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
Daniel Palencia (CHC) – RP (Yahoo – 82%)
Palencia is rostered in most leagues, but this is to remind the 18% of leagues where he’s available that he’s returning from the IL this weekend. He had an insane run in the WBC for Venezuela and started the year with 5 scoreless innings before hitting the IL with a lat strain in early April. He made a rehab appearance last night for the Triple-A Iowa Cubs, with 9 of his 13 four-seamers from 100-102 MPH and his sliders coming in at 90-93. The Cubs have had a middle-of-the-pack bullpen this year, but have lost several relievers to the IL in April. There’s no chance of Palencia getting Wally Pipped here – if he’s on waivers, add him. If he’s on your bench, start him.
Payton Tolle (BOS) – SP (Yahoo – 44%)
Tolle’s rostership rates have ticked up since his promotion, but are still too low for a player of his caliber. There may be the occasional growing pains for the young lefty, but the upside is immense. Next week, he’s lined up for a two-start week. The first start is in Detroit. The Tigers have an excellent offense and have been, oddly, much better at home thus far (130 wRC+ at home vs 97 on the road). The Tigers’ lineup is heavily left-handed, though, and it shows in their splits, with a 111 wRC+ vs righties and 103 wRC+ vs lefties. Tolle’s second start is at home vs the Rays. The Rays’ offense has been a bit below average thus far, with a 97 wRC+ overall and a 93 wRC+ vs lefties. The PLV offense rankings think they’re worse than this, too. Nick has Tolle 52nd on this week’s edition of The List; there’s no reason he should be available in more than half of leagues.
Jacob Latz (TEX) – SP, RP (Yahoo – 19%)
I really need to write faster – in the 34 minutes since I took the screenshots below, Jacob Latz has been added in another 1,100 Yahoo leagues. Latz has the last three saves for the Rangers, with his principal competition either setting up for him (Jakob Junis, Tyler Alexander) or on the IL (Robert Garcia, Chris Martin). The Rangers’ bullpen has been a tough place to shop in recent years, but Latz may be seizing his opportunity to lock the role down. Latz has had a minuscule 1.08 ERA and 0.48 WHIP so far this year – like the rest of the Rangers’ bullpen, he’s been extremely fortunate. Latz has a .098 BABIP and a 90.9% strand rate, neither of which you should expect to continue. His ERA is way ahead of every ERA estimator, but crucially, those estimates are still pretty positive, with xERA giving the rosiest outlook (1.74) and xFIP the most pessimistic (3.88). I wouldn’t want Latz to be my #1 closer on any team, but there’s a good shot you could get a mid-low 3’s ERA and a decent chunk of saves here.
Yahoo and ESPN Most Added Players
There’s very little movement among hitters this week, with 4 of the top 20 most-added players on ESPN being hitters. It feels like I’m going to be banging this drum every week, but Ryan Weathers is not a streaming starter. He should be rostered everywhere at this point. Then again, of the few hitters that ESPN owners are adding, we have Ildemaro Vargas (I’m not really a fan, but if you’re going to buy in, you should have done so 10 days ago), JJ Wetherholt, and Byron Buxton, so I clearly just do not understand roster dynamics of ESPN leagues. Kyle Harrison has looked great as a member of the Brewers. Harrison has added a new changeup, which features nearly 800 RPM less spin than his previous change. It’s unclear if it’s a good pitch; PLV hates it, Stuff+ thinks it’s a big improvement. The arsenal is working together better, though, with Harrison running a career-high 14.3% swinging strike rate and slightly bumping up his CSW to 28.6%. His 87% strand rate suggests you should expect some regression, but all of the ERA estimators like his performance so far, with values from 3.08 to 3.43.
The top 17 most-added players on Yahoo are all pitchers as well. Foster Griffin is getting picked up for his start against Milwaukee today. Griffin is coming off an excellent start against the White Sox, where he put up 7 shutout innings and 8 K’s against only 2 walks. PLV loves his cutter, giving him a 96th percentile value, and he throws it the most of any of his pitches, 30% of the time. PLV is a lot more mixed on the rest of his wide arsenal, giving his sweeper and curve above-average grades, but much worse grades on his four-seamer, changeup, sinker, and splitter, pitches he throws 48% of the time. Griffin’s allowed a decent amount of hard contact (12.6% barrel rate against) and only put up a 26.8% CSW. While the ERA is a shiny 2.67, that’s coming from a 90.3% strand rate and a .233 BABIP on a defensively-challenged Nationals team. You can start him if you want before it heats up and balls really start flying in DC, but I’m pretty skeptical for the long run. Nick has him 14th among starters today as a Vargas Rule lefty
Spencer Arrighetti is a big mover in both ESPN and Yahoo leagues. He’s had excellent surface-level stats to start 2026, although his ERA estimators are all over the place. I’m not a fan; his poor command is a WHIP killer that destroys a lot of his value unless you punt the category. Keep in mind that his career WHIP coming into this season was 1.42. Last year, Yusei Kikuchi had a 1.42 WHIP in a starter’s volume of innings, and the Fangraphs auction calculator says that was worth -$16.8 of value on standard 15-team settings. Outside of 13 innings in low-A and the complex, Arrighetti has walked 10%+ of batters faced every season. He’s got a .233 BABIP, 88% strand rate, and 5% HR/FB. He’s averaging 92.4 MPH after debuting at 94+. He doesn’t have an advantageous home park and he’s throwing this one in Fenway. Maybe it works out, but I’m fine missing on Arrighetti.
Deep League Players to Watch
Ty France (SDP) – 1B (Yahoo – 1%)
Ostensibly the short side of a platoon at first, France has been playing nearly every day over the past week, including vs righties, as the Padres search for more offense at first. Pitchers have been in the zone more often vs. France so far this year, and he’s using his customarily strong contact skills to take advantage. There aren’t many differences in France’s profile year-over-year. He’s pulling the ball a bit more and hitting it on the ground a bit more, but no large deviations that point to obvious changes in his approach. France isn’t the most exciting corner infielder you could pick up for free, and I don’t think you should quite yet. This is more of a case of watching whether Jake Cronenworth and the bottom half of the Padres lineup start ceding more at-bats to France. For as good as the top half of the Padres lineup is, there is a LOT of opportunity in the bottom half of the lineup. If France regresses positively in his BABIP (.238) and maintains some of his power gains, he could be a useful CI piece in deeper leagues and is available everywhere.
Graphic by Carlos Leano.
