 11% barrel rate and 50% hard-hit rate, so even though some of the power production could be aided by a lot of recent home games, Karros is making tons of hard contact. We also know that is approach at the plate is tremendous, so if there is going to be hard contact on top of that, he could be an interesting fantasy player. We know you’ve forgotten about Curtis Mead – 1B/2B/3B, WAS (22% rostered), but he remains a solid player. Even in his last 15 games, he’s hitting .279/.333/.557 with four home runs, seven runs scored, eight RBI, and two steals. He plays pretty much every day for the Nationals and hits third in the lineup. We’re not sure why he was dropped in so many leagues.
Tommy Edman – 2B/3B/OF, LAD (21% rostered)
(BATTING AVERAGE UPSIDE, GREAT LINEUP)
As we mentioned last week, you’re probably not getting much speed from Edman anymore due to his myriad lower-body injuries. He had just nine steals in 134 games in 2024 and 2025 combined, and now has two steals in just three attempts in 19 games this season since being activated from the injured list. However, he is also hitting .351/.431/.491 in those games with nine RBI because he hits in the Dodgers’ lineup. That’s going to be production that helps if you need average and counting stats. Cole Young – 2B, SEA (13% rostered) was a player we highlighted earlier in the season and remain fans of. Over the last 15 games, he’s hitting .250/.304/.519 with four home runs, nine runs scored, and seven RBI. The batting average over this stretch is not what we’re used to, but he is starting to drive the ball a little more and get to the pull side more often (54% pull rate over this stretch). Like with Ewing, it’s nice to see a young player adjusting and finding an approach that works for him, and we like that Young is finding more pitches he can drive out of the yard.
Garrett Mitchell – OF, MIL (20% rostered)
(POWER/SPEED UPSIDE, STREAKY PLAYER ON HOT STREAK)
We featured Mitchell a bunch earlier in the season, and he’s back to putting up really solid numbers. Over his last 20 games, he has a .328/.397/.574 slash line with three home runs, 11 runs scored, and nine RBI. That’s with an 18.6% barrel rate and a 53.5% hard-hit rate. The tools have always been loud, but the plate approach has been the question. Over this stretch, he has a 15.3% swinging strike rate, but his 29.7% chase rate and 82.2% zone contact rate are actually improvements from what we’ve seen before and are more in line with MLB averages. Perhaps he is improving his approach after all. Another streaky outfielder add could be Josh Lowe – OF, LAA (2% rostered), who has hit .316 with two home runs, 8 runs scored, 6 RBI, and 2 steals in 12 games since being back. That comes with a 48.3% hard-hit rate and 22.5% strikeout rate, but nearly 18% SwStr%, so, much like Mitchell, some contact and approach concerns may come back to bite him. However, as we’ve seen from Esmerlyn Valdez, who also has massive contact concerns, sometimes that approach can lead to a scorching hot few weeks.
Trevor Larnach – OF, MIN (9% rostered)
(HOT STRETCH, DAILY MOVES PICK-UP)
Larnach is a good option if you’re in a daily moves league or a mid-week lineup change league since he won’t play against lefties. He was also in Eric’s most recent article about hitters who should see a power boost in the summer. In that article, Eric mentioned that, since May 20th, Larnach is hitting .310/.378/.481 with four home runs. He does have just a 7.6% barrel rate and a 38% hard-hit rate. While he’s not knocking the cover off of the ball, he has a 26.2% Pull Air rate, so he is getting the ball in the air to the pull side far more often than league average, which means he’s likely deserving of better than an 8.5% HR/FB rate. He has seemingly shortened his swing and changed his bat path, which is giving him a little more lift and getting him to be a bit less oppo-focused. He has only played over 112 games once in his career, so we’re not banking on this being a rest-of-season add, but it’s working right now.
Jake Mangum- OF, PIT (7% rostered)
(NEW SPOT IN LINEUP, SPEED UPSIDE)
Over his last 20 games, Mangum is hitting .329/.376/.430 with one home run, 13 runs scored, six RBI, and five steals. Those five steals are tied for 13th in all of baseball over that stretch. When you factor in the runs he’s also producing at the top of the lineup with Konnor Griffin hurt, Mangum is becoming a far more interesting fantasy pick-up. A prospect people forgot about because he didn’t set the world on fire is Justin Crawford – OF, PHI (6% rostered), who has hit .350/.381/.433 over his last 20 games with eight runs scored, seven RBI, and three steals. It remains more of a profile that will help you in on-base percentage leagues, but he will also put up a solid batting average and should push 23-25 steals on the season. That might be more for five-OF leagues, but he has a skill set that can help.
