Welcome to the Waiver Wire Picks, our daily fantasy baseball article that looks at the best players in baseball that 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, and we’ll also look at the most added players in fantasy baseball across the major sites, and let you know which players to add and which you can leave on the wire.
Top Priority Players to Add
Alejandro Kirk (TOR) – C (Yahoo – 43%)
What if I told you that Kirk had the highest WRC+ on the Blue Jays roster? And that’s with him spending nearly two months on the IL due to a dislocated thumb.
It kind of sums up the Blue Jays’ season. But Kirk looks fully back lately and is crushing the baseball, having perhaps the best month of his professional baseball life. He’s striking out less than 10% of the time, hitting almost .400, and has more RBIs over the last three weeks than he did in all the months prior (where he missed a lot of time but still had almost twice the at-bats).
Yes, the Jays have been disappointing offensively, but the team is still (somehow) in the playoff hunt and Kirk is one of their few bright spots. He’s getting rewarded by hitting third in the lineup and filling in as DH when he’s not catching. With many of their star offensive players injured or traded, Kirk will have to shoulder the offense to keep them in the hunt. He’s the captain now.
Joey Ortiz (MIL) – 3B,SS (Yahoo – 4%)
Losing his regular job at shortstop might have been the best thing that happened to Joey Ortiz. When the Brewers called up Cooper Pratt at the end of June, Pratt got him the SS job and Ortiz shifted over to third where he’d split some time with David Hamilton. At the time, the move made sense: Ortiz had been massively struggling at the plate until then, hitting .201 with a .540 OPS. He was statistically one of the worst hitters in baseball.
But the wakeup call was what Ortiz needed. He spent extra time in the cage and made adjustments, and has two mph to his bat speed. He’s also adopted a more aggressive approach (or ‘improved conviction’ as his manager calls it).
Sometimes results speak for themselves, and Ortiz has batted over .300 with a .900+ OPS in each of the last two months. He’s actually got a 1.031 OPS since the All-Star Break and leads the entire National League in OPS since the Fourth of July. He won’t get his SS job back, but he’s locked down an everyday role at third.
Jeff McNeil (ATH) – 2B,1B,OF (Yahoo – 17%)
Another player who was let for dead, the 34-year-old McNeil is finding the fountain of youth. 2022’s National League batting champ has long been a contact hitter with not much power and less speed. But McNeil’s still got an excellent eye at the plate, strikes out just 11.5% of the time, and has an expected batting average around .280.
And though that limited speed has left him with a 43 career steals over nine seasons, McNeil is suddenly running with abandon. He’s swiped five bags since the All-Star Break and hasn’t been caught in that span, so maybe he’s found another gear somewhere.
McNeil’s also been hitting the cover off the ball, with a .364 average over his last 30 games. He’s hit three homers in that span and five doubles, with to a K-rate under 10%. Even without Nick Kurtz, the Athletics are playing better lately, and McNeil is a big reason why.
Tanner Scott (LAD) – RP (Yahoo – 50%)
Since Edwin Díaz went back on the IL this week, Scott’s collected two straight saves and looks like the Dodgers’ closer once again. Diaz and his sore neck might be back in a couple of weeks, but Diaz’s 11.85 ERA and 2.56 WHIP might have LA thinking twice about returning him to the ninth inning. Scott’s held down the role more than adequately when Diaz has been out before, with a 2.28 ERA and 0.92 WHIP on the season. He’s also got a 96th-percentile K-rate, walks hitters just 5% of the time, and can dominate hitters with his slider, which he throws around half the time with a .157 BAA.
If life were fair, the Dodgers would simply announce that Scott’s their man the rest of the way. He’d probably have that role on about 27 of 30 MLB teams. LA needs to realize they’re one of the 27, regardless of how much money they pay Diaz.
Shane Bieber (TOR) – SP (Yahoo – 46%)
Bieber made his first start on June 23, and stumbled so badly out of the gate that lots of owners dropped him (including me). But after about a month where he was barely cracking 92 mph and showing every year of his age, he found some mechanical issues and worked tirelessly to fix them.
And suddenly, all is sunshine and rainbows again, as Bieber’s won three of his last four starts, has an ERA under three, and is carrying a 4x K:BB ratio.
