MLB: Baltimore Orioles at Houston Astros
Erik Williams

We didn't get a flood of prospect promotions this week, but we got a few notable ones and should see a few more the rest of the way. So, before we get to the top waiver-wire targets for every position ahead of Week 22, let's take a look at four big-name prospects to know who were promoted in recent days: 

Rookie callups to know from this week

  • Samuel Basallo, C, Orioles (42%) – Yet another young catcher worth getting excited about, and Basallo is, frankly, on a different level than even some of the more successful young guys like Agustin Ramirez or Drake Baldwin. That doesn't mean he'll find the immediate success they did, but Basallo just hit .270/.377/.589 with good plate discipline and excellent quality of contact metrics as a 20-year-old at Triple-A. He figures to play regularly down the stretch, serving as the No. 2 catcher for the Orioles and splitting the rest of his time between first base and DH. One downside to his promotion: With just 39 games remaining, he'll need to appear in more than half of the Orioles' remaining games behind the plate to retain catcher eligibility for 2026. That seems unlikely, so let's enjoy it while it lasts. But, to be clear, Basallo could be Fantasy relevant even as a first baseman. That's how high the ceiling is as a hitter here. He's worth adding in all leagues where you need catcher help. 
  • Nolan McLean, SP, Mets (46%) – McLean's debut wasn't dominant, but it was pretty impressive. The Mets plucked him from Triple-A amid a breakout season and he gave them 5.1 shutout innings against the Mariners Saturday. His command wasn't super sharp, with four walks, but he struck out eight and had 11 swinging strikes on 11 pitches, nine combined on his sweeper and curveball. With Frankie Montas moved to the bullpen (and struggling there, too), McLean should have a job for as long as he can hold it, and there's impact upside here. He's worth adding in 12-team leagues. 
  • Dylan Beavers, OF, Orioles (24%) – Beavers joins the Orioles after a breakout season at Triple-A where he hit .304/.420/.515 with close to a one-to-one K:BB ratio. The underlying quality of contact data isn't nearly as good as Basallo's, but there's probably at least average power and 30-plus steal potential here. He's probably more like a 15-20 homer guy, but if the plate discipline and baserunning translate, he could be like the good version of Josh Lowe, perhaps. Whether that'll be enough to be an everyday player in Baltimore's crowded corner outfield situation remains to be seen, though he can probably at least handle center field on an Orioles team in evaluation mode the rest of the way. He's more of a five-outfielder league add. 
  • Owen Caissie, OF, Cubs (28%) – Now this is the guy who is really going to have trouble finding playing time. He started his MLB debut Thursday, but was out of the lineup each of the next three days. Caissie is a better prospect than Beavers, but I'd say it's more likely he ends up back in Triple-A before the end of the next week than he ends up being an everyday player for the Cubs in September. There's big power here, but he needs a trade this offseason (or for the Cubs to lose Kyle Tucker, I guess) to really have a role. If the Cubs re-sign Tucker this offseason, Caissie seems likely to be moved in a trade (unless the Cubs opt to move Ian Happ or Seiya Suzuki to save some money). 

For more names to know who might get the call in the coming weeks, check out Scott White's Prospects Report from this week for 13 names who could matter down the stretch. And now here are the players to consider adding from every position: 

Week 22 Waiver Targets

Catcher

Francisco Alvarez, Mets (33%) – After homering Saturday, Alvarez is now hitting .293/.488/.603 since his return from Triple-A. His strikeout rate is down to a manageable 23.9%, while his average exit velocity is a downright elite 94.3 mph. There are a lot of viable catchers out there, but I think Alvarez needs to be taken more seriously as an option even in one-catcher leagues. 

First Base

Kyle Manzardo, Guardians (46%) – Manzardo has struggled to contribute much to your batting average category this season, but he's hitting .329 since the All-Star break with his typically excellent power. That isn't going to last forever – and his status as a platoon bat limits his utility in points leagues – but Manzardo has appeal at least as a corner infielder in most leagues, especially with a few big names going on the IL lately. 

Second base

Lenyn Sosa, White Sox (42%) – I don't really know where this has come from with Sosa, but he suddenly looks like a legit power source. His plate discipline is bad, but he makes enough contact to make it work, especially with how hard he's hitting the ball these days. Sosa hit another homer Sunday, his sixth in the month of August and is now hitting .289/.336/.526 since the All-Star break – with an elite .407 xwOBA in that stretch. I suspect it will fall apart at some point, but Sosa seems like a perfect hot-hand play with eligibility at every infield spot save for shortstop (and catcher, I guess). 

Third base

Colson Montgomery, White Sox (61%) – Like with Sosa, I think Montgomery should be viewed as more of a hot-hand play than anything, especially since he combines Sosa's propensity to chase with subpar contact skills. But something seems to have clicked for Montgomery at the end of his time at Triple-A and he's been crushing the ball ever since. The problem is, well, he's only hitting homers right now, more or less. If that stops, his numbers could get really ugly. But if you're looking for a corner infielder with pop, Montgomery is a viable choice (though I would prioritize Manzardo). 

Shortstop

Jordan Lawlar, Diamondbacks (35%) – We've been waiting an awfully long time for Lawlar to get a real chance, but he still only turned 23 a month ago, and more importantly, actually should get that real chance any day now. Lawlar returned from a nearly two-month absence due to a hamstring injury over the past few days, and should be called up soon to finish the season out as the Diamondbacks' third baseman. Despite a long list of injuries, Lawlar is still hitting .319/.405/.580 at Triple-A this season and has legitimate five-category upside if and when he gets his long-awaited chance. 

