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.
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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.
Ryan Weathers (SP – MIA)
Currently making his way back from a left forearm strain, Ryan Weathers is to the point of making rehab starts for the Miami Marlins.
He’s yet to start in the Majors in 2025, but is coming off an encouraging 2024 campaign with the Marlins that saw him pitch to a 3.63 ERA and a 4.11 FIP in 16 starts spanning 86.2 innings.
The 25-year-old accumulated five pitcher wins and seven quality starts in the process, logging promising numbers in terms of limiting walks and inducing grounders.
Weathers held opposing batters to just a 6.5% walk rate in 2024. His 47.6% ground ball rate was similarly encouraging. Both numbers ranked in the 73rd percentile or better league-wide.
The ability to limit walks and induce grounders should help Weathers continue to log quality starts, and it’s possible the Marlins could help him to even more pitcher wins this time around.
Miami entered play on Wednesday with 156 runs scored, behind only 15 other teams in the league with a lineup featuring the likes of Kyle Stowers, Agustin Ramirez and Dane Myers all amid strong seasons.
Particularly in leagues where injured list (IL) spots are limited, Weathers might still be available via the waiver wire. If that’s the case, the former Padres hurler is very much worth a look for fantasy managers in search of rotation reinforcements.
Dennis Santana (RP – PIT)
Dennis Santana hasn’t been overwhelming with his strikeout totals so far. He’s struck out just 5.65 batters per nine innings in 15 appearances across 14.1 frames this season as of the beginning of play on Wednesday.
Dennis Santana also may have been dropped in several fantasy leagues, with David Bednar having been recently recalled from Triple-A.
Still, Santana is very much worth a look for fantasy managers in search of potential saves (now or later), particularly if he was dropped with Bednar returning to the Majors.
Santana has registered three saves this season. And while his strikeouts per nine innings rate is low, he’s scattered just 1.88 walks per nine frames and has yet to allow a home run. He’s also pitched to a minuscule 1.26 ERA and a 2.46 FIP.
Furthermore, the right-hander’s strikeout numbers could be on the rise in the future. Despite fewer strikeouts — his 17.3% strikeout rate sits in just the 21st percentile league-wide — Santana ranks in the 78th percentile or better in both whiff rate (78th percentile, 29.5%) and chase rate (99th percentile, 41.2%).
With the 29-year-old limiting opposing batters to just a 5.8% walk rate and a 5% barrel rate, he seems well-positioned for fantasy success if he ever steps into the ninth-inning role for an extended period.
While it remains to be seen just how Pittsburgh will divvy up saves for the remainder of the season, Bednar has given up an earned run in two of his last four appearances, taking the loss in one of those outings.
Even if this were to develop into a committee situation, Santana would be well worth rostering in most fantasy formats and league sizes.
In terms of save stashes around the league, the Pirates hurler has plenty of upside moving forward. With Santana looking like, at worst, (speculatively speaking) a high-leverage, setup reliever the rest of the way, he’s also a must-add in leagues where holds are part of the scoring.
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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.
