Fantasy baseball waiver wire: Call-ups Carson Williams, Jhostynxon Garcia unlikely to have 2025 impact

The trickle of prospect promotions continues, and we're now going to have three top-100 prospects called up for their expected debuts Friday. We covered the Bubba Chandler situation – fiasco? – in Thursday's newsletter, and unfortunately, he just doesn't seem too likely to make much of an impact for Fantasy in what is expected to be a bulk relief role. 

But what about the other two? We also learned Thursday that the Rays are promoting shortstop Carson Williams, while the Red Sox are calling up outfielder/first baseman Jhostynxon Garcia. Can either of them make an impact down the stretch?

We'll start with Garcia, because his path to Fantasy relevance is probably cloudier. Garcia is being promoted to replace outfielder Wilyer Abreu on the active roster, and he'll probably see some time between the outfield and first base. But it probably won't be much time, with the Red Sox already pretty full at both positions.

Garcia could force the team's hand after hitting 17 homers with a .303/.367/.564 line in 66 games at Triple-A, but he's got a lot working against him even without the playing time concerns. He's an aggressive slugger who doesn't actually hit the ball all that hard, with an 87.2 mph average exit velocity and 35.5% hard-hit rate at Triple-A. He does put the ball in the air to the pull side a lot, which helps overcome the unimpressive quality of contact, but Garcia also has pretty big swing-and-miss issues to overcome – among 230 hitters who have faced at least 1,000 pitches at Triple-A this season, his 24.8% whiff rate on pitches in the strike zone is the 23rd highest. 

Playing time concerns, contact issues, and average-ish power? Doesn't sound like a profile you need to bet on. Garcia may be a useful Fantasy option down the line, but I think he's a long shot to really matter much this season, especially since he doesn't bring much speed to the table. He's going to have to hit immediately to matter much in Fantasy, and he probably isn't going to get many opportunities to prove himself. He's best left for deeper leagues.

Now, Williams is both the better real-life prospect and the better bet for Fantasy, though the former is much more true than the latter. Williams' biggest calling card as a prospect is that he is one of the very best defensive players in the minors, a potential Gold Glove winner at shortstop. That's kept him ranked pretty high in prospect rankings despite a pretty iffy offensive profile.

But it's the offensive profile we care more about for Fantasy, and that's where Williams is harder to get excited about. He had a breakout 2024 campaign, putting up a 142 wRC+ as a 21-year-old at Double-A, but he has regressed in a lot of significant ways in Triple-A this season.

Williams is hitting .213/.318/.447 with 23 homers and 22 steals, and most notably, a 34.1% strikeout rate. And that strikeout rate isn't a fluke – he is 24th out of 230 players at Triple-A in in-zone whiff rate at 24.5%, and his overall whiff rate of 38.6% (the rate at which he misses when he swings at all pitches) is the seventh-highest mark at the level. His swing decisions aren't terrible, and Williams' overall patience has helped him to a 12.4% walk rate, which is a nice buffer for his real-life value. However, that patience combined with his propensity to swing and miss is going to lead to tons of strikeouts. 

There is some power here to make up for it, of course. His max exit velocity this season is 111.7 mph, and his 90th percentile EV of 107 mph is plenty strong, too. And he does optimize his batted balls well, with a 22.8% pulled-air rate that would be in the 78th percentile among major leagues this season. The power should be there, and the speed will play too, especially on an aggressive Rays team, so projecting a 20-20 pace early on isn't asking too much.

But even then, the red flags might be too much to overcome. He has better physical tools than the likes of Matt McLain or Zack Gelof, but his contact issues might be even bigger – especially against non-fastballs. I think you can squint and see a present-day Trevor Story outcome here in the immediate future, but I think that's probably closer to a best-case scenario than a median outcome for Williams. The median outcome here probably looks more like present-day Luis Robert, where the power and speed is only barely able to overcome the batting average drain.

Which is to say, I'm not sure any of this trio should really be high priorities for Fantasy right now. Any one of Chandler, Williams, or Garcia could get hot and unexpectedly make an impact down the stretch, but it feels like a long shot for all three of them. The hope here is they show enough to get excited about for 2026 more than anything. 

But if you've got a roster spot to play with, it's always worth taking a shot on a young player, just in case you catch lightning in a bottle. I just don't think any of these three are likely to make a big impact. 

Here's what else you need to know about from Thursday's action around MLB: 

Friday's top waiver-wire targets

Dylan Beavers, OF, Orioles (32%) – Beavers is having a solid start to his career, and he got on the board with his first homer Thursday. It was his only hit of the game, but he did add a walk, giving him five in as many games, along with the same number of strikeouts. He is 5 for 17 with a couple of extra-base hits and has generally looked like he belongs, making good swing decisions and making contact when he does swing. He was enjoying a breakout season at Triple-A before his promotion and could be a very useful Fantasy option down the stretch in five outfielder leagues. 

Brenton Doyle, OF, Rockies (54%) – Doyle has been red-hot since the All-Star game, and that continued Thursday with his 13th homer of the season. He went 2 for 3 with four RBI and is now up to a .395 average and 1.096 OPS with six homers and three steals since the All-Star break. He was miserable in the first half and started losing playing time as a result, but he was a difference maker in 2024 and looks like he hasn't totally lost that ability. He's a fine option to add and start for next week, with three of his six games at Coors Field. 

Tyler Wells, SP, Orioles (2%) – Wells hasn't garnered the hype of some of the other pitchers working their way back from Tommy John surgery, and he certainly doesn't have the upside of someone like Shane Bieber or teammate Kyle Bradish. But he's been a useful fantasy option in the past, putting up a 3.64 ERA with nearly a strikeout per inning and 0.99 WHIP back in 2023, and he'll likely only need one more rehab start before returning to the Orioles in the next two weeks. One big concern here is that even in 2023, he allowed 25 homers, and now Camden Yards is a better place to hit following changes to the outfield fences. That might be too much for Wells to overcome, but at least in deeper leagues, he's worth a look on the cusp of his return.