Waiver Wire Week 8: We Have Talent This Week, Really.

Follow me on Bluesky for midweek updates on hidden gems and prospects. Eury Pérez Surprising to nobody, Eury has been absolutely dominant rehabbing at High A; at some point you have to feel bad for the kids who serve as nothing more than fodder for Eury's return to the MLB. His fastball is currently averaging 97 mph - and note I said averaging, not touching. By the time he returns to the MLB with his new post-TJ cyborg arm, we'll be seeing him touch 100 MPH, with MLB players falling to their knees begging for reprieve from then torture of having to hit a Eury Pérez fastball. Seriously, at his release point and with his extension, it's simply unfair. Think Randy Johnson levels of unfair. He's currently owned in only 28% of leagues, and he's very close to returning. There's literally no reason for anyone reading these words not to immediately claim him off waivers - this is what league-winning upside looks like. Especially when Eury had the surgery in 2023, and had all of 2024 to heal - his arm is basically stronger than it's ever been at this point. Do you want 2023 Eury, who looked like the best young pitcher in baseball? Or do you want Dragon Reborn Eury, ready to channel The Stuff while you sit back and watch opposing batters burn? Between Ryan Weathers and Eury Perez, the pitching landscape has drastically changed for those of us who are working the waiver. Thanks, Marlins.

Single A hitters can't handle Eury. Soon it will be MLB hitters.

Drake Baldwin I did something crazy - I cut bait on William Contreras' broken finger, which has given me plenty of mendoza-line ridden existential dread - and grabbed Drake Baldwin, the best catcher in all of baseball. I now understand why Drake Baldwin is the #1 prospect in the Braves system - the guy is a professional hitter with zero shortcomings. His elite bat speed provides effortless power to go with contact skills that have him rarely whiffing at pitches, and although he chases a little more than he should, he's often turning those strikes outside the zone into hits. Drake Baldwin is both a bad ball and good ball hitter - a complete hitter in every sense of the word. The part of this deal that could be considered a negative is the fact that he'll leave you filled with overwhelming desire on the days Sean Murphy gets the start, which is whenever there's a southpaw taking the mound. But between both the aging Ozuna and Sean Murphy, there's a lot that could go wrong when it comes to their health, which would provide Baldwin with ample plate appearances in an everyday role split between DH and C. On top of that, Drake Baldwin often pinch hits when RHP relievers enter the game, so he's still producing even on days he doesn't get the start. The twist of fate here is that the best comparison for Drake Baldwin is 2024 William Contreras, who was one of the blast kings of the MLB before his finger injury.

Drake Baldwin is the best hitter on the Braves, Blasting the ball on 27% of contact. Insane.

Addison Barger Only one player on the Braves (Edit: Jays, had Braves in my head from Baldwin) is currently outperforming Vlad Jr. on one of my favorite bat tracking tests, and that's Addison Barger. The top prospect has apparently freed up his swing from all of the tweaks and mechanics hitting coaches suggested last year, instead opting for the natural swing that got him to the MLB in the first place - and what do you know, he's amazing. His elite bat speed combined with a 90th percentile chase rate has him taking destructive swings on pitches in the zone, always a recipe for good outcomes (blasts specfically). His hitting ability combined with solid defense has Barger pretty much locked into the Jays lineup for the foreseeable future, and odds are he'll be one of the top OF/3B options going into the 2026 season. In 2025, though, you can simply claim him off waivers.

Blast King of the Jays.

Mike Soroka The year is 2025, but don't tell that to Soroka; he's pitching like it's 2019 again and we reallllly don't want to jinx it. The statcast you see below looks solid, but the best part is that it doesn't yet reflect today's start, in which he pitched 5.2 innings of 3 run ball, with 8 Ks and 0 BBs. He held the Orioles hitless until the 5th.

