The Waiver Wire Witching Hour

Happy Mother’s day! I wonder if any moms read this content? I’d be very surprised if even one did. Another fantasy baseball week has come and gone. And now it’s the Sunday night witching hour; the box scores have all been settled, your beer has lost all carbonation, and you’re staring at your roster with the same look of despair a captain gives his ship taking on water. Your 5^th outfielder’s slash line could be mistaken for Bartolo Colon’s career batting line (it’s not good - .084/.092/.107).

You’re likely reading this now because you are built different. While your league mates are waiting to see the trending adds & drops on Monday morning, you have thrown caution to the wind to try and perform a late-night emergency roster surgery. The panic is real, but the waiver wire is still open thankfully. Let’s see if we can find any useful pieces that we can transplant to your squad. Let’s get to work (& maybe a bit of shuteye) before your alarm goes off at 645 AM.

All ownership rates are from Yahoo as of Sunday evening

BROOKS LEE (MIN – 2B/3B/SS 38% rostered)

Ah Brooksie. No, not the late Larry Brooks who had one of the most memorable and heated exchanges with a coach in a post-game scrum (seriously, check it out - https://www.youtube.com/shorts/EdVMNo5TrGI).

The baseball Brooksie is a 2022 8^th overall pick who has taken a bit of time to break into the big leagues given his high draft position. He has the coveted multi-position eligibility we all love. He has started 27 of the last 28 games for the Twins, so he is seemingly a lineup regular. His bat had been buried in the bottom of the batting order, usually hitting in the 8-spot. He has however had a few games recently where he hit second. For the year he has 18 runs, 5 HRs, 24 RBI, & 3 swipes. Over a full season I think he could approach 15+ HR/15+ SBs, with the potential for more runs and RBIs should he make a more permanent move up to the top half of the batting order. Unfortunately, his Baseball Savant page is not really jumping off the page, saying this is a “must add player”:

However, as we discussed last week, second base is seemingly a wasteland this year, so if you need middle/left-sided infield help, Brooksie could be a somewhat intriguing add. He’s more of a recommendation for the deep leaguers at this time (14+ teams). For what it’s worth his roster rate surged about 20% in the last day, so maybe he does have some more mainstream appeal. I guess that’s what I’m saying Brooksie.

EZEQUIEL DURAN (TEX – 1B/2B/3B/SS/OF 21% rostered)

Duran-Duran. ‘Zeke is a positional Swiss army knife, as he boasts every position with the exception of catcher (he did throw a scoreless inning in a 14-1 blowout against in March of this year). I love a bench bat who can be plugged into almost any spot in your lineup. His season line stands at .287BA, 13 runs, 2 HRs, 13RBI, and 4 SBs. He has started 10 straight games and figures to be a lineup regular for the time being with both Wyatt Langford and Josh Smith on the IL. He has also occupied the 2-spot in the batting order for the last 5 games. He’s improved notably this year by dropping his strikeout rate to 19% (25.1% last year) and improving his walk rate to 11% (3.7% in 2025). He has elite sprint speed (ranking in top 9% of MLB), but that seemingly has not translated to many stolen bags thus far in his career. If he can stay near the top of the batting order, I have to imagine he will eventually wreak more havoc on the basepaths. Over a full season of ABs I forecast him to be a 12-15 HR, 20+SB guy. I would be adding ‘Zeke the Freak in 14+ team leagues in need of a bench bat or some positional flexibility, at least while he is occupying a regular spot in the lineup.

MICHAEL MCGREEVY (STL – SP 31% rostered)

CHOO CHOO! All aboard the McGreevy train. "Magic Mike" McGreevy has been effective in the early goings of the 2026 season – 45.1 IP, 3 W, 2.18 ERA, 0.86 WHIP, and a 33:10 K:BB ratio. Now we all love pitchers who rack up punchouts. However, we are now in the month of May and the waiver wire has likely been picked clean of all those high upside, high strikeout guys (it has been in my 12 team mixed league anyways). But those ratios are just sparkling. Not only that, he has 5 quality starts through his 8 turns through the rotation. It’s his recent performances that have really caught my attention. His last 3 starts have all been quality starts. He has 18Ks in 18 IP and has only surrendered 1 earned run over that time. He leans on a 7-pitch mix and actually uses 6 out of those 7 pitches more than 10% of the time. Taking a look under the hood, there are some flaws to his profile:

