Hidden Bounties: Waiver Wire Adds for June 15th - June 21st

Blaze Jordan, Cole Carrigg, Kyle Teel featured this week

By Justin May · June 15, 2026 · Updated October 10, 2026

{"template":"baseball-waiver-wire-picks","weekNumber":12,"weekDates":"June 15th - June 21st","intro":"Welcome back to another week of waiver hunting! Hope everyone's fantasy season is going well. We have some interesting options this week. The tough part about this being a weekly article, is that sometimes it's published a few days after a player's big breakout game. That's why I try to post instant updates on Twitter/X if there's something notable happening in that night's games as well. We'll look at some recommended waiver adds for this week, and of course some of you may need to decide on a couple of drops - so we'll cover those as well. These recommendations are mainly intended for redraft leagues, but some could be out there in dynasty leagues. Just a heads up, some add recommendations I made from previous weeks that should be rostered in more leagues: Grant Taylor, TJ Rumfield, Colton Cowser, and Christian Scott are the main ones who are still under 25% rostered but shouldn't be. \n\nBefore we get started, I’d like to review some past recommendations from a month ago. I’ll be doing this every week just as a personal audit, to see how these play out a month later. \n\n\n\nAdds from 5/11: \n\nErik Sabrowski: Unfortunately went down with an elbow injury not long after the article. Draw. Luckily he’s starting a rehab assignment soon. \n\nRyan Waldschmidt: 5 steals are helpful, but 0 HRs and just a .656 OPS since 5/11. L \n\nChristian Scott: 2-0 with a 3.03 ERA and 32 Ks in 29.2 IP. That’s a helpful arm. W \n\nLucas Giolito: The numbers haven’t been horrible, but he hasn’t met expectations. More walks than Ks shows how poor his command has been. L \n\nZach Cole: Never really found his footing in the lineup and was optioned to AAA a few weeks ago. Just couldn’t avoid the Ks to give himself enough runway for playing time. This one’s on me - big time L \n\n\nSeason record for adds: 16-17 (7 draws) \n\n\nDrops from 5/11: \n\nLuis Castillo: Torn on this one, as he struggled enough where they needed to use him in a piggyback role in a few games - but he’s also posted a 2.86 ERA and 28 Ks in 28 IP since 5/11. Definitely an L drop here. \n\nAaron Nola: A 6.91 ERA since 5/11, as he hasn’t improved in the past month. W \n\nZac Gallen: A 6.03 ERA and just 25 Ks in 37 IP since 5/11. He hasn’t come close to making us regret this drop. W \n\nRyan Walker: Lost the closer role and was optioned to AAA. Was recently called back up, but still not seeing high leverage opps. W \n\n\nSeason record for drops: 19-8 (3 draws) \n\n\nNow let’s get to this week ","adds":[{"playerName":"Blaze Jordan","team":"STL","position":"1B, 3B","rosteredPct":"11%","blurb":"There's some out there who likely have prospect fatigue with Jordan. He had some hype a couple years ago while with the Red Sox, but it tapered off. He was traded to the Cardinals at last year's deadline, and they surprisingly did not protect him from the Rule 5 Draft in the offseason. Luckily for the Cardinals he wasn't selected, as he's been producing well in AAA with a .313/.373/.548 slash line in 252 PAs. The underlying metrics are stellar, with a 106 mph EV90 and a very low 11.5% K rate. His launch angle has been a bit problematic, as has his chase rate (38%). Both of these are areas that big league pitchers can exploit, and will also cap his fantasy upside. Hopefully the good can outweigh the bad for him, but we still need to see improvement in those areas. He's been in the lineup all 3 games since being called up, as the Cardinals clearly want to give him the runway to show what he's got. At the end of the day, I'm not sure there's an impact bat in there, but he doesn't strike out and hits the ball hard consistently. To me that's enough to make an add and see if he surprises us in the bigs. ","espnId":"","matchups":""},{"playerName":"Cole Carrigg","team":"COL","position":"OF","rosteredPct":"10%","blurb":"Carrigg has been a dynasty favorite for the last few years due to his power and speed upside. Hitting 17 HRs and stealing 53 bases in 2024 helped put him on the map as a prospect. He showed some swing and miss concerns in the upper minors in 2025, but his K rate dropped back down to a very strong 15% this year. The underlying contact metrics are solid as well, with an 86% zone contact rate and a 22% overall whiff rate. The power/speed upside is still present despite the contact gains, as he's put