Waiver Wire Week 14 - Relievers Too Filthy To Ignore.

Welcome back for yet another waiver wire piece, and glad to have you here. If you happened to read my mid-week post, you'll notice i've included some of those players here. I consider that to be sort of an early draft/preview when I really want to get the names out before Sunday. Hope you're having a solid Sunday!

Jack Perkins

"I'm Mason Miller now."

Jack Perkins is looking like the best reliever in all of baseball, boasting one of the most beautiful statcasts and one of the ugliest fangraph projection you'll ever see. I usually don't mention relievers as I myself typically run a no-reliever strategy, but i've decided pivot thanks to a few guys showing some awesome stuff this week.

Perkins obviously boasts incredible velocity, averaging 97 mph on the heater, but more impressive is that he throws at a 30 degree arm angle, which provides some signficant ride you usually don't see with this kind of velocity. Guys who throw this hard typically have signifcantly higher arm angles, like Bautista at 66 degrees or Clase at 53 degrees (or Grant Taylor at 55 degrees!). In fact, the best comp right now would be Mason Miller, who throws at 35 degrees. Perkins is a rare breed of pitcher blending a really deceptive low arm angle with elite velocity.

Perkins currently rocks a .193 xBA against the 4-seam, a 0.99 xBA against the sweeper, and a .086 xBA against the cutter. Those numbers seem ridiculous, and yet he had a .151 xBA at AAA, and it's honestly looking like Jack is simply this good. I have to give credit to the fantasy baseball sub for pointing this dude out, because holy shit, he's filthy.

69 Location + lol

Grant Taylor

Where the fuck are these guys coming from? If you've had the opportunity to grab Grant Taylor and Jack Perkins, then congratulations, you've suddenly gotten two of the best relievers we've seen all year. Grant Taylor is averaging 100 mph on a 4-seam he throws a whopping 58% of the time, and it also happens to be his wipeout pitch, coming in at a 39% K rate. Batters know it's coming, and there's nothing they can do about it.

Then you add in a cutter and curveball that are both plus pitches, and there's really not much you can do. I'm actually really fond of his curveball, which currently has a .132 xBA against, and is only being used 16% of the time. So even if guys start to key in on the heater, and that's a big if, he can still bump up that curveball usage and dominate.

I think maybe the most impressive aspect of this guy's metrics is the fangraph 126 location + projection, which is absolutely awesome for a guy that has this kind of velocity. He's straight up painting the black while throwing 100 mph. This is a special talent that the White Sox seem extremely keen to lean on going forward. Expect to see him pitch whenever he can.

Adrian Morejon

These relievers have statcasts are just a treat for the eyes, and this guy, who is ranked 75th in my yahoo league and only 4% owned, is no exception. With 14 SV+H on the year and some of filthiest stuff in all of baseball, Morejon sees himself quickly climbing the ranks of the Padres' bullpen. He's pitched in 13 of 24 games this month and with how well he's pitching, that usage rate shouldn't decrease much, even with Robert Suarez returning.

118 stuff +. 117 pitching +. Nice.

Michael Kopech

For anyone in a saves+holds league, add this guy ASAP. In the eight games since his season debut, he has five holds to go with a 0.00 ERA and 1.00 WHIP. It's clear that Kopech is officially the setup guy for LA, and unlike last year, he can has suddenly found a way to limit hard contact. After posting 7th percentile barrel and 33rd percentile hard-hit rates in 2024, he's now sitting at the 99th percentile and 85th percentile. The 4-seam fastball that he throws 80% of the time now has a 27% hard-hit rate, vs 42% in 2024. What may be driving this is that 4-seam now has signifcantly less gloveside break - 7.8 inches in 2025 vs 9.7 in 2024, and the flatter 4-seam is now better complimented by the cutter.

If those improvements hold, Kopech is suddenly an absolutelt elite bullpen arm. He currently sports a 90 location+, as opposed to 86 last season, and hopefully that location improvement continues to trend upward.

Jeremiah Estrada

We're really spoiled for relievers this week, so take your pick. It's like a reliever buffet. Although I find Estrada a bit less exciting than some of the other relievers here, like teammate Morejon, we still need to acknowledge Estrada is nasty in his own right, with elite velocity, chase, whiff, and K rates. What we like a bit less is the 37th percentile BB rate, not what you want to see for ratios. If Morejon is the crab legs, then Estrada is that weird but tasty Chinese Buffet Pizza.