Lars Nootbaar – OF, STL (5% rostered)
(SOLID BATTING AVERAGE, RUNS UPSIDE)
Nootbaar also appeared in Eric’s article on potential power surge, but in a spot of the article Eric reserved for players who need to pull the ball more to get to power. Nootbaar had the second-lowest Pull Air% of anybody on this list at 11.6%, but his blast per contact rate is an elite 19.8%, and he has a 10.1% barrel rate. Blasts are a Statcast metric that measures when a batter squares up a ball and does so at a high bat speed. According to Statcast research, blasts lead to a .563 batting average, 1.182 slugging percentage, and a +34 Run Value. Non-blasted batted balls average out to a .231 batting average, .295 slugging percentage, and -5 Run Value. So, pretty clearly, Blasts are usually balls that result in impactful contact, and it’s worth noting that Nootbaar is making a ton of hard contact at high-end bat speeds. That could lead to some power boosts down the stretch. Tristan Peters – OF, CWS (4% rostered) is another low-rostered outfielder who has performed well this season. We admit that we were not (and potentially still are not) the biggest believers, but he is hitting .283/.333/.450 over his last 20 games with 13 runs scored and 10 RBI. He plays against all right-handed pitching and has just been a boring but solid piece for the White Sox.
Michael Conforto – OF, CHC (1% rostered)
(STRONG SIDE PLATOON, POWER UPSIDE
Conforto’s playing time is ticking up a little bit since he starts against all righties, but he has just 42 plate appearances since June 19th, compared to 73 for Dansby Swanson, who plays every day and hits at the bottom of the lineup. That makes Conforto a better option for daily moves leagues, but he is hitting .308/.357/.641 in those 42 plate appearances with four home runs and nine RBI. We know that the ball flies out of Wrigley in the summer months, so this could be the time to scoop Confort. Another small sample size add could be Victor Bericoto – OF, SF (2% rostered) who has seen a decent chunk of playing time with Casey Schmitt sliding to third base while Matt Chapman is out. In 43 games at Triple-A this season, Bericoto hit .299/.355/.449 with six home runs, 32 runs scored, and 30 RBI. That came with a 50% hard-hit rate but also a 13% swinging strike rate. In his 59 MLB plate appearances, he has gone 17-for-58 (.293) with four home runs, nine RBI, one steal, and a 47% hard-hit rate. He has shown very little interest in taking a walk, but he has tremendous bat speed and has posted at least average zone contact rates in the minors, so it’s a profile that can work.
Fantasy Baseball Waiver Wire Pitchers
Peter Lambert – SP, HOU (35% rostered)
Lambert has a good matchup this weekend against the Rangers and then won’t pitch next week, so it’s tough to add him in shallower formats now, but we just wanted to shout out that he’s been a very solid starting pitching option for most of the season. To be honest, when we were intrigued by his first two starts in Houston back near the beginning of the season, we thought it would fizzle out pretty quickly. However, he has proven that he can elevate his four-seamer and then attack low with changeups to lefties and sweepers to righties. It works.
Reynaldo Lopez- SP/RP, ATL (33% rostered)
Reynaldo Lopez has back-to-back starts where he’s gone five innings, and he even threw over 80 pitches the last time out. No, we don’t think he’s going to replicate what he did for Atlanta when he was healthy in 2024, but he’s a solid starting pitcher on a good team, and that’s better than you can say for a lot of potential streamers out there on the waiver wire.
Cade Cavalli – SP, WAS (27% rostered)
Too much is being made about Cavalli’s velocity “drop” in his last start. He was only down about 0.6 mph from his season average. It’s just that his start before against the Red Sox had a 1.5 mph velocity spike, so the drop seemed larger. But he made a start on short notice and on short rest in the heat, so he could start before his suspension kicked in. We would ignore that performance. Eric recorded a video on him last week with more details about what we like.
Yoendrys Gomez – RP, MIN (27% rostered)
We’ve had Gomez here a few times, and we know he only has five saves since June 12th, which doesn’t feel like a lot, but it’s actually tied for 12th in baseball with Raisel Iglesias, Riley O’Brien, and Mason Miller. On, and Gomez has a 2.61 ERA over that stretch. Yes, he doesn’t strike people out, but he also doesn’t walk guys, and so we’d rather a profile like Gomez’s than somebody like Alex Lange, who has four saves over the same stretch but far bigger command issues.
Jared Jones – SP, PIT (25% rostered)
Last week we said we still believe in Jared Jones, and so that feels pretty good after his start on Wednesday. Before that start, we mentioned that his Location+ was actually above-average despite coming off Tommy John surgery, and his 14.5% K-BB% and 16% swinging strike rate showed that he is missing bats. We saw the good version of what that can lead to on Wednesday, and Eric recorded a video with some more detailed thoughts on the performance and the fantasy implications of it.
Brandon Sproat – SP, MIL (24% rostered)
Sproat was featured in Eric’s article last week on starting pitchers to buy or sell as one of the better buy targets. Jake Bennett and Ian Seymour were also some options in that article who are no longer in the streaming category. After five straight games where Sproat hadn’t issued more than two walks, he had a rough command outing over the weekend in Arizona. Still, overall, Sproat is doing a better job of commanding his fastball up in the zone and his secondaries at the bottom for whiffs. His matchup this weekend against Pittsburgh is not ideal (they’re a top 3 offense against RHP), but we think Sproat is worth a roster spot for his upside.
