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Five hot fantasy baseball waiver wire pickups, streamers, and sleepers for Week 15 (2025). Undervalued hitters outperforming their ownership percentage and should be more widely owned.
With the All-Star break looming, it's a great time to catch your breath and evaluate your fantasy baseball team for the stretch run and into the fantasy baseball playoffs, if your league has them. Whether the season has been a rough ride or smooth sailing so far, every smart fantasy baseball manager is constantly watching the waiver wire to monitor any helpful potential additions.
In this post, we're not looking at the splashy, big-name additions that eat up your FAAB and quickly get scooped off the waiver wire with high priority. Instead, we're diving deeper and looking at some bargain basement hitters who are widely available but can still help if you've had big injuries or need a short-term fill-in for the next few weeks. They won't cost a huge chunk of your budget and are good plug-and-play options that can be scooped and started in most formats.
Which widely available players should be added to our roster this week? Let's dive in!
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Tyler Freeman, SS/OF, Colorado Rockies
17% rostered
Freeman is in our bargain basement bats for the second week in a row, as he continues to establish himself as the Rockies' go-to leadoff hitter and a great source of run production at the top of the order.
While the Rockies have a lot of moving pieces and young players who could mix in after the All-Star break, Freeman seems to have established himself as the primary leadoff man while starting in right field or at designated hitter. He has been hitting a scorching .396 since June 1 with nine doubles, a triple, a home run, nine stolen bases, and a .444 wOBA over his 31 games.
He started the year slowly after an oblique injury, but he has become a strong option with good contact and on-base rates at the top of a lineup that should be very productive throughout the hot summer in Denver at Coors Field.
Tyler Freeman extends his career-best on base streak to 20 games, hitting .348 in that stretch
The #Rockies won the Nolan Jones trade pic.twitter.com/Qgmb4LGq6u
— DNVR Rockies (@DNVR_Rockies) July 6, 2025
The trade that brought Freeman in from the Guardians this March in exchange for Nolan Jones has been one of the Rockies front office's biggest wins of the year.
For as long as he stays at the top of the order, Freeman is a great contact-first option who brings solid stolen base potential and good run production. Especially at Coors Field, he has the potential to pile up counting stats. Right now, he's mostly being used in the outfield but also has shortstop eligibility in most formats with the potential to pick up second base or third base eligibility with a few more games at those spots as well.
While his power numbers won't blow anyone away, he has been hitting the ball well enough and often enough to be a great addition in almost all formats for as long as he stays so hot. The Rockies are on the road until the All-Star break, but after the break, they return with a six-game homestand and 12 of their next 18 at Coors. Freeman should stay productive through the end of the month, although some rumors are swirling that he could also be traded at the deadline.
Evan Carter, OF, Texas Rangers
19% rostered
Carter is another outfield option who is trending up and can give your roster a boost. He has been limited to 36 games this season due to various injuries, but he has looked very strong lately after coming back from his most recent injury.
Evan Carter = 🔙 pic.twitter.com/Fjc7gJqjQQ
— Rangers Nation ⚾️ (@rangers__nation) June 15, 2025
The Rangers opted to have Carter start the year at Triple-A after he hit just .188 in his 45 games in 2023 and was severely limited by recurring back injuries. The team's second-round pick in the 2020 MLB Draft was moved quickly to the majors in 2023 at just 20 years old and seemed a little overmatched at times in 2024, so the Rangers tried to give him time to ramp up to the majors this season.
This season, he's hitting .268 with four homers and 11 stolen bases, already setting a new career best on the basepaths and moving to within one home run of matching his total from last year. His injuries this year have been quad tightness and wrist soreness, so they have been unrelated to last year's back issues, which is a good sign for his availability going forward.
Since coming back from his quad injury on June 3, he is hitting .304 with a .374 wOBA, three homers, and eight stolen bases. He hasn't been crushing the ball, with only a 34.9% hard-hit rate, but he has been using his speed and consistently getting on base.
He doesn't have quite the counting stats upside of Freeman since he's not hitting leadoff and the Rangers aren't as productive as the Rockies, but he does have a little more speed and power, so he's a solid option if you need those big events more than runs, RBI, and batting average. He's also a strong alternative if Freeman has already been grabbed in your league.
