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
We’re at a point where schedule and playing time are the most important things to consider. With such a short time horizon, I’m less focused on finding undervalued players that ought to be rostered in more leagues, and more focused on who has good matchups to close the season out. Since matchups are shared by everyone on the team, I’m changing the format here a bit to highlight which players are available in a sizable number of leagues that you might want to target for the last week of the season.
Houston Astros hitters:
The Astros finish the season with four games in Sacramento, a great place to hit against a pretty poor pitching staff. Yainer Diaz is only rostered in 42% of Yahoo leagues and is on a tear right now. He’s hitting .310/.347/.465 in the second half. Cam Smith is only rostered in 10% of Yahoo leagues. He’s unlikely to help you in batting average, but he still has a .231 ISO down the stretch.
Athletics hitters:
Even better than the Astros, the A’s have 6 straight at home next week to finish the season. The pitching matchups are pretty manageable, with Hunter Brown being the most intimidating arm on the schedule. The AL West is tied, so they’re likely to actually have to face Brown, but in the event the Astros manage to pull away from the Rangers in the next five games, he could be rested for the playoffs. Lawrence Butler is rostered in 54% of Yahoo leagues. The full-season numbers still aren’t great, but he’s been so much better in the second half, hitting .273/.348/.505. He also has a 117 wRC+ at home for the season. Henry Bolte is available in over half of Yahoo leagues. He’s hitting .311/.386/.440 at home.
Ryan Johnson (LAA) – SP, RP (Yahoo – 25%)
Johnson has two starts left for the Angels. He faces the Twins tomorrow, then visits the Mariners next week. Seattle is a lovely place to pitch, and the Twins offense has been struggling down the stretch. Johnson essentially ditched the sinker in early August and has a 2.04 ERA and 1.01 WHIP since. He’s probably a bit out over his skis during this stretch, especially with a 94% strand rate, but I’d love to get ahead of the rest of the league and take the okay matchup vs. the Twins in addition to the excellent matchup against the Mariners.
Yahoo and ESPN Most Added Players
One important thing to keep in mind when picking up starters today is that weekend starters are lined up to be pitching two of the last three games of the regular season next weekend as well. That makes starters for playoff teams relatively less valuable because they’re less likely to get a second start before the end of the season. It also means that if you’re going to want to have starters going on the last couple of days and you don’t want to take your chances fighting with other teams on the waiver wire, today and tomorrow’s adds are who you’re going to be rolling with. If you’re looking to stream starters just for today, Nick’s SP Streamers article is the first place to look.
Andrew Alvarez is the most popular add on Yahoo, starting on the road against the Cardinals. It’s a great park and a matchup against a meh offense. Alvarez has been pretty good in a half-season of starts and some scattered relief appearances. He’s got a 3.35 ERA that is substantially better than his 1.27 WHIP, and has been striking out just under a batter per inning. Alvarez would get to host the Mets next week and is likely to make that start, so you could hold him with two decent matchups remaining.
Robert Gasser hosts the Orioles in Milwaukee. Baltimore’s offense is not good, but Gasser hasn’t been good either. He’s kept the ratios mostly where you want them over his past 4 starts, but he’s a 4.30 ERA and 1.27 WHIP arm for the season. Gasser’s second potential start would be hosting the Cardinals in Milwaukee. He’s on a playoff team, but I don’t think the Brewers will rest him. Jacob Misiorowski and Logan Henderson have the next two turns in the rotation and are much more likely to get a day off, so Gasser will probably be pitching.
Jackson Jobe is starting for the Tigers on the south side of Chicago. Jobe’s got filthy stuff but hasn’t typically had the results to match. It’s definitely encouraging to see him closer to a strikeout per inning than in his previous major league seasons, but there’s a lot of variability from start to start. He’s been excellent over the last two, with Nick particularly a fan of the breaking stuff he had the last time out, but he also got shelled by the White Sox in his second start this season. He’s lined up to get the Pirates at home for his last start of the season, which you’d love to have. The Tigers don’t have a playoff-related incentive to rest him, but he’s also thrown 50 innings coming into today’s game. He was at 49 innings when he had his Tommy John surgery in 2025, so I could see a situation where the Tigers shut him down with nothing to play for. I’d take the upside here, but there’s a lot of risk here as well.
