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Fantasy Baseball Deep League Waivers: Top Adds for April 20-26

By Tim McCullough Athlon Sports

Welcome to our weekly guide for pitchers and hitters that are available in around 30% or more Yahoo!/ESPN leagues and are performing well right now.

Samuel Basallo, C (BAL) (26% rostered) – Yes, Basallo's .157/.259/.333 triple slash looks too much like the .165/.229/.330 stinker he put up during his 31-game stint at the end of the 2025 season. But Basallo's elite 75.4 MPH bat speed puts him in the 89th percentile among qualified MLB hitters. Couple that with a 93.3 MPH average exit velocity (90th percentile), 11.1% barrel rate, 40% pull rate, and a launch angle in the ideal range, and there is a solid base for Basallo to do what he does best – mash!!

His plus bat-to-ball skills will kick in to reduce his chase rate, which should cut down his strikeout rate and improve his overall quality of contact. He's pulling the ball but many of those swings are producing ground balls right now. There is no way his current .152 BABIP will stand. Just a little regression to the mean will turn things around for Basallo quickly. Once Basallo taps into his raw power the home runs will come in bunches.

Carlos Cortes, OF (A's) (1% rostered) – Now that Brent Rooker is on the IL with an oblique strain, Cortes should continue to play just about every day despite the arrival of Zack Gelof. A late callup in 2025 saw Cortes put up a solid .309/.323/.543 line with 4 HR in 99 PA.

Cortes combines good underlying power metrics with excellent contact skills, which gives him a decent floor. Although, at age 28 it's not clear what his ceiling might be. You can probably grab him for $1 in FAAB, which makes him a sneaky good pickup.

Mickey Moniak, OF (COL) (22% rostered) – Moniak had the best season of his career in 2025, batting .270/.306/.518 with a .824 OPS, the result of 24 home runs in 461 PA. He struck out just a little over the league average but continued to eschew walks with just a 4.3% walk rate. Moniak is a fine addition if you're willing and able to manage his splits and injury down time. He typically sits against left-handed pitchers whom he's hit at a dreary .183/.225/.256 clip in 192 career PA.

Moniak also had some drastic home/road splits last year, batting .303/.348/.598 with 15 dingers in the friendly confines of Coors Field, and just .230/.255/.425 with 9 home runs everywhere else. There's enough power and speed to help your team, but don't overpay and make sure you have another decent outfielder on your roster to fill in the gaps.

Brooks Lee, 2B, 3B, SS (MIN) (8% rostered) – Lee is off to a decent enough start, batting .241/.281/.426. He's showing excellent contact skills in the zone, but he's also chasing at a 41.5% rate. While he's hit 3 HR in his first 57 PA, he really isn't showing the power that scouts thought was forthcoming based on his minor league output. The big appeal here is Lee's multi-position eligibility since you can plug him in as needed when your lineup needs an infield bat. If you drafted Royce Lewis (shame on you!) you have to roster Lee to cover the inevitable injury down time. Lee is here for the deepest of deep league coverage.

Landen Ruopp, SP (SFG) (27%) – Ruopp has thrown 363 pitches so far this season, which has led to 57 batted ball events. More than half of those 57 BBE have been groundballs, batters have just a 26.3% hard hit rate against him, and he has yet to allow a barreled ball. All that wonderful weak contact is a result of Ruopp adding a tick of velocity to his sinker and tweaking his pitch mix to add more changeups and cutters.

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You can't argue with the results. Ruopp has a 2.38 ERA, 0.97 WHIP and his strikeout rate is a career-high 26.7%. I was shocked to see his Statcast page, which has the distinct look of an ace pitcher. I don't think Ruopp really is an ace, but I do see a pitcher who can be quite serviceable as a fantasy starter in the right matchups.

Max Meyer, SP (MIA) (13%) – Injuries have been a problem for Meyer, who hasn't topped 65 innings in any one season in the majors. This season he doesn't seem any worse for the wear after hip surgery cut his 2025 season short. His fastball velocity is intact and he's inducing all kinds of weak contact, especially off his slider, still his most effective pitch. Batters are hitting just .176 off it and he's getting whiffs more than 56% of the time. The only bone to pick is an uptick in his walk rate, which is currently 10.2%. Oddly enough, he's locating his pitches better according to Location+, which currently grades him at 109, a career high. It's hard to see him throwing more than 100-120 innings this season after only throwing 64.2 in 2025 and a combined 115 in 2024. He's worth riding now but keep a close eye on his performance as the season progresses.

