Fantasy baseball waiver wire targets: Time to pay up for Payton Tolle and Daylen Lile

Payton Tolle's pitch profile and minor-league track record make him a priority add, especially after his success Thursday. Brace Hemmelgarn / Getty Images Share articleName a better combination than keeping tabs on the NFL draft while researching fantasy baseball waivers with your favorite speculator right here at The Athletic! Feels like I say it every week, but somehow we still haven’t hit May, and yet my rosters look unrecognizable from the teams I drafted less than a month ago. Such is life in the big city when constant turnover is par for the course. But fret not, fellow roster-hole-filler, you’ve come to the right place! Every week, I’ll go position by position, surfacing the best additions in all formats — including hitter and pitcher stashes, and rankings of all available upcoming two-start SPs. NOTE: Please prioritize positional lists over the featured player write-ups. I’m trying to avoid covering the same players more than once and don’t want any extra focus misconstrued as personal preference. Thanks, and away we go! Maybe it’s a simple lack of media attention, but for whatever reason, viable catchers land on fantasy’s pay-no-mind list far too often for far too long. What other reason could we give for Dingler, the sixth-best backstop and No. 24 hitter in FanGraphs’ player rater, being relegated to free-agent status in roughly half of all fantasy leagues? The 38th pick in the 2020 MLB Draft made tangible changes to his approach, improving his strikeout, swinging-strike and chase metrics for the third consecutive year. This selectivity optimizes swings, opening the pathway to capitalize on top-tier power — 55.9% Hard Hit, 20.3% Barrel, 13.6% Air-Pull, .517 xwOBAcon. Sprinkle in the occasional, though very valuable, plate appearances at designated hitter, and you wind up with an easy top-10 catcher projection going forward. !function(){"use strict";window.addEventListener("message",(function(a){if(void 0!==a.data["datawrapper-height"]){var e=document.querySelectorAll("[id='datawrapper-chart-Oh5cI']");for(var t in a.data["datawrapper-height"])for(var r=0;r Buying low may sound overly simplistic, yet it remains a time-tested adage for a reason. Steer garnered a top-125 ADP for the second-straight year after finishing as fantasy's 51st-best hitter just two seasons ago. It's fair to say last season brought a fair amount of regression. With that, coming off a 21-HR campaign, while playing home games in an optimal ballpark, always felt like a discount at pick No. 250 for a "down" year — until Steer went 1-for-20 to start 2026. Yikes. Since headlining fantasy baseball's most-dropped list on April 2, Steer has started 17 of 19 games and has looked very much like the breakout player from 2024. Always one to stay on brand, I'll say it's the pulled elevated batted balls validating April's power surge (21.4% Barrel, 31.0% Air-Pull), which will only spike further with the oncoming summer heat. !function(){"use strict";window.addEventListener("message",(function(a){if(void 0!==a.data["datawrapper-height"]){var e=document.querySelectorAll("[id='datawrapper-chart-pNY9w']");for(var t in a.data["datawrapper-height"])for(var r=0;r Sincere apologies for being so late to the Jeremiah Jackson party — I displayed a rather out-of-character glimpse of injury optimism regarding Jackson Holliday and paid the price. Luckily for us, Jackson is still available in more than one-third of formats, which honestly shouldn't last much longer. Not only has Holliday's setback re-paved the pathway to a full-time role, but Jackson has also totaled over double the amount of HR and RBI of Dylan Beavers and Colton Cowser combined. Though he has yet to do so in 2026, Jackson can play in the outfield. If these same offensive trajectories continue, the former second-rounder with a 131 wRC+ will not be the one on his way to Norfolk to join the Tides. !function(){"use strict";window.addEventListener("message",(function(a){if(void 0!==a.data["datawrapper-height"]){var e=document.querySelectorAll("[id='datawrapper-chart-lKSf0']");for(var t in a.data["datawrapper-height"])for(var r=0;r The cupboard is pretty bare for those shopping for a bargain at shortstop. In times like these, I lean into the safest route — bankable playing time. Rocchio has started every game this year save one, and his recent tear actually vaulted him into the SS14 spot — tied with Corey Seager, and right behind Bobby Witt. That company is not too shabby. Rocchio features a really great approach at the dish, earning as many walks as strikeouts with sneaky power due to his (you guessed it) pull-heavy approach. I can't help but wonder if José Ramírez has anything to do with this. To be clear, I'm not projecting 25 homers for Rocchio. All I'm saying is his ability to rip it down the line from either side will produce far more long balls than his 29.4% hard-hit rate and 2.9% barrel rate might suggest. !function(){"use strict";window.addEventListener("message",(function(a){if(void 0!