FANTASY BASEBALL WAIVER WIRE PICKUPS
Ryan Mountcastle (1B Orioles): Rostered in 24% of Yahoo leagues
Bringing the left field wall back in some at Camden Yards this year was supposed to help Mountcastle most of all, but the results just weren’t any good early on and then Mountcastle suffered a hamstring strain on May 30 that’s cost him more than two months. He’s finally set to return this weekend after going 12-for-31 with three homers and four doubles in nine rehab games at Triple-A Norfolk.
Since homers to left were very tough to come by in Baltimore for a couple of years, Mountcastle retooled his approach at the plate, resulting in him spraying more balls to the opposite field and hitting additional grounders. This year, he figured it made sense to try to resume hitting like he did when he first came up and produced a 33-homer season in his first full year in the majors in 2021. Before getting hurt, he succeeded in getting his pull rate back up to where it was in his debut. However, he was still hitting too many grounders. It also seemed like he was fairly unlucky; Mountcastle hit .246/.280/.348 with two homers through 52 games, but he had 16 barrels and a 46.5% hard-hit rate. Statcast gave him an xBA of .270 and an xSLG of .441.
Mountcastle might have returned from injury as a part-time player had the Orioles gotten back into contention before the deadline, but that’s obviously not how things worked out. Barring a Samuel Basallo callup, he and Coby Mayo can both receive all of the playing time they can handle while splitting time between first base and DH, and while Baltimore’s pitching is obviously rough at the moment, the top half of the lineup remains pretty good at generating RBI opportunities. Mountcastle should be solid enough in terms of average and the power categories to help.
Phil Maton (RP Rangers): Rostered in 19% of Yahoo leagues
The Rangers seemed primed to add a true closer at the deadline, but the big names went elsewhere. In the end, they settled for Maton and lefty Danny Coulombe and instead made a bigger addition to their rotation in Merrill Kelly. Still, Maton, who has never had the chance to close since debuting with the Padres in 2017, seems like the team’s best option in the ninth.
Maton’s stock faded last year, though he posted a decent enough 3.66 ERA for the Rays and Mets. That his velocity eroded was the primary culprit; his fastball dipped from 90.9 mph in 2022 to 89.0 mph in 2023 and 88.7 mph last year, and his strikeout rate followed suit. This year, though, Maton is back up to 90.6 mph, and he’s throwing his curveball harder than he has since 2021. His current 30.4% K rate is a big improvement over his 2024 mark of 22.6% and his career rate of 25.9%.
Maton probably won’t get every save chance the Rangers generate. Robert Garcia still might factor in when lefties are due up in the ninth, and Chris Martin could emerge as a factor after returning from a strained calf next month. Still, Maton seems like a perfectly fine bet at this point. This is about as well as he’s thrown at any point of his career, and there’s nothing in his peripherals to suggest things are about to change.
Bubba Chandler (SP Pirates): Rostered in 23% of Yahoo leagues
Here’s my second go this year at including Chandler in a Waiver Wire column. It’s surely been done hundreds of times over dozens of websites by now, but maybe one more will make a difference. Or maybe, more likely, it’ll be the arrival of Aug. 15, the date on which prospects can be called up for the first time, spend the rest of the year on the roster and retain rookie eligibility for 2026. There are still at-bat and innings thresholds to think about there, but that’s more of an issue for the hitters; Chandler will not be topping 50 innings over the final quarter of the season.
The pressure was initially on the Pirates to promote Chandler in May, as he opened up with a 2.03 ERA and a 69/21 K/BB over 48 2/3 innings in his first 11 starts. When it never happened, Chandler went into a summer swoon, often struggling with walks. One can’t simply chalk up all of his struggles to boredom, but it has to be playing a role; if the Pirates were trying to win, he would have been up by June 1 at the latest.
Given the troubles with walks and his very limited win potential while pitching for a bad team and having his workload monitored, it’s probably best not to be overly excited for Chandler’s arrival, at least not for fantasy purposes. Still, he’ll definitely get strikeouts, and he could offer some value while certainly being more motivated than he has been of late.
Waiver Wire Quick Hits
- Baltimore’s Dylan Beavers is another guy who could prove ready for the majors on Aug. 15. Too bad he’s not right now, with the Orioles sporting a Chad Allen-Dylan Carlson-Ryan Noda outfield. Beavers, hitting .309/.423/.438 with 18 homers and 22 steals in Triple-A, will be very much worth adding if he gets the call.
- I thought I might be recommending Cristian Javier here after his first Triple-A rehab start following Tommy John saw him average 93.6 mph with his fastball. However, he was down to 92.5 mph last time out, and he’s walked 10 in 9 2/3 innings over his three turns. Something encouraging needs to happen soon for him to warrant a pickup or even a place in Houston’s rotation.