Ronny Henriquez

Same deal as Estrada - a nasty young pitcher with fantastic strikeout stuff and currently seeing an uptick in saves+holds, but has a bit of a BB issue that can harm ratios...or at least he did have an issue. Ronny now has 0 BBs over his last 6 appearances vs 9 Ks, and that's exemplary

With 2 saves+holds in the past week and 7 Ks vs 0 BBs, expect Henrquez to continue to see more work as he cements his age 25 breakout.

Otto Lopez

The Marlins have won 5 straight, and a huge part of that has been Otto Lopez hitting .462 with a 1.286 OPS over the last week. His xBA comes in at a stellar .302, well above his BA of .257, and his 76th and 80th percentile whiff and squared-up percentage show some really elite bat-to-ball skills. The reason Otto consistently finds himself on waivers, though, is his 34th percentile chase rate, which can often lead him into slumps. At age 26, his vision and discipline will continue to improve, and thus the chase rate, and he's well worth an add for the upside and current production.

Tyler Freeman

My boy has had a slow week thanks to a few things - awful luck on balls and strikes, some southpaws taking the mound, and just your regular ol' hitting the ball right at the fielder. It happens.

Yet he's still managed to get on base enough to actually raise his OBP to a ridiculous .412. In the midst of a slow fantasy week, this man has still managed to impress and stave off any fears of regression. Freeman still displays a godly amount of plate discipline, and that's a damned good sign for someone who is looking to swipe bags at every opportunity.

Looking at the statcast, he's still elite in every metric you want to see for an OBP/SB combo:

99th percentile whiff

99th percentile K

75th percentile squared up

75th percentile chase

65th percentile BB

.317 xBA

If he's dropped in your league, just do yourself a favor and pick him up. This is a very good baseball player.

Dane Myers (2 more SBs today)

I was on the verge of dropping Dane last night, as I'm fairly deep at OF and really wanted to grab Grant Taylor who's been quite impressive as of late. Then the 9th inning of the Fish V Snakes arrived, and Dane Myers played some real fucking heroic baseball. Down by two in the SB category and praying for a miracle, it seems the only one listening was the omnipotent Great Dane. Those prayers were clearly answered as he stole 2nd and 3rd, leading the Marlins to maybe their most exciting victory of the year. And if you haven't seen his absolutely ridiculous swim move to swipe third base, please, watch the highlights below. Needless to say, Dane is still on my squad, and Dingler became the roster casualty with Agustin playing some fantastic baseball.

But aside from the 9th inning heroics, Dane has some real hitting potential, as evidenced by his statcast and .296 xBA. Though he's had a very slow offensive week, we still see some awesome indicators of success:

80th percentile sweet-spot

80th percentile squared-up

86th percentile average exit velocity

67th percentile chase

Myers makes some excellent contact when it comes to both launch angle and exit velocity, and this is a recipe for doubles as the season goes on. At a respectable 51st percentile whiff rate, Dane will continue to have some spicy hot weeks with the consistent exit velo and launch angle, making him an easy add for rosters needing some OF help. I actually like Dane better than Stowers, who is another great add if he's been dropped in your league.

Brandon Walter

After getting blown up and then mass dropped, Walter rebounded beautifully with a 6.0 IP, 1 ER, 5K/0BB quality start against the Cubs. Not much has changed since the last time I recommended him, and his statcast is still as pretty as ever. Look - every pitcher has a bad day, and if you're not willing to accept him at his worst, you most certainly don't deserve him at his best! If you want a guy who will keep your ratios healthy and clean, look no further than a guy who may never walk another batter again.

Colton Gordon

Jacob Lopez is the current talk of the town when it comes to waiver wire southpaws, but another "soft-throwing", low arm-angle lefty is quietly putting together a fairly nice rookie season. Yes, once again, it's Colton Gordon out of UCF. I'm mentioning him because he's pitched since the last mention.

His most recent outing against the Phillies was a cute little gem:

5.0 IP

0.00 ERA

4K

0.80 WHIP

0 BB

I mean, come on, a little credit where credit is due - this is an impressive outing against the Phillies, a team very capable of generating offense. Now, maybe you're looking at the statcast and seeing that 22nd percentile xBA and thinking this is fool's gold. But I think you'd be somewhat mistaken.\

His curveball and changeups both have real, real ugly xBAs of .354 and .340, but he only throws those pitches 10 and 6 percent of the time. And in his most recent outing, he slightly decreased the usage of those two pitches while bumping up his sweeper usage to 39%. Smart move, because the sweeper is clearly his best pitch with a .212 xBA and 35 K%. As Gordon continues to refine his pitch mix, his sweeper usage should continue to increase and carry him through games.

