Fantasy Baseball Waiver Wire: Taj Bradley, Colt Keith showing signs of a breakout
Meanwhile, new saves sources emerge in St. Louis and Texas
By
Scott White
•
1 min read
It was only Monday that I touted Jordan Walker as a speculative pickup based on his superlative exit velocities and improved fly-all rate. Both served as indicators that the swing changes he made late in spring training were having the desired effect, and at 23, despite all his past fakeouts, he was hardly a lost cause.
All he's done since then is homer in every single game, three in all. I'm just going to say it: good call.
With his roster rate now at 78 percent in CBS Sports leagues, I could justify touting Walker again here -- that number should be much closer to 100, after all -- but I think I've made my point. The shallowest leagues may lag behind, but they'll soon come to the same conclusion that the rest of us have. If you play in such a league and missed me making the case for Walker the first time, you can find it here.
The rest of us will turn our attention to other players that I haven't had a chance to address yet, including a long-overdue pitching breakout and a former hitting prospect signaling the same sort of growth that we're seeing from Walker.
Potential waiver wire pickups
Taj Bradley struck out nine in his first start. He threw six shutout innings in his second start. But it was his third start against the Tigers -- in which he allowed one run in 6 1/3 innings with no walks and 10 strikeouts -- that elevated him from early curiosity to possible breakout. He had 15 whiffs in that start, including nine on just his splitter, a pitch that boasts an absurd 56 percent whiff rate overall. He's always thrown a splitter, but he worked to develop a new grip in the offseason and is now getting an additional three inches of drop on it. The stuff has always been apparent for the former Rays prospect, and we've seen him dominate for stretches before, most notably in June and July of 2024. But this new weapon seems like the sort that could finally pull everything together, and it makes Bradley arguably the top pitcher to emerge on the waiver wire so far this year.
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The case for rostering Ivan Herrera everywhere might have been harder to make when he was only eligible at DH. A team can slot any hitter into that spot, after all, and the 25-year-old hasn't gotten off to a rip-roaring start. But he just made his fifth appearance at catcher, which means, at least in leagues that use standard CBS eligibility rules, he now qualifies at that position. Catcher eligibility isn't as valuable as it once was, particularly in the sort of shallower leagues where Herrera might be available, but it puts him in a much smaller pool of hitters competing for your affections. And judging by his Baseball Savant page, which puts his xBA in the 89th percentile and xwOBA in the 86th percentile, I still like his chances of winning out. He did, after all, slash .284/.373/.464 last year, and unlike a lot of the other catcher possibilities, he's a true everyday player, having started all 12 of the Cardinals' games so far.
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Ryne Nelson's first couple starts of 2026 didn't go so well, and given that he wasn't a prized commodity on Draft Day, being selected outside of the top 225 overall, it made for an easy excuse to drop him in some formats. But I was never in favor of that idea, and his third outing against the Mets Wednesday showed why. The more he leans on his fastball and its incredible 20 inches of induced vertical break, the better he performs. The tipping point seems to be 60 percent. He threw it 76 percent of the time against the Mets, and look what happened. The approach first clicked for him over the final three months of 2024, and since then, he has a 3.33 ERA, 1.05 WHIP, and 8.0 K/9 in 251 2/3 innings. That WHIP makes him especially handy in Rotisserie leagues, given that it's such a difficult category to meet on the cheap, and his relief pitcher eligibility does the same in Head-to-Head points leagues. His utility is so high in both formats that he deserves a longer leash than his draft cost would have you believe.
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There was great skepticism surrounding Grant Holmes at the start of this year because his 2025 ended early with a partial tear of his UCL, but he's now delivered back-to-back quality starts for the Braves and fell just an inning short of another in his season debut. His slider is still a standout offering, boasting a 50 percent whiff rate across the three starts, and his 12.7 percent swinging-strike rate is about in line with last year's mark. He seems fine physically, in other words, and while his WHIP figures to run a little high because of his strike-throwing deficiencies, he's an underrated source of strikeouts. He hasn't shown it yet this year, but again, the swing-and-miss numbers are right where they were last year, when he had five starts with nine strikeouts or more. That's the same number that Paul Skenes had.
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When I mentioned there was a former hitting prospect signaling the same sort of growth that we're seeing from Jordan Walker, Colt Keith is who I meant. Remember, he was such a big prospect for the Tigers that they made sure to lock him up with a long-term deal before introducing him as their second baseman in 2024. Power was supposed to be his calling card, given that he hit 27 homers in the minors the year before, but he has yet to match that total in the majors across two-plus seasons. The fact he has yet to homer in 2026 would seem to fit the pattern. What has changed, though, is that he's swinging with more intent this year. How much more? Well, his fast swing rate -- i.e., how often his swing speed measures 75 mph or higher -- is triple what it was a year ago, and he's also one of the biggest gainers in average bat speed, picking up more than 2 mph. It's reflected in his 95.1 mph average exit velocity, which ranks in the 97th percentile, and if it and his career-high pull-air rate continue, a home run binge is as inevitable as Thanos.
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Following the deal that sent closer Ryan Helsley to the Mets at the trade deadline last year, Riley O'Brien and JoJo Romero split saves almost evenly, but it was the right-handed O'Brien who notched four of the team's final five, which should have made him the odds-on favorite for the closer role to begin 2026. The momentum shifted to Matt Svanson, though, when O'Brien missed the early part of spring training with a calf strain and then struggled to throw strikes upon returning. Once the regular season started, Svanson quickly removed himself from consideration with his performance, and just like that, O'Brien looks like the guy again. Three of his past five appearances were for a save, and the other two were still occasions when a closer would normally be used. You'll notice he has yet to walk anyone, too. In retrospect, he should have been the draft target all along, but it's not too late to rectify the mistake.
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It may be time to admit that new Rockies front office head Paul DePodesta struck gold with at least one move this offseason, acquiring TJ Rumfield for the Yankees in a low-profile deal. The 25-year-old, who was clearly blocked in the Yankees organization, won the first base job with a big spring performance in which he homered five times, and he's continued to smoke the ball in the regular season. His exit velocity readings actually aren't that good, but they weren't in the minors either. His knack for elevating to his pull side helps to make up for it, and playing half his games at Coors Field should also help his cause. But really, his plate discipline is his carrying tool, as you'd expect for a DePodesta target. As long as he doesn't sit too often against left-handers, Rumfield should matter in Fantasy and is already worth adding in leagues that require a third corner infielder.
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Nobody would have identified Jake Junis as a possible saves target a couple weeks ago. Few probably knew what team he was on, even. But there he was recording a save for the Rangers on back-to-back days earlier this week. It's not the craziest idea when you consider the Rangers' alternatives and the fact that Junis has compiled a 2.69 ERA and 1.01 WHIP (albeit with a low strikeout rate) in 87 appearances since the start of 2024, but it hasn't at all been the 33-year-old's niche. "I'm not going to put anything in pen yet," manager Skip Schumaker told The Dallas Morning News after Junis' first save, "but I like him in high-leverage roles." Notably, Cole Winn, who would also make for a worthy closer candidate, notched the Rangers' most recent save Wednesday, but Junis was unavailable for the contest after working on back-to-back days.
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