Welcome to the Waiver Wire Picks, our daily fantasy baseball article that looks at the best players you should be adding to your rosters. We’ll look at the players that are likely to be available in most leagues, as well as some deep league waiver wire options. We’ll also look at the most-added players in fantasy baseball across the major sites and tell you which players to add and which to leave on the wire.
Top Priority Players to Add
Cooper Pratt (MIL) – SS (Yahoo – 13%)
Pratt has had a strong start to life in the majors, slashing .288/.379/.396 over his first 132 plate appearances, adding 10 steals in the process.
Pratt has faced 508 pitches in his major league career, so the start of this graph is heavily regressed to the major league average. What we see in more recent days, however, is Pratt’s excellent contact ability and solid swing decisions showing up in the data. He’s not going to wow you with exit velo or bat speed, but he’s got a 12.9% walk rate against a 17.4% K rate and runs when he’s on base. He’s unfortunately hitting 9th for the Brewers, but with his on-base skills and Brice Turang and Jackson Chourio hitting right behind him, he should score a ton of runs.
Jared Jones (PIT) – SP (Yahoo – 52%)
Jones’s overall season line isn’t the most impressive, with 2 wins and a 3.81 ERA from his first 11 starts, covering just 52 innings. He’s been immense lately, though. Over the past month (5 starts), Jones ranks 8th in the majors in K-BB% at 27.6%, sandwiched between two ace lefties in Chris Sale and Jesús Luzardo. He’s having good results, too, with a 2.00 ERA and 0.63 WHIP. The change has coincided with Jones leaning more heavily on his fastball, increasing its usage from 38.4% to 53.4%, mostly at the expense of his changeup. Stuff models disagree about the quality of the fastball, with PitchingBot a fan, PLV thinking it’s around average, and Stuff+ having it a bit below the average fastball. They’re unanimously not a fan of the changeup, though, so Jones is benefiting from becoming a two-pitch starter, at least for now. Nick has him 27th on the most recent edition of The List, which means he definitely shouldn’t be on waivers in nearly half of leagues.
Yahoo and ESPN Most Added Players
Four streaming starters and Max Clark top the ESPN most-added list today. Scott McDermott covered Clark in yesterday’s Waiver Wire column. I agree with Scott; the upside is just too big to ignore. Zac Thornton tops the ESPN most-added list with a start against the Marlins. He was excellent his last time out against the Braves, continuing a run of three good major league starts. He hasn’t been striking many batters out, but he doesn’t walk anyone either, giving him a solid FIP and xFIP to go with his 2.43 ERA and 0.91 WHIP. His Statcast batted ball quality metrics portend some regression, but his minor league numbers suggest he should be able to add a few Ks as well. He has legitimately excellent command and a not-that-intimidating matchup, so I’d roll with this stream. The Marlins are 8th in wRC+ over the past 30 days, though, so if you need to protect ratios, you’re fine skipping this one.
Quinn Mathews goes this afternoon in Toronto. The Blue Jays have the worst offense in baseball by wRC+ over the past 30 days, so the matchup is nice here. Mathews has had strong strikeout numbers and abysmal walk rates in over 200 Triple-A innings dating back to 2024. He’s mostly made it work, but I’m skeptical of debut starts from guys with a ~4.50 xFIP in the minors. Still, you may have to make the move anyway if you want any shares. With his prospect pedigree, a good start means he could shoot up in rostership.
Robert Gasser gets a start for Milwaukee visiting the Angels. The Angels are an excellent matchup, so much so that Nick has Gasser as his streaming pick of the day today. Their offense is 27th in wRC+ over the past 30 days, and there’s even the chance of some of their better hitters wearing different jerseys before the game starts. Gasser is the rare Brewers starter that hasn’t dominated immediately upon reaching the bigs. He has such an extreme fly ball approach that he gives up five percentage points more pulled fly balls than the league average, even though he’s not particularly prone to letting batters pull the ball. The Angels have the worst ISO in baseball over the past month, so you could roll the dice with this stream too, but I’d be cautious.
Andrew Abbott is the last streaming starter on the ESPN most-added list. He’s facing off against Pittsburgh at home. I’ll admit to being a bit mystified how he’s made it work with sub-93 velo and poor control (this year), but he’s had 530 innings of success without premium velo. You’d rather this start was in Pittsburgh with Abbott’s 5.05 home ERA/2.89 road ERA splits, but with Pittsburgh struggling against lefties, this is a playable matchup.
The lone unique entry on the Yahoo most-added list is Connor Prielipp. Prielipp returned from the IL 5 days ago with a solid outing against the A’s in Minnesota. The A’s offense is abysmal on the road, so there’s not much to be gleaned from that other than Prielipp’s health. Prielipp gets to start in Seattle, one of the best places in the majors to pitch. The Mariners are also poor against lefties (26th by wRC+), so this is another good streaming opportunity today.
Category Specific Players to Add
Steven Kwan (CLE) – OF (Yahoo – 52%)
Kwan’s overall season line is pretty poor, sitting at just .251/.353/.312 with 1 homer and 8 steals. It used to be much worse, though, if you can believe it. Over the past 30 days, Kwan has been doing what we usually associate him with, hitting .387/.472/.480 with 5 steals. There’s no power here to speak of, but if managers have moved on from Kwan and you could use an average and speed asset, he’s useful again.
Jackson Holliday (BAL) – 2B, SS (Yahoo – 28%)
If you liked Kwan, can I interest you in the same type of player with eligibility at both middle infield spots? Holliday has a touch more power than Kwan, with 5 homers on the season, but less speed. He’s been singles-maxxing for the past month, though, hitting .382/.500/.436. The Orioles have a much better offense than the Guardians do, so Holliday should get more run production opportunities. He hits sixth, though, while Kwan leads off, so there’s an RBI/R tradeoff between the two if you’re only looking at adding one.
Graphic by Carlos Leano
