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

Mickey Moniak (COL), OF (18% rostered on Yahoo, 6% rostered on ESPN)

This week’s hot player you should grab while he’s cooking is… Mickey Moniak!

The Rockies have been a five-alarm fire all season. There hasn’t been much to be excited about, unless you’re trying to see how many losses an organization can have. But their late-spring acquisition of Moniak has proven to be one of the few bright spots throughout the season. His overall process may not have been the best at all times (like most Rockies players), but he’s gotten hot and we’ve seen some steady improvement in many areas in the game. It also helps that he plays a bunch in Coors Field, though that can hurt hitters who are used to the way the balls break in Denver.

Overall, Moniak is an intriguing option who you should buy now on if you need help in the outfield.

Seranthony Domiguez (BAL), RP (13% rostered on Yahoo, 2% rostered on ESPN)

So… Who’s gonna be the closer in Baltimore?

They shipped off Bryan Baker and Gregory Soto, two of the first major deadline deals. Felix Bautista is on the injured list with a shoulder injury that could keep him out for a while. So, it looks like the team is going to turn to the man they entrusted in that spot for plenty of last season, Seranthony Dominguez.

There are plenty of similarities between Dominguez and Bautista. Both have insane fastballs, with Dominguez sitting around 98mph on his. Both also have elite splitters. The Seranthony Dominguez splitter has a ridiculous whiff rate, AND he also has a high swing-and-miss sweeper. The main concern with Dominguez is his high walk rate, which admittedly has been brutal at times, though he is a reliever, so that is to be expected at times.

If you’re desperate for saves and missed out on one of the top closers in your draft, Dominguez might be the answer for you, at least for now.

 

Yahoo and ESPN Most Added Players

Like usual, most of the top added players on Yahoo were streaming starting pitchers, with four names that we have become intimately familiar with in the waiver wire article sphere. The other player is Seranthony Dominguez, who yeah, is definitely worthy of being grabbed at a high rate.

I look forward to writing about Dean Kremer every week, at least it feels like I always have to talk about him. He was blegh yesterday. He allowed five runs in six innings, taking a loss with only five strikeouts. This was a great matchup to stream in, and unfortunately, it just didn’t work.

Ryne Nelson is another player I’ve written about a lot. So much so that in fact, it convinced me to keep him around for a bit. Nelson was AWESOME. Yeah, he only had four strikeouts, but he allowed no earned runs and had a 0.5 WHIP. I was kind of sad that Nelson wasn’t a rotational piece to start the season, but with the injuries and underperformance among the pitching staff, it feels like he is one of the Diamondbacks’ best options now.

Gavin Williams entered this start coming off one that had a lot of people interested. We’ve seen him put up some excellent starts, but he’s often followed it with some stinkers. He was slated to go against a great matchup in Kansas City. Unfortunately, the game was postponed due to the weather. The good news is that he should be good to go today, so those who picked him up will hopefully have the space to keep him in their rotation spot for at least one more start.

Zebby Matthews was…. ELECTRIC. YES! This was such a great start from a pitcher with so much promise. This is exactly what you want to see from your pitchers against a good matchup like the Washington Nationals. Zebby should get the Guardians next, and that will be a fun start to stream, so maybe hold onto him for now. The floor may be low but the ceiling is high. Enjoy this start, everyone who streamed him!

Kyle Stowers again? Yeah, he’s still on here. Stowers has been one of the better hitters in baseball, lending his talents to a scrappy Marlins team. It’s been fun to watch both him and Trevor Rogers find their place with their new squads finally, but you have to give the edge right now to Stowers, as he has been one of the better hitters in baseball this year.

Have you seen the numbers that Nick Kurtz has been putting up? Across 65 games, he has a 163 wRC+, an impressive number for any hitter, let alone a rookie. Kurtz succeeds because of incredible raw power, with some of the fastest bat speed in the Majors. He seems locked in to win AL Rookie of the Year over teammate Jacob Wilson, barring some sort of bizarre circumstance. It’s a really fascinating dichotomy between those two players, with Wilson being a runs/batting average play and Kurtz being the team’s main power hitter.

Oh, and that was written BEFORE his insane performance yesterday. What a remarkable game from a special player. His 6-for-6, 4 homer, 8 RBI performance was an all-time outing, as a performance like that had never been seen in 150 years of this sport. Yeah, he will be gone on every wire by tonight.

Quinn Priester has been a bit of a revelation for the Brewers this year. He was traded to Milwaukee right at the start of the season, and the move has yielded solid results. His most recent start was against the Mariners, where he went a full seven innings with six strikeouts and only two earned runs allowed. The start before that was absurd, as he nabbed 10 strikeouts in six innings against the Dodgers of all teams. Yeah, they were on a bit of a cold streak, but that’s still an accomplishment. There isn’t too much that jumps off the page about Priester in terms of his stuff or execution, which makes me hesitant to recommend jumping on grabbing him, especially with the Cubs and Atlanta up next.

