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
Iván Herrera (STL), C (36% owned in Yahoo!, 14% in ESPN)
Highlighted in this very column last week as a priority add, Herrera looks primed to be the breakout late-round catcher of the 2025 season. Fresh off a three-HR day at the time of writing this, it’s no surprise that he will be a hot name on the waiver wire. Sometimes you don’t want to read too much into an outlier performance like this. I don’t think this is one of those cases as Herrera has had the skillset to break out and just needed the opportunity.
Interesting comparison can be made between #Astros catcher Yainer Diaz and #Cardinals catcher Iván Herrera. 👇 pic.twitter.com/BvNn2hcuRk
— Kyle McCarthy (@KyleStats1738) December 5, 2024
This offseason, I highlighted a few similarities between Herrera’s situation and that of the Astros’ young stud catcher Yainer Diaz. Herrera has comparable quality of contact with a more refined approach at the plate. With how he is currently tearing the cover off the ball, he appears locked into the lion’s share of the catching duties in St. Louis.
Jacob Wilson (ATH), SS (11% owned in Yahoo!, 7% in ESPN)
Wilson makes contact at an extremely high clip (currently leading the league at 96.7%) and is one of five qualified hitters to not strike out yet this season. With how hitter-friendly his new home ballpark appears, he should have a decent chance at around 12 homers along with a healthy AVG.
Nolan Schanuel (LAA), 1B (10% owned in Yahoo!, 7% in ESPN)
Schanuel is another contact-oriented hitter who may be tapping into some power. After focusing this offseason on adding bat speed and raw power, he has set a new MaxEV at 109.8 mph and is up four mph in bat speed. With his other strong plate skills, he becomes much more interesting if he begins showing some semblance of power.
Hunter Goodman (COL), C, OF (13% owned in Yahoo!, 7% in ESPN)
Goodman appears locked into everyday playing time batting cleanup for the Rockies. That’s a pretty good gig just by itself. We can also see a slugging profile with great Barrel% numbers in his few big league seasons. If he can keep the K rate at a tenable level, he’ll be in for a productive campaign.
Max Meyer (MIA), SP (23% owned in Yahoo!, 8% in ESPN)
Meyer came into the spring with some tweaks to his arm angle and arsenal. Centered around his awesome slider, he is throwing five pitches now with ticked-up velocity across the board. A bigger test comes this week against the Braves, although they have looked pretty feeble to start the new year.
Tylor Megill (NYM), SP (14% owned in Yahoo!, 7% in ESPN)
Megill has adopted the wide arsenal trend across the league over the last few years. While he went predominantly fastball, slider, and sinker in his successful first start in 2025, he threw five pitches with over an above-average Stuff+ last season. And this year, albeit one start, he is second in overall Stuff+ among starters.
Casey Mize (DET), SP (20% owned in Yahoo!, 11% in ESPN)
Mize mowed down the Mariners Tuesday night and looked the part. He generated plenty of whiffs with his fastball and splitter doing some heavy lifting. I’d like to see the splitter usage tick up a tad more with how nasty it looks.
Tommy Kahnle (DET), RP (6% owned in Yahoo, 1% in ESPN)
Kahnle doesn’t exactly fit the prototypical closer mold with his 95% changeups, but he got the first crack at a save situation for the Tigers. He is worth adding to see if this kind of usage sticks.
Yahoo! and ESPN Most Added Players
Dennis Santana looks to be the primary closer for the Pirates with David Bednar being optioned. It’s tough to trust a closer who throws over 50% sliders, but Santana has a good fastball by Stuff+ and has posted good results as a Pirate (3.01 FIP). He is an option if you are searching for some saves.
Jake Mangum, a 29-year-old outfielder for the Rays, has taken advantage of the Josh Lowe injury going 8-for-15 with three steals to begin his major league career. It has been one of the coolest stories so far this season and we should all enjoy the ride while it lasts.
Sean Burke had an encouraging Opening Day start although it came with underwhelming underlying marks with only a 42.5% Strike% and .416 xwOBA. Then, on Wednesday he gave up six ER to the Twins. It’s nice to see that he has yet to walk a batter, but we also need to see some more swing and miss.
