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 they become the next hot waiver commodity or trade target.
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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 waiver wire 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 despite 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.
Dean Kremer (SP – BAL)
Dean Kremer made his season debut for the Orioles on Monday. He’s someone you’ll want to add now, ahead of the team’s upcoming stretch of games.
The veteran has been a constant in Baltimore’s rotation the last three years. He enjoyed arguably his best season in 2025, pitching to a 4.19 ERA and a 3.97 FIP in 171.2 innings of work spanning 31 total appearances and 29 starts.
Kremer logged 11 pitcher wins in the process while sporting a 20.1% strikeout rate and a career-low 6.4% walk rate. The veteran’s lower strikeout rate limits his fantasy ceiling to more of a long-term streaming option than someone who could stick on fantasy rosters all season in standard-sized leagues. But at the same time, Kremer’s low walk rate gives him a decent floor, particularly with the run support of Baltimore’s lineup.
The Orioles entered play this week having scored just 60 runs, a number that ranks ahead of just eight other teams. Still, Baltimore seems poised to score plenty more runs in the coming weeks and months.
The American League East franchise entered play on Monday with the league’s fifth-best collective wRC+ number at 112, ranking behind only the Dodgers, Houston, Atlanta and Washington. As long as that number remains high, Kremer should have plenty of pitcher win opportunities.
Kremer allowed six hits, four runs and three home runs on 80 pitches and five innings on Monday, striking out nine. The game finished with 16 total runs. The high-scoring nature of the contest and the three home runs allowed might cause some skepticism moving forward by fantasy managers for a pitcher with low career strikeout rate numbers.
Don’t hesitate to add the Orioles starter, however. Two of the three home runs were solo home runs by Ketel Marte, and just two of the four runs were earned.
Furthermore, moving forward after the Arizona start, and assuming Baltimore’s rotation continues as is without any interruptions or changes, Kremer’s next three outings will come at Cleveland, at home against Boston and at home against the Astros.
The Guardians and Red Sox both entered play this week in the bottom half of the league in runs scored. And while Houston entered the week leading the league in runs scored, the Astros also entered play on Monday with the league’s second-highest FIP with a collective 5.39 number.
If you find yourself chasing pitcher wins in weekly matchups and are in a good spot from an ERA and WHIP standpoint, Kremer could be worth a look in that potential Houston start, particularly if he keeps striking out batters like this.
Hunter Gaddis (RP – CLE)
Activated from the injured list (IL) on Monday, Hunter Gaddis’ first appearance with the Guardians will be his first in the Majors this season.
A must-add in leagues where holds are part of the scoring, Gaddis rejoins a Cleveland bullpen for which he played a key role in 2025. Last season, the right-hander pitched to a 3.11 ERA and a 3.50 FIP in 73 appearances spanning 66.2 innings of work.
Gaddis ranked in the 78th percentile in strikeout rate (26.6%) and the 55th percentile in walk rate (7.7%). Elsewhere, for what it’s worth, he finished in the 91st percentile in chase rate (32.8%) and in the 92nd percentile in whiff rate (32.2%).
The right-handed reliever finished with 35 holds and three saves, while adding a pair of pitcher wins, often pitching in a set-up capacity ahead of Cade Smith.
Crucially, Gaddis was also second on the team in total high-leverage relief appearances last year, with his 35 only trailing Smith’s 40.
And while Smith was one of baseball’s best relievers last year, he hasn’t been quite as effective in 2026. Admittedly, we’re still dealing with a small sample size, but the 27-year-old owns a 6.43 ERA in seven innings so far with three saves and a blown save. Smith’s 3.43 FIP suggests he’s been better than his ERA would indicate, but the FIP isn’t below 2.00, as it was in each of the last two seasons.
If Smith can’t bounce back and continues to struggle, Gaddis could, in theory, see some chances or even step in at closer. Of course, that’s all entirely speculative. If Smith does struggle, considering how heavily Cleveland relied on Gaddis last season (and in 2024), he seems like the obvious candidate to take over in the ninth inning if need be.
You’ll want him on your roster before that potentially happens. As of now, there are few setup relievers with the same ceiling (at least if they were to step into a ninth-inning role) as Gaddis.
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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 weekly fantasy baseball columns and provides weekly dynasty (top 700) and redraft (top 500) rankings updates for his own Substack page, Ben Rosener’s Fantasy Baseball Help Substack. He only refers to himself in the third person for bios.
