The fantasy baseball playoffs are upon us. The MLB regular season ends on September 28th. It’s absolutely crunch time in these fantasy baseball streets. Honestly, we’ve already been crunched. It’s time to hit the fantasy baseball waiver wire with whatever FAAB money you have left, pinch some pennies if you have to, and grab some of these widely available options such as Connelly Early, Tyler Wells, Jake Burger, and others!

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

Connelly Early, SP, Boston Red Sox

  • ESPN: 2% / Yahoo: 8%
  • FAAB: 6-9%

Well hello, Connelly Early. Welcome to the show. I know it was the Athletics, but the A’s offense can be quite potent at times and they had NOTHING for Early during his debut. Early went five scoreless innings and had 11 strikeouts, tying a Red Sox record. 

Early generated 19 (!!) whiffs in his debut and had three or more on EVERY pitch other than the one sweeper that he threw. Of his five pitches he threw, FOUR of them rated out as a plus pitch per Fangraphs. With Dustin May placed on the injured list and Payton Tolle on an innings limit for the remainder of the year, Early should continue to pitch in the Red Sox rotation for the remainder of the season.

If you’re chasing strikeouts or are lacking in pitching categories at all, Early is one of the better adds of the week.

 

Tyler Wells, SP, Baltimore Orioles

  • ESPN: 7% / Yahoo: 17%
  • FAAB: 6-8%

In Tyler Wells’ second start of the year, he faced off against the Pittsburgh Pirates and the Pirates sent Paul Skenes to the mound and it was Wells who generated the most swings and misses. 14 to be exact, to Skenes’ 12. Wells was one out shy of completing seven innings in just his second start of the year, which is incredibly impressive.

He has two, possibly three starts remaining, and his next two are against the White Sox and the Orioles, two teams that the Orioles should capitalize against. 

Wells has some good pitch data through two starts and is simply throwing his best pitches the most. The usage order is fastball, changeup, slider, cutter, and curveball and the curveball is the only pitch rating out negatively. He’s only thrown the curve 7.5% of the time after throwing it 18.5% of the time before his arm injury last season. It turns out that if you throw your best pitches more than your worst, things work out wells..pun intended.

 

Andrew Kittredge, RP, Chicago Cubs

  • ESPN: 2% / Yahoo: 9%
  • FAAB: 4-5%

With Daniel Palencia down and out with a shoulder issue, the Cubs turned to Andrew Kittredge for their first save opportunity and he nailed it down. To be honest, Andrew Kittredge’s 2025 season has been pretty good.


He misses bats, generates a lot of swings and misses, and keeps the ball on the ground. You don’t often see winning teams have a shift in closer this late in the year, but an injury changes that equation.

 

Bryce Elder, SP, Atlanta Braves

  • ESPN: 10% / Yahoo: 20%
  • FAAB: 4-5%

This final stretch of the year for Bryce Elder is giving some hope to the future because he’s been fantastic. Over the last four starts, he’s fired off four straight quality starts and has five in his last six starts. Here’s the four start stretch he’s gone through;

He has a 50% GB rate over that span and a 21% K-rate, too. Elder has faced four (current) playoff teams over that span, too, so it’s not as if he’s pitching against teams that are just trying to get to the end of the year. 

Elder still has three starts left this season and although two of them come against playoff teams in Houston and Detroit, both of them are bottom-10 in OPS against right-handed pitching since the All-Star break.

 

Joey Cantillo, SP/RP, Cleveland Guardians

  • ESPN: 3% / Yahoo: 14%
  • FAAB: 3-5%

It’s really interesting to see Joey Cantillo’s season where it is today because he spent most of this season as a bullpen arm but lately, as a starter, he’s been fantastic.

He was a better strikeout arm as a relief pitcher, but as a starter he has a 25.7% K-rate, which is VERY good. Cantillo isn’t a hard thrower, but he has plus stuff such as his changeup and curveball, that he throws a combined 50% of the time, and ranks out really well.

He walks too many people – 4.26 BB/9 – and that’s the one downside here. He keeps the ball on the ground and is at just .9 HR/9 this year.

 

 

 

Fantasy Baseball Waiver Wire Infielders

Jake Burger, 1B/3B, Texas Rangers

  • ESPN: 25% / Yahoo: 34%
  • FAAB: 5-7%

Jake Burger returned on September 1st from the IL and started his first game on September 3rd and since that point, he’s just hit. He has four home runs, scored five runs, and driven in eight more runs.