He does not have a great fastball, only averaging 90.9 MPH, ranking in the bottom 5% of the league. His expected ERA (5.07) is more than double his actual (2.18). Not to mention his xSLG is in the bottom 9% of MLB at .502.  But he really keeps the walks in check, which will help limit the damage. Are the (negative) regression gods coming for him? Perhaps. But he has been too good to ignore as of late. I would be adding in 12+ team leagues to help round out the bottom of your rotation. This could potentially be the guy who outpitches his expected metrics. Or this may simply be a case of juicing the orange until there’s nothing left. Either way, count me in(trigued).

GUS VARLAND (WAS – RP 14% rostered)

This is about one thing; chasing those saves. The brother of Jays closer Louis Varland, Gus has had a good start to the 2026 season – 14.2 IP, 4 saves, 16Ks, 3.07 ERA, and 1.3 WHIP. He has assumed the closer role with Clayton Beeter on the IL. Beeter’s forearm MRI came back clean and he has resumed throwing off a mound. It will likely be several weeks until he can return to the big-league roster, so Varland can hopefully keep racking up saves. Now those season long stats I mentioned a few sentences ago will now be inflated as he took the loss Sunday, giving up 3 earned runs and 2 BBs while only getting one out. Regardless, his grasp on the closer role should be firm enough until Beeter returns. He has a 3 pitch mix, but really only throws his 4-seamer and slider as he has thrown his changeup a minuscule 5 times this year. Perhaps a bit too predictable given today’s result? Not to mention his average exit velocity (93.3 MPH) and his hard-hit rate (52.3%) are in the bottom 3% of the league. Thankfully his BB% is elite at only 4.8%. So, it may not always be pretty, but if you need those saves step right up and take a ride on the closer carousel. I’d recommend the Gus Bus in 14+ team leagues or if you are desperate for saves in 12 team leagues. This likely doesn’t have the makings of a season-long add, but let’s squeeze that orange while we can.

Onto this week’s roster review. As a reminder, this is a 12-team H2H 5x5 categories league.

Those offensive stats. Absolutely putrid. I could have found a group of stray alley cats who likely could have mustered the same, if not better numbers. The HERO of the week on the hitting side of things is without a doubt PETE CROW ARMSTRONG (PCA). I really wish the Cubs would move him up the lineup, but I don’t have an in with Cubs’ manager Craig Counsell. The ZERO could really be anybody, but I’m going to have to anoint MOISES BALLESTEROS as the unlucky fellow. It just pains me to do so given he was one of our recommended adds just several weeks ago, Oh well, one week doesn’t make or break a season. But now MICHAEL CONFORTO  has turned back the clock and is tearing the cover off the ball, which is certainly going to cut into Mo’ Baller’s reps at DH, at least for the foreseeable future.

Now onto the good – the pitching staff. The HEROS are both CAM SCHLITTLER & PEYTON TOLLE, who each had good 2-start weeks. They each got a win and racked up double digit strikeout for the week, what more can you ask? The ZERO is the big lefty, NOAH SCHULTZ who had his first bad start in the big leagues in giving up 7 runs, 7 hits, and 4 walks. Dust yourself off young man, we got more starts to look forward to next week. Let's also take a moment to say a prayer for TAJ BRADLEY who hit the IL with a pectoral strain. Hopefully this is a minimum IL stint and he's back to mowing down batters in 15 days (something about this tells me not however).

That’s another week in the books. This lovely game (obsession?) we play is like no other. Because what other hobby do you spend countless hours preparing for the upcoming week just to have all that hard work washed away by a rained-out game? There goes your 2-start week for the pitcher you just added, the extra offensive games you thought you had on your opponent, all gone. But cheer up, you won’t always end up on the short side of lady luck. It’s time we placed our bids, checked the spreadsheets and prayed to the BABIP gods. In a game with so much noise, the Sunday Night Scramble is the only time the signal is clear – move fast or watch your opponents reap the rewards. See you in the standings.