Middle infield

Curtis Mead, White Sox (5%) – Mead was surprisingly on the bench Saturday and Sunday after starting nine straight since joining the White Sox, so I wonder if he just needed a breather. He wasn't used to playing everyday in Tampa, after all. The White Sox have had some success with other team's expendable former top prospects, and while Mead hasn't found much success at the MLB level yet, he is a career .293/.373/.501 hitter at Triple-A, so in deeper leagues, I'm willing to take the flier on him figuring it out here. There's certainly upside, at least.

Corner infield

Kyle Karros, Rockies (10%) – Fans of a certain age will recognize the name – he's the son of former big-leaguer Erik. The younger Karros is hitting .281/.378/.375 since being promoted to the majors, and while he isn't doing much beyond an empty batting average, he's in the perfect spot to keep that up thanks to Coors Field's BABIP-inflating properties. He brings good plate discipline to the table and shows the ability to hit a lot of line drives in the minors, so he could be a cheap source of average, at least.

Outfield

Daulton Varsho, Blue Jays (42%) – Varsho's emergence as a legitimate power threat is one of this season's legitimate surprises. That might strike you as a strange thing to say about a guy with a 27-homer season to his name, but Varsho was always a fringe-y power hitter who needed to focus on pulling the ball in the air to tap into his average power, an approach we saw lead to increasingly diminishing returns in recent years. Well, now he's sporting an average exit velocity nearly 5 mph higher than last season's mark, leading to a .375 xwOBA for the season, by far the next of his career. And he's still elevating the ball to the pull side as often as ever. It's still a pretty small sample size overall, but Varsho's breakout looks real. 

Dylan Crews, Nationals (67%) – Crews hasn't done anything particularly noteworthy since coming off the IL, which is unfortunately in keeping with his MLB career to date. So I'm listing here mostly as a sign of my continued faith in the skill set. He has a good approach at the plate, easy plus athleticism, and strong power potential. It hasn't added up to much production, but I still believe it will. Eventually. Hopefully between now and the end of the season. 

Kristian Campbell, Red Sox (42%) – Campbell has already burned through his rookie eligibility, so any promotion is going to come when the Red Sox believe he can help the team's playoff hopes. With Marcelo Mayer ruled out for the season and first-half stars like Ceddanne Rafaela and Wilyer Abreu hitting a second-half wall, I think we'll see him before long – and the fact that Campbell is hitting .330/.422/.521 since the All-Star break makes me believe it'll happen soon. For as much as he struggled in the majors, Campbell is still a supremely talented player who has a strong Fantasy future. 

Colby Thomas, Athletics (10%) – Thomas hit .291/.366/.529 at Triple-A this season, and now he's starting to get a real chance to play in the majors (at the expense of Lawrence Butler's playing time, unfortunately). Thomas is 8 for 18 with two homers and a steal over his past five games and plays in a solid lineup and a great home park, so let's see if he can keep this going. 

Starting pitcher

Cristian Javier, Astros (58%) – Let's see what's going on with Javier's early exit from Sunday's start, as he was pulled after three innings and was being checked out by doctors for some kind of illness. But his first start back from Tommy John surgery looked great, with his fastball velocity mostly back to where it was in 2022 and his slider/sweeper looking more or less like it did back then, too. Javier hasn't done much of note since 2022, but he was a legitimate difference maker that season, so any chance of him recapturing that form is worth taking a chance on. 

Jacob Lopez, Athletics (79%) – We've been led astray by Lopez at least once before this season, so I understand being skeptical about his hot stretch. His extreme flyball tendencies give him blowup potential every time out, but it also means he'll likely be pretty good whenever he's missing bats and keeping the ball in the yard. He's doing both right now, and with a new slider in recent starts, it might not be a fluke. And Lopez is a two-start pitcher this week, making him well worth the risk of a blowup start. 

Hurston Waldrep, Braves (54%) – When Waldrep made his debut last season, he did so as basically a three-pitch pitcher, with two of those pitches looking like pretty bad ones. He's totally remade his arsenal this season, augmenting his still excellent splitter with a sinker that limits damage much better than his four-seamer and a cutter that seems to have at least helped the slider play up. It looks like a much more complete arsenal, in other words, and he now has 17 strikeouts to five walks over three solid starts in a row, including a pair of quality starts. And now he gets the White Sox for his next start, making him an excellent streamer with a chance to stick around the rest of the way. 

Jack Perkins, Athletics (16%) – It's been a bit of a mixed bag for Perkins since joining the A's rotation, but it's easy to see skills worth getting excited about. He's limiting hard contact well and generating an above-average number of strikeouts, with the control really being the limiting factor – he has seven walks in 14 innings since joining the rotation. That may continue to be an issue for Perkins, but if you're looking for some upside in a deeper league, Perkins has a nice matchup against the gutted Twins lineup this week. 

Cade Cavalli, Nationals (29%) – It was nice to see Cavalli bounce back with an excellent start this weekend, as he went seven shutout innings for his first career quality start. He only had five strikeouts this time around, but he also had 12 swinging strikes on 90 pitches while, notably, walking none. Cavalli's stuff has looked really solid since his return from the IL, and if the control is going to be passable, he might actually be useful for Fantasy. I don't love the upcoming schedule – @PHI, @NYY – but if he gets through those without imploding, Cavalli could look like a really intriguing option for the stretch run. 

Relief pitcher

Bryan Abreu, Astros (61%) – Josh Hader's shoulder injury looks like it's going to keep him out for the rest of the regular season, and while the Astros have gone with Bennett Sousa for some saves when Hader has been unavailable in the past, I think Abreu is obviously the guy to roster here. He might not get every save opportunity – lefties are overrepresented in the back of the Astros bullpen, so they may opt to deploy Abreu in high-leverage spots prior to the ninth against especially tough righties – but I think he'll get the majority of them and should be very, very good in the role. He's a borderline top-12 closer the rest of the way.