With the final month of the season just one day away, that also means we’re one day away from roster expansion. Teams can no longer call up 40 players like they could back in the day, but they’ll have a couple of extra roster spots to play with beginning Tuesday, and that should create a few more opportunities around baseball for some of the last remaining impact prospects still hanging around in the high-minors.
Walker Jenkins beat the Sept. 1 deadline, and he might be the last truly elite prospect to get the call — and yeah, if he’s available in your league right now, he’s the clear top priority on waivers. But there are plenty of other interesting prospects without much left to prove in Triple-A who could get the call, and at least a few who almost certainly will. Scott White wrote about a few of them in his Prospects Report column last week, and before we get to the rest of the players to target for this week’s waiver run, let’s look at a handful of other prospects who could still make an impact for the season’s final month.
Roster expansion candidates
Lazaro Montes, OF, Mariners (16%) – First up, is the first prospect we learned will be promoted Tuesday. Montes will join the Mariners in Boston Tuesday when rosters expand, and he makes the majors as the No. 56 prospect in baseball, per MLB Pipeline. The 21-year-old is second in the minors with 38 homers this season while hitting .249, and as you can probably glean from those two numbers, he’s a bit of an all-or-nothing power hitter as a prospect, with a 31% strikeout rate. The good news is that rate has held steady in the transition from Double-A to Triple-A, so he hasn’t been overwhelmed by that jump in competition. His issues could potentially be exacerbated by the Mariners home park, which both suppresses homers and increases strikeouts, so there is real risk here that Montes will be overwhelmed. But if he can keep the strikeout rate somewhat manageable, the upside is obvious – he has a 94.7 mph average exit velocity and 57% hard-hit rate, both of which would be elite numbers among MLB hitters. For a range of possible outcomes here, look to Esmerlyn Valdez, who was one of the best power hitters in baseball for a month and has been largely overwhelmed for a month since. He probably doesn’t need to be added in most points leagues, but Montes is a fine addition in any Roto league where you’re looking for power.
Seaver King, SS, Nationals (9%) – The Nationals have already moved C.J. Abrams to second base, and while the official line is that the move was made to improve the team’s defense, it’s not hard to see it as a prelude to King eventually breaking in. He has more than held his own since a promotion to Triple-A, hitting .306/.382/.520, and while his iffy plate discipline could be exposed by better pitching, King has looked dominant lately at Triple-A, hitting .337 with eight homers in 23 August games. Nasim Nunez is a nice player, but he isn’t the future. They might as well see if King can be.
Franklin Arias, SS, Red Sox (30%) – With Trevor Story coming off the IL this week, this one feels especially unlikely. But with Arias hitting .294/.357/.480 since his promotion to Triple-A, it’s more than fair to ask whether the Red Sox’s best lineups right now shouldn’t include him. Given the leap he has made in his age-20 season, he has to be included in this discussion, even if the promotion doesn’t seem likely.
Ralphy Velazquez, 1B, Guardians (23%) – The need here goes without saying, even if the Guardians did try to shore up some of their lineup holes at the deadline. And there’s no question that Velazquez has earned the promotion, with almost as many homers (15) as strikeouts (16) in 22 August games. He has at least plus power while striking out less than your average Triple-A hitter. A promotion here feels all but assured. By the way: He’s the first minor-leaguer to hit 15 homers in a single month since 2021.
Ethan Salas, C, Padres (15%) –You can really never put anything past Padres president A.J. Preller. Would any other team call up a 20-year-old catcher in the middle of a playoff race? Maybe not, but the Padres are as aggressive as any team in baseball in situations like these, and Salas has hit .326/.406/.547 with more walks (13) than strikeouts (10) in 23 games at Triple-A. The biggest problem for a Salas promotion is more one of need – the Padres have a 109 wRC+ from their catchers in the second half, the ninth-best mark in baseball, so this isn’t necessarily as obvious a fit as you might have thought.
