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
Shane Drohan (MIL) – SP (Yahoo! – 9%)
Today, Drohan is a 27-year-old rookie reliever getting stretched out. In a few weeks, he could be knocking on the upper echelons of the List. He debuted at 66th, and it looks like he’ll continue to climb. He boasts a 95 mph fastball from the left side. Mix in a veritable potpourri of plus breaking and off-speed offerings, and baby, you’ve got a stew going. His early results are excellent, with a 2.87 ERA and 33 Ks in 31 innings with a 16.6% swinging strike rate.
The big concern here is his innings limit. Drohan hasn’t pitched over 60 innings since 2023. He’s still getting stretched out into a starter; Milwaukee had him cut his teeth in the bullpen. He threw 68 pitches in his most recent start, so he’s not too far off. His spot in the rotation should be safe over Coleman Crow and Brandon Sproat, especially with Sproat’s 6.24 ERA.
There’s a lot of potential reward here with fairly minimal risk. The failed case with a lot of rookie pitchers involves blowup starts. But with how complete Drohan has looked thus far, the fail case here would most likely be him being pushed back into the bullpen towards the end of the season. I’m adding Drohan in all league sizes; you won’t find many better pitchers at 9% owned this season.
Gleyber Torres (DET) – 2B (Yahoo! – 49%)
This is a very non-me pick. Give me a fringey prospect who might not even have a spot on the roster in two weeks. But even the most risk-hungry manager can see that Torres should be more than 49% rostered. He’s a glue guy who will hit 20ish homers with a .260ish average. That plays everywhere, but he’s on the wire half of everywhere.
There was some concern about his performance at the start of the year. His average exit velocity was sitting at an abysmal 83 mph, and he had only two HR in 150 appearances. He hit a third in his first game back from the IL, and it was a 106.3 mph no-doubter. I’m thinking he’ll be just fine.
Yahoo! and ESPN Most Added Players
Yahoo!
Dustin May’s stock is on the rise following an absolute gem against the Brewers last week, where he took a no-hitter into the eighth inning. He didn’t quite deliver yesterday, giving up 3 ER in 5.2 IP against a lukewarm Rangers offense. Still, he was one out shy of a quality start and tallied nine strikeouts. You likely have better options in 10-team leagues, but I like him fine in anything deeper.
I was almost ready to write off Jorge Mateo the moment I saw his name. It feels like he pops up once or twice a season after hitting a few homers before fading back to the depths of the wire. He’s never had the power to make his profile work – his average exit velo has never topped 90 mph in a season. Until now. He only has 87 plate appearances, so it’s still a small sample, but Mateo’s making excellent contact, hitting for power, and even lifting and pulling in ways he never has before. I’m not entirely sold, but there’s a world where Atlanta figured something out for Mateo, and this ends up sticking. I’m adding him everywhere he’s still available; his 100th percentile sprint speed is calling to me.
Connelly Early is establishing himself as one of the most consistent young pitchers in the game. Except for yesterday, when he gave up four runs in 5.1 innings. Still, Early has been excellent and should be rostered in all leagues.
Stream against the road-Rockies, they said. It will go great, they said.
I wrote the above before the game started. I tuned in for a split second to see the Rockies up 8-to-nothing in the fifth. Sorry, Grayson Rodriguez, the Angels are not the team to fix you.
Shane Baz had a rough start to the season, but it looks like he might be turning the corner with four quality starts in a row. His season ERA sits at 4.29, and I’m not buying that he’ll keep this hot stretch up.
ESPN
Connelly Early, Dustin May, and Shane Baz have write-ups in the Yahoo! section above.
Ezequiel Duran has been ablaze for the past month, batting .314 with 3 HR and 2 SB. I’m seeing a hot streak here rather than a level-up, but it’s absolutely worth adding him while he’s playing this well. His last two seasons of .600ish OPS performance make me wary of holding on too tightly.
Andrew Abbott delivered a 3 ER, 6 IP quality start last night against the Royals. He hasn’t managed more than 5 Ks in a start this season, and his 3.88 ERA isn’t good enough to justify the empty innings.
Deep League Players to Watch
Heriberto Hernández (MIA) – OF (Yahoo! 0%): Two HR, 2 SB, and a .983 OPS in the last two weeks. On the short side of a platoon, but could hit into playing time against right-handed pitching. Batting leadoff against lefties, so they clearly like his bat.
Streaming Pitchers
Check out Nick Pollack’s SP Streamer Rankings for a complete breakdown of every start over the next few days.
Today (Wednesday): Walbert Ureña (LAA) (13%) gets the road-Rockies today. It didn’t work out too well for teammate Grayson Rodriguez, but Urena has been over 5.00 ERA better, so that should help.
Tomorrow (Thursday): Seth Lugo (KCR) (41%) will draw a start against the Twins, and with tomorrow’s short slate, there aren’t many better matchups.