Nolan Schanuel, 1B, Los Angeles Angels
17% rostered
Like Carter, Schanuel rode the express train to the majors. He arrived with the Angels less than a year after being drafted. He's still only 23 in his third season in the majors, and he's starting to round into the overall hitter that the Angels hoped he would be when they picked him at No. 11 overall in 2023.
Schanuel has continued to progress in each of his three seasons in the majors. In 87 games this season, he is on track for improvements from last year in batting average, wOBA, K%, ISO, and hard-hit rate. He still has a very low average exit velocity and hard-hit rate compared to other batters, but he has discovered enough pop to be useful as a first base option if you need help at the position.
Schanuel finding pop is huge for the offense pic.twitter.com/tXcng0xgE7
— Jake (@D1SCHER) June 28, 2025
Schanuel has shown a flair for the dramatic this season with multiple walk-off winners, including a walk-off on Monday. He has only hit .212 over the last 20 days, but he has five homers during that span and a .312 wOBA. His power numbers are up while his contact numbers are down, but if he ever puts the two together, he could be a very solid mixed league option.
The 23-year-old lefty has been locked into the second spot in the order, which also gives him solid run-production potential, especially if the Angels push to stay in the Wild Card race rather than selling pieces off at the deadline.
Caleb Durbin, 2B/SS/3B, Milwaukee Brewers
18% rostered
The Brewers are also squarely in the playoff race heading into the second half, and they have gotten solid production since giving Durbin the full-time job at the hot corner.
Durbin joined the Brewers from the Yankees as part of the Devin Williams trade this offseason. He started the year at Triple-A and hit .278 with two homers and a .350 wOBA in his 13 games before joining the Brewers in the majors.
In his 70 games, he's hitting .250 with four home runs, a .310 wOBA, and eight stolen bases. He's gotten hot since mid-June and is piling up plenty of big-event numbers with both power and speed while also making excellent contact.
Caleb Durbin is one of the hottest hitters in the sport.
Last 12 G:
.349/.396/.488, 2 HR, 7 RBI, 13 R, 1 SB 🔥Intriguing deep league target with 15/15 upside 👀 pic.twitter.com/exZ6g8F1Qr
— Andy Smith (@A_Smith_FS) June 27, 2025
Over his last 20 games, Durbin is hitting .348 with a .387 wOBA, two homers, and three stolen bases. He has scored 16 runs in those 20 games, and even though he's hitting at the bottom of the order, he's getting plenty of chances to get involved in the Brew Crew's offensive production.
Durbin had 31 stolen bases last year in 90 games in Triple-A for the Yankees, so he has more speed potential that he has yet to tap into with the Brewers, who don't run that aggressively. He also had 10 homers in those 90 games, so he has a little more pop potential as well.
His positional versatility is an addition to his value since he can slot into multiple infield spots and provide coverage for whichever is your current position of need.
Colson Montgomery, SS, Chicago White Sox
4% rostered
The White Sox just called up Montgomery before last weekend's series in Colorado, and the 23-year-old lefty has made a great first impression as part of the team's young core. He was MLB Pipeline's No. 5 prospect in the team's system and the No. 95 prospect in all of baseball in the recent ranking. He looks ready to make enough of an impact to be a deep league option or an emergency stopgap at shortstop.
Last season, Montgomery only hit .218 in Triple-A with 18 homers and a .324 wOBA. He started slowly this year as well, but he picked things up with six homers in his last 17 games in Charlotte with a .284 average and .422 wOBA. Throughout his rise to the majors, he has shown good power potential and a decent plate approach, but there is a lot of swing-and-miss in his game, which has kept his batting average low.
In his debut series in Colorado, Montgomery impressed on the field and at the plate.
WELCOME TO THE SHOW, COLSON MONTGOMERY! pic.twitter.com/zCHoiG94Gw
— MLB (@MLB) July 5, 2025
In addition to flashing the leather, he went 5-for-10 in those three games with a triple, two walks, and two RBI. On Monday, he went 0-for-3 in his home debut against the Blue Jays but did walk and score a run. The White Sox appear ready to give him a long look coming down the stretch to see if he can step in as the team's everyday shortstop.
Montgomery's batting average makes him a high-risk pickup, but his power could make him worth it if he continues to deliver as he has over the past month at Triple-A. He's a shortstop option to keep an eye on if you are in need at the position or can sacrifice a little average for some power.
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