Bo Davidson, OF, Giants (4%) – The Giants are basically running a Triple-A lineup (plus Rafael Devers!) out there now, so why not call up the guy hitting .283/.368/.467 since his promotion to Triple-A. Those numbers aren’t overwhelmingly dominant, but they also include a pretty slow start, and Davidson has a near-1.000 OPS in August. Davidson has an interesting blend of speed and power if he gets the call.
Ryan Sloan, SP, Mariners (21%) – Emerson Hancock is on the IL with a groin injury and Bryce Miller has been pitching through a lat strain that saw him removed from the rotation, so why not see if another pitcher can make the leap straight from Double-A? Sloan hasn’t been as dominant as Kade Anderson was down there, but you can find prospect folks who think he might be the team’s best prospect in spite of it. He certainly has big-league caliber stuff and would be a must-add pitcher if he did get the call.
Jonah Tong, SP, Mets (18%) – Tong technically still qualifies as a prospect, so let’s throw him in here. It sounds like Tong has a good chance of getting another chance after turning his season around with a 2.00 ERA over his past seven starts. There have been some control issues in there, but even that has improved lately, with six walks in 17.1 innings across his past three, the best of which came Saturday. Tong’s unique approach has not worked at the MLB level so far, but he has continued to tinker with his arsenal and still flashes a lot of bat-missing potential. Let’s see if he can’t get one more chance down the stretch.
Here’s who else we’re looking to add heading into Week 24.
Week 24 Waiver Targets
Catcher
Tyler Stephenson, Reds (45%)
Stephenson isn’t young and exciting anymore, so his hot streaks don’t tend to capture people’s attention. But he’s hitting .268/.344/.527 and ranks third among all catchers in Fantasy scoring since the All-Star break. He’s not quite this good, but he’s more than deserving of a spot in any two-catcher leagues, and many one-catcher leagues at this point.
Deep league option: Rafael Flores, Pirates (22%) – Given how much Flores struggled down at Triple-A this season, his success does come as something of a surprise. But the skills on display so far aren’t a shock, because there have always been good swing decisions and plus power in his skill set. He isn’t a 30-homer guy, but he’s a useful hot-hand play with a lot of runway for the stretch.
First Base
Christian Encarnacion-Strand, Orioles (29%)/Coby Mayo, Orioles (23%)
The case here is the same for both, because they are effectively the same player. Both are former top prospects who have fallen well short of expectations, but they both still have plus power and absolutely crush lefties. I don’t have much faith in either as a long-term play, but with three games in Coors Field and then three lefties on the schedule in Week 24, both make sense as short-term streaming options.
Second Base
Pedro Ramirez, Cubs (30%)
It looked like Ramirez was starting to slow down just as he finally got the opportunity to play every day, but he turned things around last week. Entering play Sunday, he was 9 for 23 with a triple and two homers, while scoring eight runs and driving in nine over his past six games. And he did that while striking out just twice in 26 trips to the plate. Ramirez is hitting .292 on the season and thanks to his strong contact skills and speed, it doesn’t look like much of a fluke. He looks like a viable starting middle infielder now that he’s locked into an everyday role.
Deep league option: Nolan Gorman, Cardinals (4%) – With JJ Wetherholt on the IL, Gorman is back in the majors and looks like he’s going to play pretty regularly against righties, at least. You’re just hoping he can run into a few homers and not be a total zero, because we know at this point there’s too much swing-and-miss in his game to matter much more than that.
Third Base
Jordan Lawlar, Diamondbacks (36%)
There are some playing time concerns here with Lawlar, who has started just two of six games against righties since his return from the Il. On the other hand, that is up to two out of the past four, so maybe the early off days were just that – off-days for a guy who has missed a lot of time with injuries. Overall, he has started nine of 13 and continues to hit the ball well so I’m not going to write Lawlar off as just a short-side platoon bat. Because I don’t think the Diamondbacks should either, given his age, pedigree and minor-league track record. Let’s hope they use the final month of the season as an opportunity to finally see what he can do with a real chance.