Spencer Arrighetti, SP (HOU) (27%) – Arrighetti looked sharp in his first three outings at Triple-A Sugarland, and his first MLB start in 2026 was almost as good. He gave a much-needed boost to the Astros staff, tossing six innings of two-hit ball, allowing just one earned run, and striking out 10. The only downside was the four free passes he issued. Arrighetti certainly has decent swing-and-miss stuff, but he's also always had issues with his command.

The hallmarks of a successful Arrighetti are a groundball rate somewhere around 45-50%, lots of weak contact generated, and getting hitters to chase his nasty curveball. Somebody needs to tell him to bury his cutter somewhere and forget that he even throws one. Batters slugged the offering at .353 last season and are batting 1.000 this year, scoring a hit on all six he's thrown.

Top Prospect Adds for Deep Leagues Right Now

Prospects Who Could Be Called Up Soon

Blaze Jordan 1B, 3B (STL) – Jordan is tearing it up at Triple-A, batting .364/.397/.673 with 4 home runs. He's showing elite contact skills along with raw power and an aggressive approach at the plate. The Cardinals are seemingly giving Nolan Gorman plenty of run to take the third base job for his own. However, Gorman is swinging and missing just as much as ever, and his strikeout rate is up over 30% again. His hard-hit rate is below 40% this season and he has all of two barrels. The signs point to the Cardinals using one of Gorman's two remaining options and sending him down in favor of Jordan, who doesn't have anything left to prove in the minors.

Ryan Waldschmidt, OF (ARZ) – Let's see…Jordan Lawlar is on the IL for another 4-6 weeks with a fractured wrist that is likely to affect his swing for a while. Pavin Smith is having surgery to remove chips in his elbow and will likely miss several months. Lourdes Gurriel Jr. is still working his way back from a torn ACL and is about a month away barring a setback. Alek Thomas is batting .130/.175/.222, and Jorge Barrosa has one home run in 144 career PA in the majors and 53 over 7 minor league seasons.

All of which brings us around to Waldschmidt, a masher who was expected to make the team out of spring training. Over his first 18 games at Triple-A this year, Waldschmidt is batting .328/.444/.567 with 2 HR, 14 RBI, 14 R, and a pair of stolen bases. Stash him now. The Diamondbacks are just a bad stretch of games or an injury away from having their hand forced to consider Waldschmidt.

Didier Fuentes, SP (ATL) – Spencer Strider is on rehab assignment and is expected to rejoin the team within a week. However, let's not forget that Strider is looking more and more like just a guy and not anything like the dominant pitcher he was prior to his Tommy John procedure. Throw in the fact that Martin Perez, 35 years of age and at least four years removed from his last good season, represents the end of the team's starting pitcher depth before they will have to promote somebody from the minors.

Fuentes impressed during spring training and he's continued to do so at Triple-A. He's pitched to a 2.16 ERA, 0.84 WHIP, and he's struck out nearly one-third of the batters he's faced. Fuentes is just 20 years old, but he's been terrific at every level of the minors since he was signed in 2022. The Braves also have JR Ritchie available, but he isn't on the 40-man roster, while Fuentes is.

Deep League Waivers April 20-26 Questions, Answered

Q: Who are the top deep-league waiver adds available in less than 30% of leagues this week?

A: Hitters and pitchers with recent hot streaks and favorable matchups the week of April 20-26 who remain widely available in Yahoo and ESPN leagues.

Q: Which streaming pitchers are worth adding in deep leagues for April 20-26?

A: Arms with two favorable starts or strong underlying metrics who are still on waivers in the majority of leagues.

Q: Should managers prioritize immediate production or long-term upside on the waiver wire?

A: In deep leagues both matter, but the names highlighted here offer a strong blend of current performance and future potential.

Q: How often do ownership percentages change for these waiver targets?

A: Ownership can move quickly after a strong week; check your league settings and act before next week's waivers process.

Q: What should managers watch for beyond raw stats when adding from waivers?

A: Role security, matchup difficulty, and underlying Statcast metrics (exit velocity, spin rate, hard-hit rate) are more predictive than surface numbers alone.

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This story was originally published April 17, 2026 at 10:28 PM.

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