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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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 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.
Michael Toglia (1B – CIN)
With Nathaniel Lowe dealt to the Cleveland Guardians at the trade deadline, Michael Toglia is looking at a potentially increased role moving forward for the Cincinnati Reds.
The former Colorado Rockies slugger has appeared at first base (four times) and right field (once) in his first five appearances for the National League Central club as of the start of play on Monday.
Toglia spent the season prior to that playing for Cincinnati’s Triple-A affiliate, hitting .273 with a .373 on-base percentage (OBP), 22 home runs, four stolen bases, a 135 wRC+, a 13.9% walk rate and a 25.6% strikeout rate in 402 minor league plate appearances.
And while minor league numbers should be taken with a grain of salt, Toglia has provided quality power numbers in the Majors in each of the last two seasons.
Toglia sported a .238 ISO, 25 home runs and a .456 slugging rate in 458 plate appearances with the Rockies in 2024 before adding a .163 ISO, 11 home runs and a .353 slugging rate in 337 plate appearances for the National League West franchise last season.
Toglia does have a history of striking out at an elevated rate. His lifetime strikeout rate in 1,080 career Major League plate appearances entering play this week was 35%. Still, there’s plenty to like about the potential fantasy fit in Cincinnati if Toglia can hit his way into regular playing time down the stretch.
The 27-year-old has connected on 42 career home runs in the Majors since debuting during the 2022 season for Colorado.
Per Statcast, Toglia’s expected home run number for Cincinnati’s home ballpark (50) is not only higher than his career home run tally, but it’s also higher than any other Major League stadium. Philadelphia and Milwaukee’s home ballparks are the only stadiums within seven of Toglia’s expected home run tally in Cincinnati.
With Lowe in Cleveland, it’s entirely possible Toglia can establish himself in a regular role with his new club. If that happens, quality fantasy power production in terms of home runs, RBI and runs scored should follow.
Ben Joyce (RP – LAA)
The Los Angeles Angels have six saves this month, which isn’t a terrible number, all things considered, when taking into account the team’s 49-76 record as of the start of play on Monday.
Still, it remains to be seen if the American League West club will see a consistent number of save chances the rest of the way, particularly given the team’s -86 run differential (also as of the start of play on Monday).
Still, Ben Joyce has each of the team’s last two saves and looks like the best bet for ninth-inning chances moving forward. Of course, that’s all entirely speculative on my part. Even if the Angels struggle to have consistent save chances for Joyce, the right-hander is still very much worth a look from a fantasy standpoint.
In addition to the save chances, Joyce looks like a reliever who can bring additional strikeouts while helping keep weekly WHIP and ERA numbers down, in addition to the potential for saves.
Joyce has yet to allow a run in five innings this season and has struck out six of the 16 batters he’s faced so far, compared to surrendering just one hit and one walk.
The 25-year-old owns a 2.83 ERA and a 3.71 FIP in 54 career Major League innings.
That the Angels have struggled so much this season might have Joyce flying under the radar from a fantasy perspective. If that’s the case in your league, he’s very much worth adding in almost all fantasy leagues moving forward.
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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.