==a.data["datawrapper-height"]){var e=document.querySelectorAll("[id='datawrapper-chart-aGM7B']");for(var t in a.data["datawrapper-height"])for(var r=0;r Don't look now, but the highest-scoring offense in MLB over the past seven days is the White Sox. How many guesses would it have taken you to get that one? Regardless, one of the major force multipliers behind the offensive explosion is Vargas. Once a highly touted prospect out of Cuba, the 25-year-old is yet to put it all together at the highest level, despite showing flashes of the power/speed combo fantasy GMs once dreamt of. The issue has always been the drastic batting average floor, and this year's .196 mark is more of the same. However, Vargas' BABIP sits at a minuscule .175, which can only go up from there ... right? Plus, he's playing every day, batting third or higher in the order while managing a top-50 fantasy bat despite his flaws. We're signing up for a good time here, not a long one. !function(){"use strict";window.addEventListener("message",(function(a){if(void 0!==a.data["datawrapper-height"]){var e=document.querySelectorAll("[id='datawrapper-chart-qyRYp']");for(var t in a.data["datawrapper-height"])for(var r=0;r The dinner bell is ringing for Lile. By this time next week, we should transfer the former second-rounder over to our graduating class. And don't say I didn't warn you. Just 462 plate appearances into his MLB career, Lile has picked up where he left off last year with a solid 5x5, 600-PA pace (.295 BA/ 86 R/ 71 RBI/ 16 HR/ 12 SB). He recently broke into OF2 territory as well — batting smack dab in the middle of the league's second-highest scoring offense. With a strong plate approach, Lile starts every day and does a little bit of everything — which I love, especially in deeper fantasy leagues. He's unlikely to win your league, but there's real value in players who don't need to be constantly juggled. !function(){"use strict";window.addEventListener("message",(function(a){if(void 0!==a.data["datawrapper-height"]){var e=document.querySelectorAll("[id='datawrapper-chart-bhPd4']");for(var t in a.data["datawrapper-height"])for(var r=0;r !function(){"use strict";window.addEventListener("message",(function(a){if(void 0!==a.data["datawrapper-height"]){var e=document.querySelectorAll("[id='datawrapper-chart-57fNH']");for(var t in a.data["datawrapper-height"])for(var r=0;r Even as a stingy FAAB bidder, I'm beyond excited to spend up for Tolle in the wake of his recent promotion. I already know all the dust is getting blown off the ol' fantasy wallet this weekend, especially after fanning 11 Yankees while allowing just one run over six innings on Thursday night. After that electric effort, fantasy managers surely won't hold the rocky start to his career in 2025 (6.04 ERA) against him. Even before Thursday's start, Tolle's dominant 106.2 IP sample in the minors stood on its own: 3.04 ERA, 1.00 WHIP, 29.4% K-BB, 0.9 HR/9. He's still just 23 years old, and even with the inflated ERA in Boston last season, he boasted insane underlying per-pitch metrics. The sample is small, but the 6-foot-6 lefty sports an elite extension profile, which he parlays into a massive amount of swings-and-misses. There's not an offering in Tolle's MLB arsenal that induced a whiff rate below 28%. The sky's the limit! !function(){"use strict";window.addEventListener("message",(function(a){if(void 0!==a.data["datawrapper-height"]){var e=document.querySelectorAll("[id='datawrapper-chart-6EJ7p']");for(var t in a.data["datawrapper-height"])for(var r=0;r !function(){"use strict";window.addEventListener("message",(function(a){if(void 0!==a.data["datawrapper-height"]){var e=document.querySelectorAll("[id='datawrapper-chart-H0oEy']");for(var t in a.data["datawrapper-height"])for(var r=0;r !function(){"use strict";window.addEventListener("message",(function(a){if(void 0!==a.data["datawrapper-height"]){var e=document.querySelectorAll("[id='datawrapper-chart-jX0jC']");for(var t in a.data["datawrapper-height"])for(var r=0;r !function(){"use strict";window.addEventListener("message",(function(a){if(void 0!==a.data["datawrapper-height"]){var e=document.querySelectorAll("[id='datawrapper-chart-ScZ7v']");for(var t in a.data["datawrapper-height"])for(var r=0;r !function(){"use strict";window.addEventListener("message",(function(a){if(void 0!==a.data["datawrapper-height"]){var e=document.querySelectorAll("[id='datawrapper-chart-wkWdc']");for(var t in a.data["datawrapper-height"])for(var r=0;r Mining the perfect fantasy closer comes down to finding the ideal combination of skills and role. Remember not to get too hung up on the first part, either — we'll still take the bad pitcher getting save opportunities. For those managers who punted saves on draft day, the season begins on high alert, but fear not; you're in luck. MLB's save environment is as chaotic as ever. Despite not yet having reached May, a remarkable 90 different pitchers have already recorded a save in 2026. Wow! With that, the goal is always to acquire a reliever who either has the job now or direct access to it soon. Given the incredible number of league types out there, our best course is to keep a running list of relievers; grab the best available. !function(){"use strict";window.addEventListener("message",(function(a){if(void 0!==a.data["datawrapper-height"]){var e=document.querySelectorAll("[id='datawrapper-chart-2mWMk']");for(var t in a.data["datawrapper-height"])for(var r=0;r The following players are now on many fantasy rosters, but those in 10-team leagues should look to them first before adding other, lesser-rostered players. !function(){"use strict";window.addEventListener("message",(function(a){if(void 0!==a.data["datawrapper-height"]){var e=document.querySelectorAll("[id='datawrapper-chart-xcFiN']");for(var t in a.data["datawrapper-height"])for(var r=0;r Spot the pattern. Connect the terms Find the hidden link between sports terms