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. 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
Maikel Garcia (KCR), 2B, 3B, (40% rostered on Yahoo, 67% rostered on ESPN)
This one blurs the line into cheating territory, as he has a well over 60% rostered threshold on ESPN. However, I think it’s important that we talk about Maikel Garcia, one of the most headache-inducing players for fantasy managers over the past few years. Has his breakout finally come?
Garcia has shown all the signs of being, at the very least, a useful player both in fantasy and in real life. His positional flexibility added value, while his underlying numbers showed a player on the verge of being great. Think pre-2023 Yandy Díaz at the plate, although not quite as good. He hits the ball hard while refusing to strike out. He’s had solid plate discipline and power, yet the numbers have always been well below average.
Now, the numbers are amazing, at least in a small sample size. His average is well in batting champion territory, and he’s already halfway there in his pursuit of surpassing his 2023 home run total.
Interestingly, Garcia still hasn’t shown his standout tool yet: his speed. He currently has 0 stolen bases, which is surely frustrating for those who rostered him just for that. As long as he gets on base, though, these will certainly come. His average sprint speed is up from last year, a season in which he nabbed 37 bags.
Michael Conforto (LAD), OF, (18% rostered on Yahoo, 10% rostered on ESPN)
Is Michael Conforto going to have an OPS above 1.200 all year? No. Not even close. But is there a reason to believe he can sustain great production with the Dodgers? Definitely.
Conforto has become the Dodgers’ go-to left fielder, leapfrogging super-utilityman Chris Taylor. His numbers thus far have been ridiculous, putting up a crazy average and showcasing impressive power. He’s been doing so all while playing in one of the most unstoppable lineups ever assembled. It seems like it doesn’t matter where he’s hitting; he’s always going to have a chance to drive a run or two or get around to home himself.
Now, as mentioned before, it is unlikely he will keep up this level of production. There are a few reasons to be apprehensive of him moving forward. The first is the fact that he’s a pretty heavy platoon guy. He doesn’t get many opportunities against left-handed pitchers, and when he does, it isn’t always pretty. The other concern is with past performance, as he wasn’t the same guy from the Mets days during his time with the Giants. But hey, be optimistic. This is a new situation in LA, one that has helped revive plenty of careers. Just look at Teoscar Hernández last year.
This is a classic example of riding the hot hand, as Conforto has been nuts to start the season. However, the underlying numbers have looked pretty solid over the past few years, so while he won’t be this all year, he can still be a great player for your teams.
Jonathan Aranda (TBR), 1B, 2B, (6% rostered on Yahoo, 3% rostered on ESPN)
Speaking of players putting it together, how about Jonathan Aranda?
He’s been the ultimate AAAA player in recent years. He tore up the minor leagues but struggled to make a difference in his big-league cups of coffee. Now, he’s finally become a full-time major leaguer and, in turn, has become a popular breakout pick in the process.
Thus far, in a limited sample size, Aranda has been incredible. He’s slapped doubles all over the park and has shown some impressive exit velocities in the process. It seems that the Rays are going to play him a fair bit at first base, with Yandy Díaz getting more days off his feet in the designated hitter role. This might seem like another example of “don’t buy high on a player on a bender,” but this high level of play means an expanded role, which could be huge for a player with the offensive upside of Aranda.
Yahoo and ESPN Most Added Players
The Tylord himself, Tylor Megill, has seen a huge uptick in adds, more than 1,300 above second place on today’s list. He’s a pitcher who in the past has always felt like a “one step forward, two steps back” kind of guy. For every 2022 opening day start against the Nationals, there is a start a la his next start that year against the Nationals, where he gave up 8 runs before the end of the second inning. You hold your breath every time you start him, yet there still is a lot that makes him enticing. He features a full kitchen sink arsenal of pitches, although he has tended to focus on the four-seamer/slider/sinker combination. His biggest strength is arguably his extension, which is well over 7 feet. This adds some more oomph to the fastballs, which can help set up the slower stuff to be effective. The tools are there, it just comes down to execution. Can we trust Megill to consistently find his spots?
In the start against the Blue Jays (which many people picked him up for), Megill excelled. He didn’t allow a run in 5+ innings, picked up four strikeouts, kept the WHIP slightly under one, and snagged the win. It was the prototypical successful streamer start, but it was also one that could make Megill more difficult to grab in your league.
Ben Rice has been talked about as a potential speculative add for your teams in previous articles, and it looks like the fantasy baseball populace is listening! He’s seeing an expanded role with the Yankees, as he’s become a key piece of the lineup when facing off against righties. He will likely be getting some more looks at the leadoff spot, where he will certainly score a lot of runs with the elite lineup behind him.
Hunter Goodman and Kristian Campbell can only be on this list for so long before they’re rostered in every league. Well, that probably won’t happen, but it feels like they’re on permanent heaters. It also helps that their home ballparks are great for offense, especially Goodman. If a player has any semblance of talent and plays at Coors, consider picking them up.
