This is ‘The Watchlist.’ This column is designed to help you monitor and pick up fantasy baseball players in the coming weeks and
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 Thompson (RP – ARI)
It’s officially that time of year to start looking for potential future closers in the second half. Pitchers who aren’t currently closing games regularly at the moment, but could due to a variety of real-life trades around the league as the trade deadline approaches.
Enter Ryan Thompson.
The Arizona Diamondbacks reliever has pitched to a 4.60 ERA in 31.1 innings so far this season, logging a 21.2% strikeout rate and an 8.8% walk rate. He’s also added two pitcher wins, a save and 11 holds in the process.
Pitching in a set-up role with both Justin Martinez and A.J. Puk on the 60-day injured list (IL), Thompson has probably been better than his ERA would indicate. He’s sporting a 4.14 FIP on the season, sits in the 97th percentile league-wide in chase rate (36.1%) and has induced grounders at a 49.5% rate so far.
Furthermore, the 33-year-old ranks second among Arizona relief pitchers this season in stuff+ (116), per FanGraphs.
Thompson’s team, the Diamondbacks, had a 28.8% chance of making the playoffs as of Wednesday, per FanGraphs.
With Martinez and Puk both on the IL, Thompson has stepped into a late-inning role alongside both Jalen Beeks and Shelby Miller. While Thompson is a free agent after the 2026 season, both Beeks and Miller are free agents after this season, making them speculative trade candidates.
With the Diamondbacks’ bullpen decimated by injury as is, if the team trades away some veterans in the next few weeks, including Beeks and Miller, it could open the door for Thompson to see save chances in the season’s second half.
Steven Cruz (RP – KC)
Sticking with relievers to keep an eye on with ninth-inning potential in the season’s second half, Steven Cruz is very much a reliever to add to your fantasy watchlists.
The 26-year-old has enjoyed a breakout campaign so far, pitching to a 2.14 ERA and a 3.26 FIP in 33 appearances spanning 33.2 innings of work. He’s turned in a 23.1% strikeout rate compared to a solid 6.2% walk rate and has been elite at limiting loud contact.
Entering play on Wednesday, the right-hander ranked in the 90th percentile or better in both hard-hit rate (33%) and barrel rate (4.4%). For reference, the reliever also ranked in the 94th percentile or higher in both xBA (.198, 94th percentile) and xERA (2.44, 96th percentile).
From an fWAR standpoint, Cruz has been the Royals’ third-best reliever this season, trailing only closer Carlos Estevez and set-up man Lucas Erceg. While it remains to be seen if the Royals would trade one or both, let alone any veterans in general, Cruz could be in line for save chances in the second half if Kansas City trades Estevez and Erceg.
That’s all purely speculative on my part, obviously, but the Royals finished Wednesday at 40-47 with a -35 run differential, a 14-game deficit in the division and 5.5 games out of a Wild Card spot.
At minimum, Cruz is a must-add in leagues that have saves as part of the scoring system, even if Kansas City doesn’t trade Estevez and Erceg.
If the Royals trade one of Estevez or Erceg, Cruz immediately becomes an intriguing ancillary save option and would be one of the best set-up options in the league.
If the Royals trade away some veterans, including both Estevez and Erceg, Cruz would have the ceiling of a borderline top-12 fantasy closer the rest of the way.
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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.
