This is ‘The Watchlist.’
This column is designed to help you monitor and pick up fantasy baseball players in the coming weeks and months. Whether they’re waiver wire or trade targets, these are the players you’ll want to add now before becoming the hot waiver commodity or trade target.
- Fantasy Baseball Research & Advice
- Fantasy Baseball Trade Analyzer
- Fantasy Baseball Waiver Wire Assistant
- MLB Prop Bet Cheat Sheet
- Rest-of-Season Projections
Fantasy Baseball Waiver Wire & Trade Targets
Using underlying and advanced metrics, ‘The Watchlist’ will help you get ahead of the competition in your league and reap the rewards later from your pickups.
The players could be anyone from a prospect in an ideal situation close to the Majors, a reliever in a saves + holds league or even a starter doing well with misleading surface-level stats like ERA.
They might even be hitters with quality underlying stats. Or they could be none of those types of players and a different kind of player entirely. The point is they’ll help you find success in your fantasy league while staying ahead of the curve against your league mates.
Mickey Moniak (OF – COL)
Strikeouts have been a regular part of Mickey Moniak’s stat lines in the Majors. He struck out 35% of the time in 323 plate appearances in 2023 and struck out 27.3% of the time in 418 plate appearances last season.
While those strikeouts played a part in Moniak hitting just .219 last season, he has shown the ability to contribute quality power and speed production as a deeper league fantasy option.
Moniak accumulated 14 home runs and eight stolen bases in those 418 plate appearances last season. He collected 14 home runs and six stolen bases in 323 plate appearances in 2023.
Both of those seasons came with the Los Angeles Angels.
Moniak was traded to the Colorado Rockies and could prove to be a quality fantasy option in the coming weeks and months if he can play a somewhat regular role with Coors Field as his new home ballpark.
The outfielder has already hit a home run in three games and two plate appearances for Colorado, and the Rockies aren’t overflowing with long-term outfield options outside of Brenton Doyle. In short, the opportunity could be there for Moniak to hit his way into an everyday role. If that’s the case, he’d be worth adding and potentially starting in most fantasy formats and league sizes, even with all the strikeouts.
Lenyn Sosa (2B, 3B – CHI)
Sometimes even the teams who struggle the most can provide under-the-radar fantasy contributors.
That first bit certainly applies to the Chicago White Sox, coming off a 41-121 season in 2024 and featuring a roster that isn’t overflowing with long-term solutions.
As such, it leaves the door open for players like Lenyn Sosa to not only establish themselves in the Majors, but also see considerable playing time.
Sosa hit .254 with a .283 on-base percentage (OBP) and eight home runs in 369 plate appearances for the same Whtie Sox club last year, adding three stolen bases and an 80 wRC+. While Sosa contributed a .278 xBA, his ISO finished at .105 in 2024. The 25-year-old’s barrel rate finished at just 6.1% on 17 total barrels.
With experience at all four infield positions, Sosa has already appeared at second base and first base for the White Sox this season. His sudden increase in power production is worth watching and could make him a quality waiver wire option in the coming weeks if it persists alongside a quality batting average.
As of the beginning of play on Wednesday, Sosa had already logged a pair of barrels on 13 batted ball events. His xwOBA and xwOBAcon, while occurring in a tiny sample size, were extremely encouraging — .434 and .534, respectively.
Seeing those two specific expected numbers maintained throughout a season is rather unlikely, but Sosa’s improved quality of contact numbers early are certainly a positive sign.
Case in point, his average exit velocity is up from 89 miles per hour (MPH) last year to 91.1 MPH this season. Elsewhere, he’s already connected on two pitches that resulted in an exit velocity of 104.7 MPH or greater. Sosa had just 18 exit velocities of 104.7 MPH or greater in 277 batted ball events last season.
Furthermore, with the White Sox lineup lacking in long-term solutions, Sosa could, in theory, hit further up the lineup if he continues to make this kind of loud contact.
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Ben Rosener is a fantasy baseball writer whose work has appeared on the digital pages of FantasyPros, Pitcher List and Bleacher Report. He also writes about fantasy baseball for his own Substack page, Ben Rosener’s Fantasy Baseball Help Substack. He only refers to himself in the third person for bios.