Brady Singer shoved against the Rangers earlier this week going seven IP allowing only one hit to go with eight Ks. He isn’t too far removed from a breakthrough season a few years ago.
Lars Nootbaar was my highlighted player in this column last week and he has absolutely delivered. He is doing everything you want to see early on from a breakout candidate. Walking more than striking out, consistent hard contact, and pulling the ball as much as he ever has.
Wilyer Abreu looks great to start the year as he is a part of the aforementioned five hitters yet to strike out in the young season. All while hitting the ball hard, swinging in the zone more, and chasing less. The only downside is that he will likely continue to platoon.
Eugenio Suárez is a naturally streaky hitter who is on one of his patented white-hot streaks leading the league with five homers. Typically, these torrid stretches come in the second half of the season, but the 33-year-old mixed it up this year.
Kristian Campbell has been highlighted multiple times in this column and needs to be universally owned. He has an advanced approach at the big-league level for his age and displayed really impressive bat speed and exit velocity on his first career bomb.
Statcast bat tracking for Kristian Campbell’s first MLB home run
80.4 mph bat speed (80+ is top-tier) ➡️ 112.2 mph exit velo / 431 foot distance pic.twitter.com/P2Wn1mtZjl
— David Adler (@_dadler) March 30, 2025
Category-Specific Players to Add
Jonny DeLuca (TB), OF (1% owned in Yahoo!, 1% in ESPN)
DeLuca is playing every day in CF so far for the Rays slashing .438/.500/.563 with three stolen bases. DeLuca is an awesome athlete with 98th percentile sprint speed and a great defender as well with him ranking 93rd percentile in Outs Above Average last season. As long as his bat remains near league average while providing great defense at a premium position, there is the opportunity for DeLuca to rack up the steals along with double-digit homers.
Streaming Pitchers
Be sure to check Nick’s daily SP streaming article!
Will Warren (NYY), SP (11% owned in Yahoo!, 5% in ESPN)
Warren had a decent first start at home against the Diamondbacks with 5 IP, 1 H, 2 ER, 4 BB, and 4 Ks. He was a bit wild which isn’t the norm for him, so hopefully he can bounce back in a soft landing spot on Sunday in Pittsburgh. Away from Yankee Stadium in a pitchers’ park, Warren should feature his sweeper plenty and find success.
Speculative Adds
Zebby Matthews (MIN), SP (4% owned in Yahoo!, 1% in ESPN)
Matthews should be expected to return to the big league rotation any day now. The Paddack experiment needs to come to a close with the Twins after getting blasted for nine ERs by the White Sox earlier this week. Matthews dominated in his season debut at Triple-A St. Paul and has plenty of upside if you have room to stash.
Zebby Matthews was untouchable in his first @StPaulSaints start of the season 💯
5 IP / 1 H / 0 R / 0 BB / 4 K
He averaged 97.5 MPH in the outing and topped out at 99.2 MPH ⛽️#MNTwins pic.twitter.com/MLJIZKSca1
— Twins Player Development (@TwinsPlayerDev) April 2, 2025
Deep League Players to Watch
Alan Roden (TOR), OF (3% owned in Yahoo!, 1% in ESPN)
Roden has done nothing but hit during his time in the minor leagues with satisfyingly near-equal walk and strikeout rates. This seems like an all-contact, no-power type of profile, but he flashed a 112.2 MaxEv in Triple-A last season which is interesting. He has held his own only striking out once in 19 PA thus far. He is in a large side platoon but could carve out more if he plays well.
Andy Pages (LAD), OF (4% owned in Yahoo!, 1% in ESPN)
Pages hasn’t done anything of note so far in 2025, but he has started every game for the Dodgers at each OF spot. This is still a guy with a real prospect pedigree and who showed what he could do at the big-league level last season with a 10.7% Barrel%. As long as his opportunity sticks, his bat should come around. Any regular bat on the Dodgers is worth monitoring.
For deeper leagues, check Ben Rosener’s Deep League Waiver Wire column every Thursday and Saturday!
