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
Zack Gelof (ATH) – 2B (Yahoo! – 0%)
You’ll rarely find a 0% rostered player this high up in one of these articles. This is a very aggressive pick, and you will assuredly have time to wait and see in most leagues. But if you’re in any deeper leagues, you might want to run and grab him now. Gelof is a classic post-hype sleeper candidate. He had a solid MLB debut in 2023, but couldn’t replicate that success in his sophomore season or the year after. He failed to break camp with the A’s this year after putting up ho-hum results in spring training. He’s been working on flattening out his swing, bringing it closer to where it was in 2023. Early results are good, as he’s been on fire with the Triple-A team, slashing .366/.519/.732 with four home runs and three steals in 11 games. There’s enough that’s changed under the hood that I’m tentatively ringing the breakout bell.
Gelof’s approach at the plate is an interesting case. In the minors in 2025, he had elite walk, chase (how often he’d swing at pitches outside the zone), and z-swing percentages (how often he’d swing at pitches inside the zone). He swung at 78% of pitches in the strike zone. But he just kept missing them. He had one of the worst swinging strike rates at Triple-A despite possessing an excellent eye for the zone, as evidenced by his 89th-percentile walk rate. This year, he’s an entirely different player. He’s swinging less often at pitches in the zone and making much more contact when he does. It’s quality contact, too – his exit velocity, barrel rate, and hard-hit rate are markedly improved. It’s a small sample, but I’m inclined to believe that his 1.250 OPS isn’t all smoke and mirrors.
I started this write-up before last night’s game. I had high hopes that he’d hit the ground running. Instead, he went zero-for-two and left the game in the seventh for Lawrence Butler. Gelof seems to be on the short side of a platoon for now, and he’ll have to find playing time any way he can. He’s been getting work in the outfield since spring training, and that will be his likeliest path with Brent Rooker on the shelf.
I think it’s probably too early to write this much about a bench player on the Sacramento Athletics. There’s a good chance he won’t get enough playing time to get comfortable and win an everyday spot. I’m putting a lot of weight on a measly 11 games at Triple-A. All that aside, it really looks like he’s made a huge stride in solving his hit tool issues. He’s always had the power and speed for a 30-30 season, and equipped with a new swing and better plate discipline, there’s a good chance that this is his year.
Casey Schmitt (SFG) – 1B, 2B, 3B (Yahoo! – 6%)
Like Gelof, Schmitt looks like a radically different player from last year. His average exit velo is up from a below-average 89,5 mph to an elite, 95th-percentile 94.4 mph. His hard-hit rate skyrocketed into elite territory, and his barrel rate rose from average to the 70th-percentile. These changes have translated into a .950 OPS on the season for Schmitt. Playing half of his games at Oracle Park won’t do his home run total any favors, but such a drastic increase in average exit velocity is worth some extra attention. The combination of this power uptick and his continued lift-and-pull approach is exactly what it will take for Schmitt to find success as a power hitter in San Francisco. There were concerns about Schmitt’s playing time disappearing with Luis Arraez in the mix, but he’s been the everyday DH over the past week. Schmitt is certainly getting lucky with a .520 BABIP, but his contact ability and power have taken legitimate steps forward. He’s not an add in shallow leagues just yet, but I think a 2025 Jo Adell–like level-up is very possible for Schmitt.
Yahoo! and ESPN Most Added Players
Yahoo!
Jeremiah Jackson is the latest hot bat who will fizzle out by the time you add him. He’s in a time-share, and there’s not much to love in his profile. He’s a warm body to fill a roster spot.
Joey Cantillo tacked on another quality start. His fastball sits in the low 90s, but his changeup and curveball have been potent strikeout pitches. He’s not an ace, but I think there’s more upside here than in the next two arms on this list.
Jeffrey Springs is all results right now. I’m wary of the 91-mph heater as his primary pitch, but he’s shown that he can make it work at home and on the road. He found success with the same velocity in 2022, and he’s added a few new pitches since then. I don’t buy him as a sub-2.00 ERA arm, but he’s pulling off the kitchen sink approach beautifully. He’s worth an add, but don’t hang on too tight if the league starts figuring him out. He’s posted three quality starts in a row, so you should hold on for now.
Mitch Keller is in the same bucket as Springs. He’s getting better results than he deserves, but you can’t discount the results entirely. Let him roll until the wheels fall off. He’s down at least one after last night’s shellacking from the Nats.
Ryan Weathers. Snip-snap, snip-snap, snip-snap. You have no idea the physical toll that four wildly up-and-down starts have on a person. I love Weathers’ stuff, and I still believe that his control is overall good. But it’s getting awfully hard to trust him this season. From eight innings with one earned run to back-to-back-to-back home runs in the first. I think he’s still a hold, but you have my full blessing to move on to less terrifying pastures.
ESPN
Take a look at the Yahoo! section above for blurbs on Jeffrey Springs, Mitch Keller, and Joey Cantillo.
Angel Martínez is on a very nice heater. He won’t sustain this power binge, and he doesn’t have the plate discipline for a 2025 Geraldo Perdomo season, but he’s a decent power/speed threat in deeper leagues.
Reynaldo López is yet another overperforming pitcher. The Marlins caught up to him and his middling fastball in this last start, but he settled in and managed six strikeouts. I’d avoid him against the Phillies, but he’s an adequate inning-eater.
Streaming Pitchers
Check out Nick Pollack’s SP Streamer Rankings for a complete breakdown of every start over the next few days. There are two pitchers I’d like to highlight.
Today: Rhett Lowder against the second-lowest run-scoring team, the San Francisco Giants? My cat, Rhett “Michael Nelson Trout” Steinberg-Glaser, approves.
Dear editor: This is the intended size of the photo. Thank you.
Tomorrow: Foster Griffin is a lefty who throws seven different pitches. He holds a 1.76 ERA after facing the Brewers, Dodgers, and Phillies. The Pirates should be even more baffled by his comically large pitch mix.