up 6 HRs and 30 SBs in 57 AAA games this year. The improvements have been great to see, and he's continued his strong play in the majors. He already has 2 HRs in his first week of action, and we know the steals will come along eventually. Playing half of his games at Coors Field also helps his case, but I jumped back in as a Carrigg believer after being skeptical last year. I'd still prefer Braden Montgomery (who would've been in last week's article) over him, but Carrigg is an intriguing upside add. ","espnId":"","matchups":""},{"playerName":"Kyle Teel","team":"CWS","position":"C","rosteredPct":"8%","blurb":"Let's try this again. After I recommended him as an add a little over a month ago, he had a setback in his rehab that caused him to miss 6 more weeks. Now a return is finally on the horizon, as he's scheduled to begin a rehab assignment in AAA on Tuesday. He's got some power potential but is also a good source of OBP. He popped a 113.7 mph maxEV in the majors last year, and his approach helps him get to that power in games. I was impressed with how well he worked the count consistently as a rookie - he was a tough out and didn't chase, while also taking walks at an above average clip (12.5%). So the power and OBP should be there, and he has double digit steals in back to back seasons to chip in some speed. I believe in the plate skills, and he's a top 12 catcher for me once he (finally) gets healthy. ","espnId":"4743772","matchups":"","headshotUrl":"https://a.espncdn.com/combiner/i?img=/i/headshots/mlb/players/full/4743772.png"},{"playerName":"Karson Milbrandt","team":"MIA","position":"SP","rosteredPct":"2%","blurb":"Milbrandt has certainly made an impression in the minors this year. The 22 year old has a 1.24 ERA with a 35% K rate in 58 innings across AA and AAA. The 10% walk rate is in the danger zone, so we'll have to hope he keeps that down, but his 64% strike rate is good enough to hope for better days ahead with control. He has a solid arsenal with a 4-seam fastball, sweeper, slider, and curveball. The lack of offspeed usage is interesting, but he's been better against lefties this year anyway, so he clearly has success without it. The control is the only small red flag, as his pitch mix has clearly played well in the upper minors. He's still in AAA at the moment and there hasn't been news of an impending call up, but I'm expecting Milbrandt to get the call soon to join the rotation. The Marlins are in big trouble depth-wise with Robby Snelling done for the year and Eury Perez out for several more weeks. Braxton Garrett hasn't looked great in his 2 major league starts this year, and Ryan Gusto and Tyler Phillips currently occupy 2 of the rotation spots. To me it's not sustainable for even a couple more weeks, so they need outside reinforcements - and who better than a guy who's been tearing up the minors all year? To play devil's advocate, he does have just 11 innings pitched in AAA, so in theory there's no rush to bring him up. But just looking at the available options, he seems to be by far the best among the healthy minor league options. ","espnId":"","matchups":""},{"playerName":"Denzer Guzman","team":"LAA","position":"3B, SS","rosteredPct":"1%","blurb":"Guzman wasn't a top prospect so there wasn't much fanfare when he was called up earlier this week - but he's held his own so far as the Angels' everyday 3B. It's only been a week in the majors for him, so here I'm still focusing on his raw tools and minor league numbers. He posted strong numbers in AAA this year, reducing his K rate to 18% (down from 25% last year), with good contact metrics to back it up. He also had a solid 104 mph EV90 in AAA (up from 101 mph last year) and above average bat speed in the majors so far, despite the small sample. Guzman's batted ball profile helps boost his power potential as well. He's never had issues lifting the ball, and his pull-air% should be above average even across a larger sample. The improvements he's made this year are interesting, and there may be some anti-Angels bias causing him to not get much love out there. I've been guilty of it myself. Even though he doesn't have the highest ceiling among rookies, there's enough here for him to be a good deep league 3B add. ","espnId":"","matchups":""}],"drops":[{"playerName":"Ryan O'Hearn","team":"PIT","position":"1B","rosteredPct":"59%","blurb":"O'Hearn started the year strong, but has faded in June, with a .563 OPS so far this month. I usually don't mind cold spells because that's part of baseball, but O'Hearn is in that tier of hitter where cold