Waiver Wire Week 3: Marlin Magic Edition

Follow me on Bluesky at GerbilSports Let's go M's. No, not the Mariners. The Marlins. The real fish team. I don't know how the Marlins have done it, but they've compiled a ton of young, athletic talent over the last few years - and they're really, really fun to watch. I came into the season proclaiming Dane Myers the guy in the Marlins outfield, but I've very quickly fallen head over heels for a few other Marlins outfielders. No disrespect to Dane, who's been just fine this year, but The Heart Wants What The Heart wants. Kyle Stowers Waves crash gently, a sunbathed day, .Off the coast of Miami, drifts a Stoweraway.

Stowers is having a really excellent start to the season and there's really no other way to put it. His statcast is beautiful, and that's before it gets updated with today's results - he went 2/3 with a double and 2 RBIs. His bat speed and ability to blast the ball when he makes contact is near league tops as you can see in the bat tracking data, and it shows with his statcast metrics - extremely spicy Hard-Hit and Barrel rates have Stowers looking like a great upcoming power hitter. He almost never chases and walks at extremely high clip. I had a two hour internal debate leading up to the waiver deadline last night, not sure who to add between Conine or Stowers. Ultimately, I decided on Conine. As beautiful as Stowers' hitting profile looks, he's excelled primarily against LHP this year, and I always look for guys that bash RHP (most pitchers are RHP). But make no mistake, Stowers is a lefty and has shown to be better against RHP than LHP in the past. It wouldn't be surprising to see him bash both RHP and LHP for the rest of the season and become a superstar. I simply didn't have the room for both of these guys, as I own Carpenter, Doyle, Misner, and Nimmo. I just don't have the room for 6 outfielders, otherwise I'd gladly add Stowers. If your team is starving for outfielders, please add both! Griffin Conine Miami streets, the sun down-beats, Oh no, my ice-cream Conine has melted in the sweltering heat.

You already know I own Griffin Conine, who i've had the pleasure of mentioning in a piece early this season. Griffin is the son of Marlins' legend Jeff Conine, an eight-year Marlin who made two all-star appearances for the fish. Griffin sits nearly right top of Stowers in the bat speed / blast/contact data, and one wonders if the hitting coaches in MIA are focusing on this specifically with their approach. Even today, Conine went 2/3 with 2 BBs, 1 R, and 1 RBI. One thing other than splits that has me preferring Conine over Stowers is the higher Squared-Up %, sitting at the 47th percentile vs Stowers' 24th percentile. The bat speed sits at a beautiful 86th percentile with very good to elite metrics across the board: 79th percentile Avg. Exit Velo, 77th percentile Barrel %, 87th percentile Hard-Hit %, and a 59th percentile sweet-spot %. Conine looks like an exemplary hitter and you'd be remiss not to add him to your squad! Matt Mervis The sea breeze sings, the water alluring, Do not listen, though, for the Mervmaid is lurking.

You may have seen me on reddit proclaiming everyone should drop Casas for Mervis. Now I'm on my blog proclaiming everyone should drop Casas for Mervis. People forget:

Mervis was nearly as highly regarded as Casas and seems to be finally living up to his prospect ranking, yet everyone seems to disregard him while Casas continues to be bad at baseball. Now, I'm not saying Casas won't find his stroke, I'm sure he will - his bat speed is still healthy, at least. But Mervis has been doing what we all expected from Casas, and almost exactly what Soderstrom is doing. He now has five dingers in his last five games and shows no signs of slowing down. The weirdest part of this is, if you look at the blast data again, you'll see Mervis overlaps Stowers, who overlaps Conine. I'm sure this is not a coincidence; the hitting coaches in MIA are doing something right with the swing-plane and launch angle of these high bat speed guys. Some people may be deterred by the K rate, but some of the best power hitters in the leagur have poor K rates. Don't be like the guys who ignored Heliot Ramos in 2024 because a low K rate. Power is power, blasts are blasts.

Kameron Misner Miami and Tampa, distant yet close Tropicana wilts, but LoanDepot's a rose.

