Waiver Wire Week 10 - Loftin' Around The Waiver Wire
- John Gerbino
- 2 days ago
- 8 min read
Follow me on Bluesky at Gerbilsports. There's also a subscribe button on the front page now, if you want email alerts. I'm here on time this week! And speaking of weeks, I hope you all had a good one. We've had some mixed results with last week's top adds, like Kody Clemens. But look, this is baseball, and guys slump, whether they're breakout candidates or proven stars, and I don't think we should give up on Kody yet. His statcast still looks fantastic, and he continues to receive burn. Barger continues to demolish baseballs, while Meidroth has struggled (though he has a multihit game today, maybe a good week is coming!) Baseball is chaotic, and I constantly feel that urge to chase stats, but sometimes we need to hang on - even Barger had a mini-slump just last week! If you visit prospectsavant.com, you may just see some Gerbilsports prospect pieces under the articles tab! Just, if you read that first piece I wrote, kindly ignore the part where I suggested PCA migh be a demotion candidate. Thanks! .
Addison Barger
Take a good look, because this is the last time you'll ever see Barger on Gerbilsports. Sir Addison Barger has ascended into the realm of 2024 Heliot Ramos - a top prospect embracing his true potential and showing us a fantastical magic thought to be lost. Barger has freed himself from the shackles and constraints of the ever-present whisperers, or those that would whisper in the ear of a professional baseball player on how they could improve while not knowing what the fuck they're talking about. Never listen to whisperers, trust your swing, and let the ball fly.
“I’m just not worrying about every little thing I’m doing all the time,” Barger said. “Where your hands are, where your feet are. It’s not easy to hit the ball at 95 when you’re thinking about 10 different things.” - Addison Barger, 2025, The Year Of Addison
I feel you Addison. Maybe not on a baseball level, but moreso a human level. Barger nearly occupies the throne of exit velocity, clocking in at a 99th percentile avg. exit velocity to pair with monstrous Hard-Hit, Sweet-Spot, and Barrel rates. And while all of that red blisters in a fashion that resembles the profile of your standard high power, low contact player, that's simply not the case for Addison. From Chase % to BB%, Barger finds himself in a middling place, and that's a place you want to be when you can hit the ball this hard. This is the profile of a player approaching stardom, and in Barger's case, simply living up to the hype. When we look at Barger's discipline profile, we see there's even more room for improvement. Barger currently has a -1 run value on pitches over the heart of the plate, even as he swings at 74% of them (major league average is 72%). If Barger were to do more with these pitches, which physics would suggest are the most hittable, then he could reach a level that has him hitting bomb after bomb. His knack for smacking pitches outside the zone is hindering him slightly, as we we've seen double after double, just shy of home run after home run - it's hard to get the right launch angle on those pitches. Well, Barger currently has two dongs over the last two days, and one starts to wonder if he's finally handling the pitches he's expected to handle. Barger has entered the building. Will you be walking in behind him, wearing a snazzy suit and shades, as part of his super-cool entourage?
Jake Mangum
I've held off on selling Mangum as other options constantly superceded him week after week. I liked Conine better. I like Stowers better. I liked Misner better (whoops). I apologize to Mangum, who has proven time and time again his Whiff/Squared-up/Sprint Speed combo is simply the most reliable of profiles we see in 2025. Now that he's back off the IL, he's looking like one of the more enticing options on the market, especially as The Gerbil Journeymen have posted 0 stolen bases this week, a week after swiping nine. If you're looking for one of those reliable, gritty, lunchpale Rays, then look no further.
In terms of plate discipline, Mangum's bread and butter lies outside the heart of the plate, similar to Barger. Oddly enough, Mangum is swinging at an absolutely elite 89% of pitches over the heart of the plate, way over the previously mentioned MLB average of 72%. This is fantastic, but the drawback of his free-swinging approach is he's also swinging at 15% of pitches in the wasteland. Yet, somehow, he posseses a +1 run value on these bad pitches - Jake Mangum is an elite bad-ball hitter. His speed, and speed out of the box, allows him to reach base on most contact, and with that stolen base upside, makes Mangum an easy add for most rosters.
Dane Myers The Great Dane has returned from the IL, and as long as his injury doesn't continue to linger and affect his swing, is one of the easiest adds of the week. Myers wreaked havoc on the field before going down with an oblique injury last month and his statcast is the proof - an absurd .329 xBA with a 99th percentile Sweet-Spot, 80th percentile Avg. Exit Velocity, 60th percentile Barrel, and 63rd percentile Hard-Hit have Dane hitting a crisp .318 with an .817 OPS. Dane Myers is an uber athlete with superb strength and speed and we love uber athletes, if they can hit a baseball. Dane can hit a baseball. Let's hope that oblique is 100%, because these types of injuries often Creep Á La Curse.