Let’s pump the brakes a little bit though: he still has a .296 xBA overall (first percentile) and gets hit pretty hard (seventh percentile Barrel rate), so there’s some change of luck at play too. But you can see that his mechanical adjustments have paid off, especially on the control front. Last night, he K’ed seven and walked none. He’s a top-50 starter again.
Kade Anderson (SEA) – SP (Yahoo – 33%)
I’ll keep this simple, as you should already know his numbers in AA by now. They’re insane. Anderson is far and away the best pitcher in the Minor Leagues, and finally got the call last night. He starts on Saturday. If no one stashed him, prepare to make the biggest FAAB contribution of the season over the weekend. Even if he pitches every sixth day in the Mariners rotation, he belongs on your squad. Go get him.
Yahoo and ESPN Most Added Players
Yahoo!
Obviously, Kade Anderson will top this list for the next couple of days, but this is what things looked like last night: a trio of uninspiring pitchers.First of the bunch, Randy Dobnak might have a tremendous ERA (1.58) buoyed by a lot of ground balls, but he’s got a second-percentile K-rate, a .290 xBA, and a 90.5 Average Exit Velo. He’s a blowup start or two waiting to happen.
Robert Gasser, though his ERA is more than three runs worse than Dobnak’s, intrigues me a little more. He’s made 15 starts now for the Brew Crew and appears to have figured a few things out, as hitters are slugging 106 points lower after the All-Star Break than before (.489 to .383). His sweeper is his most-used pitch, and it’s a decent offering with a high spin rate and gets hitters to whiff 26% of the time.
Peter Lambert was covered in this space much earlier in the season, and he’s now up to 64% owned, so it’s surprising to see him on a most-added list. But while he’s 0-2 in August and hasn’t had a quality start since July 22nd, he also hasn’t allowed more than two runs in an outing since June 29th. He’s just not going deep into games and needs to work on his 9.3% BB rate and overall efficiency. But he’s good at getting himself out of trouble and has a .202 xBA. He’s a hold for me.
We covered both McNeil and Kirk above, and I’d recommend giving both a flier. Kirk could be a top-5 catcher the rest of the way.
ESPN
Let’s just say that Ian Seymour is a favorite of this column, and you should own him. A soft-throwing lefty who nonetheless strikes out 29% of batters, Seymour has an absolutely devastating changeup that he throws 30% of the time with batters scuffling to a .169 batting average against it. His fastball, which relies on a quirky delivery that has some deception to it, is also thrown around 30% of the time and has a .179 average against. Seymour’s awesome and will be a massive sleeper for next year as there’s room for him to get better.
We’ve covered the next three guys already, so let’s jump to Michael McGreevy. I’ve warned against the blowup potential of McGreevy in the past, as his paltry metrics should eventually catch up with him, but he did just shut out the Cubs over six innings and limited the Reds to five baserunners in 5.1 innings (though he did give up three runs). So maybe I’m eating my words on this one, but I’m going to be stubborn and still say stay away, though you can stream him in the right matchups (and this was a good one).
Streaming Pitchers
Check out Nick Pollack’s SP Streamer Rankings for the complete breakdown on every start for the next few days. There are two pitchers to highlight.
Sean Manaea (NYM) – SP (Yahoo – 34%) vs KCR
Manaea’s been steadily gaining velocity as the season’s gone on, now pumping 95 mph regularly. Who’d have thunk it when he was throwing 89 in April?
He’s also going deep into games, lasting six or more innings in his last five starts. And he’s got 25 K’s in his last three appearances, including an 11-K domination over the Pirates last week. He should be more than a streamer at this point; he’s emerged as a top-50 pitcher the rest of the season.
Christian Scott (NYM) – SP (Yahoo – 31%) @ LAA
Let’s double up on the Mets here, as Scott has solid metrics in every category except ground balls. That might be a problem against the homer-happy White Sox, but if Scott can keep the ball in the yard, he should be in for a good outing.
The Sox swing and miss an awful lot, and Scott has racked up 104 K’s in just 84 IP, mainly off his elevated 96 mph four-seamer that has almost ten inches of movement. And while he’s been a little bumpy over his last three outings, Scott finished those starts with 20 total strikeouts and had some bad luck. He’s due for some positive regression; hopefully it comes in this one.
