FANTASY BASEBALL WAIVER WIRE PICKUPS
Nolan Schanuel (1B Angels): Rostered in 23 percent of Yahoo leagues
Since getting drafted 11th overall in 2023 and making his major league debut just six weeks later, Schanuel has just needed to add bat speed to an approach that’s led to a respectable .259 average and a terrific 193/147 K/BB in 1,116 plate appearances. Now it’s happened. Schanuel’s average swing in the first weekend of play was 71 mph, up from 67.5 mph in 2025 and 65.2 mph in 2024. He managed to yank two homers down the right field line in four games at Houston’s Daikin Park.
Advertisement
⚾️ Baseball is back! MLB returns to NBC and Peacock in 2026! In addition to becoming the exclusive home of Sunday Night Baseball, NBC Sports will broadcast MLB Sunday Leadoff, “Opening Day” and Labor Day primetime games, the first round of the MLB Draft, the entire Wild Card round of the postseason, and much more.
Of course, that was Daikin Park, but Schanuel’s home stadium in Anaheim is kind to left-handed power, too. It’s not that Schanuel will be this year’s Jo Adell — his 71.0 mph average bat speed is still below last year’s league average of 72.2 mph — but hitting the ball somewhat harder should benefit Schanuel’s average as well. He’s posted fine line-drive rates. He hits to all fields. If his average ball in play climbs from 87 mph to something around 90, that’s probably going to result in at least an extra 20 points of batting average. With the Angels not only treating him as an everyday player but also currently batting him third behind Zach Neto and Mike Trout, it wouldn’t take a major breakthrough to make him useful in mixed leagues. As many plate appearances and RBI chances as he’s going to get, a .280 average and 20 homers would make him quite an asset.
Randy Vásquez (SP Padres): Rostered in 24 percent of Yahoo leagues
Seemingly an overachiever in finishing last year with a 3.84 ERA despite a 14% strikeout rate, Vásquez suddenly got more interesting this spring. He averaged 95.6 mph with his fastball in his five Cactus League outings, a gain of 2.2 mph from his 26 starts for the Padres last year, and he mostly carried that into his first regular-season start, when he turned in six scoreless innings and struck out eight against the Tigers.
Advertisement
Vásquez’s velocity initially started climbing in the second half of last year, though the Padres sent him down for three weeks in August anyway. By the time he returned, he had tweaked his cutter, which he had typically been throwing just 2-3 mph slower than his fastball. Now it has more action while coming in about five mph slower than his fastball and can better get in on the hands of lefties. He’s still not going to overpower hitters as a mid-90s guy, but a few more strikeouts and grounders could keep him mixed-league relevant in a nice situation for pitchers in San Diego. With Petco Park helping, Padres pitchers had the lowest BABIP in baseball last year. Vásquez will probably wind up beating his xERA and FIP again, even if it’s not to the same degree as last year. As long as the velocity holds up, he’s likely to contribute.
Jordan Beck (OF Rockies): Rostered in 16 percent of Yahoo leagues
Beck is another very early season bat speed standout, even more so than Schanuel. In his first three games, he’s already taken two of the four hardest swings of his career, with one of those turning into a double off the Marlins’ Max Meyer. He’s exceeded the “fast swing” level of 75 mph on 10 his 18 cuts, and five of his nine balls in play have been hard hit. Last year, with Coors Field helping him along, he was a fringy mixed-league outfielder with a 38.4-percent hard-hit rate. He doesn’t need to take a big jump there to be fairly valuable for fantasy purposes, but maybe he will.
I had Beck as underrated coming into the spring but then dropped him from around 160th to 200th on my top 300 when it became apparent that the Rockies didn’t intend to bat him in the top half of the lineup initially. He’s hit sixth or seventh thus far and actually sat out the second game of the year, but there’s still plenty of room for him high in the order if he shows he deserves it. Last year, while certainly being a below average regular for Colorado, he finished with 16 homers and 19 steals in his 148 games. He’s already attempted two steals this year, though he was caught once. With the Rockies set for their first homestand of the season Friday, it’d make sense to give him a try.
Advertisement
Waiver Wire Quick Hits
– Emerson Hancock has been a very popular pickup since debuting with six hitless innings against the Guardians on Sunday Night Baseball, but his velocity was down about 1.5 mph from last year and two mph from his 15 innings this spring. Maybe the chilly night in Seattle had something to do with it. Even though the new sweeper is nice, I’m still not very excited at this point, and he could well return to the minors in a few weeks if Bryce Miller makes steady progress in his return from oblique inflammation.
– Joey Wiemer reached in first 10 plate appearances after winning a bench spot in D.C., and there’s certainly no reason for the Nationals not to keep playing him to see if this becomes anything. Still, there’s a lot of swing and miss to his game, and while he once seemed like a fine fantasy prospect back in his Milwaukee days, he hasn’t been a big basestealer since 2022. It’d be fun to see him keep it going, but I wouldn’t drop anyone of significance to take a chance on him.
– Reynaldo López might make the cut here next week after a mechanical tweak mostly put his spring velocity woes behind him. His averaged 94.4 mph with his fastball in his first start against the Royals. That’s still down one mph from when he was a very successful starter for the Braves in 2024, but it’s three mph better than in his five Grapefruit League starts.