Grant Taylor – RP/SP, CWS (18% rostered)
It seems that Seranthony Dominguez’s struggles have finally cost him the closer’s role. Lately, the White Sox have been using a two-man committee of Taylor and Sean Newcomb. Newcomb has been used to face mainly left-handers or has been the leftover reliever when Taylor is used in high-leverage spots in the seventh or eighth inning, so Newcomb has more saves than Taylor of late, but Taylor is the arm we want. He has electric stuff and is finally getting the chance to pitch in more traditional save spots, so we’d add him now before a hot stretch comes.
Tyler Wells – RP, BAL (17% rostered)
Ryan Helsley is out with another elbow injury and is going to get a second opinion, which is never something you want to hear. After that injury, Tyler Wells picked up the first two save chances, and he has pitched well as a reliever this season. He doesn’t have a ton of strikeout upside, but as a former starter, he has a deep arsenal of pitches and his velocity has ticked up a bit in the bullpen. Andrew Kittredge also got a save on Thursday, and Felix Bautista should be back in late August, plus the Orioles are in last place in the AL East, so we wouldn’t go crazy trying to figure out this bullpen.
Caleb Kilian – RP, SF (15% rostered)
Kilian is now the clear closer for the Giants and has the only saves on the team over the last three weeks. Of course, he also has a 9.53 ERA in 5 2/3 innings over that stretch, so that’s not ideal. He doesn’t miss a ton of bats, but he’s probably the best reliever in this bullpen, so if you wanted to gamble, we guess he’d be the guy. . Clayton Beeter – RP, WAS (11% rostered) would be another low-rostered closer option. He has similar walk rate concerns to Kilian and an equally fine but not great 11.7% swinging strike rate. However, he pitches for a better team than Kilian and has allowed fewer hits on average this season. He still makes us nervous, but we can see taking the gamble.
AJ Smith-Shawver – SP, ATL (11% rostered)
If you’re looking for a starting pitcher injury stash, it might be time to add Smith-Shawver. He is moving his rehab up to Triple-A this weekend and might be back in Atlanta in two weeks. The 23-year-old is an intriguing young arm, but he had a 3.86 ERA in 44.1 innings for the Braves last year with a 22% strikeout rate, so this isn’t a high-end pitching prospect that you need to stash. Could he be a valuable arm for a good team? Yes, he could, but you don’t need to drop a pitcher who is helping your team right now just to get Smith-Shawver on your squad.
Noah Schultz – SP, CWS (10% rostered)
We didn’t love the Boston start because they’re a much better offense against left-handed pitching, and some home runs really hurt Schultz in that one. Yes, he has had some issues with command throughout the season that make him hard to trust. But he has three fastball variations and a sweeper that should miss bats. It sometimes takes a while for pitchers to figure out how to get major league hitters out, but we think Schultz should have a better second half.
Patrick Sandoval – SP, BOS (7% rostered)
Sandoval made his first start in two years on Thursday and was far better than we expected. He sat 94.3 mph on his four-seam fastball and had an 88% strike rate on it. He then worked the slider and sinker off of it to lefties and the change and curve off of it to righties. The curve was a bit of a mess, but the changeup had a 22% swinging strike rate, and that has always been his bread and butter. If he can locate 94.5 mph well with a plus changeup, he’ll be a solid streamer, but this is just a deep league add right now. He doesn’t have any minor league options though, so he’s up to stay, whether that’s in Boston’s rotation, their bullpen, or on another team.
Jacob Webb – RP, CHC (5% rostered)
Cubs’ closer Daniel Palencia is out with another arm injury, and the Cubs are trying to piece together something at the back end of their bullpen. While they will probably make a trade, both Webb and Trent Thornton – RP, CHC (0% rostered) have two saves over the last three weeks. Ryan Rolison has the other one, but also a 6.35 ERA in his last eight appearances. We think Webb is the better bet than Thornton, and he has more strikeout upside, but neither is a slam dunk. We’d see adding both of them if you were chasing saves, but don’t expect some Bryan Baker type of breakout.
Janson Junk – SP, MIA (5% rostered)
Junk came off the IL on Thursday and allowed one run on three hits in five innings against the Mariners. He somehow had five strikeouts with just five whiffs, but his four-seam fastball was 94 mph with 19.1 inches of iVB. Somehow he got zero whiffs on it because the locations weren’t great, but we dug the raw stuff in this one. He’s got a true six-pitch mix, and if that fastball is going to keep that kind of vert, he’s going to be a solid streaming option going forward.
ALL-STAR WEEK RELIEVER ADDS
If you’re playing in NFBC or other weekly waiver wire redraft leagues, you know that this upcoming week is only three games due to the All-Star break. That means many of the starting pitchers you might normally stream are not going to pitch at all. You can choose to hold them on your roster, or you can drop them and stream a middle reliever or a multi-inning reliever to get a steal a win or get a few innings of solid production. Some of the ones we’d target, who aren’t listed above, are:
Keider Montero – SP/RP, DET (15% rostered)
Ryan Zeferjahn – RP, LAA (2% rostered)
Dylan Dodd – RP, ATL (0% rostered)
Brent Headrick – RP, NYY (3% rostered)
Garrett Whitlock – RP, BOS (20% rostered)
Andrew Morris – SP/RP, MIN (5% rostered)
Steven Okert – RP, HOU (4% rostered)
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