Week 6 Waiver Wire Targets
A weekly look at players widely available on waivers that deserve some attention
Starting Pitcher
If we are looking for SPs under 50% owned, it’s pretty rough out there. I don’t have any SPs I recommend with confident right now. This is a tough time of year for picking up starters. Most of the early season breakouts have been taken already, and we’re still a few weeks away from when we see a ton of prospects start to get the call-up.
Lucas Giolito, Boston Red Sox (9%)
He has returned! Giolito is nothing special, but I think he could end up being a top 60 or so SP now that he’s healthy and back in the rotation. And he showed us that he still has some strikeout ability in his debut.
Matthew Liberatore, St. Louis Cardinals (28%)
He has really locked in the command this year. The walk rate is below 5%, and he’s also kept the ball off the barrel of the bat. Those are two things he really needed to improve on in order to stay in the Majors, and he’s done that.
Ranger Suarez, Philadelphia Phillies (39%)
Suarez will make his season debut this weekend, and you would think he’d stay in the Phillies rotation while healthy. He had a lot of success last year (although it was mostly front-loaded). There isn’t an ace upside with him, but he has shown the ability to limit hard contact and get deep into games.
Jack Leiter, Texas Rangers (54%)
The first start off the IL did not go well, but I’m still holding out hope for Leiter. The stuff is so good. I wouldn’t hold on for too long if he isn’t throwing strikes in his next couple of starts, but I’d be happy to have a guy with this kind of strikeout upside in a deeper league.
Luis L. Ortiz, Cleveland Guardians (10%)
It does look like Ortiz is better with Cleveland than what we saw in his years with Pittsburgh. That’s true mostly on the strikeout front. His 2025 K% is up near 26%, well above what we’ve seen previously. Unfortunately, the command issues have gotten even worse. He needs to work those things out, but I’m happy to see him racking up some strikeouts.
Griffin Canning, New York Mets (38%)
The SIERA is much higher than his elite ERA, but he’s finding ways to get it done. And this Mets team is a good one to pitch for. I don’t recommend him for shallow/standard leagues, but he’s a decent candidate to get some wins and limit the damage if you’re in a very deep league.
Justin Verlander, San Francisco Giants (27%)
He did exactly blow the Rockies away this week like we thought he might, but he added another quality start to his Hall of Fame resume and got his walk rate down to 9%. The SwStr% is up there at 14% now, and the big ballpark there has helped him limit the slugging against (.430). I don’t think Verlander is a 12-team guy besides for matchup streaming, but it looks to me like he’s got enough left in the tank to put up some decent numbers still.