Addison Barger has been one of my favorite players for quite some time now, as I’ve always rooted for him to succeed, and succeed he finally has. The Blue Jays have become an unstoppable force led by a lineup that is performing at the absolute peak of their powers. Barger last year came up and flashed some loud tools. Unfortunately, he wasn’t able to put it together consistently and thus, looked more like an AAAA player. Now, he’s found a role with the Blue Jays and he’s allowed his skillset to shine. Barger always had great bat speed, but it’s interestingly up this year over last, which has led to excellent results.

 

Category Specific Players to Add 

 

Chandler Simpson (TBR), OF (38% rostered on Yahoo, 18% rostered on ESPN)

The weekly speed/contact pick is… The ultimate speed/contact guy! There’s little doubt to be had that Chandler Simpson is a killer. He’s a monster on the basepaths and he has consistently made contact since coming back up after a somewhat surprising demotion earlier in the season. Simpson went on an 18-game hitting streak, the longest for a Rays rookie in franchise history. The main issue with Simpson is power, which is why he’s a category-specific player to add, as you’re going to get no value in the home run and RBI categories. But stolen bases, batting average and runs, he could be your guy!

Kyle Manzardo (CLE), 1B (10% rostered on Yahoo, 6% rostered on ESPN)

At the beginning of the season, I named Kyle Manzardo as the best source of power consistently found on waiver wires. Now that we are later in the season, I feel like that rings true, though he had some cold spells. Manzardo was an interesting prospect, as he was heralded more as a hit-tool oriented guy as opposed to being the home run hitter that a lot of first base prospects (like guys like Kurtz) are. In his time in the Majors with the Guardians, he has been almost exclusively a power hitter. He’s gotten hot as of late, with his home run power rearing its head again after a dry spell. If you’re desperate for homers and RBIs, Manzardo might be a budget bin option for you.

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? A couple of names come to mind.

Tyler Anderson (LAA), SP (10% rostered on Yahoo, 7% rostered on ESPN)

There’s no doubt that most people would view Tyler Anderson as a bit of an “avoid” arm right now, as he’s coming off some rough matchups. It is worth noting though that these came against some difficult teams. Now, Anderson gets the Mariners twice, and that gives him some room to breathe. Anderson’s former team (you probably forgot he was traded there for a brief stint in 2021) is a much less difficult slate than the hot Blue Jays, Mets, or Diamondbacks, even when outside of their home ballpark. Anderson is the ultimate “stream against bad offenses, avoid against good ones” player and I like this matchup against Seattle.

Tomoyuki Sugano (BAL), SP (12% rostered on Yahoo, 8% rostered on ESPN)

He gets the Rockies at home! Aren’t you excited?! Yeah, I know. Tomoyuki Sugano has been pretty bad as of late. He went from looking like a high-floor control pitcher to giving up 7 walks across his past two starts. One of those starts he didn’t get out of the fourth inning. So why trust him now? Because of the Rockies. Grab him for this match, hope for solid ratios and the win, and move on and don’t look back.

Speculative Adds

Ryan McMahon (NYY), 3B (34% rostered on Yahoo, 6% rostered on ESPN)

It looks like the Yankees have found the man who will be holding down the hot corner! I think we all thought that it would be Eugenio Suarez, or at least a lot of us did. Ryan McMahon is an interesting speculative add because it feels like a coin flip if this move will be better or worse for his fantasy outlook. He leaves Coors Field, which can often hurt a player, especially when his home/road splits have been night and day. However, adjusting from Coors on the road is difficult for many hitters, so perhaps hitting routinely in Yankee Stadium will allow him to get comfortable there. The ceiling is much higher, as he is going to be in a lineup with some really talented hitters. If he can adjust, he could see his runs and RBI totals skyrocket.

Deep League Targets

Colson Montgomery (CWS), 3B, SS (5% rostered on Yahoo, 2% rostered on ESPN)

While Colson Montgomery might have lost some of that prospect lustre upon joining the major leagues, I think we’ve seen some flashes of him being a dangerous hitter. The numbers thus far have been great, but it also feels like he will still not be the most popular choice for desperate teams because he hits lower in the White Sox order, and the xStats aren’t the best. He grades out around average per our Process+ metric, and the combination of launch angle management and high bat speed makes me think that we could see his barrel rate increase as the year goes on. He also walks a bit, though his discipline still could be better. Now’s his chance to prove that he can be a productive contributor, both in fantasy and real life.