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
Zebby Matthews (MIN) – SP (Yahoo! – 28%)
Matthews impressed in his season debut, pitching seven scoreless innings. He followed it up with another impressive start last night, pitching six innings with two earned runs and six strikeouts, earning his second quality start of the season.
The results are clearly there for Matthews so far. But why should we trust these two games more than his 34 innings pitched in Triple-A, where he compiled a 4.72 ERA? Or his 5.56 ERA over 16 starts last season? He performed progressively better at Triple-A this year, with monthly ERAs of 11.25, 4.67, and 2.77 for March, April, and May, respectively. Last season, he posted a 3.79 FIP and .357 BABIP, indicating that his 5.56 ERA in the majors was certainly higher than it should have been.
Matthews has a good arsenal and good control. His fastball sits in the mid-to-upper 90s, and he has a cutter and three solid off-speed options to back it up. His slider is particularly potent, with a 38.6% whiff rate last season. He’s always been a pitcher who should be better than his results would indicate. Even in his poor 2024 and 2025, his strikeout-to-walk ratio was respectable at 3.91 and 3.67, respectively.
These first two starts are likely close to his ceiling. Still, this version of Matthews is the most complete incarnation that we’ve seen. He’s not an ace, but I see a solid arm and a potential contributor for any fantasy team. I think there’s a chance that he ends up a top-50 starting pitcher this year. This is very likely your last chance to nab him after two excellent starts. He has a two-start week coming up, and I’d look to add him everywhere.
Dylan Crews (WSN) – OF (Yahoo! – 36%)
Crews is an elite talent, and he’s worth betting on despite his poor results. A former top prospect for the Nationals, Crews struggled mightily in the majors in both 2024 and 2025, posting OPSes of .641 and .631, respectively. He played his first 41 games of the year at Triple-A, and the results were… fine. 101 wRC+, five home runs, and seven stolen bases.
I don’t have a nuanced, statistics-backed argument for Crews. He’s a true five-tool player, and the Nationals will do everything they can to see him succeed. Most of his early struggles can be attributed to the normal road bumps of adapting to the majors. Big league pitching is a whole other beast compared to the minor leagues (usually), and it’s not unexpected for rookies, especially very young ones, to need some time to adjust.
It’s the same story whenever a hyped prospect gets the call. Most of the time, they struggle or are just okay. But someone else will add them if you don’t. If you can find room on your roster, Crews is worth a speculative add in all leagues. He’s the type of talent that could click at a moment’s notice, and when it does, he won’t be on the waiver wire.
Yahoo! and ESPN Most Added Players
Yahoo!
Zebby Matthews, Ben Brown, and Martín Pérez started yesterday to varying degrees of success. Matthews got a full write-up above.
Brown took a bit of a beating from the Twins in last night’s start, but the results have been otherwise excellent. The Cubs are stretching him out to start, and he should be able to make it to the fifth inning or later going forward. He doesn’t have the deepest arsenal, relying mostly on his heater and curveball, though he has added a sinker this season. I doubt he’ll reliably make it through the order three times with just three pitches. He’s missed a ton of bats in every outing thus far, but I fear his shallow arsenal will hamstring him in deeper outings.
Perez is a career 4.37 ERA pitcher. This is his 15th year in the MLB. This is not sustainable; he won’t keep this up. I’m glad he had another good outing, but I don’t want any part of it.
The once deep catcher field grows smaller by the day. Gabriel Moreno and Samuel Basallo saw a surge of interest following injuries to Drake Baldwin and Ryan Jeffers. Basallo is heating up in a major way, and I strongly prefer him to Moreno. Both are fine options, as are Dillon Dingler and Carter Jensen if you’re looking farther afield. Check out my Friday Catchers to Stream column for weekly catcher matchups and streaming recommendations the next time you lose a backstop.
ESPN
Check out the Yahoo! section above for info on Zebby Matthews and Ben Brown.
Dillon Dingler and Ivan Herrera are excellent options if you’ve recently lost your starting catcher. Herrera, in particular, should be stellar all year; he’s still hugely under-rostered after gaining C eligibility.
Angel Martínez is on pace for a classic unheralded breakout. He’s been phenomenal over the last month, with seven HRs, 4 SBs, and a .267 average. There’s not much in his underlying stats that screams superstar, but like we saw with Geraldo Perdomo last season, sometimes that doesn’t matter. There’s no guarantee that Martinez keeps it up all year, the way Perdomo did. Still, he’s playing so well that you need to add him now and get the most out of this hot streak.
Deep League Players to Watch
Kendry Rojas (MIN) – SP (Yahoo! – 1%)
We have a bunch of relievers getting stretched out into starting jobs. Ben Brown and Griffin Jax are on most people’s radars by now, but there’s another pitcher who has incredible early results. He’s only pitched 11.1 innings, but Rojas has just as many strikeouts and a 1.59 ERA. He has a 95 mph fastball and three off-speed options. He’s never thrown more than 84 innings in a season, so there’s no guarantee that he’ll have the durability to make it as a starting pitcher. Still, José Soriano never pitched more than 82 innings in a season before he got stretched out. Michael King went five years as a reliever before he made it as a big-league starter. Sometimes it works even when it doesn’t look like it will. It’s too early to chase him outside of 20-team or AL-only leagues, but there’s legitimate upside here.
Streaming Pitchers
Check out Nick Pollack’s SP Streamer Rankings for a complete breakdown of every start over the next few days.
Tomorrow (Thursday): We have a short slate of games, but Luis Severino (20% on Yahoo!) looks like a no-brainer. He is pitching substantially better in away games, and he gets the great fortune of pitching against my Angels. Seriously, J.T. Ginn nearly threw a no-hitter. I’m coining a new PitcherList term: Anyone Against the Angels. What a fitting acronym. I’ll ask Nick to add that to the glossary.
