Fantasy Baseball Waiver Wire: Ben Rice, Hayden Wesneski and Slugging Prospects making noise

This early part of the season is the most crucial for waiver wire pick-ups.

First, because adding a player now gives them practically the entire season to accumulate stats and help your team. Also, because we are in a sweet-spot where we have the opportunity to learn a lot about fringey players very quickly.

Important pieces of data like playing time trends, new skill growth, and player adjustments are only just beginning to form and spotting any of them first will give you a huge advantage over the rest of your league.

Here are three players that are under 40% rostered on Yahoo leagues that you should strongly consider adding.

If you want a larger list, Eric Samulski wrote his extended waiver wire pieceon Sunday.

Ben Rice, 1B NYY

(35% Rostered on Yahoo)

Few players in the league are swinging it better than Rice is right now. In nine games this season, he has a 1.175 OPS with two homers, two doubles, and a triple, and two stolen bases. Those counting stats are supported by a ridiculous 30% barrel rate and 70% hard-hit rate.

He’s not only producing like one of the league’s best power hitters, but also doing everything under the hood that you’d expect one to.

While this level of immediate success seems like a bit of a shock, Rice showed the clear signs of a breakout last season.

He raked in the upper minors and was the most unlucky player in the league last season based on the difference between his wOBA and xwOBA. At the same time, he made excellent swing decisions, showed off plus power metrics, and pulled the vast majority of his fly balls.

Then, this spring, Rice came to camp stronger and with some swing tweaks. David Adler wrote a fantastic piece for MLB.com going through the subtle changes Rice made – mainly opening his stance – that have allowed him to dramatically increase his bat speed and turn on the ball more effectively.

Last season, Rice’s average bat speed was 71.4 mph which was just a hair below league average. So far this year, it’s at 74.3 mph which is up there with the league’s elite power hitters.

With that, Aaron Boone has regularly moved Rice up to the top of the Yankees’ lineup. He’s hit either first or second in each of the last five games he has started and seems like a fixture there.

The one thing still holding Rice back is his occasional off-day against left-handed pitchers. He started and hit second this past Saturday against lefty Bailey Falter. Then, he was on the bench Sunday against lefty Andrew Heaney while Trent Grisham manned center field and Aaron Judge took a day as the designated hitter.

Grisham and Rice are each hot at the plate right now, so Boone is trying to find ways to keep them both in the lineup. With that, one each of Paul Goldschmidt, Cody Bellinger, and Jasson Dominguez have sat in the Yankees’ last five games.

In the end, Rice is too good of a hitter to meaningfully lose playing time to Grisham. The caveat is that Grisham is the Yankees’ best center fielder and he’s played there five games in a row.

Still, it’s worth assuming the talent wins out and eventually. If so, Rice will wind up as a sure-fire, everyday player that has a genuine shot to hit 30 home runs this season. This will be your last opportunity to add him.

Hayden Wesneski, SP HOU

(17% Rostered on Yahoo)

Twice traded – first from the Yankees to the Cubs for Scott Effross and then as the third, forgotten piece from the Cubs to the Astros for Kyle Tucker – Wesneski finally looks like he’s breaking out in Houston.

He’d bounced back and forth between the rotation and bullpen over the last few seasons in Chicago mostly because he was a more effective reliever. Here are his career splits entering this season in the rotation vs. the bullpen.

The main reason he was less effective as a starter was because he struggled to face left-handed hitters. They had an .818 OPS against him as a starter with the Cubs compared to .633 for righties. That’s like the difference between the 2024 versions of Anthony Santander and Sal Frelick at the plate.

When he was working out of the bullpen, that dropped to a much more palatable .683 OPS against lefties. Wesneski was able to throw his middling fastball a bit harder as a reliever and feature his patented sweeper more often against the lefties since he was only facing each hitter one time. He also threw just enough cutters and changeups to get them out. It worked out fine.

Now, back in the rotation with the Astros, he’s shown an increased willingness to throw both that cutter and change against lefties plus a new curveball.

The usage rates on both his cutter and changeup against lefties have nearly doubled since last season and mixing that curveball in even 9% of the time has added a valuable wrinkle. There’s a decent chance his usage of that curveball could climb as he gets more comfortable with it. It’s very slow coming in around 78 mph and has missed plenty of bats in a very, very small sample.

Plus, Spencer Arrighetti’s recent thumb injury guarantees Wesneski a rotation spot for at least the next few months. Put it all together and he’s a worthwhile starting pitcher to take a flier on.

Roman Anthony, OF BOS / Nick Kurtz, 1B ATH

(28% Rostered Yahoo / 7% Rostered Yahoo)

It’s officially stash season. Both Kurtz and Anthony are tearing up triple-A over the first week of the minor league season and could be in the major leagues soon.

Anthony hit two home runs on triple-A opening day and has a .500 slugging percentage over seven games so far. He has had a bit of a strikeout problem though with a 34.4 strikeout rate.

Also notable, he has started three of his seven games with the Woo Sox in center field. If there’s anywhere for him to make an impact with the Red Sox right now defensively, it is in centerfield.

Ceddanne Rafaela is Boston’s primary center fielder and he’s had an ice cold start to the season at the plate. Recently, he’s given way to super-rookie Kristian Campbell for a spot start out there in order to let David Hamilton get some run at second base.

It’s not good news for Rafaela that the Red Sox want the soft-hitting Hamilton to get at-bats over him. If the Red Sox trust Anthony in center field, it will make him a much better candidate to be called up sooner.

Kurtz is also lacing the ball at triple-A with four home runs and an obscene 1.342 OPS in just eight games.

Only drafted last June, he’s yet to hit a speed bump at any minor league level and is much more polished than Anthony having spent three years at Wake Forest, playing in the Arizona Fall League this past year, and being a year older than him. Also, he hasn’t run into any strikeout or swing-and-miss issues yet.

Yet, similarly to Anthony, he doesn’t have the smoothest entry point to the Athletics’ major league roster. Kurtz has never played anywhere besides first base as a professional. Tyler Soderstrom hit his fifth and sixth home runs of the young season last night and is ensconced at the A’s first baseman in the midst of what could be a breakout season.

That means for Kurtz to have a spot at either first base or designated hitter, the A’s would have to move slugger Brent Rooker from DH to the corner outfield. He’s been open to that move, but the team seems reluctant. He started just 13 games in the outfield last season and none were after May 30th.

The other interesting caveat for both Anthony and Kurtz is MLB’s new PPI program. PPI stands for ‘Prospect Promotion Incentive’ which is the program the league office installed after the 2022 lockout where teams can earn draft picks after the first round if eligible rookies factors in for a major award.

The promotion deadline for rookies to be eligible for PPI is two weeks after opening day, or this coming Thursday. The Red Sox cleared a 40-man roster spot with their trade of Quinn Priester and were aggressive with promoting Kristian Campbell. The A’s were similarly aggressive with Jacob Wilson last season.

Either Anthony or Kurtz could make their major league debuts this week and you won’t want to miss the opportunity to have them on your teams if so.