I've been to Tropicana field several times for some Yankees home games in my youth and it's a pretty miserable experience. That lighting is just rough. But I'd endure it a million times just to watch budding superstar and Rays' legend Kameron Misner. But seriously, this kid is really good in the early days of 2025. He finally made good use of that elite sprint speed and snagged his first SB this week, and his average sits at a beautiful .361 on the year. He has the power to drive the ball through the outfield gaps and leg out doubles and triples with ease, and has demonstrated excellent ability to square up on the ball and avoid Ks. His Squared-Up % sits at the 83rd percentile and compliments an elite 86th percentile exit velocity. Good things are happening on waivers with these athletic Floridian Outfielders. Edward Cabrera His changeup is fast, his fastball is faster. The art of location, though, difficult to master.

Edward Cabrera made his season debut and pitched a solid 5.2 innings of 2 run baseball. Nearly bagging a QS, Cabrera flashed some really impressive stuff with a changeup that sat around 94 mph and a curveball that had a surprising amount of horiztontal break. We all know Cabrera's stuff is top-notch, but his first outing still shows he has trouble locating. If you're looking for a SP with tons of K upside and a possible breakout season, Edward Cabrera is the guy to look at. He may have only K'd 5 in his first start, but his 90th percentile whiff after one start rate suggests this number could go up drastically. Sure, it was only one start, but I think we know Cabrera will have no issue generating whiffs all year. Chase Meidroth

Let me share what I wrote about Meidroth in my prospects piece last week, hours before he was called up: While the other prospects are pretty well-known to the fantasy community, or at least the reddit fantasy community, Meidroth seems to be flying under the radar despite being arguably the strongest prospect with the highest chance of a promotion in the near future. Meidroth has dominated at every level of the minors and currently has a .313 BA with a 1.120 OPS at AAA. He's destroying the ball and poised to replace Jacob Amaya literally any day now.

Already through three games, Meidroth has shown a keen ability to get on base, which isn't surprising since he's been the best OBP player through every level of the minors. And he's already made a large impact on the season, denying Crochet a no-no with a single in the 8th. I'm currently rostering Meidroth and I suggest you do as well. Chase Dollander

Previously mentioned in my prospect piece (mentioned a few of my waiver wire guys early), Dollander showed me everything I wanted to see against the Padres yesterday, flashing excellent velocity and nice complimentary offspeed stuff. He looked every bit the part of a budding ace, and the only damage he allowed came on two solo shots, one hit by Tatis Jr. He then faced Tatis two more times, K'ing him on both PAs. With 10 whiffs and 7 Ks in the contest, it seems Dollander has the ability to be a high upside K guy on the season. Dollander may not have gotten the results he wanted in his MLB debut - a 7.20 ERA and 1.60 WHIP are pretty awful - but boy were there some positive takeaways. His K% and BB% percentiles were both solid and his fastball velocity sits near the 99th percentile. His xBA came in a decent .233 and his GB% a decent 58th percentile. Beyond statcast, his fangraphs projections have him at a 118 location + and a 118+ pitching +, both excellent projections. His stuff+ sits at an average 99, but frankly, we know he has good stuff. Yes, he pitches in COL, but that shouldn't stop you from taking a gamble on a pitcher with this much potential. Landen Roupp The Giants already had one fantastic finesse pitcher in Logan Webb. Now they have another one? Roupp may have only a decent ERA and underwhelming WHIP, but don't let that fool you. After a rough first outing where he gave up 3 runs through 4 innings ( 8 Ks though!), he bounced back against the Reds and pitched 6 innings of 1 run baseball. As a Nick Lodolo owner, I had the pleasure of watching a nice pitchers' duel between finesse guys and came out of it really wanting Roupp on my squad. Unfortunately, my arch-nemesis picked him up. I have 0 FAAB left after a manic spending spree to begin the year. Oh well, maybe you can grab him instead.

Will Glasnow get me WHIP? Find out next week. Or on reddit, where I'll brag or complain.