streaks make you take a step back and see what he really provides in terms of fantasy value. He's a guy who can maybe hit 20 HRs over a full season, but the ratios are just okay, and he doesn't provide speed. His power metrics are just average and he doesn't have amazing plate discipline to help offset it. At the end of the day even though this is just a temporary cold streak, he's a roster churn candidate since I don't see him providing much long term value. It's a tough drop recommendation with his season numbers still looking solid, but 1B and OF are both fairly deep positions. Holding a platoon bat through his struggles just to hope for a shot at 20 HRs with no speed and meh ratios just doesn't sound appealing. There's players with more upside available on waivers who are better to chase. ","espnId":"35183","matchups":"","headshotUrl":"https://a.espncdn.com/combiner/i?img=/i/headshots/mlb/players/full/35183.png"},{"playerName":"Taj Bradley","team":"MIN","position":"SP","rosteredPct":"56%","blurb":"Taj began the year looking like a breakout arm after a rough 2025, but he has struggled mightily in his last few starts. He missed a couple weeks in May due to a pectoral injury, looked solid in his first start back, but since then has allowed 17 runs in his last 19.2 IP (4 starts). The strikeouts are still present, but this has been the problem with Taj throughout his career - great stuff but poor execution. I don't expect his ERA to balloon up to 5 like it did last year, but I also don't see him being a consistent starter on fantasy teams. It's more likely he alternates good and bad outings and finishes the year with an ERA solidly over 4. In H2H leagues that can be tough since you never know what to expect in a particular start - I'd just rather move on and test my luck with another arm on the wire. ","espnId":"42480","matchups":"","headshotUrl":"https://a.espncdn.com/combiner/i?img=/i/headshots/mlb/players/full/42480.png"},{"playerName":"Tatsuya Imai","team":"HOU","position":"SP","rosteredPct":"37%","blurb":"Imai understandably had a ton of hype during the offseason after signing with Houston. It hasn't come to fruition yet, as he's struggled with injury and inconsistency enroute to a 6.43 ERA on the year. We knew he wasn't going to produce Yamamoto numbers and turn into an ace, but honestly I expected a good first year coming over from the NPB, similar to Imanaga and Senga. It usually takes MLB hitters time to adjust, but they've been crushing Imai. The pitches themselves have been fine, as whiff rates and expected stats for both his fastball and slider aren't showing any issues, but his control has killed him. A 15% walk rate is brutal, and there's really no way to succeed if you're essentially a 2 pitch pitcher with poor control. He has the talent to make adjustments eventually but I'm not expecting it to happen right away. The Astros were viewed as a team who are very skilled at tweaking pitchers' arsenals to get the most out of them. But between Imai and Mike Burrows struggling this year, I think it's fair to question the bump that we've been giving to the Astros' SP. Imai is obviously a dynasty hold for me, but in redrafts the latest blow up was the last straw, so I'm fine with cutting bait. ","espnId":"5330833","matchups":"","headshotUrl":"https://a.espncdn.com/combiner/i?img=/i/headshots/mlb/players/full/5330833.png"},{"playerName":"Randy Vasquez","team":"SD","position":"SP","rosteredPct":"35%","blurb":"I had Vasquez as an add early in the year when he was looking like a different pitcher with his improved stuff. But he came back down to Earth and has struggled lately, with a 5.14 ERA in 3 June starts. This made me take a step back and look at the big picture - the season numbers are still fine because he started so well, but at the end of the day he's just not an impactful arm - more of a guy who survives some games despite low strikeout totals and hard hits. He'll likely find his way to a few more QS this year, but I'm waiting for the 5th percentile barrel rate and 6th percentile average EV to come back to bite him. Low Ks and hard hits are a bad combo, and there's a lot of other arms I would rather chase in redrafts. Even in dynasty leagues I've dropped my shares recently. Just not enough K upside to really buy in long term. An 18.5% K rate feels like the ceiling for him and it's still very low (25th percentile). I don't see him flipping a switch and becoming dominant. ","espnId":"4722847","matchups":"","headshotUrl":"https://a.espncdn.com/combiner/i?img=/i/headshots/mlb/players/full/4722847.png"}]}