There seems to be a trend amongst a lot of these top waiver performers, and that's an inability to get positive run value over the heart of the plate. Dane Myers is somehow getting a 99th percentile Sweet-Spot score on chase pitches, which is really fucking weird, but also admirable and unique. What exactly do you do as a Catcher, then; call for strikes right over the heart? It seems so counterintuitive. This is good stuff, for now.
Ha-Seong Kim This is kind of a lowkey, hush hush type thing. Ha-Seong Kim is on the verge of returning from rehab for the TB Rays (yes, he's no longer a Padre), and this is an upside add. At age 29, we mostly know what we're getting with him - top-tier contact and discipline, with minimal power. On a Rays team that loves to play small-ball and give guys the green light to swipe bags, there's more upside in Tampa than there's ever been for the Korean star, and this is the type of add that will absolutely help a team struggling with stolen bases.
Bobby Hassell
Bobby Barrels doesn't barrel, but don't let semantics sway you from adding the young 5-tool prospect. He may be swimming in the icy blue sea, reaching out for a spot on the raft, but it turns out Bobby already has a lifejacket - a .302 xBA. And make no mistake - these power metrics are on the rise over the past week, which has seem him post three multi-hit games over his last four, and that's completely unsurprising. Looking at his AAA metrics, we can clearly see he can reach enviable exit velocities when he sees the ball well, and that's beginning to emerge.
When it comes to plate discipline, we already see some awesome stuff emerging - an 85% swing rate on pitches in the heart of zone and 62% on pitches in the shadow of the zone sees Bobby swinging at stuff he can make magic with, and we're beginning to see magic made over the past few days, as previously mentioned. It's good to see his 77th percentile zone-swing % is translating from AAA, and it makes me think there's good stuff on the horizon for Hassell.
Matt Wallner Matt Wallner is one of the more powerful, under-the-radar guys in the MLB. It's kind of absurd he's managed to post three consecutive seasons above an .850 OPS, a realm of power reserved for the best of the best. Then again, he consistently falls short of even 250 ABs, and it makes sense that nobody really talks about him. Between consistently being inured, and only hitting RHP, Wallner doesn't get the burn necessary to rise into that top-tier conversation. This guy is a fantastic bench bat - open up google before bed, type "probable pitchers," and if you see a RHP, starting Wallner is the easiest decision you'll make that day. If you see LHP, well, hopefully you're carrying one of the many unfortunate souls who can only hit LHP.
Nick Loftin
I'm actually really fucking excited about this one, as he was featured in one of my prospect pieces a few weeks ago. Not only that, but as you can tell about how much I wrote, I was quite enthusiastic! Let me share that with ya!:
Nick Loftin (B) Loftin's 2024 MLB stint didn't go as planned - a .189 BA and .518 OPS aren't going to get the job done, but he did display some extremely promising ability - 85th + percentiles for Squared Up %, Chase %, Whiff%, K%, and BB%.
Basically, Nick Loftin is an absolute god at seeing the ball. Unfortunately for Loftin, a high squared up % means nothing when your exit velocity is basically non-existent. His 5th percentile Avg Exit Velocity betrayed his eyes and he struggled to get hits, even with solid speed.
Fast forward to 2025 and we see Loftin's vision at AAA is still as elite as they come. But what about the power? Well, the good news is that he does seem to have a bit more power, at least from what his AAA metrics suggest:
53rd percentile Hard-Hit % at 2025 AAA vs. 7th percentile at 2024 MLB. 40th percentile Average Exit Velocity vs. 5th percentile. This kind of signficant jump, if it carried over to the MLB level even with a 5-10% loss to account for tougher pitching, would still be an incredible jump from last year and make him a viable option.
At AAA, Loftin currently has a .327 BA, .487 OBP, .905 OPS, and 5 SBs. Pretty incredible numbers considering he doesn't have a single HR. With Massey and Tolbert both being pretty poor options at 2B, I'd expect Loftin to get the call sooner rather than later.
Richard Fitts
Not only has Big Dick Fitts returned, but he's returned with a palpable energy. He may have only pitched three innings in his return, but his velocity was up a very solid amount, hitting 97.1 mph on his fastest pitch of the night. Oh La La! As was the case earlier in the season, Fitts and his 2.70 ERA and 1.10 WHIP are an easy add, and expect the statcast to get more and more red as the season goes. As someone who's watched all of his starts, I can tell you that before the injury, his velocity had dipped a bit, and he was also pitching in some really awful Boston weather. Now he's healthy, and the weather is fine. Expect that the best is yet to come for Dick.
Carlos Correa
Carlos Correa is still Carlos Correa, and that's beginning to show. Look at his last week of production...and well....add him.
Edit: Still Add Paddack, he’s awesome.
Watching:
Jacob Melton (Prospect, Promoted)
Cade Horton
Chad Patrick
