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
Xander Bogaerts (SDP) – SS (Yahoo – 44%)
Bogaerts might not be the most exciting player at this stage in his career, but he’s put up a double-double in every season he’s been with the Padres. The batting average is also going to be an asset – after a rough 4-32 start to the season, Bogaerts has raised his line to .289/.366/.444. He’s got his customarily excellent contact skills, with a swinging strike rate around 7%, but has cut his already-low strikeout rate to just under 10% as pitchers are out of the zone more often with the new ABS-influenced strike zone. Bogaerts might not be the most exciting or upside-laden play, but he’s going to be a better replacement for an owner who just lost Francisco Lindor for the next month or so than anyone the Mets give those at-bats to. Jeremy Peña finished last season as the 11th overall shortstop according to the Fangraphs auction calculator with standard settings. Bogaerts could reproduce something close to that with the 2026 strike zone and he’s available for free in half of leagues.
Yahoo and ESPN Most Added Players
ESPN owners are finally coming around on Ryan Weathers while he’s on the paternity list between starts. He’s really good, and it’s criminal that he’s only owned in about a quarter of ESPN leagues. He’s been a top-60 starter year-to-date according to the Fangraphs auction calculator, and Nick has him 48th on the most recent edition of The List. He should be owned in every league. ESPN owners are also targeting Mickey Moniak and Ildemaro Vargas after massive games on Thursday and Wednesday, respectively. It’s hard to know what to make of some of these moves. On the one hand, there were reasons for optimism for Moniak coming into the season. He moved to Coors and doesn’t have much competition for playing time in the Rockies’ outfield. So far, he’s had a good season, with a bunch of batted ball luck leading to a .315/.338/.762 line that is WAY above what you should expect based on his contact quality. I don’t think it’s unreasonable to add Moniak, especially if you can run him just for home starts, but I don’t think we’ve really seen anything new from him this year. There are really only three reasons to add a player: you’re replacing someone who’s injured on your roster, there’s a much more favorable schedule for someone on the wire, or you’ve gained some information since draft day that tells you a player on the wire is better than a player on your roster. With Ildemaro, you’ve learned that he’s going to get a lot of volume, at least in the short term. With Moniak, it’s more of the same, and the Rockies are on the road for their next 5 (although 3 of those are at Cincinnati). This feels like people chasing games that have already happened, and you don’t get those stats if you’re picking them up today.
Payton Tolle also had a monster game just before this movement onto fantasy rosters, but we’ve learned something new and important: he’s going to get to pitch in the majors. I’m old enough to remember another lefty with a monster fastball he threw 60% of the time in his debut season. He just won his second Cy Young Award in a row and set the arbitration record for pitchers this offseason. All joking aside, while Tolle is almost surely not going to turn into Tarik Skubal, Stuff+ loves what he’s throwing, earning a 115 overall and around a 120 on 3 pitches over his first 22.1 MLB innings. It’s fair to question how long he’ll be in the majors, with 5 Red Sox starters on the IL currently, but with the team’s pitching struggling, he could easily take this job and run with it.
Yahoo owners are mostly streaming starters this week. Weathers is still under-rostered in Yahoo, but it’s a little less egregious than ESPN. Yahoo owners are also adding Carlos Cortes after his insane single off (literally) Logan Gilbert. More on Cortes below, but I think he’s a possible add in deeper leagues. Walbert Ureña is the big mover among today’s starters. He’s throwing super hard this year, averaging 98+ MPH on both four-seamer and sinker. He throws each of his four pitches at least 15% of the time, adding a sweeper 16% of the time and a changeup 28% of the time to his sinker (34%) and four-seamer (21%). PLV isn’t a fan of the sweeper, ranking it in the 6th percentile, but each of his other three pitches is around average to above. The matchup against a rough KC offense is nice, but Ureña also induces a lot of contact on the ground, and glovework is not a strength of this Angels team. Nick has him a cautious 16th of 30 starters today in his SP Streamers.
The other two streaming starters are Kodai Senga and Bailey Ober. Ober is, to my mind, a mistake, unless you’re absolutely desperate for innings, which you shouldn’t be at this stage of the season in roto leagues. It’s really hard to be successful as a righty with a sub-90 fastball in today’s baseball. Ober has made his name off managing contact, and PLV still loves the changeup and slider, but every start feels like he’s walking a tightrope. Senga’s ghost fork is still elite, with PLV grading it as a 91st percentile splitter, but the rest of the pitches are a mixed bag. His four-seamer ranks in the 31st percentile by PLV, with a roughly average sweeper and 66th percentile cutter. Senga gets the Rockies in New York which is the tastiest of the matchups among these streamers. I’d strongly prefer him to Ober in a streaming situation, and you should be able to choose given their respective roster rates.
Deep League Players to Watch
Carlos Cortes (ATH) – OF (Yahoo – 5%)
Cortes is off to a .339/.403/.625 start over his first 62 plate appearances. He’s having success by making contact on everything, with an 87.5% contact rate that would be a career high at any level. He’s also hitting the ball hard, with 79th percentile exit velocity. He’s absolutely punishing fastballs so far this season, hitting .478 with a 1.000 SLG. His fastball success has been merited based on quality of contact, with his expected rates just a smidge below at .452 and .720. Cortes is getting a chance to play with Brent Rooker currently on the IL with an oblique injury. While Rooker is starting to swing the bat again, it looks like he’s still a ways away. Perhaps just as importantly, Lawrence Butler has struggled to start the season, and Zack Gelof hasn’t hit while replacing an injured Denzel Clarke. While Cortes is a poor defender (Fangraphs gave him a 30 future value with the glove), he’s got some runway with Rooker on the IL and maybe the A’s would try to shoehorn one of him or Rooker into a corner outfield spot with Butler shifting over to center.
Connor Prielipp (MIN) – SP (Yahoo – 5%)
Prielipp made his MLB debut on Wednesday with a lot of success despite only lasting 4 innings. PLV thought the slider was great, giving it a 97th percentile grade. Prielipp seems to agree, throwing it over half the time in his debut. The rest of his pitches graded out as below average except for a singular sinker that either looked great (PLV 99th percentile) or could possibly be misclassified. Prielipp throws hard from the left side, averaging 96 MPH, and has had excellent strikeout rates in the minors. He’s lined up for a two-start week next week, with the Twins hosting Seattle and then Toronto. Those aren’t the most enticing matchups, but if Prielipp does well, you might miss out.
Graphic by Carlos Leano.