Deep league option: Connor Norby, Rockies (15%) – Rotoworld’s Eric Samulski noted that Norby has completely changed his approach at the plate since getting to the Rockies, moving his feet closer together and opening his stance up, which has eloped him hit the ball harder and led to a .302/.403/.509 line with his new team. Even Coors Field won’t make Norby a true-talent .900 OPS hitter, but he’s been successful in the past in the majors and Coors Field certainly won’t hurt. He’s a viable deep-league target, especially with eligibility at every non-shortstop position.
Shortstop
Kaelen Culpepper, Twins (39%)
The one disappointment so far from Culpepper? No steals! When that’s the worst you can say about a rookie less than 20 games into his season, you know things have gone pretty well so far. Culpepper is making enough contact (23% strikeout rate) that you don’t project him to hurt you in batting average (even if he isn’t likely to keep hitting .313, obviously). There is going to be regression from his current level of success, but you have to remember he has those stolen bases in his back pocket as another way to make an impact (he stole 17 in 74 games and 25 in 113 last season). The all-around skill set looks strong enough to at least be a middle infield option in most leagues.
Trevor Story, Red Sox (40%)
To be honest, I’m not sure Story actually needs to be rostered any more widely than he currently is right now. He was pretty terrible earlier in the season and now he’s trying to come back from hernia surgery, and it’s fair to be skeptical that this is going to work out. On the other hand, the Red Sox threw him back in the lineup Sunday in his return and he went 2 for 3 with a couple of batted balls over 93 mph. As bad as he was earlier in the season, Story was one of the best players in Fantasy last season, and the whiff of that kind of upside is always going to make a player interesting on the wire, even if the odds are against him.
Outfield
Walker Jenkins, Twins (58%)
I wrote about Jenkins’ promotion for Friday’s FBT Newsletter, and nothing this weekend changed anything I had to say, obviously. He’s still a potential five-category star who might actually be even better for points formats than Roto thanks to his superlative plate discipline. There is risk as with any prospect, but if it all comes together, Jenkins could be a top-20 outfielder.
Tim Tawa, Diamondbacks (30%)
The skills are more impressive than you might realize for Tawa, who actually has a 91.1 mph average exit velocity this season – an 80th percentile mark. He isn’t a tremendous athlete but he uses what he has well enough on the bases to have eight steals in 81 games, and hey, we’ll take an 18-homer, 16-steal pace off the wire, won’t we? Tawa is playing every day somewhere at this point and has hit .288/.342/.462 in August, so while this is probably more of a hot-hand play, it’s a very useful one given his wide eligibility.
Tristan Peters, White Sox (45%)
The case for Peters is pretty similar to the one with Tawa, though he is more of a strict platoon bat. But that’s not a problem in Week 24 with seven right-handed pitchers on the schedule. Peters’ recent homer binge is hardly indicative of the skill set here – he has a decidedly pedestrian 87.4 mph average exit velocity, deriving what power he does have from a swing geared to pull the ball in the air rather than from big raw pop. But he’s locked in right now and the schedule is in his favor, making Peters a very strong streamer.
Dylan Crews, Nationals (44%)
I know you’re tired of hearing about “potential” when it comes to Crews. It’s past time for him to start producing, and maybe we’re starting to see it here lately, as he has four multi-hit games in his past eight, with 10 hits in that span. He wasn’t doing much before that, so if you want to view Crews as just something like a hot-hand play, I think that’s probably the most reasonable approach to take, but I still think there’s a chance he ends up making an impact down the stretch. He’s definitely going to get the opportunity, if nothing else.