Cal Quantrill hosts the Blue Jays in Texas. Toronto has had the third-best offense by wRC+ over the past month, trailing only the white-hot Brewers and Cubs. I know Quantrill has put up seasons with excellent ERAs before, and is doing so again this year (with a good WHIP to boot), but I just can’t bring myself to trust a guy with a career 17.5% K rate in today’s game. I also would have missed the entirety of Eduardo Rodriguez’s season, though, so who cares about the math and what we think makes for a good pitcher. I still don’t love the matchup, but Quantrill’s second would be in Minnesota, which is a much better matchup.
Christian Scott hosts the Phillies at Citi Field. I like this one, especially if you’re looking for volume. Despite all their deadline shuffling, the Phillies are 26th by wRC+ over the past month. They don’t strike out much after adding Luis Arraez, but they’re among the least powerful teams in that time span as well. Scott would get his next start in DC against the Nationals. That would have been a scary start in the middle of the season, but the Nationals offense is the worst in baseball by wRC+ over the past month. James Wood hasn’t homered since the end of July. Sure, he missed a month, but he has an .057 ISO post-deadline. I think this is the best pair of starts of any of the starters mentioned so far.
Noah Cameron takes the mound for the Royals at Pittsburgh. Love the matchup, and Cameron has been dealing. He’s the rare streaming starter that Nick gives an Auto-Start grade to, and this is about as good of a streaming matchup as it gets. You’ll want to keep him for his matchup against the division rival Guardians next week, too. The Guardians are having a better stretch run than the Pirates, but they’re 27th against lefties by wRC+ for the season. I’d be happy to roll with Cameron for the last week of the season.
Tanner Bibee is hosting the Athletics in Cleveland, which immediately draws my attention. The A’s have scored the 8th-most runs in baseball at home, and the 29th-most on the road. I’ve been advocating for treating the A’s like the Rockies all season, and I’m not going to stop now. Target them when they’re on the road, dodge them at home, especially in the middle of summer. Bibee gets to visit Kansas City for his last start of the season. The Royals offense has been pretty good down the stretch, especially against righties. Bibee is another pitcher who might get skipped, but I’d actually bet on him making his final start. The Guardians are only 1 game ahead of the White Sox for the AL Central crown, and only 2 games ahead of the Rangers for the last wild card if they get passed by the White Sox. Bibee also might not be in the Guardians’ playoff rotation. Foster Griffin has struggled since joining the team, but Gavin Williams and Parker Messick are definitely the front two. If the Guardians want to start Joey Cantillo ahead of Bibee in a five-game series, there’s no reason to rest Bibee here.
Travis Bazzana is the lone position player on the most-added lists. He’s been on a bit of a homer binge down the stretch, hitting 5 of his 14 homers in September. He’s run less as the season progressed, with his stolen base attempts peaking at 10 in May and declining to only 2 so far in September. Still, he’s hot and playing every day, including the last four against lefties. If you need a second baseman, he doesn’t have the most imposing remaining schedule, so go for it.
Speculative Adds
Jahmai Jones (BOS) – OF (Yahoo – 0%)
Before you scoff, please hear me out for a second. Jones is a short-side platoon hitter with a 229 wRC+ against lefties in his time with the Red Sox. He’s got a career 126 wRC+ with the platoon advantage. The Red Sox are scheduled to face 5 straight lefties next week, so if you’re looking for some sneaky outfield production, perhaps to replace a Joshua Báez in your lineup, Jones could have a surprisingly good close to the season.
Graphic by Carlos Leano