In 17 second half games this season, pre and post injury, Burger has slashed .347/.396/.714 with a .367 ISO and .465 wOBA. His season has been a little unlucky, too.

  • .246 BA / .266 xBA
  • .449 SLG / .513 xSLG
  • .312 wIBA / .346 xwOBA

Burger has corner infield eligibility and is hitting fourth every day for a team in the middle of a playoff race. He’s a legit power option that can be added right now and he’s available basically everywhere you play fantasy baseball.

 

Jose Caballero, 2B/3B/SS/OF, New York Yankees

  • ESPN: 9% / Yahoo: 17%
  • FAAB: 5-7%

With recent news that Anthony Volpe re-aggravated a previous shoulder issue, Jose Caballero is going to play the rest of the series as the team's primary shortstop and with how well he’s played and comparing that to Anthony Volpe, he might not give the job up for the remainder of the year.

With his stolen base on Friday, Caballero now has 46 on the year and that leads major league baseball. Even if, for whatever reason, the Yankees get Anthony Volpe back and he’s playing sometimes, they’re going to figure out ways to get Caballero on the field. He’s a spark plug and is always making good things happen.

 

Josh Bell, 1B, Washington Nationals

  • ESPN: 9% / Yahoo: 13%
  • FAAB: 5-7%

So maybe the luck is finally turning for Josh Bell because boy, a lot of the expected numbers are really good and the real life numbers just simply aren’t. Don’t believe me? Look for yourself; 

That’s a pretty damn good looking player that happens to be hitting .234 and just got to 20 home runs because of a torrid start to September. He’s posted a 1.002 OPS already this month and overall, the second half of the year has been great for Bell posting an .845 OPS, .221 ISO, and .365 wOBA, which is very in line with all of his season expected marks. Great add for the stretch run.

 

 

 

Fantasy Baseball Waiver Wire Outfielders

Harrison Bader, OF, Philadelphia Phillies

  • ESPN: 8% / Yahoo: 22%
  • FAAB: 7-9%

Sheesh. Go off, Harrison Bader! In 34 games with the Phillies, Harrison Bader is hitting .339 with a .942 OPS and has begun leading off with Trea Turner on the injured list. He’s hitting .438 as a leadoff hitter through five games! Harrison Bader!

There’s a LOT of luck on Harrison Bader’s side, but the luck has broken his way as he has four straight multi-hit games and has hits in 10 of his last 11 games. Bader has three straight seasons in which he’s swiped 17 bags or more and is at 10 this year, so is going to spend the next month leading off, reaching base, and scoring?

Let’s not overlook the fact that if he is going to lead off while Trea Turner is out, he’ll score a LOT of runs hitting in front of Kyle Schwarber and Bryce Harper.

 

Daylen Lile, OF, Washington Nationals

  • ESPN: 20% / Yahoo: 37%
  • FAAB: 6-8%

Daylen Lile started the year at Double-A but has simply been too good and hasn’t stopped hitting at every level. He hit .319 at Double-A, .337 at Triple-A, and is hitting .285 at the major league level with an expected batting average of .306. Lile is riding an 11-game hitting streak currently with seven multi-hit games and has scored 12 runs scored and eight more driven in.

Lile belted two home runs during his 11-game hitting streak and has five on the year. He also has swiped a bag and the stolen base upside is real considering his 90th percentile sprint speed he possesses. They’ve moved him into a middle of the order spot, so the run production and scoring shouldn’t slow down anytime soon.

 

Parker Meadows, OF, Detroit Tigers

  • ESPN: 3% / Yahoo: 8%
  • FAAB: 3-5%

The Tigers have been looking for anyone to provide them with a consistent spark and that’s what Parker Meadows has provided since returning from the injured list. It’s been a legit spark and the Tigers are leading him off on Friday after he’s hit seventh or lower in all five games he’s started. But two home runs, six runs scored and six more driven in and that player deserves more at-bats.

His prospect report raw power grade of 50/55 and speed of 60/60 presents a lot of upside, but he’s been unable to stay healthy to this point of his career. He’s actually played 162 games through his first three seasons and has 16 home runs, 20 steals, 79 runs scored, and 56 more driven in, which isn’t a bad deeper-league fantasy asset over the course of a season.

 

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