This is absolutely elite stuff from Soroka as he continues to build the arm back up after years of devastating inuries, and we expect him to go deeper into games as the season progresses. He's both inducing groundballs and K'ing batters at elite rates, which is exactly what you'd expect from a pitcher with ace upside. Having two ways to get batters out is much better than one.

Whiff or GB, it doesn't matter. Soroka is getting outs.

Slade Cecconi Cecconi was one of the popular streams of 2024, and through his inconsistency, we saw flashes of a good pitcher who didn't quite have the stuff to match the location and pitch mix. Now it's 2025, and before yesterday's start, I threw up a little alert on Bluesky that he was the pitcher to watch this week. His prospectsvant metrics showed he was thriving in his rehab starts, whereas someone like Zebby has seen decreased metrics across the board over the last few weeks. I was think Cecconi might have more upside than Zebby with new pitching coaches in CLE, and long behold, he looked great. The first very noticeable aspect of Cecconi's 2025 debut was the fastball - it had good velocity, averaging 95.3 and touching 96, and perhaps more importantly, very good pitch shape. It had very little vertical movement coming in at -0.7 vs the average, and considerably less gloveside movment coming in at 3.3 inches vs 6.3 last year. The noticably more flat fastball with increased velocity played extremely well with the slider, which had an insane 55% whiff rate and .077 xBA. His cutter and curveball also came in at whiff rates of 43% and 40%. The difference in pitch speeds here is also particuarly of note: 4-Seam: 95 mph Slider: 85 mph Curveball: 75 mph Changeup: 83 mph Cutter: 87 mph With good tunneling, this is actually a pretty difficult pitch mix for batters to solve. We're ranging from 75 to 97 mph here on pitches that look the same coming out. His arm angle has shifted quite a bit, coming in at 40 degrees vs 38 and 37 in 2023 and 2024. It's clear adjustments have been made with his new pitching coaches, and at least through one game, the results are encouraging.

The whiff numbers couldn't have been better.

With better stuff in 2025, his elite location+ will lead to much more effective pitching.

Will Benson Put a claim in on him last night, didn't get him. I'm sad. He hit two more HRs today, making it 5 HRs in 7 games played. I'm very sad. There's not much more to say here other than he's been on another planet since receiving the promotion, and unlike Kyren Paris, there's reasons to believe he'll be good for the rest of the year. Every power metric aside from Squared-Up% rests near the 99th percentile and that strength isn't going anywhere. Beyond that, he has an 86th percentile sprint speed, so if he were ever to not hit the ball out of the park, he could leg out tough singles and steal some bases. But maybe all he'll do is hit HRs, and you won't have to worry about that. Here I am rostering Brenton Doyle, while this guy surpasses him in a week. Ugh.

Logan Henderson Now that it's been confirmed he'll remain in the rotation, Logan Henderson is a premiere add. His knack for striking out batters has carried over from AAA at a 1:1 ratio and he seems near untouchable. He throws the 4-seam 47% of the time and the changeup 40% of the time, and the expected xBAs of these pitches come in at .175 and .167. That's a .171 BA against pitches he throws nearly 90% of the time. That's ridiculous. Batters have a 40% chance at guessing what pitch this guy is throwing in any given AB, and they still can't hit him.

Daulton Varsho

Will Benson is the main prize of the week, but Daulton Varsho is the consolation. Through 52 ABs, he's already racked up more dingers than Vladdy, and shows no signs of slowing down. The bat speed remains elite, and every power metric comes in well aside from squared-up %, much like Benson. Unlike Benson, though, Varsho has a chase issue and struggles to walk. Varsho is just swinging freely at pitches, whiffing a bunch, but sending the ball out when he does make contact. Fueling his newfound success is the ability to hit offspeed pitches and to a lesser extent fastballs - Varsho currently has a .246 xBA (.187 in 2024) against fastballs and a .462 xBA against ofspeed balls (.198 in 2024). He's seen 8 breaking balls this year, and launched 3 of them out of the park. It might be easy to say "well, pitchers just need to throw breaking balls," but that's easier said than done. As long as Varsho continues to hit fastballs and changeups, he's going to be hard for the majority of hitters to deal with. There's room for regression here, but with that bat speed, also room for improvement when it comes to discipline. Barger and Varsho are an intruiging pair of Jays to own right now.