The first start of the year went incredibly well for José Soriano, who now has the eyes of the entire fantasy baseball world on him. His stuff is pretty ridiculous, but his overall lack of command led to a lack of consistency, making him a red-flag player. He looked awesome against the White Sox, though, putting together an incredibly efficient outing. It’s difficult to trust Soriano, especially as a member of the Angels. Wins might be hard to come by, even if they are off to a decent start. He’s a fun and exciting pitcher at times that you’ll want to pick up for the easy matchups, but it’s unlikely that he does what he did against the White Sox in many other starts. Just look at his recent outing against Cleveland.
The first thing worth noting about this list is the fact that the rostership numbers are high for some of these guys. Perhaps the ship has sailed on adding them? It’s also the same top 5 players from yesterday, although in a bit of a different order.
Wilyer Abreu and Kristian Campbell have been awesome to start this year, and, unsurprisingly, they’re still on the top of this list.
Eugenio Suárez is going to keep doing what he’s known for doing: hitting home runs. He doesn’t have the best contact skills (see: his strikeout numbers every year), but he hits for power, and that’s what matters for his game. Lars Nootbaar is quite similar to Maikel Garcia in that we’ve always seen the underlying numbers from him but not necessarily the results. Nootbaar is a much less extreme example of this, but so far, so good for his 2025 season.
Nathan Eovaldi has been spoken about at length, as thus far, he’s looked like a serious Cy Young contender. Unfortunately, Eovaldi has never really been able to keep this level of production up over a full season, especially as he has been prone to injuries. His upcoming schedule has its ups and downs. He plays the Cubs next and then the Dodgers in a couple of weeks. Sandwiched between those starts appears to be a matchup against Seattle at T-Mobile, which could definitely make him worthy of pouncing on.
Category-Specific Players to Add
Wilmer Flores (SFG), 1B (10% rostered on Yahoo, 20% rostered on ESPN)
Wilmes Flores has one of the slowest bat speeds of any hitter in the Majors, yet he already has four home runs. That ties his total from last year and puts him near the top of the home run leaderboard. How is this even possible?
Well, he does the one trick that soft hitters should know: he pulls the ball. All of his home runs have been pulled into left field to an extreme degree. As we’ve seen with Isaac Paredes, contact-first hitters can put up solid home run totals (Paredes has eclipsed 30) by taking on an extreme pull-heavy approach. This may lead to averages going down, but we’ve seen that some players can successfully up their home run totals by pulling the ball a lot more.
Kyren Paris (LAA), 2B (7% rostered on Yahoo, 3% rostered on ESPN)
Kyren Paris, in the limited sample size he’s played, has gotten off to a torrid start. His batting average is ridiculously high, and he’s shown flashes of being an everyday player for an Angels team that is desperate for production from young talent. Now, like many of the other players mentioned in this article, his production is going to hit a wall, and he is likely going to slow down. But there are still aspects of his game that make him an intriguing option, especially if you need help in a few offensive categories.
Paris’s batting average was already mentioned, and the peripheral data supports the idea that he will be able to sustain a good mark in this category. The stolen base potential, in particular, is intriguing, as his sprint speed is elite, and it appears that the Angels are going to give him the green light to test his burners. If you need stolen bases, it might be a good move to pick him up right now, as it seems that the hot streak will grant him some opportunities.
Streaming Pitchers
WAIT! You haven’t read Nick Pollack’s starting pitcher streamer rankings for today? Get on that pronto. He ranks every expected starter for each day, highlighting who you should start, sit, and claim off waivers. The whole series of these can be found here: https://pitcherlist.com/category/fantasy/sp-streamers/
In terms of whom I would recommend you pick up? One name comes to mind.
Richard Fitts (BOS), SP (6% rostered on Yahoo, 4% rostered on ESPN)
With the amount of hype that Richard Fitts got during Spring Training, you’d think that his rostership numbers would be higher. Instead, these percentages look more like that of a deep league option, when in reality, there’s a lot of potential here for a starter that you can hold on to throughout the season.
His first start against the Texas Rangers was solid, as he gave managers a 6-hit, 3-run quality start that came with a side of four strikeouts. Now, notably, the velocity, vertical movement, and extension marks were not at the level they were in the spring. The Rangers are also a potent bunch, even if they have struggled a bit out of the gate to generate runs. Fitts now has the Cardinals on deck, which should be some relatively easy work. He’s projected to have the Blue Jays and Rays on the schedule following this, which, while both teams have some hitting talent, neither matchup is enough to cause you to sit a pitcher like Fitts.
Deep League Players to Watch
Kyle Farmer (COL), 2B, 3B, SS (1% rostered on Yahoo, 0.3% rostered on ESPN)
This is a really deep cut, as Kyle Farmer is a player that certainly is not one you’d ever consider rostering. But there are a few things that you can perhaps be sold on in a really deep league setting. For one, his expected batting average is pretty high, as he doesn’t whiff or strike out often. While this comes at the expense of power, he also plays at Coors, so that could boost his extra base hits a bit. Lastly, his positional versatility makes him valuable. Yes, it can be an overrated facet with players, but if you’re struggling with one of the positions he plays, you could maybe slot him in as a (likely) free waiver claim and see if he can produce during a Coors Field home stretch.