111 location+ is kind of crazy.

Nick Gonzales

Fool me once, shame on you. Fool me twice, shame on me.

Nick The Stick had me believing in the breakout for the first half of the 2024 season, but alas, he quickly faded as the season wore on. His statcast right now looks about as good as it did when we were all aboard the Gonzales hype train last year, and the question is: can he sustain this? We have to remember that this guy was a 1st round draft pick in 2020, the #7 pick to be exact, and there's certainly a reason why. Gonzales plays solid defense, possesses sneaky good speed clocking in at an 88th percentile, and he generates a fair amount of power for his modest 5'9 frame. When comparing his final statcast of 2024 to his current in 2025, a few things have me concerned.

His bat speed is the same. His whiff percentile is the same.

His chase percentile is the same.

His BB percentile is the same. Right now, the only thing he's truly excelling at is sweet-spot %, and thus some of his power metrics are looking better as he makes quality contact more often. Is the sweet-spot sustainable, though? Is he just hot, much like he was for the early portion of 2024, and will he regress?

I decided to look further into his swing, and it turns out, his ideal attack angle % was actually better in 2024 than it currently is in 2025, coming in at 55.9% vs 53.2 %. So ideal attack angle isn't exactly supporting the idea that this is a new Nick Gonzales. One thing to note, though, is that his batting stance has changed - his stance angle is now 17 degrees open vs 21 degrees in 2024. Maybe the stance change belies the sweet-spot percentage, maybe not. I wouldn't necessarily get my hopes up, but Nick might be worth taking a chance on if he can continue this pace for another week or two. There's still pedigree here.

Spencer Horwitz

It seems like Spencer Horwitz is finally getting into the swing of things after his first 80 ABs more or less functioned as his late Spring Training, and that's good news for a Pirates team that also has a somewhat hot Nick Gonzales doing some good things at the plate as of late alongside a resurgent Bryan Reynolds, who is beginning to have quite the sexy statcast himself.

This club is desperate for any kind of run production, and frankly, so are we. We want to be able to roster these guys but the lack of counting stats across the board have simply made Pirates players unrosterable. And it really doesn't help that Oneil Cruz is currently a Mendoza line hitter that can't even find the hustle to sprint up the 1st base line. Think about a Pirates team with Nick, Horwitz, Reynolds, and Cruz all hitting well - sounds too be good to be true, doesn't it? Come on Oneil, try to give us a good product, at least.

But yeah, back to Horwitz - his sweet-spot remains strong and the bat-t0-ball metrics are slowly begining to creep up to what we expect from Horwitz after a surprisingly impressive 2024 campaign.

Dominic Canzone

Ever since Canzone completely dominated AAA for the Aces a few years ago, I've been really excited to see what he could do after being traded to Seattle to be platooned full-time against RHP. Unfortunately, injury after injury prevented that from ever materializing, and it's taken over a year since the first time I ever wrote of Canzone as a fantasy sleeper (https://www.gerbilsports.com/post/destroy-those-trades-and-make-those-claims-fantasy-baseball-hitters) for him to finally become relevant. April 2024 seems like an eternity ago.

Canzone possesses elite bat speed and effortless power, but beyond that, somehow never whiffs or Ks. This is an extremely rare feat for a guy with this much power - just look at Beck and Stowers. And although his sweet-spot % is extremely poor, one thing should be made clear - we will always take a ball put in play with weak contact, as opposed to a K. I think it's nearing the time we should all be considering this guy as a primary bench bat, as he seems to be an easy set against RHP.

Kyle Stowers

Kyle Stowers is the most recent victim of a mass dropping, and like every other player that gets mass dropped, he's now piping hot and instilling a deep sense of regret in those who couldn't hold him for just one more day.

It's not often you see a guy with a .275 BA and .833 OPS with this kind of statcast sitting at only 20% owned in late June, but fantasy baseball managers are fickle, sensitive creatures and recency bias is like a silver bullet. Go ahead, add him, I'll sure he'll have a bad week as soon as you do, even has his 76th percentile xBA and ridiculous .536 xSLG say otherwise.