Chris Paddack Nothing has changed from last week's evaluation of Paddack. He's pitching tremendously, and should be added.

Spencer Horwitz Horwitz was one of my favorite adds of 2024, providing consistent hitting at multiple positions, and I'm excited to see him back in action in 2025. Now on the Pirates, Horwitz has an everyday, guaranteed spot in the lineup, and a chance to prove his htting prowess. He profiles very similarly to Jacob Wilson, but with more power upside. His discipline and contact metrics are all rock-solid, with enough barrel ability to hit some out of the park. I'm excited to see if he can make a jump in 2025.

Luis Urías Urías has been one of the more surprising devlopments for the A's in 2025, and shows no signs of slowing down. His excellent discipline and contact ability see him slashing .273 and .826 with just enough pop to have 6 dingers on the year. He's a player who can contribute to healthy ratios in categories leagues, but it's a shame his spot in the order has really prevented him from accumulating counting stats. If he were to ever be moved up in the lineup, he'd be a must-add in deeper leagues. For now, he's a play for teams who are desperate for 2b/3b help.

Chase Meidroth I'm a huge fan of Meidroth's potential, but the lack of production saw me dropping him heading into the week. Welp, just another fuckup by me, I suppose. Meidroth had an excellent week that saw him hit .450 with a 1.150 OPS. He finally managed to hit his first HR, and added 2 SBs on top of that. The leadoff hitter for the White Sox has the potential for huge fantasy weeks, but between inconsistency and being at the top of a bad lineup that struggles to drive in runs, this OBP specialist struggles to find counting stats. Maybe Miguel Vargas can help.

Hunter Dobbins Dobbins had one of the more impressive statcasts heading into the Tigers game, but of course, the Tigers had something to say about that. Nevertheless, the metrics for Dobbins remain impressive, and had the Sox taken him out of the game when he began to run out of gas around 80 pitches in the 6th inning, he would the conversation around him would be much different. He held the Tigers in check through 5 innings, which is really all you can ask for out of a pitcher in 2025, but he was sent out in the 6th where he then gave up three more runs. Dobbins was consistently hitting 98 mph on the 4-seam with good location, and looks like he could potentially be the emerging ace going forward. One thing to note about Dobbins is he has both an excellent splitter and sweeper that I believe are being underutilized at about an 11% usage rate each, and if he bumps those up to about 20% each and throws the slider less, I think there's some serious magic here. Come on Sox pitching coaches, help the kid out. He has the stuff.

Hyeseong Kim

Odds are he won't be available in competitive leagues at this point, but if he is, you know the drill. Kim is one of the better speedy slap hitters in the league right now, and although his .452 BA is going to drop quite a bit, his xBA of .282 is still mightily impressive. Although his average exit velocity and chase rates are poor, his squared-up % is remarkably high - he's handling the pitches physics expect him to handle. The thing is, though, that even on the pitches he chases outside the zone for low exit velocity, he's finding a way to turn those into tough singles. With his speed, and speed out of the box, there's an Ichiro-esque flair to his game that's really inflating that BA to .452, and that maybe is a bit more sustainable that we may think. Some things can't be measured by statcast, and the way he gets out of the box is one of them. I stashed him earlier in the year, dropped him a few weeks ago, and regretted it immediately. He's now back on my team after trading Cole Ragans for Senga and Kim. Maybe I have a soft-spot in my heart for Kim because I lived in Korea for nearly a decade teaching English, but I truly believe in this man. Hopefully he finds more ABs.

Watching: Miguel Vargas and Brooks Lee Stash: Marcelo M., Misiorowski