Starting Pitcher
Jacob Lopez, Athletics (53%)
An elbow injury derailed Lopez’s breakout last summer, but he’s getting a second chance and he’s taking advantage of it. He has at least six strikeouts in six of his past eight starts, with a 2.27 ERA and 53 strikeouts in 43.2 innings in that span. His lack of truly elite stuff has gotten Lopez in trouble in his career, but when he’s locked in he’s able to overcome that with a bunch of funky movement profiles, elite extension, and a cross-fire delivery that clearly flummoxes hitters. We’ve seen a pretty low floor from Lopez, which might explain the hesitance to fully buy in, but have you seen his rest-of-season schedule? He’s going at the Rangers, then home vs. the Blue Jays and Mariners, at the Guardians, and then closes the season out against the Astros. Those aren’t all great matchups, but none of them are terrible, so he is well situated to close the season out very strong, and I think he should be rostered in pretty much all leagues at this point.
Andrew Painter, Phillies (55%)
Painter’s most recent start wasn’t quite as promising as last weekend’s breakout – his velocity backed up to his season average and his fastball lost an inch of the run that made it play up in that start. But he still generated three whiffs on 12 swings with the four-seamer, a healthy enough mark for a pitch that has mostly been ineffective this season. If the four-seamer just settles in as an average pitch, the rest of the arsenal might be enough to get the job done, and he got 16 whiffs Friday en route to a six-strikeout effort against the Angels. It doesn’t look like Painter is making the ace leap, but he just finished the best month of his career off with some forward momentum, and there’s a chance he ends up making a big difference down the stretch. At the very least, we’re finally seeing flashes of the pitcher he was supposed to be.
Gage Jump, Athletics (56%)
Consistency is obviously still an issue for Jump, who has starts of nine and 11 strikeouts in August but also had two different starts with five-plus earned runs allowed. That’s awfully tough to trust, despite the obvious talent the good starts show. But Jump is slated to be a two-start pitcher in Week 24, and the matchups are pretty awesome: He’ll be pitching in Texas and Seattle, facing teams that rank 20th and 28th in home wOBA, respectively. That’s no guarantee that Jump will dominate, but he does have a 3.49 ERA on the road this season, so if there was ever a week to use him, this is the one.
Joe Musgrove, Pirates (45%)
Musgrove threw 60 pitches in his rehab start Thursday at Triple-A, so it’s fair to wonder how long the leash is going to be when he makes his expected return from a lengthy rehab from Tommy John surgery this week. But the stuff has looked good on his rehab assignment, with his average fastball velocity up to 94.4 mph, which would be the highest mark of his career. Velocity isn’t everything, and command is often an issue for pitchers coming back from arm surgery, even when the stuff otherwise looks pretty good. Still, given Musgrove’s success, I think it’s worth rolling the dice on him hitting the ground running.
Quinn Mathews, Cardinals (26%) – I’ve always had a soft spot for Mathews. He hasn’t done much to earn our trust at the MLB level, though his most recent start is by far the best of his career, as he struck out seven over 5.2 one-run innings against the Pirates with, notably, just one strikeout. But he’s another streamer who is worth a look for his schedule as much as for his stuff – once he gets past a tough matchup against the Dodgers this week he gets a two-start week against the Giants in San Francisco, and then the White Sox, the Giants, and then that same Pirates team he just silenced. There’s a chance he goes on a nice little run here to close out the season – and to put himself on sleepers lists for 2027 drafts.
Relief Pitcher
Mason Montgomery, Pirates (54%)
Only 54% rostered? There was some concern that Luke Weaver would force his way into the closer picture for the Pirates, but that hasn’t been the case. The lefty is up to a 39.7% strikeout rate for the season and it’s up to 53.1% since July 1. Montgomery just looks like a dominant closer right now.
Kodai Senga, Mets (37%)
Senga stumbled in his first attempt to pitch on consecutive days last week, but he bounced back to toss a pair of scoreless innings on consecutive days this weekend, a good sign for his chances of hanging on to the closer job for the Mets. Since his first save on Aug. 10, Senga has nine strikeouts to just two earned runs in 7.1 innings, and that’ll get the job done.
