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Three top fantasy baseball prospects - Chase Burns, Samuel Basallo, Brice Matthews - that can make big impacts. These MLB prospects are waiver wire pickups or stashes.
Adding the right prospect to your fantasy team could provide a much-needed boost to a specific category. Fantasy managers needing to boost their pitching ratios could have added Jacob Misiorowski last week, who has looked dominant in his first two MLB starts.
In this piece, we will look at another pitching prospect who carries even higher upside than Misiorowski. In addition, we will look at two top prospects at the Triple-A level who are approaching their MLB promotion.
Should those players be left on the waiver wire, or should fantasy managers add them before their breakout? Let's dive in!
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Chase Burns, SP, Cincinnati Reds
Current Level: MLB
Availability: 35% rostered
2025 MiLB stats: 66 IP, 1.77 ERA, 0.77 WHIP, 89 SO, 13 BB
After weeks of being viewed as the No. 2 pitching prospect to stash (behind Pittsburgh's Bubba Chandler), Burns' impressive development has moved up prospect boards as the top pitcher in the minor leagues.
The former second overall pick has yet to slow down since making his professional debut earlier this season. The Wake Forest product opened the campaign with High-A and needed just 11 2/3 innings to prove he was ready to join Double-A.
During this stint, Burns allowed just four runs and struck out 20 batters.
Then with Double-A, Burns continued to impress, logging 42 innings to the tune of a stellar 1.29 ERA and a 0.7 WHIP.
During this stretch, Burns held a near-perfect 55:4 K:BB and allowed just three total home runs. This incredible production earned him a quick promotion to Triple-A.
Chase Burns needs to be treated as the No. 1 prospect going forward
— Andy Smith (@A_Smith_FS) June 20, 2025
While Burns looked a slight step back (to his standards) in his Triple-A debut, allowing two runs across 5 1/3 innings to the potent Iowa Cubs, Burns responded in a big way in his second game with Triple-A Louisville. In this second outing against Scranton/Wilkes-Barre, Burns tossed seven innings of one-run ball with three hits, no walks, and seven strikeouts.
Given the current state of the Reds rotation with Hunter Greene (gorin) on the 15-day IL and No. 5 starter Wade Miley (forearm) also on the IL, Burns will provide a much-needed spark.
On Saturday evening, the Reds announced that they will be promoting Burns to make his MLB debut on Tuesday evening against the New York Yankees. Burns is a must-add and must-start pitcher going forward.
We guarantee that Chase Burns outperforms at least one—if not several—starting pitchers on every major league roster.
He won’t stay in Triple-A for long! pic.twitter.com/Jmio20KjzH
— Pitch Profiler (@pitchprofiler) June 18, 2025
-Written by Andy Smith
Samuel Basallo, C, Baltimore Orioles
Current Level: AAA
Availability: 5% rostered
2025 MLB stats: 48 G, .271/.378/.590, 8 2B, 15 HR, 0 SB
With Adley Rutschman now on the IL with a strained oblique, the odds of us seeing Samuel Basallo in the near future have increased, especially if this becomes more of a long-term absence for Rutschman. The Orioles initially called up Maverick Handley, but it could only be a matter of days before Basallo gets the call to start, or they could continue the same frustrating dance we've seen from Baltimore with their prospects over the last year or two. Hard to say.
However, Handley suffered a concussion on Sunday and was eventually placed on the 7-day IL. While the Orioles then promoted Chadwick Tromp, Basallo's MLB debut could just be weeks away, especially if Rutschman's injury continues to linger.
BOMBS AWAY FOR BASALLO!!
Samuel Basallo launches his 13th homer of the season and 3rd one of the week. 411 ft. 109.1 mph EV
3-1 Norfolk T3 pic.twitter.com/WsFyRFsntD
— Norfolk Tides (@NorfolkTides) June 8, 2025
In 48 games for Triple-A Norfolk this season, Basallo has already cranked 15 home runs with a .271/.378/.590 slash line. He ranks seventh in ISO and 11th in SLG among all minor leagues with at least 190 plate appearances, which becomes even more impressive when you remember that he's only 20 in Triple-A.
This is an excellent sign for the budding slugger, as Basallo held a modest .222/.267/.370 line with just three home runs during his first 21 games at the Triple-A level last summer.
Basallo's contact skills are a bit below average, but he makes up for it with an elite 93.9 mph AVG EV, 58.1% hard-hit rate, and a 20.5% barrel rate.
This baseball may have gone 500 feet 😳
Samuel Basallo, MLB's top catching prospect, sent this baseball OVER the center field scoreboard! pic.twitter.com/2T8KbEvDYx
— MLB (@MLB) February 28, 2025
- Written by Eric Cross
Brice Matthews, INF, Houston Astros
Current Level: AAA
Availability: 5% rostered
2025 AAA stats: 62 G, .283/.404/.478, 9 2B, 4 HR, 22 SB
One of the hottest hitters in Triple-A over the last month has been Houston's Brice Matthews. In his last 115 plate appearances, Matthews has racked up 14 extra-base hits, five home runs, and six steals with a 347/.443/.612 slash line. He's also been walking at a 13.9% clip during this timeframe, but unfortunately, that also comes with a 30.4% strikeout rate.
The strikeouts and contact skills are the concern with Matthews. He's currently sporting a 73% zone contact rate and 64% overall contact rate in Triple-A to go along with that higher strikeout rate that I already mentioned.
The Brice was right on this roundtripper!@Astros' No. 1 prospect Brice Matthews hammers his ninth homer of the season -- and third in four games -- for the Triple-A @SLSpaceCowboys 414 feet off the batter's eye. pic.twitter.com/pM8C3OUvqS
— MLB Pipeline (@MLBPipeline) June 14, 2025
He's probably never going to be a good source of AVG, but there's an above-average power and speed blend here from the second base position, and Matthews has shown that this season with a 91.6 mph AVG EV, 46.9% hard-hit rate, and a 12.6% barrel rate.
While Mauricio Dubon hasn't been terrible at the plate, I can see Houston giving Matthews some run there in the near future and pushing Dubon back into a super-utility role.
Last summer, Matthews held a lower .265/.384/.481 line across time with High-A and primarily Double-A. He earned a brief taste of Triple-A but posted a low .143/.250/.190 during the small 12-game stint.
Seeing Matthews take the next step in his development during his first extended look at Triple-A is a very promising sign. For now, he is worth sitting in deeper 12+ team formats.
Another day, another Brice Matthews base knock pic.twitter.com/b7w73dwMko
— Sugar Land Space Cowboys (@SLSpaceCowboys) June 22, 2025
- Written by Eric Cross
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