It has officially entered crunch time in the fantasy baseball season. Sunday, September 28th is the final day of the regular season, so we have just under one and a half months before the playoffs are here. There are still plenty of elite fantasy baseball waiver wire adds that are available in over 50% of Yahoo! Fantasy and ESPN leagues. A lot more eyes will be on prospects as teams look more toward the future, so we’ll see more Jakob Marsee’s and Nolan McLean’s moving forward.

There are a lot of great fantasy baseball waiver wire additions and we’re attacking them all in this week’s column. If you have any questions about your waiver wire, hit us up in the Fantasy Alarm Discord or hit me up on Twitter!

 

 

 

Fantasy Baseball Waiver Wire Pitchers

Will Warren, SP, New York Yankees

  • ESPN: 21% / Yahoo: 49%
  • FAAB: 10-12%

How is Will Warren still under 50% on Yahoo! Fantasy and under 25% on ESPN? He’s been awesome. If you remove two starts this year (Dodgers & Blue Jays), he’s been incredibly good. He has a 4.34 ERA on the year but a 4 xERA, 3.6 xFIP, and 3.86 SIERA.

Warren continues to miss bats at an elite level, especially how he’s rostered. He’s sitting at a 10.3 K/9 and a 26.3% K-rate on the year. The primary reason he’s generating so many strikeouts is because of how good his fastball and sinker have been. 

Per Fangraphs, here are starters with at least 100 innings pitched and how their fastballs rate out this season. Just look at the names he’s in the mix with. Skenes, Fried, Skubal. SHEESH. Warren is a must-own for the rest of the season.

 

Kyle Bradish, SP, Baltimore Orioles

  • ESPN: 3% / Yahoo: 13%
  • FAAB: 8-10%

It was only in 2023 when Kyle Bradish finished FOURTH in the American League Cy Young race thanks to a 2.83 ERA and 168 strikeouts across 168.2 IP. Bradish is currently on a rehab assignment and is coming off his longest outing that also happened to be his best. He fired off five scoreless innings in which he threw 74 pitches and had nine punchouts.

It’s not too much longer before Bradish returns to the Orioles rotation and when he’s finally back, he won’t face many restrictions considering where he’s gotten to on his rehab assignment. 

Looking back at his 2023 campaign, Bradish had a 25% K-rate, 49% GB rate, and allowed NO hard contact at all as his opponents posted a 26.9% HH rate. Everything is hit on the ground, he doesn’t allow homers, and misses bats. Why wouldn’t we rush to the waiver wire and have nearly 1.5 months of a plus pitcher?

 

Joey Cantillo, SP/RP, Cleveland Guardians

  • ESPN: 3% / Yahoo: 14%
  • FAAB: 6-8%

The move from the bullpen to the rotation has gone… surprisingly well and Joey Cantillo has my attention. It’s always interesting to see how a pitcher translates from bullpen to rotation and there hasn’t been much of a dropoff. He had a 29% K-rate out of the pen but it’s at 27% as a starter.

Cantillo gets a lot of ground balls and if he’s going to continue to get as many outs as is via strikeout and on the ground, he’s going to limit damage. He just needs to limit the walks, that’s been his primary issue at the major league level. 

He has a 4.11 ERA but a 3.68 xERA, 3.77 SIERA, and 3.58 xFIP suggesting his numbers actually could be getting better from here on out.

 

Nolan McLean, SP, New York Mets

  • ESPN: 6% / Yahoo: 15%
  • FAAB: 4-5%

The Mets are calling up their third ranked prospect, Nolan McLean, to make his big league debut on Saturday. McLean, ranks as the 37th prospect in baseball according to MLB.com, has had a fantastic season at the minor league level.

Across 113.2 innings between Double and Triple-A, McLean has pitched to a 2.45 ERA and has 127 strikeouts in 21 games (18 starts). In his final seven starts at the minor league level, he struck out at least six batters in every game and had 10 punchouts twice.

He’s fully stretched out and the Mets are looking for ANY type of spark because their starters have really struggled for some time. We should McLean into this pickup on the fantasy baseball waiver wire.

