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 players you can leave on the wire.
Top Priority Players to Add
Noelvi Marte (CIN), 3B (Yahoo!: 48%)
I flagged Marte as a priority add last week when his rostered percentage was just five percent, and he’s far surpassed my expectations. He’s been one of the best bats in the game since his promotion, slashing .364/.404/.659 with three homers and four stolen bases in just 12 games. The power and speed are back in a big way, and his OPS sits at 1.063 and his wRC+ at 188. This looks like your very last chance to get on board the train before it leaves the station for good.
It’s not uncommon to see a new player get called up, go on a crazy hot streak until the league adjusts, and come crashing down (cough, cough Kyren Paris), but I will go on record and say that Marte is legit. I don’t see the average sticking — his K% is 12.8% compared to the 20% range in his good years in the minors, but hitting .260 is easily achievable. His max EV is 98th percentile, and his sprint speed is 96th — the only other player above the 95th percentile in both is Corbin Carroll. Carroll is a different (better) hitter, but Marte has the tools to put together a monster season nonetheless.
Ceddanne Rafaela (BOS), 2B, SS, OF (Yahoo!: 50%)
I’ve never fully bought into Rafaela — he’s always seemed like a boring .250 average hitter with some power and a bit of speed. In a lot of ways, he is boring. Yet he is putting up an excellent fantasy season.
I try not to cite someone’s Statcast profile and call it analysis, but Rafaela’s looks like someone made an intentionally average character in an RPG. He’s around the 50th percentile for most of his major batting stats. But average doesn’t mean bad — in Rafaela’s case, it means well-rounded. Many batters will have a particular fatal flaw that sinks them. Fantasy managers tend to prefer certain player profiles, but there are so many paths to success at the plate. He’s certainly not the type of player I usually go for, but Rafaela brings just enough of everything to impact the game. Fantasy is about the scoresheet, and sometimes you miss out on productive players by digging too deep. He comes around to score, he hits home runs, he bats runners in, he steals bases, and he hits the ball during some of his at-bats. Sometimes that’s all you need. I suspect he’s the best fantasy performer of all the batters with a sub .700 OPS — sometimes it just works.
Yahoo! and ESPN Most Added Players
Yahoo!
Noelvi Marte is covered at length above — in short, I’m all in on him.
Griffin Canning is one of the biggest pitching surprises of the year, going from a 5.19 ERA in 2024 to 3.12 this year. He delivered against the Nats today, going five innings with no earned runs and five strikeouts. I wouldn’t be shocked if the Mets managed to fix him after he was freed from Anaheim, but I’m still wary. He gets hit hard when things go wrong, and he hasn’t changed things enough for me to buy the results.
Jorge Polanco is on fire, going 8-for-17 with four homers in the last week. He was playing through an injury last year, and he’s been a quietly good batter for a long time before that. The underlying stats like what he’s doing, and he’s showing that Seattle won’t slow him down.
Andy Pages is also having quite a week, going 13-for-20 with three homers. It looks like he’s settled into the big leagues nicely, and he has the ideal team context around him to be a counting stats machine.
I wrote about Agustín Ramírez in my weekly Catchers to Stream column. He’s red hot and getting starts at DH already. He has the profile to be one of the better-hitting catchers, but I’d hesitate to move off of someone like Adley Rutschman for him quite yet. If you happen to have someone like Carson Kelly and can get Ramirez, make that swap right now.
ESPN
See above for notes on Noelvi Marte, Jorge Polanco, and Agustín Ramírez.
Andrew Heaney is having a good start to the year, posting a 1.72 ERA. He gets the Cubs next, and I’d avoid that start like the plague. We’ve seen who Heaney is in his 10 years in the MLB, and there’s no way he’s keeping this up with his career 4.37 ERA.
Max Meyer, on the other hand, looks like the next big thing. Nick has him at No. 47 on The List, and the talent surpasses his 2-3 W-L on the year. He’s awesome, and you should rush to get him.
Streaming Pitchers
Check out Nick Pollack’s SP Streamer Rankings for breakdowns and recommendations for every start.
Jack Kochanowicz (LAA), SP (Yahoo!: 1%)
As usual, Nick is the person to listen to for streamer options. I like to highlight under-the-radar picks who should outperform their rostership percentage. Is Kochanowicz all that good? No. Does he play against the Mariners in Seattle? Yes. He’s available virtually everywhere, and he’s done a good job surviving against better teams. The T-Mobile boost should let him show out.
Speculative Adds
Jacob Melton (HOU), OF (Yahoo!: 0%)
Houston has tried five players in left field this year, three in right, and three at second. The carousel goes around and around while Jacob Melton gets healthy at Triple-A. He’s played in only six games after returning from the IL, but he’s hit two home runs already. He could be the shot in the arm the Astros need if their merry band of outfielders and second basemen don’t lock things down soon. He might not be up this week, but Houston will give him a chance soon enough. He’s an underrated proximity play with the power and speed to pull off a 20/20 season or better if he can stay healthy.
Deep League Players to Watch
Check out Ben Rosener’s Deep League Waiver Wire column every Thursday and Saturday for more Deep League picks.
Enmanuel Valdez (PIT), 1B, 2B (Yahoo!: 1%)
You might search for “Emmanuel” rather than “Enmanuel” on Baseball Savant if you struggle with basic reading like me. It’s okay because Savant is just as confused and gives the 26-year-old Enmanuel’s face to the retired 46-year-old Mexican League player Emmanuel Valdez’s popup when you type his name into the search bar. This is, of course, entirely unimportant, but I had to tell someone.
The actual scoop on Valdez is that he’s available everywhere and is batting fourth against RHP — he sat once last week against a lefty but has started against them several times, shifting down towards the bottom of the order. He’s slashing .219/.324/.422 for an OPS of .746 and wRC+ of 107 with two home runs this season. He’s not the highest upside player, but he has a 16.2%/13.5% K%/BB% and his underlying numbers indicate he’s getting unlucky. He changed his swing this offseason, and the early results look good. If all goes well, I could see him hitting .250 with maybe 15 homers and five steals.
Edgar Quero (CWS), C (Yahoo!: 2%)
In case you missed out on Agustín Ramírez, Quero offers a second chance for the catcher-needy in deep leagues. He’s slashing .344/.462/.406 for an .868 OPS and a 163 wRC+ with zero homers and zero steals in 11 games. His OPS topped .800 in the upper minors last year, where he slugged 16 homers in under 100 games. He’s more of a 16-team or two-catcher league option, but he’s under-rostered based on his performance. Not a league winner by any means, but he has the starting catcher job and several starts at DH under his belt with an above-average bat.
