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
Paul Goldschmidt (NYY) – 1B (Yahoo – 3%)
Why not start with a potential Hall of Famer? Goldy’s getting increased playing time thanks to a bunch of Yankee injuries, and he’s making the most of it. And maybe that playing time will increase even further, given he’s started in all of the last five NY wins and been in just two of their last five losses. But at least he’s broken out of his short-side platoon.
Goldschmidt hit just .174 in April in a limited 28 plate appearances, but he did have four extra-base hits and four walks. In May, however, he’s a different animal, batting .333 and carrying a 1.072 OPS. His Statcast metrics this season look superb, with a 56.5% Hard-Hit rate, .592 xSLG, and his bat speed is still right around 72 mph which shows he hasn’t lost a step just yet, even at 38.
This is one of those ‘watch the playing time’ situations to see if he gets consistent ABs against both righties and lefties. If that happens, you should know what to do.
Daulton Varsho (TOR) – OF (Yahoo – 31%)
Varsho’s been in this space before, and after an up-and-down early going, now might finally be the time. Actually, Wednesday was probably the time, as he slugged a walk-off Grand Slam in extra innings to beat the Rays. But better late than never, right?
Let’s not forget that Varsho hit twenty homers last season. If you don’t think that’s impressive, he did it in 248 at-bats, which would be a 45-to-50 full-season pace. And while he’s only got five so far in 2026, the good news is he’s also running more, as he’s already up to three steals (though he’s pretty fast, he only swiped two last season, not wanting to test his legs). If he can stay healthy, Varsho has rare power that has yet to fully appear. He won’t help your batting average, but he could be an integral bat for both the Jays and your team.
Kyle Teel (CHW) – C (Yahoo – 11%)
Ben Brown (MIA) – SP (Yahoo – 27%)
Pushed out of the bullpen and into a starter’s role, Brown looks more comfortable than in seasons past. His fastball—already a potent weapon—has gained a mph of velocity over last year, and the rest of his arsenal (mixing in curveballs to righties and sinkers to lefties) has also improved. The curveball has been especially elite with a .136 average against, but the sinker’s a new weapon. While he’s still developing it, the pitch so far has a 28.1% CSW and is resulting in grounders over 70% of the time.
Brown’s above average in almost every conceivable metric, including his Whiff and Hard-Hit rates. And at 6’6″, he has great extension. Though he struggled last year, mixing in impressive outings with massive blow-ups, he has shown consistent success as of yet. If he can keep this up while getting more stretched out as a starter, he could stick in the rotation even after Steele and Boyd come back.
Yahoo and ESPN Most Added Players
Yahoo!
Braxton Garrett had the top spot on Yahoo! on Thursday, but unfortunately issues with control got the better of him in his season debut. He was pulled after it took 64 pitches to get four outs, and he issued five free passes. Though he was able to squirrel out of a bases-loaded, nobody-out situation in the first by striking out the next three batters, he fared far worse in the second frame and the pitch count was just too high to keep him in.
Garrett typically has a low walk rate (4.4% in 2024, 2.5% in ’25), so this should be an aberration (probably a case of nerves more than anything). Chances are someone dropped him right after this bad outing, and you could scoop him up for a better matchup next week.
Daylen Lile was a sleeper pick coming into the season, and he just might become a five-category contributor. Up to now, he’s more of a 15-15 guy than a 30-30 guy, but he’s already up to six homers and carries a 96th-percentile sprint speed, so he should really have more than three steals. Expect the speed to be a bigger part of his game going forward.
Dillon Dingler might have made the leap from a fringe catcher to one that everyone should own, thanks to a jump in his Barrel and Hard-Hit rates, which give him a top 5% expected SLG. While he hasn’t been particularly great in May (.227 average), he’s homered in two of his last three games and is pacing the Tigers with 28 RBIs. Dingler’s also great defensively, so he gets a lot of playing time.
Kind of like Ben Brown, Zebby Matthews has shown a lot of promise over the years and has great talent, but didn’t really know how to pitch at the MLB level. That may have changed. Called up for a start against the Marlins, Zebby twirled a gem by throwing seven shutout innings with just one walk. He should stick around for a while.
Lastly, JJ Bleday will likely top all these guys tomorrow with his two-homer performance on Thursday. He’s especially valuable in points (as featured here) thanks to a walk rate above 20% and a K-rate below 15% (it’s early, but wow). If your friends were asleep during the afternoon games yesterday (or really, the past two weeks), he should be rostered everywhere.
ESPN
Only Lile makes the top 5 in both platforms, as ESPN showcases a bunch of starting pitchers with recent success. McGreevy and Griffin kind of feel like the same pitcher given how they mix in a ton of pitches and pitch to contact. Neither has much swing-and-miss (Griffin fares a little better here) and both throw in the low 90s, but so far luck has been on their side.
Both might be candidates for sharp regression, however, as they have expected ERAs far above their actual results. McGreevy looks especially dicey given his fly ball rates, but he’s become a Quality Start machine and earned another one on Thursday (Griffin did not fare as well in Cincinnati). If you’re in a points league, though, they’re racking up innings and are worth owning, at least until the luck turns around.
I like Kyle Harrison significantly better than both these guys, however. He does have the swing-and-miss with a K-rate of almost 30%, while also pitching to weak contact. At just 24, it feels like Harrison’s going to break out in a big way and finally get his due (he showed so much promise in San Fran and just never quite made it).
Keider Montero rounds out the list—and yeah, just pass. Of the pitchers on here, Harrison’s your guy.
Streaming Pitchers
Check out Nick Pollack’s SP Streamer Rankings for the complete breakdown on every start for the next few days. There are two pitchers to highlight.
Janson Junk (MIA) – SP (Yahoo – 19%) @ TBR
Friday’s games introduce a set of ‘proximity series’ across the league, with the two NYC teams playing each other, the two LA teams doing the same, and so on. The Marlins and the Rays have an intra-Floridian matchup, and it’s a pretty good one for Junk.
Janson has shown increased velocity over last season and improved control. He’s also got a solid 47% ground ball rate and is just walking 2 batters per nine innings. While the Rays have become a potent lineup with the core of Caminero and Aranda, Junk can hopefully work around those two and get the outs he needs. Just don’t expect a lot of K’s, as the Tampa hitters don’t strike out a lot and that is hardly Junk’s specialty.
Casey Mize (DET) – SP (Yahoo – 42%) vs TOR
If you’re in a shallower league and Mize is somehow available, now is the time to go get him. Other than a disastrous start in Minnesota in early April, Mize had given up only five earned runs all season, but then came down with an adductor strain that moved him to the IL. Fortunately, he’s coming back after just a couple weeks (so he shouldn’t be too rusty), even if he might be limited on the pitch count somewhat.
Mize was having a great start to the season with a 27.3% K-rate (way above his 20% career average) and the second-lowest WHIP of his career. He should be more than a streamer, but I’d still rather have Harrison.