 

 

 

Fantasy Baseball Waiver Wire Infielders

Noelvi Marte, 3B/OF, Cincinnati Reds

  • ESPN: 18% / Yahoo: 24%
  • FAAB: 6-8%

We’ve just wanted Noelvi Marte to be able to stay on the field and for one reason or another, it hasn’t happened. That’s been until now. He’s stayed healthy lately and through his first 52 games this season, he has a .290 AVG, .504 SLG%, .213 ISO, and a .356 wOBA. Marte has 60-grade power, so the power is really going to play at Great American Ballpark when he gets going and stops hitting so many ground balls.

Marte is a big-time threat on the bases and has plenty of power, too. With the acquisition of Ke’Bryan Hayes, Marte made the move to the outfield fulltime and his positional eligibility is quite awesome.

 

Kyle Manzardo, 1B, Cleveland Guardians

  • ESPN: 9% / Yahoo: 19%
  • FAAB: 6-8%

Just like that, Kyle Manzardo’s 2025 season is back on track and he’s looking like the 30-plus home run guy we expected him to be coming into the year. He’s up to 21 home runs on the year and since the All-Star break, he’s hit six in 21 games. In fact, he’s slashing .338/.432/.647 with a .309 ISO, and a .454 wOBA since the second half of the season started.

He still struggles with lefties from an average standpoint, but the .491 SLG% and .302 ISO allows the Guardians to keep him in their lineup each and every day. Manzardo’s run production opportunities will continue because he gets to hit behind Jose Ramirez each and every day. I love this add for the remainder of the year.

 

Miguel Andujar, 3B/OF, Cincinnati Reds

  • ESPN: 5% / Yahoo: 11%
  • FAAB: 3-4%

Before we get TOO excited, let’s all admit that Miguel Andujar is NOT going to hit home runs like he has lately. Three in four games? It’s unlikely to be even close to that pace, but he IS a good hitter that is going to continue to play a LOT. He’s hit fourth in six consecutive games and has hit in all six of them. He’s driven in eight runs over his last four games alone while scoring five runs and hitting three bombs.

The results are what they are, but proceed a little with caution. He’s a very popular add and it’s warranted, but he’s been one of the luckiest players in the game. This is already the most home runs he’s hit in a year since 2018, which is the last time he played more than 75 games in a season.

 

 

 

Fantasy Baseball Waiver Wire Outfielders

Jakob Marsee, OF, Miami Marlins

  • ESPN: 18% / Yahoo: 45%
  • FAAB: 9-11%

This is going to be the last time Jakob Marsee qualifies here because he’s going to be north of 50% on Yahoo! Fantasy by the end of the weekend. The power has been surprising, but the batters eye and ability to steal bases has not been. Through his first 14 games, Marsee has three home runs, eight runs scored, 13 RBI, and six steals. 

Marsee’s a must-own moving forward because of his multi-category statsheet stuffing ability.

 

Dylan Crews, OF, Washington Nationals

  • ESPN: 18% / Yahoo: 48%
  • FAAB: 7-9%

Despite just returning from the injured list, Dylan Crews has been one of the more unlucky players in baseball. Amongst all players with at least 100 at-bats this season, Dylan Crews and his .199 AVG and .257 xAVG, is the fourth most unlucky player in the league, at least from a batting average standpoint.

Here are some of the numbers that suggest how unlucky he’s been;

  • .199 AVG, .257 xAVG
  • .354 SLG%, .464 xSLG%
  • .277 wOBA, .341 xwOBA

In his return to the lineup, Crews – the former number-one overall prospect – slotted into the two hole and we know he has the ability to hit home runs and steal bases as well.

 

Sal Frelick, OF, Milwaukee Brewers

  • ESPN: 26% / Yahoo: 34%
  • FAAB: 6-8%

The Brewers are absolutely cooking from top to bottom of their lineup and Sal Frelick is the table setter of it all. He continues to thrive out of the leadoff hole and is hitting .317 since the All-Star break. In the 12 games he’s played in, he’s already scored 11 runs and has driven in eight more.

Everything has been trending up for Frelick since he started walking and getting on base more. Since the break he’s doubled his walk rate and that’s helped his OBP from .354 to .396 in the second half. Frelick has only notched one steal since the break after having 17 in the first half and that could be due to the knee ailment that kept him sidelined for a few games. He’s seemingly past that issue as he stole a base on Wednesday. If he continues to reach base at the clip he has been, he’s going to end the season with over 30 stolen bases. 

He has an outside chance at finishing the season with 75 runs, 15 home runs, 60 RBI, and 30 steals. That’s a super solid fantasy season for anyone.

 

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